It Died Today
 

My 8 died today. It has been misfiring for a few months. yesterday, it just died at a light. interestingly, it died in SUSPENDED ANIMATION. the gauges were frozen. then, i did a rolling start and bam...back in action.

it would run fine until the engine reached 'operating temperature'. then it would just die.

took it to the dealer. i told him that this may be related to the LACK OF ENGINE POWER bulletin. he said he'd let me know.

waiting......

anybody have any idea what this might be? prior to this it had been misfiring for a a couple of months. spark plugs are new. battery is new.

...possibly ignition coils? from what i've heard, it's common for them to go out

Holy crap, would you mind giving us some basic details first?

Year
Mileage
Transmission (manual or auto)
Are you the first owner?
What are your maintenance habits like? i.e. what type of oil, how frequently you change it/top off, grade of gas, etc.

Also, where do you live?

and what condition it misfires..

How do you know it is misfiring?

sure potatosoup

,04 with 47K. MT. Winning blue. Live in Texas. I use 5W 20. This past summer I almost switched to 5W 30, but couldn't convince myself. i top it off every 2nd or 3rd gas stop. it has never gone below 'low' on the dipstick.

changed the spark plugs at 44K

changed the battery at 40K

regular oil changes

don't really race it. i redline it daily, however.

thanks for asking man.

I'm going to say something is wrong with the plugs that were installed or they were installed improperly, or I'm going with the consensus view of coils.

I have no mechanical knowledge whatsoever but sometimes am able to speculate and fix things anyways. It's an odd gift.

i know its misfiring because i took it in for a diagnostic at a local dealership once after it was stalled on me at traffic lights x 2, thinking it was still under warranty. needless to say, they thought i needed $2000 worth of work ranging from tires to brakes, but importantly coils, spark plugs (which they had themselves changed 5K prior - cons) and other random stuff. I was so pissed off with them I left vowing to get the work done somewhere else.

otherwise, its up to date on PCMs. it usually idles at 900. kinda low. i know it misfires because the tachy fluctuates - especially when its hot. if you stand by the exhaust you can hear it misfiring as well. since i got it back from the original dealer where i had the diag done, it feels like shit. and i know i'm not crazy. anyway, we'll see what this other dealer says. he made it sound as if he knew what the problem was and he was going to call mazda about it to see what 'they could do for me'.

thanks for any thoughts you may have. sorry bout the long post.

have you been experiencing any power loss?

it can't misfire at idle

that type of idle sounds normal to me.

why's that?(im just tryin to learn)

no power loss per se. definite gaps in acceleration. i've had the car from the very beginning. i will tell you that the tachy never fluctuated at idle as such. i have to rev harder to get the car going as well - compared to previous. there is no doubt in my mind that the car accelerates, runs and feels 'grittier and rougher'.

i've actually been distraught at how rough and uncharacteristically shitty its been as of late.

47K on original coils and wires?

FOUND YOUR PROBLEM!!!

Ive been through 3 sets of plugs, 2 sets of wires, and 2 sets of coils at 72K and my car dies now at operating temps because I need new coils.

Dont automatically assume you need a new engine bc your car dies, 9 outta 10 its something ignition related.

get a compression test. I vote your motor is toast.

it would seem to make sense that it may be your coils, the reason the coils fail is from heat so if its getting worse when it heats up that sounds right to me. you can easly check them yourself to see if they are bad. you have to remove a few things on top of the engine to get at them but its fairly easy. once you get to them, remove one and look at the underside, if it looks discolored or melted then they are toast, replace as nessesary. there is a write up somewhere on here to show you how to remove them.

didn't he get his coils changed? maybe I mis read?

the discoloration on coils means nothing ;)

nope he said nothing about coils, usually coils are the culprit in situations like his. Although a failed engine wouldnt surprise me either.

what do you mean it means nothing ive read quite a few threads about the coils and everyone said if they are discolored or melted there bad????

Renesis07--what's this mean then:

as soon as you install coils and start your car for the first time, you will get the white discoloration on the bottom of them

as far as if they are melted..well that isn't normal.

i feel stupid compared to you fools. thanks for all the info.

i have NOT changed coils. they suggested everything. i only got the plugs changed. inertia set in over the past few months because of work (resident at county hospital), though taking it in to have the dealership to it for free has been going through my mind a lot. i guess it takes the inability to get to work to spur me into action.

correct me if i'm wrong, but the 'LACK OF ENGINE POWER' TSB states that the dealer should change the coils, right? is it for free? I recall that Stevensfalcons8 got the same deal a while ago.

if it's under warranty still, it will be free

it may just be the coils then, I apologize for mis reading your comment.
if you get new coils, do plug wires as well

worst case scenario is the engine is blown...which I still think is the problem

mmm check your coils dude

coils......

at first when my car started sputtering and dying at idle, i assumed it was igntion problem and replaced coils, wires, and plugs for safety. Still didn't fix the problem and turns out my motor is toasted... oh well so much for being apart of the original engine club =(