To the shop
 

After a week and a half of trying to figure it out myself, I finally broke down and took Mirall to Jerry's Little Car Shop this afternoon.

While I still suspect the convergence of 3 seperate failure modes, I can't continue to work on it with no sign of progress.

I suspect a failed cat due to a failed coil, exacerbated by overfilling the oil, but I don't know yet. I hope to have some word tomorrow.

My suspicions were wrong. Thank goodness Mazda extended the engine core warranty to 8 yrs 100K miles. I'll be taking her to a dealer tomorrow.

Nice! When will she be ready by?

Any CELs?

What dealer you going to?

CELs: P0037 then P0300

I don't know when she'll be ready. The dealer has to jump through hoops first, and they wont be able to start on that until Tuesday.

I took her in to Lee Johnson. They were always very good with Rose(FC RX-7) and Ruby(My Original EX-8), so I'm trusting them with Mirall.

:lol: I love that you named them all

I had a misfire caused by my spark plugs being completely worn out. The Mazda Tech told me there was nothing left of them. And that was at 18000 miles :lol2: Hopefully all you need are plugs.

I never named my Civic, LeBaron GTS, or Mailbu, but my Mustang was named Pearl.

Unfortunately, I've already swapped plugs once and she still didn't want to start. The Dealership should be looking at her today or more likely tomorrow.

Honestly, I'd be totaly stoked if, while jumping through the warranty hoops, they fixed her.

Yeah, it'd be silly to name a LeBaron......

lol. that sucks kris but a new motor isn't always a bad thing. ;)

Long awaited update.

Motor not covered (used car with no service records :()

I could send the motor to Japan (wait a month for it to get there, have them rip into it, and make a decision). Problem is, if they say it's still not covered, I don't have a core for later use because they wont ship it back.

So I'm left with too options. Buy a used long block for 1500 or a new short block for 2700.

The long block would be less expensive and a faster swap, but would have miles on it and who knows how it'll perform. The long block would also leave me with most of what I'd need to rebuild the old engine and stuff it into a single seater tube frame hill-climb/open road race car.

Did you ever get things figured out?

Yeah, I finally got the donor engine, and had it swapped (in my driveway) by a mobile mechanic. She was stumbling at 4700 and 7500 RPM. After calling the mechanic and getting no answer I decided to investigate myself and found that a couple of vac lines were swapped, resulting in one being stretched so tight across the nipple on the vac solenoid that the solenoid couldn't activate. Swapped the lines and she's all better.

The Rear O2 sensor is bad, so I tried swapping that with a Bosch OE Smart Link sensor (they have a special water tight coupling that requires no soldering). Unfortunately, despite tripple checking, my O2 sensor socket slipped off the sensor, so I wound up twisting the wires off a brand new sensor. Luckily, buying the sensor on Amazon, it was only 40 bucks (30 less than any parts store).

So, long story short, I've been a couple of long shake downs (800 miles last weekend, and around 500 today). The coolant level light likes to come on still, but there's no leak, so I'm still not sure what's up with that. I need to bug the mechanic again, since this is new since the swap, and I did point it out before he left. At the time he theorized it may be an air bubble in the system that should get pushed out. It may be an air bubble, but the system needs to be burped if it is.

Did the coolant light come on with some spirited driving? Aipex8 was telling me a couple weeks ago there is a known issue with the coolant reservoir and the the device that measures the fluid level. Apparently it can get stuck showing a low level of fluid. Be sure to check the coolant level and search up on this known issue to confirm what I am saying.

Great to see you have it back on the road. You should setup a drive before the summer ends. Maybe Sept. 4th or 17th.

My 8 was starting to dirge same thing with the coolant light. Would come and go but was never low.

The coolant light came on of it's own accord. I'll look into the issue you mentioned pdxhak.

I have to talk with a work buddy about something related to my "I'm back!" drive, but I'm thinking the 2nd or 3rd weekend in September. Competing with Labor Day weekend sucks.

Lets do September 17th. Where is a good road we can cruise on and I will set things up and invite some other forums.

Kristopher, I had the dreaded coolant reservoir issue too. Light started coming on once in a while, then kept getting worse. It's the sensor, but the whole thing has to be replaced. Lots of people have had it. I think at one time there was a special deal on the reservoir, but that was a couple of years ago. Glad to see you're back!

If no leak on coolant, check if it's losing pressure.
If so, you'll need to replace the reservoir.
If not, then it's just the sensor. At this point, you can unplug it or replace the reservoir.

Also, if the coolant light come on at high rpm, it could be the thermostats getting stuck. (pressure issue)