Engine Hesitation.. HELP!
 

Ah! I am freaking out! I was on my way home from the chiropracter and went through a light and got it up to arouhnd 5k rpms and felt like the car was hestitating. I was going over a bridge and it didn't seem to do it in 5th gear. So I get to another light and put my foot into it and their is HUGE hesitation from 4-5 and about 6-7 and a little more to 9. It takes forever to get to 60 now. I pulled over and popped the hood and took a whiff of the exhaust. Everything seems fine with it. I revved it in neutral and it went straight up to 9 with no hesitation at all. But when there is power to the ground there is some serious hesiation. I dont know if it was just me, but it felt like the accelerator was harder to push in too, and only when its in gear. This is really scaring me. I called mazda right away and they said they don't know but all mazdas seem to have this kind of hesitation. I told them this is NOT NORMAL for this car as just yesterday it redlined with no problems. They told me to bring it in Friday but I don't want to wait till then AH! I am going to call another dealer and see what they have to say. The car is an 05 m/t with 11,226 miles on the odo and a half tank of gas with full oil level.

I would gess its your turbo. Its called turbo lag.
No actualy, I dont know, but is not normal for sure! Did you mark how many miles you had on your car before you turned it in... so you can see if they drove it any?

Have you had your recall inspection done yet? One of the issues is powerloss under certain circumstances.
Make sure they do the compression test....best of luck.

Oh ya! jEDI is right that is the classic sign of new engine club membership.

I experienced something like that one time except it was in just trying to accelerate in general. It was the hottest day we had here all year and the ambient reading on my car said 114. I had been sitting for two hours on I-205 and during that time moved maybe a couple of miles at speeds of maybe 10 mph when moving. Basically I just sat idling for two hours in that heat. When traffic did start moving again and I started to accelerate my car felt really sluggish and it took what seemed like forever to make it up to 50 with the rest of traffic. It was just really slow accelerating. The pedal didn't feel any different than usual, though. After I got up to speed and drove a few miles everything was completely fine again. After those few miles I had stop and go traffic and I had no sluggishness or anything else. I attributed it to the high temperature and just sitting and idling. I haven't experienced that at any other time before or after that incident, even in similar stop and go situations. Just not quite as hot outside.

Uh oh Bunny. Thats your free ticket into the New Engine Club too. *naw not realy. Btw Bunny, (do you have 30+ kids by chance? hence the name?) I was told that the temp reading was ambient temps outside.

I was aware that it was the outside temperature. Since it went right back to normal after the initial acceleration sluggishness I figured it was fine and has been fine since. I did notice that when I checked my oil consumption a few days after that (check it every week) it had gone up significantly. I had topped it off to the full line that same day. I had checked it again a few days after that, not having gone anwyere in between that day and the next check. I ended up needing to add a little over half a quart to get it back to the full line. I don't know that there is any specific tie-in to the situation and the oil consumption, though. Since I had seen several cars (about 8 in 13 miles) on the side of the road with their hoods open, most likely overheated, I thought I was probably getting really hot also, and that was why the car was acting sluggish briefly when I actually started driving it again.

I got nicknamed BunnyGirl in 10th grade. I dressed up as a bunny for Halloween as well as had a purse that was a bunny (back then everyone seemed to have animal purses, think Clueless). I collect bunny stuffed animals, not that I have a significant number though, maybe 10. I also have two pet bunnies. :)

Cool. I thought having a rabbit as a pet would be beter then a cat because the poop is round and easy to pick up. But that doesnt stop the pee'ing and the chewing and the....
Im just an outdoor pet guy :)

Mine are potty trained (litterbox). :) The old one doesn't chew on much anymore except paper and cardboard type stuff. The little one just discovered his love for cords so we had to cover up the ones that weren't previously covered when the old one was little (furniture rearranged a little and left some cords a little more accessible).

OK, enough bunnies.....
 

"No power, only when trying to accelerate, but revs freely when stationary"

..that sounds classic "bad cat"

.. .and nothing to do with bunnies. :hahano:


S

Well, I talked to a guy who had about 30 years experiance with rotaries and he said fuel injectors. So I bought some gum out after he recommended it and dumped it in on a full tank. Its not a bad cat I dont think, because it still guns it up to about 6 then kinda lags, then keeps going to 9. It isn't "no power". AND, I noticed its only under WOT. I think it is fuel starvation. Carbon build up around the sides of the injectors. This is kinda weird though because I drive the shit out of it. I thought driving hard cleans out carbon.. Might take it to the dealer and have them check it out while they put on the mazdaspeed shocks/springs.

I'll ask one more time: Have you had the recall inspection done yet?????????

Try this.....
 

For a definitive diagnosis of fuel pump inadequacy -

1-run the tank down to the last quarter, but no low fuel light on.
2-get the engine "nice and warm".....
3-drive around at 6 or 7 thousand revs, then floor it.
4-If the hesitation starts, don't let up, give it more gas, until it stalls out.
and
5-Go to dealer, get new fuel pump.

It will only happen when hot, at high revs AND less than one third tank of fuel.

Been there, T-shirt aquired.

S

I don't know if it would be this but I can try. I am at full tank right now but I will try this when it gets down there. Sorry Jedi, no I have not had the recall done yet. I am in s.c. so we did not get the letters as quickly as others did.

Empty....
 

When you had the hesitation was your tank low?

Did filling up magically make all the symptoms disappear?

S

No, it was half or so. When I filled it up I acutally noticed it more. I was really pushing the engine every shift trying to see if it was any different. I just filled up the tank so I got put in the fuel additive over the whole tank. Mazda wanted 110 from me to spray it in there so I just went and got some from auto zone.

t-run,

You're symptoms indicate a loss of compression at high(er) rpms, which means potentially a new engine under the recall.

Repeating jedi's question: Have you had your recall inspection done?

Looks like you haven't had the recalld one but you might be exhibiting some of the symptoms of loss of compression... You can find the dealer letters on this site. I would suggest printing it out and getting to your dealer soon.

I was scheduling my recall inspection yesterday and they were asking me questions that your power loss would have qualified for. It doesn't mean an engine replacement, you just meet one of the requirements. You'll never know without the test.

Just dropped it off at the dealer. THey said they would take care of it. They are doing the recall, diagnoising and fixing the problem(I hope) and installing the msp springs/shocks.

Do you guys think by new engine it would be really a new engine or remanufactured? I don't understand why I would need a new one. I have only 11k miles and the temperature rarely if ever has gone over 100. And this happened so suddenly. It was literally I drove the car, it drove great, no problems. Got back in started it up and drove, and major problems.

I had the same thing happen to me twice....I have an automatic...it was hot out. I was turning and in the midst of the turn it seemed I'd press on the gas it was barely going and then it finally kicked in. Weird... in 3 years this has only happened twice this summer. I am expecting the recall letter any day now. I have had occasional rough idling and power seems down a bit. Wonder if I will get the new engine...hopefully I will know soon...trying to sell it and I may just have to wait 2 years till it's paid off.

My dealer did my recall work without my having the recall letter.
You could always call them & ask about it.
But, I would only ask about it if you are having the problems mentioned in the letters in the recall letter link provided above.
You don't want the recall done if you aren't having the problems, because in MNA's eyes, your recall is done. If 10K miles later you have the problems, you may have issues getting a new engine when you need it.
I didn't get a new engine, but I am getting MNA to give me something in writing that they will revisit the recall if & when I have problems in the future that indicate this recall. I only have 20K miles.