Hi All

I was looking for some advice... Basically my engine has just started cutting out when I'm driving or when its idling. It's not all the time, it drives okay and then will sort of stutter a bit and if im in neutral it cuts out. The funny thing is it started happening after I had played around with the electric a bit (connected and disconnected the battery several times). I was fitting a new starter button (i had already fitted one several weeks before but didn't like the design), which I have now removed just to make sure it wasn't that..

The car is a 2004 with 90000 on the clock, i've had it for 3 years now and have changed oil very regularly and done spark plug etc at the correct interval (thanks everyone for the good DIY tips) however I have never changed coils and leads.

So I am guessing that it is something to do with the coils. I tried cleaning my MAF senser as i have a K&N filter, but this didn't seem to help.

Any advice on this would be REALLY appreciated

Thanks again for all your help guys
James

 

Check coils, plugs, wires, fuses, neutral switch or maybe a few drive cycle would cure this.

 

hmm... 90k and never changed coils, i think it would be about time too.. check plug wires too. hopefully its not a bad fuel pump. do you premix? if so what do you put in? check vacuum hoses for leaks.

 

I agree with the aforementioned however I would start with something easier.

Cleaning the Eccentric Shaft Sensor ..... it can cause hella problems if it dirty ... and it prolly is on a 04

Again as mention already ... 90k on a set of coils ... damn that's got to be a record ... change those just for the love of god man ....

 

Have removed one of the coils to see how it looks... Surprisingly its not as bad as the pictures of bad coils look, but does have a pale creamy mark on the bottom so will go to the store tomorrow and get new coils, leads and plugs...

2 other questions though..

How do I clean the shaft mentioned above?

When I removed air filter box and first part of the big tube i noticed there was a lot of oil in the air pipe.. is this normal?

Thanks again
James

 

People still believe you can visually inspect coils

This is what you might want to focus on.
No... you shouldn't have oil in the intake.
When you cleaned the MAF, what did you use and did you actually spray the two resistor wires?
Cleaning the MAF and still having oil in the intake is only going to contaminate the MAF again.
You need to remove the intake tube and clean it.
Also, remember to remove the resonance chamber (black box on the driver's side) and clean that out too.

 

I used electrical contact cleaner and sprayed it LOADS... Didn't want to risk breaking it by trying to clean with cloth or something..

Have now removed all the piping and black box on side and have cleaned this all toughly now and will buy coils, leads and plugs tomorrow and fit. Will report back soon with results..

Thanks for you help
James

 

While you are at it, remove the black accordion tube and throttle body and clean behind it. I used a lot of electrical contact cleaner for those and wipe with a cloth.

Don't risk damaging the MAF sensor with cloth, just spray i enough and carefully seat the sensor to avoid pinching the o-ring.

 

If you have 90,000 miles on it, take it in for a compression test at Mazda after you change the coils and spark plugs. Worse case scenario you lose about $150 or so. Best case scenario you get an engine replacement @ 90,000 miles.

 

Every time you disconnect the battery you reset the ECU.

That's your problem.

Everything else mentioned is just a tune up.