SiLVeRE8

iTrader: (8)

ok what happened was 2 weeks ago my cars alternator went out while i was driving on the freeway. while travelling at around 70 mph my battery light came on all of a sudden 15 seconds later, all the lights in the gauge cluster came on and the car completely shut off. i didnt have power steering at that time but i managed to roll at the speed i was going to pull over on the side of the freeway. a tow truck showed up and see if i was ok and tried to jump start my car, but it didnt hold a charge. so he told me my alternator might have went out. anyways i got my car towed back home because it was around 8 pm.

the next day i decided to remove majority of my aftermarket parts (but i left the exhaust, test pipe, and intake in there, figuring that these mods shouldn't be the cause of the alternator to go out anyways), so i can tow my car to the dealer. when my car got there they tried to jump start it but it wont hold a charge, so they concluded that my alternator is dead. They decided to replace my alternator and battery under warranty and told me that my car would be ready to go the next day. when the next day came, they gave me a call and told me that my car is running excellent, but there was an issue with the check engine light now. they said the cel blinks and stays solid after a while and that my car was throwing some random misfire. they figured it can just be spark plugs and coils. so they would have to keep my car for a couple of more days and get that fixed under warranty also.

after they replaced the spark plugs and coil packs, it didnt fix the problem, so they decided to replace the ignition wires under warranty also. it still didnt fix the problem, so they gave mazda a call and gave them the codes. mazda found out that i didnt have a cat and they werent very happy about it and told the dealer to stop working on my car. the guys at the mazda dealer told me the car drives fine and that i can take the car back. they said inorder for them to take a look at the car again i would have to turn the car back to stock. (i dont believe the exhaust, test pipe, and intake can be causing this problem since i had them on my car for like 2.5 years already).

anyways, i was forced to take my car back from the dealer. when i pulled the car out of the dealer, the check engine light was not on and the car was driving fine and pretty smooth too. i thought maybe the ecu some how fixed itself or something. it hasnt came back on until today which was 2 days after i got my car back. what happened was when i was driving on the freeway, i took it up to redline in 3rd gear to see if the car has any issues and like 20 seconds after that, the check engine light started blinking and stayed solid. the code P0301 showed up on the scanner, but the car still drives fine. there were no random backfires, shakes, lost of power, or anything.

i dont know what this problem is and the dealer cant seem to figure it out either, so can someone give me some ideas on whats going on? andy help would be appreciated thanks!!

05rex8

iTrader: (7)

front rotor misfire is what that code is....
I would've guessed it's a coil problem...but since it was replaced, I don't know.

maybe check the coils and wires again...maybe the techs didn't connect things properly

SiLVeRE8

iTrader: (8)

yea and thanks i will give the that a check tomorrow and i forgot to mention that the dealer also did a compression test on my engine and they found out that it was fine too... this is killing me!! well its not like i never got a cel before, but the previous cel's i got were just missing cat because i got test pipe. but this time is different because it just keeps me guessing...

SiLVeRE8

iTrader: (8)

i checked everything and it seems to be fine.... cel still there.... anyways has anyone experienced this problem and actually found a solution to it?

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Ess ?

SiLVeRE8

iTrader: (8)

thanks for you guys help!!

ok so i finally got the solution to my problem and i kind of want to share with others. What happened was for the past 3 weeks, the dealer techs and i cannot find out what cause the misfire because the car drives fine and all, but the CEL just stays on during normal driving and blinks while i am at WOT . anyways what happened was i turned the whole car back to stock just so my dealer would go further with the inspection of my car. what they found was that a wire from the harness of the leading coil pack was spliced and the metal strands of wires were showing. they told me that this could be why the cel blinks when i am at WOT. they said that at WOT the surge going through the coils and spark plugs would be a lot stronger and they noticed that the splice might have damaged the strands of wires. so they told me that they are unable to cover it under warranty and that i would have to pay out of my pocket to get that fixed. they quoted me at $750 to get the whole harness replaced, but they were also nice enough to suggest me that i should get that fixed myself for cheaper, by just resplicing the wire. anyways i found out what caused the weird splice... it was when i brought my car in to an alarm shop to get my viper alarm installed. i guess they couldnt find my acc or something and they tried to splice it to my coil pack power wire. and what happened was i think they changed their mind after splicing there, so i guess they just taped it back up afterwards.

anyways... so i decided to fix this myself! atfirst i didnt really believe that the little splice can cause such a big problem, but i figured that i should give it a try because theres nothing else i can think of doing and i dont want to pay $750 out of my pocket. what i did was instead of resplicing the wire knowing that the little strands of wires might be damaged. instead i just put one of those wire connector crimps on it to secure it and hopefully it helped connected back with all the damaged strands of wires together. the whole process only took like 1 minute (clipped it on and that was it). well i went and test drove it afterwards and no CEL came back on. i was hitting around 8,500 rpm like crazy in 1st and 2nd gear on the highway just to test it out and the CEL didnt came back. i did it atleast 10 times to make sure my car was fine and it really never came back. and an even better thing was my car feels like its brand new again, no power loss or anything. anyways today is the second day after i put the wire connector in there, so we will just see. maybe this did fix my misfire!