SkoobZ

Hi, I havent posted here in a while and not very often because I have never had any problems that were not awnsered by the search button. So here goes.

First off '04 MT GT with 888806 miles Oil changed every 3-5k by me with royal purple, add in ~ 1 or 2 qt between every oil change. Never had any serious problems. All recalls have been done by mazda, use 91 octane, ect. ect. Im nice to this car, i take care of her she takes care of me.

So now last night I was coming home from a short drive (5-10 mi) and all of a sudden my car started shuddering like it lost all power and the CEL came on and started blinking, I was low on gas and thought that might be the problem, bad gas/last of tank. I slowed down and babied it the last 1-2 mi home. Upon starting her up this morning to go get gas she starts fine, first try and revs up to 3k or so and then slowly comes back down to idle. I started driving and got about 1/2 - 1.5 miles away from home and she starts shuddering again i have all loss of power.

I hobble to the gas station and fill up. There is a slight burning smell but i can't pinpoint where its coming from. I start her back up, she starts up fine and I proceed to drive home. The CEL comes back on flashing and I get the same loss of power. I continue driving home ~2-3 miles. The shuddering stays the same. It feels like im running on 3 of 4 cylenders if i had em. I take it slow the rest of the way home. Upon getting home smoke starts coming in from the center console. I open the hood up and i also have smoke coming from were the oil dipstick area is, but i see no oil, nor oil on the oil filter area. I check the oil and i am about 1/4 of the way up the line and i can't pinpoint where the smoke is coming from.

I called mazda and explaind my story and they said "yup sorry bring the car down and we'll look at it." After doing some searching around here I have found that in most cases its either the coils and plugs or the engine. What does it sound like to you guys? Should I spend the 300-400 and do the coils and plugs? got the car at 640k or so and have never done them. Or take it to mazda and have them check it out? Is there any physical way to tell if coils are bad by looking at them? any advice or help would be great. Also where is a cheap place to get coils and plugs?

Thanks
steve

----edit---
Added pix and update, check it out... you know you want to!

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Your cat is toast. I bet if you looked under the car you would have seen your cat glowing red.

And yes, do plugs and coils anyway, you are due But don't let the dealer charge you for the parts or labor, the coils should be around $30 each, plugs $68 or so for all 4, you can change them yourself in about 20 minutes, maybe an hour if you are unfamiliar with mechanical work.

Edit:
To explain a bit, your cat is burning up, giving you the heat and the smoke. Being clogged, it is strangling the engine of air, with to much exhaust that can't get out. After letting it sit for a bit, the exhaust clears out through the heavily restricted cat, giving you some power before it packs too much exhaust before the cat and it chokes again.

You are past the 80k of the federally mandated warranty, so you will be out of pocket on something. A midpipe is going to be way cheaper than the ~$2k for a new cat.

dozer

iTrader: (3)

yeah, blinking Check Engine Light means your having misfires, plugs should run you about 80bucks for all four and take about 20 minutes to install, coils should be around 125 for all four, and that takes about 15 minutes...

SkoobZ

Where is a good/cheap place to get the plugs and coils? online or at autozone/kragen/auto parts?

----Edit----

If it is/was the cat i have to get a new one and not a midpipe, cali smog. :-(

dozer

iTrader: (3)

you have to find and search ^^^button at the top

coils- google "montgomery mazda" i believe they have all 4 for 125 shipped

spark plugs - i believe theres a link on the last page of the spark plugs DIY, amazon.com has em for a good price, OR you can go through one of the vendors on here such as BHR

Old Rotor

+1 do what these guy's say and if you need a cat get a used one save your self $$$.

SkoobZ

Awesome sounds good! Because of the holiday I cant get plugs/coils local till friday but I found a place i can get OEM coils and HK plugs for $232 before tax. You guys think the smoke was fried cat? Any way i can tell if the cat is dead for sure?

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

I think it's your cat, but you still need coils and plugs Other opinions may differ.

If you start your 8, let it idle, and watch under the car. At idle it may take a bit, but it might become hot enough to see the glow. If it doesn't, it doesn't mean your cat isn't toast, but if it does, then you know beyond any doubt. Or take it for a short drive until you start getting the power loss you were experiencing. Hop out and take a look under the car at the cat. Some engine codes can pop up from a burnt cat, but not always. Taking off the cat and physically looking inside is another option. It should look like honeycomb, not a melted slagged mess.

