what the hell is wrong with my car?

[myfirstmazda]

your last post annoys me a bit.

Just because someone tells you what you want to hear doesn't make them right, or have better advice. Although, Charlie is right.

And if you think a squealing belt means a weak alternator, you do sound a little like you don't know what you're talking about. Have you checked the condition of the belt, and the tension?

duh. I just said it's a brand new belt. I just installed it a week ago. this is what I mean about acting like I don't know what I'm talikng about. I've been a mechanic professoinally for over 16 years. I do know a thing or two. don't treat me like a complete idiot. you don't think I know what burning oil or coolant smells like? this problem is just confusing me, and that's why I came here for help. anyway the alternator drags the engine down noticeably even just when the wipers are on. with the headlights on and stepping on the brake, it almost kills the engine. so, what is it that goes wrong with the distributors in these things? also, is there a tool to measure the actual voltage coming out of the coil?

[myfirstmazda]

look, I'm sorry I pissed you guys off by saying that, but I feel like I'm chasing my tail here. can you understand how frustrating this is? I've said like 10 times at least what is going on here and everyone thinks it's something else. please help me solve this. sorry guys.

[Ryan]

If you've been a mechanic for 16 years you'd KNOW that a brand new belt stretches a little and needs re-tensioned after a little while. I've only been tinkering with cars for a few years, and I know that.

The B6 is a weak motor. You can't get around that. Brakes used to almost kill mine, nevermind if I had the fan full bore with defog. I simply had to avoid the situation. A bigger alternator won't help, because a bigger alternator is not nescessairly more efficient. The law of conservation of energy applies to everything, and to turn the alternator to power the components in your car will always take x power, no matter which way you slice it. If your alternator is on the edge of being fried, which I couldn't possibly tell you, you'd have to go get it tested, then yeah, it might be causing some of the issue.

I honestly don't care enough to read which exact B6 you have, but the SOHC one never fails, and the DOHC one has the same internal coil/ignitor issues as the K8's. You used to be able to buy replacement coils/ignitors, but they stopped doing that, so a brand new disty it is, or HEI mod (check FAQ).

A volt meter measures voltage pretty good, I've heard. You'll need a decent one to get those spikes though. A much easier way to do it would be to simply measure the coil resistance... Mr. Mechanic should also know that the gap the spark can jump is a great indication of how strong the spark is. A very healthy MX ignition system should jump around half an inch from the end of a plug. The manual even gives you a nice range to try out:

http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php ... /G-004.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php ... /G-025.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[myfirstmazda]

can anyone tell me what causes my idle to run so high when it's cold? sensor/solenoid/valve/whatever? I think the problem with my car might be related to this. I assume it's normal for it to run high, but it may be too high.

[tehbrookzorz]

You still haven't done a compression/leakdown test.
Also, since you did not have your head checked while it was off, who's to say its not warped?

Stop skipping steps. If you knew everything, you wouldn't be here.

[myfirstmazda]

you didn't answer my question.

[tehbrookzorz]

Guess its time to take the car to a qualified mechanic.

[Ryan]

I'd say so too. He's getting a little annoying playing his own fiddle.

"Do a compression test"
"I think its because of my idle"
"Do a compression test"
"No, its probably my idle"

f--- you, go spend money on a mechanic.

Any FYI, poor compression can cause a high idle, lmao...

[myfirstmazda]

Poor compression WON'T cause overfueling, which is the problem I'm trying to solve. I don't give a damn about a little blue smoke. I'll figure it out myself. At least I know where NOT to go for help. I'll post my results here when I get it solved. Buncha help you guys have been.

[Ryan]

Good riddance

[nos92mx3]

if its being over fueled just do 1 step at a time.
-check resistance of sensors (iat, BOTH CLT sensors theres one on thermo housing and one under intake manifold, resistance of vaf sensor, o2 sensor)
-check intake boot for cracks leaks tears
-ignition timing
-fuel pressure
-injector operation
-engine condition (leakdown/compression)

isnt really much to the obd1 mazda.

[SuperK]

Oh come on Ryan, we've been much nicer to flat out trolls. I think the extent of the hostility was a bit undeserved. He did apologize, which in my book, is a high indication of maturity. It's OK to want an easy fix and be relieved to hear one. Everyone can say something n00bish once in a while, you did when you were in your 80-post-days where you knew everything about anything. look, it's his first mazda anyways. I think we can all be a bit nicer.


I will also contribute to this thread, myfirstmazda, to assist you, I do hope you still do visit here, as this is a great source of information. I rebuilt my B6 (dohc albeit) and my friend's b6 (dohc again) (and am working on my klze engine) but it's about the same concept as far as the engine's concerned.

My KLZE engine smoked white gas out the tailpipe, so I do know what raw fuel out the tail pipe looks like. One of it's O-rings were eaten out. I got 3 GALLONS to the MILE. It literally takes that much fuel to start visibly smoking.


Here's the problem though: B6 injectors aren't side feed like the KL engines. They're top feed. All my top feed injectors would literally leak out in the engine bay, not in the combustion chamber. If it was injector related, the injector would have to be stuck open, and heat or time-of-day wouldn't cause a difference.

