Hey guys,
I've got an issue and I need some help figuring out what it is.

Over the past few weeks Ive started having trouble starting my car. It seems like it takes 4 or 5 turns before it fully catches and starts. Once it starts it gives off a squeal for about half to full second then it is quiet. when I'm driving is seems like I'm getting a bit of power loss because I can feel this slight jerking feeling and taking off seems to take more power then it used to. Ive also noticed that the tone of the exhaust has changed and it sound deeper and muffled and it idles a bit rough.

Ive started doing some troubleshooting myself, but I don't hardly have any tools or a good area to work in.

Ive checked the belts and they are tight and clean. Ive checked the air filter and the air intake line and it all seems clean and clear. The oil has just been changed. I don't have a check engine light on yet and all the other gauges look good.

I wanted to check with you guys before I head it over to the "experts"(lol) at my local mazda dealer. Any ideas?

 

Likely you have 2 issues here, possible it's 1.


Either your starter is weak and starting to fail (hard start), and your cat is starting to clog up (muffled sound, power loss)

Or

You have compression loss, which does all of the above. If the squeal isn't the belts, then it could be the air pump, which might cause some of these same problems.

So many of our symptoms are present on more than 1 failure point, so limited information it's hard to give an accurate quick guess.

 

thanks for the quick response, Ive got a friend of mine that has a laptop test setup that we are going to try out and see if I can get any more data that way. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Your "squeal" symptom leads me to another guess - possibly something starting to seize on components run by belts on the front of the engine. Since rotary engines do not produce massive amounts of torque, any drag on the engine can be felt through the "butt dyno".

I've had similar issues twice - once when the original AC compressor's magnetic clutch started to give out and once when the bearings on tensioner pulley on that belt assembly began to go.

Both had the squeal symptom and both impacted performance, especially down low on the rev band where engine torque is most limited.