I'll lead into this with the statement that I do not in anyway have experience in troubleshooting vehicles. But I do have good troubleshooting skills (i.e. I'm a network admin for many years.)

I have an '04 which won't turn over. It has been determined by my mechanic to be the ECU. I agree by what he has done and by what I have researched so far. While it is the first 8 he has seen, he is good and I trust his reasoning and logic skills as he has worked on my family's cars for 20 plus years. I also found some mazda service docs in a not so savory part of the web for him and everything else checks out as far as voltages, sensors, etc. It is not the flooding issue either.

Unfortunately, I just ran out and bought an ECU off ebay without doing much reading. I didn't realize the role of the immobilizer and how difficult it makes things for the small independent mechanic. The thing to go along with that is that I have only one key. By what I read that leaves me to the dealer's clutches as you need two keys with a new ECU. Can someone verify that? Or do I have an alternative? If I have to tow it in, what kind of charge am I looking at from the dealer?

Thanks,

Will




Oh yeah, forgot. Coils and crankshaft sensor test within Mazda spec.

 

The component that mainly fails with our coil is the ignitor... which you can't test.
When you use a meter, you're testing the coil windings for shorts, which like I said, isn't always the first to go.

We don't have a crankshaft sensor... its an eccentric shaft.
And how did you test it?
An easy way to test the e-shaft sensor and verify ignition is to watch for spark on each plug.

With you, nor your mechanic, having experience with a rotary engine... how do you know its not just flooded?
Not to take anything away from your knowledgeable mechanic, but I have many friends too who know a lot about cars and shrug when I talk about the Renesis engine.
When you say the engine won't "turn over" do you mean it cranks but doesn't start?
'04s are known to have starting issues due to the battery and crappy weak starter.
See if this sounds familiar: http://www.vimeo.com/3653485

But its up to you... now that you're here we can try to help with the original problem, or you can take it to the deal with the new PCM (which I'm doubting is the problem).

 

I'm curious about what docs those were. A couple of versions of the shop manual are available on line at some pretty solid sites. All of the TSBs are available on line from a very reputable dealer.

So what turned up on the dark side?

Ken

 

don't forget old service manual's have the wrong coil test procedure.