MX-3.com

Hey all,

First off I should let you know that I know almost zero about mechanics but am eager to learn.
I purchased a 96' Mazda Mx-3gs V6 5spd (204 XXX kms) about 2 weeks ago. Everything looks minus the fact that the muffler is now hanging on by a thread.
It ran perfect for about a week, I went to start it up one morning and the engine cranked but did not engage.
While driving nothing gave me the impression that anything may be wrong.
I opened it up and found there was absolutely no spark, changed the cap and rotor as it seemed they were the main problem(spark plugs arent perfect but look like they should so i eliminated that as the problem.
I'm thinking it may be the distributor?

But I am absolutely beside myself as to what the problem could be, and I would love to get this thing up and running again very soon.

If anyone could give me an in depth analysis of what might be the problem I'd love to hear it.
Im not sure what other information you need to diagnose it so just let me know and I'll tell you.

Sorry for the long post!

Cheers!

Sounds the like the disty to blame if you have changed the cap and rotor and are STILL not getting a spark.

Even if you may have a bad plug wire, there will still be spark going through the majority of the plug wires that are not broken. New disty's are $$$, you are better off looking at a wreckers for a 96 SPECIFIC disty. How many plugs does you disty have? 1 or 2?

MX6 or Ford Probe Disties 96+ will work on your car. Check the pn on your disty. I believe it should be TOT57271. Here's a link to a good Ebay seller as well. http://stores.ebay.com/DISTRIBUTOR-KING" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

thanks for the input guys, i think my dist. only has one plug but i'll have to check it, I've looked all around and can't find any haynes manuals for this car? are they non-existent? i have seen the online one on the front page of the website though.

http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/index.php

There are also chilton and haynes manuals, canadian tire carries them

could anyone help direct me to where i could find the main lead or the coil? cant seem to locate it

The coil is built into the distributor..... And the black stub that sticks out when you take off the cap is the main "lead".....

i dont know what it is but i've tried lordco and i've tried canadian tire, i've also looked online and i cannot seem to find a haynes manual at all, i purchased a chilton but it wasn't much help. wherever i looked there is no haynes mx-3 manual. is there something im missing here?

I think only chilton has the manual and ya it's not very good. Check your fuel pump as well. If there's no spark and no fuel pump sound then it could be the crank sensor. When it drops below freezing is when they act up. They corrected the coil problem for 95 so check the crank sensor. Where do you live?

Hi again all, been a while since my last post and i have no good news to report!
Back with an update on my car which is currently being used as a paperweight...lol

So far i have replaced the old distributor with a brand new one, replaced the battery as the old one is toast. Still... the same old problem! The engine is cranking over but not firing (I haven't yet checked for spark again) but the engine sounds EXACTLY the same as it did before. So I'm quite certain there isn't one.

The new distributor I bought came with a bulletin, giving me a list of tests to go through to check my connections.
I went through all the tests-passed, except for the test to confirm the voltage to dist. at harness 6 pin connector terminal F from the PCM. From testing it i only got .19mv for the test to pass I should've been getting a reading between .9-5.0v (not quite sure what the PCM is.) And I've yet to confirm the resistance of the crank angle sensor which should read around 520-580ohms. I will be testing the crank sensor tomorrow.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated I am beside myself on what to do here!

PCM is the computer, no?

my friend has the same problem. He gets a charger, hooks it up to the battery, and goes to town cranking the sucker, and it turns but never catches. He's got a new disty, new plugs wires the works...

But it turns out his ECU (I think they call it PCM as well?) needs to be replaced.

I would suggest trying to source a new ECU. Got any junkyards around you? If you don't, you can try asking people like Ryan to keep his eye out for you.

Unfortunately, us "Imperial dogs" here can't help you find one... We're limited to OBD1 ECU's

Have you tried buying a code reader to check if the PCM (or ECU, same thing) gives any trouble codes?

I do have a few junkyards near by that I can check out, first I'll have to have a visual of what exactly I'm looking for. The chilton book I purchased has been almost no help on helping me identify parts of the engine (like I stated above I am not much of a mechanic, but I am learning.) ECU I will definately look into. I have not purchased a code reader yet, trying to do this as low cost as I can.

Would the replacement ECU have to be specific to the Year of the car and the engine size? (would any ol' ecu from a mazda mx-3 work?)

Thanks for the replies! Keep em' coming.
I'm motivated to get this thing back on the road!

Has to be a 96-97 OBD2 ECU. Your ECU in on the floor behind the radio/ash tray. You'll find four plugs to disconnect. I would see if you could borrow a code reader as I'm sure your ECU is throwing a code. You need a code reader that will read your specific ECU. The ECU plug to plug into is under the dash on the passengers side just behind the radio. You'll see/feel a rectangular shaped plug about 1.5" long just under the lower dash lip. http://www.troublecodes.net/OBD2/Pcodes.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EDIT I bought this one and I connect to my laptop to read my ECU. http://www.scantool.net/elmscan-iso-usb.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They changed the wiring on different year distys. I have a 1995 and recently used my friends 94 probe disty, it would crank but not start. We had to swap two wires around on the 3 pin plug going to the disty. Then it worked fine. Apart from that, all distys can be used on any K series engine. You just have to wire it correctly.