Flashing CEL when spinning tires in 2nd gear in the wet
 

About 2 weeks ago I shifted into 2nd gear and spun the tires and the rear hopped a little bit and the CEL flashed. I turned the car off and on and the CEL went away. I spun the tires on purpose again to see if it would do it again, and this time it stayed on.

Plugged my friends code reader in and it came up as a p0300 (random or multiple misfire) and cleared it.

Now sometimes it will flash at me once and a while if the same thing happens (rear end hops if the tires spin)

Car runs fine and it is only rarely that it flashes.

Any ideas? I thought maybe the car was reading knock sensor or something because the car is hopping or something. Plugs might need to be changed, I just got the car a month or so ago and don't think the previous owner changed them yet.

Car has 41,000km on it, all stock. 2009 R3.

A good use of the search option would have save you with this thread...

I would highly recommend that you find and read the new owners thread right now, otherwise you might be one of the few 09 and newer owners to wind up having to replace your motor under warranty due to a misfire related and fully preventable cause.

BC.

Half of your answer lies in the sentences above .... the other half ... well that can be found through a good search.

I've already read a bunch about coils going etc and also read that a lot of people have over 40k miles on them and they're still fine.

I have 40k kilometers, not miles. Not sure if you mis read that or not.

Also, the other thing is that I can do 8k pulls all day long and it's fine. It was only when the wheels spun and the rear hopped a bit that it actually flashed, and as soon as I turn the car off and back on it goes away.

The car is going in for servicing this saturday anyway so I'll have them check the plugs at the same time.

^Yes, they are all the same.

For future advice, just because your plugs have 40k km, and you've read that others have over 40k miles, that doesn't mean sh*t. Test your plugs and coils when you feel the need. Otherwise, enjoy your future engine issues...

Uh, what are all the same?

I didn't say the plugs have 40k km. I said the car has 40k km. The plugs may, or may not have been replaced. Obviously I know that just cause other people have gotten over 40k miles doesn't mean necessarily that mine will. The reason I say that, is because I also read that the S2 coils are different than the S1 coils but also read that they're the same so I'm not sure what is the truth and what is not.

"otherwise enjoy your future engine issues" ... Uh, yeah, just cause I got a flashing CEL means that I'm going to have future engine issues too, you know, cause I don't do any maintenance or take care of my vehicles lol... Don't be ignorant. I just said in the last post, if you read the entire post, that the car is going in for regular service on Saturday and I'm going to look at the plugs because I am assuming their the factory plugs still. And I've also been looking into the BHR kit, but like I said, I read that the S2 coils are different from the S1, so might not need to worry about getting the kit so soon.

As a general rule, assume that something is wrong with a used car that starts misbehaving. Nobody ever sells a used car that works properly; even if they sold it just because they were tired of it, they probably didn't bother to get it serviced during the last few months they owned the car.

Rotaries are super-sensitive to engine knock. Don't wait until it gets worse. Replace the plugs and have the coils checked too. The worst-case scenario is you waste a little money replacing parts that were still working well. That beats the hell out of damaging an engine that can only be properly rebuilt by Mazda Japan.

Yeah the girl that owned the car before me, traded it in for a jeep because she has 2 daughters and she wanted something with 4wd.

I asked the dealer to check the coils and plugs when they did the service last week and he said the plugs could be changed, and that my coils looked good. No burn marks or anything on them. I changed the plugs the same day too. It's been sunny and 25-30 degrees since saturday and my last tank of gas before the new plugs, I got roughly 360km. Last tank, after putting the new plugs in I got 465km.

Wow, there's an improvement.

I should check my plugs someday. I've put 25000 miles on them already.

Well, I drove up to whistler this weekend, about 2.5 hours from home. My gas light came on at 500km. Filled up before I left.

Cost me just under $80 canadian to fill up ($1.39 / litre of 91 octane).

500km / 50L = 10L/100km = 23.522mpg

That was mixed city before getting on the highway, then about 100-125kmh on the hwy and then more mixed city while in whistler, and back.

Huge difference in doing just the plugs!