Crap! Need help.
 

Ok was just in the parking lot and finished up cleaning the MAF sensor, air filter, and throttle body when, I was reconnecting a wire and BLAM one of the three lines (vacuum line I guess?) connected to the accordion intake thingy broke off...it's just at the tip where's this little T shaped fitting...

I'm assuming this is a vacuum line, I've been afraid to start it up, but is there a way I can maybe cap it off to make the car get down the road to autozone to get another? And will they have it?

Thanks in advance, you guys are a huge help.

pic?

I really don't have a way to take a picture atm, it's one of the three lines that connect to the accordion thing, one at the top, and I believe two on the side....its a rubber hose which mates with a plastic piece that looks kinda like a T onto the accordion

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ghlight=vacuum


In this thread its not the one he has broken, it's the one in the middle of the two.

I guess it's the jet air line? is it ok to drive for a minute to auto zone without that connected?

Yeah, but have any duct tape?
You can try to kinda tape it for the short drive.

Well, here's what I ended up doing.

I started the car with the line dangling, no CEL, no change whatsoever. This is even after cleaning the MAF and throttle body.

Drove to autozone and picked up a universal vacuum connector, its a bit longer than the old one (I think, the old one came out in pieces) but about the same width... stuck em together had a nice tight fit looks good. Started the car and no change from before, still no CEL, rough idle is still there.

Now I just don't understand why cleaning the MAF and throttle body, did well, nothing, I even took off the negative battery cable to reset the computer and nothing except the NCS and traction control, which reset shortly after...

Do I need to do that 20 brake push thing to make the comp realize I cleaned everything?

The car is idleing at around 750-800 rpm, which is low isn't it?

So...the car has a rough idle, idles usually at 750-1k rpm, with the vibration getting worse the lower it gets...

Cleaned MAF sensor, throttle body, air filter, reset ESS....guess now it's onto spark plugs, wires, and coils?

Well, it's been idleing low since I got it. I did all this to try to solve that problem, and I never got a cel, ever.

I only disconnected the battery AFTER I put the new fitting on there, however I do not know how long that line had been like that, I know *I* broke it off completely, but who knows how long it has been leaking half-broken like that...

I just don't know what the car is doing, feel like what I did had no effect, never thought I would want a check engine light to come on...

I checked the two motor mounts, neither are broken, only thing I saw questionable was a rubber block on the right rear side of the transmission, which looked cracked and could easily be moved...

However the tranny has a bracket that goes all the way back to the rear diff so I doubt it's causing the vibration...

As far as i saw it did, when i had it up on the lift.

So....where to go from here? Spark plugs first, then coils?

I was really hoping that the whole idle thing was just a dirty maf/tb, but now it looks like I'm moving onto other things.

Yeah, I just purchased the car, 04 GT with 76k on it, not sure if its the original engine, I think so though. Manual tranny. This is the only problem I've encountered thus far.

The used car dealer I bought it from seems pretty confident that it's the spark plugs, and is going to have those changed on wednesday.

It seems like you were right about the fuel trimming and all that, because this morning driving to work the car felt fine at idle, a slight vibration in the shifter but barely enough to notice...it seems to be now idling at a little higher, around 850 or so like you said it should.

However when it gets hot outside and I crank up the AC the vibration comes back, not so much as before, and it doesn't seem like it's "hunting for idle" so much as it was previously. It's still there though, however the cleaning did make a difference.

I can't be 100% sure the mounts aren't cracked but I looked at the bottoms of them and the sides from underneath the car and felt up top for cracks and I found nothing, not even dry rotted rubber or anything. Didn't get a mirror and flashlight though.

Actually the whole underside of the car looks great except for a few missing body screws and the rock or dust guard near the driver side front tire is ripped half off and taped back up.

One thing I noticed is that the serpentine belt is old and seems to be overly tight, I don't know what the tension is supposed to be but I can barely move it. It also squeaks a bit, so it most likely needs changing.

I want to say the idle vibe gets worse when I turn the ac on and the radiator fans are almost constantly running, so both at the same time puts a huge load on the engine. The radiator is full of fluid, no light.

I live in Tucson, Az, and it regularly gets up to 105+ here, I think maybe the cooling system is struggling. I think bottom line this car needs a tune up.

That's about all the info I have on the problem, hope I made it clear enough.

Officially the car is now idleing where it is supposed to be, according to the tach, but still making the vibration...

Problem is to get a compression test from the dealer for free you have to have a specific problem related with compression, such as loss of power, etc. No idea how much one of those costs. :squint:

I'll look into how much coils run, and see if BAP has them.

Update!


Changed the spark plugs and no change, however the problem now seems to get worse when the ac is turned on.....

Dealer is now saying he spoke to his "specialized mechanic" and it's a common problem with the motor mounts causing this. He said mazda released an upgraded motor mount...I only heard of that with the auto transmission.

I looked at the mounts didn't see anything wrong with them, but who knows...

So is he full of shit or did mazda release upgraded mounts?

If you have done MAF, and plugs, next is coils. I chased these on my 04 when I bought it.

Other thing is that the motor got a LOT happier with a grounding kit. MazdaManiac has a great set of posts on the best way to do it. I used the cheap E-Bay one from speed-daddy. Just make sure that you re-crimp the connectors on the low cost ones. Mine pulled out. (they offered to fedex replacement, but I had already fixed them and installed). There are several good posts here on tips. The conductive grease is a good addition, but where you live probably optional.

Good luck.

Coils?

I watched the mechanic disconnect the coils and then start the car to make sure they were working...

It shocked the crap out of him....I don't think it's coils, I will look at the grounding kit however...

So does it not mean anything that this really only happens noticably when the AC is on?

Definitely try coils. Sounds exactly like my car when the coils were going bad. I went with OEM coils from a forum vendor for $130 and installed myself. Not a hard install at all, took maybe an hour. HUGE improvement.

Biggest load at idle is with AC on. Fans are on, blower is on, compressor is on, alternator is trying to make up all that power for the battery. Engine is at the lowest power setting that exists. I would try the little toothed washers next.

Just remembered the canary test for the coils. With the hood open, and the car cold, and the door open with your head out listening, start the car. You are listening for what sounds like a small canary getting stepped on. It is almost like a belt squeaking, but more like the canary sound. Count how many you hear. There are some posts here that led me to research this and listen for it. I heard 2 tweets and had 2 arcing coils.