ken-x8

I'm curious about something. There seem to be a lot of suggestions that the plugs or coils might be bad.

I've never messed with modern coils, just with traditional breaker point ignition systems. With those, if something was bad it would usually show up as a misfire under load or hard starting, rather than bad idle.

So what is it about coils that can cause an idle problem, yet still work under load?

Ken

eviltwinkie

Check the ignition thread I just revived...good stuff in thar...

tajabaho1

ok guys, thank you for all the help, twinkie, it wasn't the intake unfortunately, I wished it was

swoope, it is the coils......I unplugged all of the sparks, they are fine no gunk buildup, the wires are plugged in securely, I lifted the coils and there is a burnt mark on all but 1 of them, and all of them have this white spot the size of my thumb on the bottom, I take it they're really dead now huh? because my car has gone into limp mode on the highway and I can't get it beyond 25mph at this point......

my new coils should be arriving on tuesday...............

thankyou for all your help!

swoope

iTrader: (5)

k,

so you unplugged what? did you remove the plugs?

the story about my same problem is almost the same as yours, but i was not shifting into neutral at 100mph.

burnt marks on coils may or may not say they are bad...

walk, then run..

got the owners manual yet??? i got a link.


beers

tajabaho1

yes, I removed all the spark plugs, the coil rack and the plug wires to check and as I have stated, the plugs are in good condition, the plug wires were on tight

my coils.........no doubt......is dead

yea, thanks......I went to mazda online and they sent me a pdf file of the manual XD

r u gonna tease me for the rest of my days for that?

and swoope, also, it doesn't matter at what speed but it becomes progressively worse

first it only happens at higher speed, but before it finally went dead on me I was simply at 30mph threw in neutral for a stop light, the rpm needle would go wild from 1k-250rpm and it will die

I will post results once I put in my new coils next week, the car is still driveable, but I won't be driving it fast any time soon seeing as it goes in limp mode if I gas it.............

people with this problem should also check their ignition system so we can verify our results

I also have 1 more reason to suspect that it did the limpy mode thinging when you floor it, from what I've read on this forum that means coils are dying........also it is very shitty at certain rpm (most notable is 3k-4k)

the car sounds like a ******* boat engine.........even more suspect of ignition failure

swoope

iTrader: (5)

but there is more to the story..

not that simple...

beers

paulmasoner

iTrader: (1)

this i cant WAIT to see... do post pics, especially if you rattle can it gold

tajabaho1

not rly, I'm just thinking of dumping the hks filter since I heard it sucks *** and putting in apexi and extending it outside the cabin, like cold air, thats all

coils are coming tomorrow, then I'll post pics

Kane

iTrader: (1)

Will you paint the coils gold?

chetrickerman

HAHAHA!!! those coils are a b*tch to get out and check

tajabaho1

let the gold go people T.T

eviltwinkie

How about you get the RB intake/ram and paint it gold...would probably be cheaper/easier/better...

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

I still don't understand why you're putting it in neutrual but then again Taja, there are a LOT of things I don't understand about you.

Have you read the TSB on how to PROPERLY check the coils? White marks may not be enough to diagnose those coils as dead.

tajabaho1

yea, its the one I think you posted or someone posted on another thread on how to check the coils, I know on the TSB it says it does not indicate a dead coil, but I have burnt marks on 1 of them, like completely burnt and crispy, its the 3rd one from the left, if anything I'm sure that one is dead


and how can you not understand me putting it in neutral at that speed? wtf? I'm sure all of u do the same too

this is what I do........I'm at 80 or 70........I am about to exit the freeway......so I throw it in neutral and brake to get rdy for the redlight in front

what do u do jedi? u put it in 3rd? and let the rev fall or someshit? or do u just put it in 1st just so u can **** up the synchro.......

eviltwinkie

I usually downshift in the event I will need to reapply gas...but then again I'm used to thinking like I'm always on the track...

If I'm not on the throttle...I'm braking...I'm never coasting...

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

I downshift based on speed. If I'm doing 70, I'll go down into 4th, apply brake. As my speed drops, I downshift accordingly being careful not to rev the engine too high. I'm pretty sure that's what most ppl do.

tajabaho1

oh I see, yea I normally don't do that because I know theres a redlight out front, so what the hell, I'll just throw it in neutral and apply the brakes, once I get to about 10mph(as suggested by swoope) I hit the clutch and put her in 1st again

I hope this clears matters with u people who think I'm driving the car wrong.....seriously I've driven manuals since I was 12 man besides, its become such a habit that it is hard to get rid of now, and I've never had any trouble like this with all my other cars.....and this didn't happen until recently, it used to be fine, and the only thing I did from when it was fine to now is the Nitrous install......
which according to Charles, he says that using nitrous can quickly expose a bad coil, and from what I can see, it all points to the coils being bad

it can't be a dead cat since I don't have any
my compression test is good, so the dealer says
my fuel line is secured, my battery is doing 13.1 while on, 12.5 while off so I think thats fine too

fuel injectors should be fine seeing as I didn't do anything with them

the coils and sparks and plugwires from mazsport are coming tomorrow so I will take pics of the new coils and the ones old one for comparison so you guys can judge it for yourself........right now I don't want to start her up until I get her fixed cus I'm afraid I might **** up other stuff

if anyone thinks it is something else please let me know

as of last time I drove her, it became so bad that anything beyond 40mph whether I put in neutral or hit the clutch and the rpm drop to 1k, the car's rpm will swing and result in engine dying......... the car barely pulls at 3-5k rpm, but then I get a huge boost at 6k rpm like its finally coming alive, but its not as fast as it used to be, major loss of torque, so much so that I felt like driving a civic...........ex

the CEL came on(which I don't have a tool to diagnose it)

I've read on another thread that it might be the MAF sensor being dirty also,and seeing as the HKS filter probably has the worse filtering capability according to rx8club, that might just be the case. so I will get a MAF sensor cleaner and clean it today afterschool and see how that goes............

again, I appreciate all of your help and suggestions (the ones that do help, not retards who don't help and try to bash on me randomly)

thankyou all :D

tajabaho1

but see, it happens even when I put in gear and hit the clutch.............so I don't think it has anything to do with the neutral switch, its more like the ignition system is dying, from what I can see...........thanks though, but I've driven like this for a long time (granted I'm still young) and I never had a problem with it, even with this car for a while.......until now

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

no one at any of the local meets has a Scanalyzer, Canscan, etc? They could quickly pull the code for you

eviltwinkie

You might want to consider also getting a breather filter on your oil fill tube and capping off the line to the intake. There's a DIY on here...prevents the oil vapors from collecting on your MAF.

You RTFM yet? Heh...

tajabaho1

XD yea I did, online though, I don't have the real manual FTMFL

and no jedi, seeing as u never show up to any meets that I do, no one can pull the code for me..........

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

Fixed

philsbluerx8

i am having the same issue and my 8 has been at dealer for 2 weeks; what they did was basically to replace a starter and ignition coil. thats all i know and they havent given me a call about anything new but i knew its not only about a starter and ignition coil. cuz according to the time, they have done those things already but they havent called me yet.
I used to do the samething as you guys, like put the **** to neutral and apply brakes but my brakes seemed to worn out really fast and I started to down shift a lot. But thats not gonna cause the problem.

tajabaho1

damn it all! in my defense I was hung over with some friends the night before the SB meet!!!

hey, and does any of u know whether those diagnostic tools from kragen or autobacs (the universal OBDII types) could pull codes? or does it have to be something like a scanalyzer?

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

I believe the concensus on that is that it CAN pull some codes but it does not know all the mazda specific codes. In other words, might not work for ya...