We ran KLZE wires to my friend's B6 to test the engine out when we rebuilt it. believe me, them wires don't work worth a sh__ and we sputtered and spat around the neighborhood. awful low spark, but no smoke.

My friend's B6 had a alternator problem. he couldn't get more than 30a out of it. We decided to replace it as it was making funny noises (when you turned the alty by hand out of the car) so we replaced the alternator, and found that the wiring harness is fried up. we're going to pig-tail it. It's still going 30a till we do the electrical but here's what happens when you don't get enough power:

Driving... battery going dead... driving... battery almost dead... driving PEW! Tach stops working. Driving... PEW! Speedo stops working. Driving... PEW! all interior lights shut off. Driving... sputtering... STOP! all in that order, and it actually is kinda funny to watch. it's kinda like the car is saying "MAIN POWER TO FRONT DEFLECTOR SHIELDS" or some nerdy crap like that. BUT! It doesn't smoke ONCE during that whole debacle.




I have ran my B6 out of time for months. In fact, it's STILL out of time because I am running that miata cam upgrade in it and it makes me sad. I've ran my KLZE out of time, and believe me, when that sucker's outta time you know it. No power and it sounds like a LAWNMOWER! Neither of them smoke.




If it was your valve seals, I believe you would have known when you took the head off. if you turned the camshaft, and watched the valves open, you'd known if oil's been leaking down the stem of the valve or not.

Here's why valve seals are suggested replacing based on what you said. I've typed a lot so forgive me if I am incorrect in my assumption, I read your post once so if I miscalculate kindly tell me where my assumption is wrong:

Heat related: materials expand/contract as they get hot/cold. a seal will seal better when hot. Your issue is obvious in cold. In a cold night, as the seal and metal contracts and hardens, it can allow oil to seep down overnight and burn in the morning, and as the car is warming up, the seals will continue to leak until the material heats and expands.


Here's my problem with this as well: I've never seen a B6 with bad seals. My roommates car drove with a bad head gasket for YEARS and the head was caked in water/oil buildup GUNK that even the machine shop's tank didn't clean off. This water/oil mixture killed and dryrotted all his seals making them hard plastic it leaked EVERYWHERE... but his valve seals. However it's STILL POSSIBLE that it's the issue with your car.



Now piston rings? VERY POSSIBLE. Why? It happened to me. I rebuilt my head. machine shop tanked it, replaced the seals (twice) resurfaced it. The works. I put it in my car... STILL smoke.

The piston rings seem quite prone to failure in the B6's in my experience. They get gunked up and stuck to the pistons, allowing oil to pass. Thing is, it's HARD to detect because the oil that seeps through seals the combustion chamber or something because I hit 180psi on every cylinder. The issue actually got WORSE after I rebuilt my head. the torque of the head shifting dislodged and unseated my piston rings even farther and if you took out the spark plugs and cranked it you could hear "squish" as the oil entered in the combustion chamber. Obviously my issue is worse-case because it SMOOOKED and DRANK oil but still, it's the same concept.



Recap: Injectors? Possibly. Likely? Nope. Alty? Not even a concern. Timing? well, theoretically yes but... no. Valve seals? Possible, worth looking into. Piston rings? Possible.


Very, very, dishearteningly possible. You CAN change them while keeping the engine installed in the car if you don't have a lift though. I've done it... twice.

[DarkoK]

I have Mazda mx-3, DOHC, 1.6, 75 kW 1997 with 165 000 miles and the same problem which happens only in cold morning ingnition. The engine works perfectly, fuel consumtion is like factory figures but the cloud of white smoke is realy embarasing and annoying. I took my car at the computer diagnostic and it seems everything is in order. I got idea to write at official Mazda factory or someone there who knows the engine but can`t find a way to reach them. If someone knows how we can contact with officials in Mazda pls let me know. Respect to all Mazda entusiastics who spend their time knowing, tuning and repairing their Mazda.

[myfirstmazda]

I have it narrowed down to a weak spark... it should be strong and blue, mine's weak and orange. my coil tests the same as a new one, and the same as 5 others I tested. I replaced the ignitor with a junkyard one, but no real difference. plugs, wires, cap, and rotor are all brand new. I'll keep looking for other ideas.

[SuperK]

if you're concerned about weak spark, few dollars will get you a proper spark test, you put it on the end of the wire and adjust the distance on hte screw to test the voltage.

remember, you took a picture of black combustion chamber on the cylinder head. that's oil. weak spark won't turn the chamber black, oil will. looking at your pictures where the head gasket wasn't cleaned off the head gasket had no oil leaks or blows that would validate the head gasket as the main culprit in your smoking issues. A blown head gasket is very noticable, the fact that this is a issue that's most prominent in 3 cylinders leads me to believe... rings.
if you were dumping gas in the chambers the raw fuel has a tendency of cleaning gunk... and it didn't look clean, I don't thinkyou're putting any more fuel in those chambers than you're supposed to.