I'm having a similar issue to another post right below me currently, but my situation is a little different, so I'm going to post it and see what we have to say.

I bought my '04 (completely stock, base package) a couple months ago, almost to the day today, and have had no issues other than varying gas mileage...I'm almost certain that's related to my foot and the gas pedal, but I'm not so sure any more.

In any case, yesterday (the 30th) I had driven the 8 to work with no issues, I was low on gas is all. I get out of work and try to start the car...it won't turn over. I figured the car was too low on gas to start maybe, and asked a buddy for a ride to get a gallon of gas - put the gas in, car starts, gives me a complaint on a right turn out of the parking lot, but nothing else on the ride home. I've had many singular engine misfires these past two months with the car, but I read somewhere here that they're usually not a big deal, and figured I should change the plugs/wires/coils relatively soon. The car sat over night.

This morning, I get up to go to work again, and I'm started up and on my way with no issues - but, 500 yards or so from Tim Horton's, my car just dies, completely stalls out. I started worrying at this point, coasted in, grabbed my breakfast, and tried to start the car - but it wouldn't turn over, again. And I had a full tank of gas now, so that wasn't it - kept trying to crank and crank, pedal half way in, full throttle, no throttle - nothing worked. I called my Dad, who knows a little more about cars than I do, and we finally got the car to start, although it was just cranking it repeatedly, essentially. I quickly got off the phone and tried to drive - the 8 wanted to die all on it's own, kept lugging around 500 rpm at idle. I had to give it quite a bit of gas, while it was running extremely rough to get it to move, and managed to get it on to the highway. WOT yielded nothing, still running rough, sluggish - and then for a brief moment, it came back to life, buttery smooth, and then went back to bogging down again - and then again, back to life, and bogged down until I exited the highway (5 minutes drive time total) and pulled off and out into the left turn lane to get on to my workplace's street. At this point, I caught a red light, and the car really wanted to die, so I kept trying to give it gas to keep it alive...until I noticed a smell oddly like hot ceramic/burning clutch and white smoke started coming out from underneath my hood. Once I noticed that, I promptly shut the car off and popped the hood. It reeked of that burnt clutch - I had it towed to my local Mazda dealer where it's sitting now.

I called my Dad, he thinks it's an electrical problem, that maybe a wire melted from a shorted starter, or something similar, and that's why the car smelled like burning clutch and was smoking. My thoughts are much more severe, including the starter, I feel like my coils may have been shot, my clutch may have been shot in the process of this (although it shifted fine), that my fuel pump may be shot, or that my distributor or worst of all apex seals are shot - reading a few posts here, it sounds like my cat may be clogged as well.

Based on what I have...anywhere specific I should tell the dealership to look? Or have I covered just about everything? I purchased an extended warranty with the car, so dealer fees aren't really any issue to me...I want to get this thing back in like new or better condition than what I got it - apparently, it wasn't as well taken care of as I thought.

P.S., I've topped off oil when necessary, and done all proper maintenance. Thought with just 3000 miles on the car, only an oil change was necessary.

 

Sounds very similar to what happened to me just 2 weeks ago, and mine was apex seals get the dealer to do a compression test first just to rule that out then go from there, what you've mentioned (really lumpy and wanting to die) sounds like it was only running on one rotor. So it could be that there's a big compression differece between the two rotors. Any ways, the compression test will reveal all. If that's clear then you can move onto the other things. Good luck.

 

That was my thought too - it just misfired every stroke except when it came back to life...I'll point them there first. Luckily, the apex seals are covered under warranty, but that requires a new engine/rebuild if I'm not mistaken.

 

It will indeed, alright for you amaericans with your extended warranty! Mine blew like this a couple of weeks ago, 2005 with 56000miles, and I've just had to fork out £3k for a rebuild

 

Mine is actually out of warranty I believe, but I bought an extended warranty when I picked up the car...so glad I did now aha

 

Post some info about your car..year ..mileage..so far what maintenance have been done..plug change? coil change?..at what mileage..etc..

 

Well actually, you might still be covered under mazda's warranty on the core, it's for 8 years or 100,000 miles if it is the apex seals that is. But if it isn't covered because you're over 8 years or 100k or because it's not related to the engine I'm glad you've got the extended warranty for backup. Please keep us posted so that if any of us encounter the same problem(s) we can refer back to this thread. Good luck!

 

you need to check coils, cat, and compression before you jump to conclusions

 

I explained my situation to the service guys at the dealership today - I'll be dealing with Northtown Mazda, for anyone in the area.

In any case, he feels it may be a blown/cracked coil, which was one of my feelings. After I set up my service appointment (Monday, seriously? They had nothing else.) - I tried starting the car for ***** and giggles...and it started up perfectly. Drove it for a few minutes around the lot, nothing wrong with it. I'm now baffled. Told the service guys this. The only thing left now is a CEL, which will obviously tell the tale of what's going on. They're inspecting plugs/coils/wires first, and then going from there.

P.S., the service tech was reluctant to agree to a compression test, "It's not a piston engine, so there's a lot more involved" was basically what he was saying.

The engine got warm and still gave me no complaints...so for whatever reason, I don't believe it should be the apex seals. I feel the problem would've returned with the expansion of the metal in the engine had the seals been the case.

As far as maintenance goes, I don't know the history of the car save for CARFAX records, and they were all clean. Clutch pedal recall was done to my vehicle...no other recall stickers present. It seems as though it's been maintained well, considering I drove 3 other 8s and they ran terribly compared to this one.

And in case I didn't mention in the first post (somebody asked for info) it's an '04, I bought it with 77152, it now has 80574 - I was due up for an oil change 400 miles ago and completed it.

 

Does your engine give compliments too?

 

Personally I'd kinda do your best to get the compression test done because your car (and mine) will be out of warranty soon and even if the compression turns out fine it's good to rule that out, or get your free engine. Maybe the service tech is denying you a compression test for this reason? Just a thought.

 

Once a dealer starts making excuses not to work on a vehicle, that's your clue to take it somewhere else.

You NEED to stay on top of changing the coils, plugs and wires on these cars
If you don't, you wind up having problems that could have easily been avoided, or at least delayed.

Bring your car home, order the coils wires and plugs, and swap them out at your convenience. Once that is done, drive it hard for a week, and then take it to another dealer for a compression test.

BC.

 

+1 ..

 

Clever.

I'm going to push for it.

I want to see if I can get a compression test out of them first, if not, I'll do it myself as you suggest...the nearest Mazda dealer that's not Northtown is located about 40 miles away, and it's another big one - Towne - so they may not be much better service wise either.

 

So for anyone wondering, my car with 80k on it...had the original plugs/coils/wires installed. It just needed a tune up - the plugs were so dirty, they literally couldn't conduct. It's been running fine ever since.

 

Great to see it's running well. I believe you might have the longest run plugs. What did they get you for...plugs, coil, wires installed....did your warranty help you?