First, car won't idle when the engine is warmed up. There is no other symptom whatsoever, no white smoke at any time, no codes, or lights, and compression is about 110 on all faces. It pulls fine, drives fine otherwise.

What I tried since the problem started: Changed the plugs, wires, coils, air filter, and MAF. Did not see any bad or brittle vacume lines. Went through the ECU resets, both pumping the brakes and cycling the ODO.

Where to go next?



Second, the power steering shuddering while stopped or very low speed.

What I did so far, went through and cleaned and added di-electric grease to all the connectors under the air box, on the rack, and on the PS control unit under the ECU, and cleaned every ground in the engine bay. Went through right to left reset procedure.

Where to next?

 

Ok checked the fuel sock, looks like very clean, cleaned the crank sensor again, redid the PS dielectric grease and wire cleaning process again.

No change.

 

Have you checked your idle fuel trims and MAF rate? That could tell you if you have a vacuum leak that you just haven't found yet.

I also wonder if it's possible that your coolant temp sensor is bad and giving inaccurate readings.

 

Car is bone stock and I don't have the equipment to check fuel trims. The temp gauge works normally but I'll grab the sensor just in case from the junk yard when I grab a power steering computer.

Down for a clutch change at the moment.

 

If you have a smartphone and can afford whatever the Yen equivalent of US$20 is, you can get a bluetooth OBD adapter and monitor all sorts of data (like fuel trims, MAF rate, coolant temperature, etc).

 

Yea I need to get another OBD, but I almost never work on anything except FD's. Haven't bothered since my old one broke.

 

Try this. Turn the ignition on, do not start. Pump the brake about ten times, then start. This is the procedure I use after a battery replacement or idle problems.

 

It should be noted that doing that accomplishes nothing beyond building pressure in the brake system.

Pumping the brakes 20 times in 8 seconds with the engine off but ignition set to "on" will reset the KAM (which includes the ESS profile).

 

Broke down and took it to MAZDA couldn't find any issues with the sensor readings, they did a compression test against my will because they said it was required if they were to help. Their numbers came out lower than mine for some reason, ranged between 97-108 @250, based on this the told me my engine is blown and they cannot check any further. Can't idle @97psi?

About to loose my temper on these lazy useless...

 

Something else is wrong. It should have no problem idling with that type of compression. I'd suggest the cheap odb2 Bluetooth dongle and an andiod phone/tablet too.

 

I did get an OBD, can't find anything wrong. Even though it looked good, changing the fuel sock to be certain can't think of anything else.

Don't know if I can find anyone on island with the equipment to find a small vacuum leak, that is my only other place to look at the moment.

Going back to MAZDA today to spend several hours being very loud in their showroom to see if that makes the the lazy dbags more receptive to doing their jobs.

 

So after the service counter guy literally tried to stare me down for 20 minutes about how a car needed a new engine at 97 PSI, he backed down and agreed to have his guys change the fuel sock.

Turns out the sock was fine but there was a recall on the mount/seal on the fuel pump that was not done, and it fixed the problem.

Enjoyed my self just a bit too much listening to him tell me about how the car runs perfectly now
with an angry defeated look on his face.


Tested it myself again and I got 110PSI again, who knows.

 

Did you test it correctly? Engine has to be up to operating temperature, using an actual rotary compression testing tool with the spark plug adapter in the trailing location? What were the engine speeds for their and your tests?

 

My test was done correctly, have been at this for nearly 20 years on FD's and 20B Cosmos. Not sure about theirs. They had an obvious agenda to get my car out of their shop without actually working on it from the very start. They waived the fee to their compression test as well without me asking...

The look on his face when he told me it was a recall, after telling me I was wasting their time with my blown engine was priceless.

 

But... the seal recall has nothing to do with this type of problem. Sounds like they accidentally fixed it while doing something else?

 

They also changed the filter at the same time, and mentioned the fuel pressure was on the low side.