Dinhx8

I have 04 manual at 73k miles-, mazdaspeed exhaust, no other mods to engine/exhaust. Have searched and read lots of threads, but figured won't hurt to post. My warranty is up in a month, so for those of you with failed engines, I"d love to see if this sounds familiar.

My car felt really sluggish, and sort of just feeling bogged down. But it was still revving okay and to the layman nothing was 'wrong'. I got a few flashing CELS after spirited runs that would go away.

I replaced wires, coils, plugs 3 weeks ago. didn't unplug battery when i did it. Car ran like new again, great pulls and all was good.

Last week, it just felt bogged down. Got a flashing cel. Went away. Seems okay in first, 2nd gear very sluggish at low rpms, and just a delay in power...it would make its way up, but was a floor it and wait wait wait okay here we go type thing.

took to dealer, ran compression test, results within range. they notified me of a P0302 misfire code.

Car ran good again but now the slow sluggish 2nd gear no pulling is back.

Replaced engine mounts- car's still the same. Some trips it's fine. Some 2nd gear pulls feels like it takes forever to climb the rpm range. I can floor it and it moves up, but slowly...then about 4-5k it goes up a little faster, but not the smoothness I'm used to.

thoughts?

bse50

If you spent the same effort to search instead of writing this post you would know the answers by now...
Search for: ignition , catalytic converter (cat) and compression.

Dinhx8

If you had spent time reading my post youd see all those things mentioned .

VOODOO8

Actually, the one item not in your original post was the CAT - seems like a possibility based on description of your recurrent issue. Other wild guess is that it is carbon fouled. Check on threads including words like 'seafoam' etc and see if it sounds reasonable as a possibility to you too.

Dinhx8

I have done the drive it hard and check for it glowing routine, and it hasn't been glowing after some pretty hard runs.

I'll look into the seafoam. My plugs when i changed them were a mixture of brown and black chunky nastiness.

I reset NVRAM yesterday and took it for a run before it downpoured and it felt a little better...will do KAM today and check it out

bse50

The cat doesn't have to glow to be failing.
Running with failing coils also tends to kill the cat and builds up a lot of carbon. This leads to failing compression.
Are all your intake manifold valves working?

The compression is "fine".. yeah, what are the real values?

Dinhx8

I didn't include them cause when i searched and read the tons of posts on compression based on my numbers, and the rpm they were at they seem okay.

I posted mainly to see if those who had dying engines went thru a similar thing. I'm also confused as to why sometimes it runs fine then sometimes it is crappy. That was not something I read about in my searches...usually it was once it was bad it got worse.

I did read a lot of threads, many over and over on the variety of issues prior to posting, and even performed the replacements via diys i learned because of my searchings. I'm just trying to get any bit of new info possible since im out of warranty in a month. If that means I post a similar thread and get heat about it, then it's worth not having to pay out of pocket for a new engine.

the intake manifold thing is helpful, and if you don't mind me asking (as i begin search myself) what to look for.

I'll also do a more thorough cat shake test.

thanks-

bse50

Relax, is like going to the doctor. We don't know how smart you may or may not be and we have to test waters
Out of 100 similar threads one like yours ends up with a well educated member, we can't tell that from the beginning though so bear with us.

Visually inspecting the cat is the best way to know if it's good or not.
Intake wise search for SSV , VDI and APV. Did you clean the maf and esps sensor (esps\ess eccentric shaft position sensor)?
The o2 sensors may play a minor role.

btw.. the sustain... listen to it!

Dinhx8

you can grab a bite to eat and you'll still be hearin that one ...

got the hood open now and will go get some electrical cleaner to the MAF. I'll search for those things you listed regarding the SSV, vdi/apv. That's new for me so now I have more crap to read, well, on the crapper .

cheers and ill update on how its running for those who may find themselves in a similar confusion. regardless I'll probably foot the 100 bucks for another compression test in a few weeks.

Arlington mazda told me to def come back before my warranty is up so they are at least being semi cool about it.