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I appreciate the advice on taking out the fuel pump. That was definitely easy!

BUT... turns out that's not the problem. I put a new pump and strainer in, but it didn't change anything. Lemme tell you what's going on.

I drove the car all weekend, everything was fine. Monday morning, 2 minutes after leaving my house, problems start. I'm in the middle of changing to 4th gear, and as soon as I let off of the clutch, the car completely stopped responding to the gas pedal. Literally, I'm hitting the gas, but the RPMs are at 1000, and the car is jumping like I had put it in too high of a gear or something. I started to pull over, but before I could the car went completely dead.

Now, when I try to start it back, the starter turns but the engine doesn't fire. It never even sounds like it's starting to catch.

My first thought was fuel pump, and I've successfully replaced it, but the car still wouldn't start. After that, I'm lost.

It's also worth mentioning that when I have the ignition on ACC, the Check Engine and Oil lights stay on; I don't remember them staying on like that before.

Any thoughts at all? This totally sucks; I had just saved up the money for a body kit, and now it looks like my kit budget is going to be spent on this!

the lights stay on, thats so you know they work and are not burnt out, have you tried pulling codes on it?

jump 10 and a ground on the diag box under the hood (with key off) then get in teh car and turn the key on and count the flashes, the FAQ tells ya how to read them and come back and find out what it is if you have any, im thinking it might be the engine temp sensor but im not sure yet, my RS did something similar with this bad and it was intermitant yours might not wanna be intermitant

after reading your post again, that EXACTLY what it sounds like

Thanks, papa roached. I've never used the diagnostic before, and couldn't find what you're talking about in the 4-cyl FAQs; can you be more specific as to where it is located?

Did I understand you that I just ground the #10, then turn the key to ACC? Do I need a diagnostic tool to do this, or did I misunderstand you?

I thought that the engine temp sensor just told the engine to shut off when it got hot. Would that keep it from starting back like this? This is 2 days after it went dead, and it's never started back.

the ETS controlls how rich it runs based on how hot the motor is, you dont need a diag took, under the hood on the driver side is a small black thing with a plug in it, on the lid is a diagram, jump 10 and one of the ground pins with a wire or something and turn the car to acc and it will spit a code at ya if you have any, you might also wanna check if you got spark, pull a plug wire and hold it close to the valve cover while someone cranks the motor, make sure you dont shock yourself, it hurts like hell, i know because its happened to me

mine would die at random and bog and i would get a CEL from time to time and die and not start for a random amount of time then run fine till it did it again

my 92 rs is doin the exact same thing. i too thought it was the fuel pump so i dropped a new one in and started it but it only ran for maybe 10 sec. then it stalled. i have bright blue spark but i haven't checked the diog. codes yet. thanks to this forum i now know how so i'll give that a try when i get home from work. thanks guys

I had the same problem....
it turned out it was a bad disty

I just checked the diagnostic, and the signal that came back was 7 2 3 1. I found what the codes mean at www.troublecodes.net/mazda

7 - knock sensor
2 - distributor
3 - distributor
1 - ignition pulse

I have no idea what a knock sensor is, and I don't know if it's important.

The #2 and #3 actually said "no #2 signal," and then as an option it said "distributor." Does that mean that the distributor itself needs to be replaced, or just the rotor?

I don't know if the #1 is important, either. I'm guessing that means that it didn't receive an ignition pulse, but that would just be because the distributor didn't fire, right?

I'm all ears! Thanks for the help.

looks like bad disty

Just to make sure, it's the entire distributor I have to replace, and not just the rotor? Reason I ask, the price difference is $20 to $250.

might as well check to see if timing belt jumped some teeth while you were driving before spending the cash on the disty.

Sounds similar to my problem.....93 4 cyl.....no fire from coil. Distributor (4 wire plug) has power to it,,,,but no voltage on the return side (hall effect pickup sensor side)....tried 2 other distribs still same thing.
Voltage to coil good (tried another coil as well).

Haven't pulled codes yet.


HELP

This means the crank angle sensor has failed. This is becoming a common problem with the Hitachi distributors now that they are getting to be in the 10 years old range. You will need to replace the whole distributor

Originally posted by csdude:
I just checked the diagnostic, and the signal that came back was 7 2 3 1. I found what the codes mean at www.troublecodes.net/mazda

7 - knock sensor
2 - distributor
3 - distributor
1 - ignition pulse

I have no idea what a knock sensor is, and I don't know if it's important.

The #2 and #3 actually said "no #2 signal," and then as an option it said "distributor." Does that mean that the distributor itself needs to be replaced, or just the rotor?

I don't know if the #1 is important, either. I'm guessing that means that it didn't receive an ignition pulse, but that would just be because the distributor didn't fire, right?

I'm all ears! Thanks for the help.