Coils and plug problems don't make smoke from the center console or from your engine bay, but the cat IS right under the center console, and if glowing red hot, it will likely be melting / burning away plastic or other shielding, the smoking could easily come from your center console, and any smoke that doesn't will be taking the shortest 'up' trip it can, which would be forward into the engine bay via the transmission tunnel. Any other direction is down, and this would have it coming up from the back of your engine bay, pretty much centered, matching your 'near the dipstick' description.

Again, my call on the problem is your cat, though you are due for plug and coil change anyway as regular maintenance.

dozer

iTrader: (3)

^just get OEM ngk spark plugs no need for anything else...also try to get the codes read just to make sure what it really is, you can tell if your cat is gone if it starts to glow after a nice little run

SkoobZ

RIWWP, that makes alot of sense. Any good place to buy a new or used cat? checked craigslist and found 0 and ebay has em if i live in the UK.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

The Buying / Selling section on here (bottom of the home page) is your best bet. Alot of people go with a midpipe on a regular basis, so put up a WB used Cat, and you will probably find alot of people trying to sell you one Some people keep theirs to swap on for emissions, but most don't I think.

SkoobZ

Ouch, Just called a local aut dismantlers place and they said in CA I can not buy a used cat. What the heck!!

dozer

iTrader: (3)

^i believe there someone here on the forum selling one

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

That is probably technically correct, because used cats probably get recycled for their internal metals, but I am sure you can find someone on here to sell you one that you can put on. You aren't going to get a used one from any business.

SkoobZ

Alright, after a bunch of calls and searching I gave Jeremy over at Larsons Rotary in Antioch, CA a call and he said he could do 4 plugs and 4 coils for $158 and run a diognostic and see what error code its running, and do a compression check for $60. So I think im gonna get plugs and coils from him, see if that fixes it, if not run the car down to him and see exactlly what the heck is going on. I hope its not the Cat, Im looking at roughly $1400 for a new cat. Annnnnnd since im in Environmently friendly california, I cant get/buy a used cat.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

$158 for all coils and plugs is actually a realy really good deal, definitely take them up on it.

'Getting' a used cat isn't the issue, 'buying' one from a business is. Is it actually illegal to buy a used cat? I doubt it. I just think you can't find a business that is willing to sell a used cat. Person to person is your bet. Seriously, save yourself the cash.

SkoobZ

Alright, so i did some more searching and found a coupple cats here on the site, now my question is, are all cats created equal? Do cali specific cars have a different cat than say an ohio or texas, because ofthe smog restrictions we have here or are they all the same part?

Old Rotor

Good I'm glad you went for the used one as I suggested. I believe they are all 50 state legal(anybody know dif?). So get one that has as little mileage as you can find. Also one that has not gone threw any flooding or bad coils. If you could get a pic from the owner of inside and outside it would help too. What is the price range you found?

SkoobZ

Just the ones on the forum, $175 + shipping and $250 Shipped, thanks on the heads up about photos and flooding/coils questions. You guys are a plethora of knowledge!

SkoobZ

So after battling with the old exhaust for almost 2 hours, I finally got it off. I took some pix, and after being told the car was 100% stock im not sure anymore. Also I cant see any phsycal/interior dammage to the cat but I still think thats the problem. One has been bought and should have in about a week I'll post rseults of what happens after i get it instaled. Also can I start the car without the cat? And to the pix we go!!

Over all pic of what was said to be stock.



Less than a year and 1/2 old, if it was orig. stock and stock one blew mazda would have put one on for free kuz car had less than 80k. Maybe dealer didnt know that rule...



The inside on both ends looks like this...? could still be fried on inside?



Whomever installed it used nuts too small from the bolts. Tisk Tisk.



Is that what it should look like?



Im melting im melting agg what a world what a world!!



More of the o2 sensor, kinda sexy, NOT!



MMMMM the backside of the cats!

Alright so after the pix are we still all to the same consis, the cat was/is bad? Ive got another on on its way and then next week im gonna install it, new plugs new coils and cross my fingers.

Steve

dozer

iTrader: (3)

your cat looks like toast

SkoobZ

so should i go get some butter? You can tell that just from the exterior pic? can i start it w/o cats on it?

dozer

iTrader: (3)

i cant tell from the pics, yours looks way dirty compared to all the others ive seen...sure you can start it, just prepare yourself for how loud its gonna be

SkoobZ

yeah i know its gonna be loud and ill get a CEL but i wanted to see if its still gonna do that loss of power thing. Didnt know if it was bad to run an rx8 exhaustless..

SkoobZ

Alrighty, so no cat, driven to the end of the block and back, still a HUGE loss of power like initally had.? so maybe not cat? or maybe cat, plugs and coils?