Rotorhed

I cant beleive this keeps re-occuring....
This is the fourth time in three weeks that the CEL has come on.
First the dealer finds nothing in the codes ...clears the system and sends me home with a reprimand on the proper seating of the gas cap... well duh junior..... not the problem... a three year old can tighten the cap on this car!!!
1(ONE) week later..... same thing... this time I suggest to this 19 year old expert in the automotive world that they check the system a little more closely... even ask Mazda for some Tech support to troubleshoot the issue and............I got a new gas cap!!!.......yup, found a small leak at the gas cap... all better now! I think not.... 1 week later.... you guessed it..... CEL.... this time I mention some possibilities that Ive read about at this site and suggest they dig deeper.......kept the car 2 days and said they found a couple of small errors in the ECM and reprogrammed.
IAG........??? not 20 mins ago the wife came home with the car and guess what?????
This always seems to occur at 1/2 tank. Anybody have any ideas????

zoom44

well one of the aussie guys posted info the other day that said the comp records 2 errors in a row and then if it gets the same error a 3rd time it throws the cel and does a memory dump of the exact conditions that were happening when the error happened the 3rd time. so they should be able to hook in and find what was happening. seems to me they haven't found the root cause yet- tell them to look for misfires and check your compression.

matt

Kinda sounds like a air leak in the fuel lines......Do you smell gas?

mikeb

sorry to hear
I feel your pain thought
mine came on and tustin mazda had mine for 3 days and gave me no answers, they just reset ecu. Then it came back and I reset the ecu myself. sucks

Rotorhed

Thanks for the sympathy! Mike
I would have real concerns about resetting the system myself in the event that there is something seriously wrong. As has been stated elsewhere, I want every event documented for future issues. you may want to reconsider!
Thanks for the tip Zoom44
I will have my "crack mazda techs" explore a broader scope of possibilities.
And .. no Matt I dont smell any gas fumes but I agree that there is a leak in the system somewhere. Im betting on the vapor recovery canister or the likes!
We'll see...
Till next time...............................

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Even if the PCM throws a "soft" enging light, the technician can find out what it was for. I.e. - mine reported 3 seperate "Misfire on rotor..." and it was the 3rd one that threw the "hard" light (i.e. it doesn't go off) and then saved the system status.

I watched him use the Diagnostic tool (A laptop running Win98 hooked in via the ODBII port under the dash) and it was pretty simple to work through the menus etc.

Cheers,
Hymee.

KKMmaniac

I had recurring CEL's with my WRX, even after re-flashing the ECU.

In my case, taking corners somewhat aggressively with the fuel tank less than a half full threw it almost every time. A couple fuel vapor management components were replaced, (I can't remember which, specifically) and that solved the problem.

Perhaps you have a similar issue?

eclps0

they had to replace my evap unit it was malfuntioning. How much u want to bet that tahts your problem. my last 4 digits of my vin are 2274.if u are anywhere in that range that might be your problem.My dealer said tehy realced over 6 evap units already.

ShawnC

Mine has been going off since July 24, 2003, since I've owned it. Everytime mine goes off the ECU says its a misfire acording to the dealer. Mazda has gotten involved twice and last time about 2 weeks ago the rep was down at the dealership. They told me that its the spark plug designs and Mazda is working on new ones. They supposably put in a revisioned plug but low and behold yesterday my CEL came on again. Sounded like a misfire to me but I'm not a tech. So it might be your plugs. I can't remember but I thought I had plug problems with my FD too when I first got it. But everytime I go to the dealer for this they replace the plugs. So maybe its your plugs too.

Rotorhed

Thanks for the tips y'all I'll suggest them to the techs.
Im thinkin......maybe something associated with the fuel pump/tank system after reading a very interesting post from Hymee elswhere. It seems to occur @ < 1/2 tank everytime.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Yeah - my gut feel is that your problem is fuel/fuel system related.

The right hand tank would appear to drain first, so maybe it is something happening related to that??

Cheers,
Hymee.