cliffkemp

I have read a lot on here about them but, have not come across my situation.

My car is currently sitting at a Target cause it will not start at all. It just died on my daughter the other day. When I took it to autozone to see why the cel came on, it just said the front o2 sensors...yes, both...were going bad. The car ran fine but would just shut off randomly but, rarely. It would start back up after being off for about a minute and run as if no problems.

From what I have read, why is my car dead now? According to everything that I have read, it should have just gotten bad mpg...which it did not actually, from what I could tell....and should still run just fine.

Second, how do you get to the front o2 sensors if, that is what is truely wrong with them...I got a p0031 and 0037 code, if i remember correctly when it was hooked up....Any and all information on this issue(s) would be helpful. The only other issue that it could possibly be to explain why it is dead would be bad coils that have less than 5k miles on them right now. I will see about that as well but, the codes were for the o2 sensors...bank 1 and 2, sensor 1.

After 18 people reading this, still no response at all? Is my car having an issue that no one has ever seen? If so, how easy is it to get to the o2 sensors, at least? I have not even seen a proceedure or video to replace these but, after reading, they seem to go out quite often.

Update:

I went to try to start the car after it died on my daughter the other day. Maybe someone can shed some light on this situation.

I went to start it and it just turned over...not start. I checked ALL the fuses under the hood and relays by pulling the fuses out and check for any blown ones. They were all good. I 'pressed' on the relays to make sure they were all down good. I tried to start the car again and fired up and then went dead. I floored the accelerator and tried again and it fired up and stayed at around 2500 rpms with it still floored. Once it warmed up, I let off the pedal and, it went down to about 1500.....hit the pedal again and 3000 rpms at best. I left it in the parking lot til the next night and was going to try to get it home.

The next night, I went and started the car and it started and went dead. I took the fuse box top off and pressed down on the box after checking a few relays and figured it was going to do what it did the night before. After pressing on the relays and the whole box again, I went to start it up and floored the car.....it started up and went to 9000 rpms almost instantly so, I let off the gas a little to get around 5500. I held it there for about 5 seconds and just let off the gas and figured it would die or hold 1500 like it did the last night....it did not....

It went to 1200 and slowly, as it warmed up, went to idle and revved as usual as if nothing was ever wrong with it. I drove it home and it did just fine.

It did have a cel for the front o2 sensors but, mpg is around 21 as usual. To give a little history on the car....the fuse box is the 2nd one on there. A wire at the lower intake was not properly secured when it was built and shorted out the fuse box when it wore bare. Mazda replaced the fuse box a few years ago under my extended warranty. What is left of the warranty will not cover this again.

My question is, since it did not flood the engine when it first came on and went off about 2 seconds later, that would probably mean it was a relay or fuse that involves the fuel pump. What issues have others had with the FP and, which fuse(s)/relay(s) go to the fuel pump? By no means is pressing down on the fuse box going to keep fixing this issue unless something is loose. Any help or insight would be appreciated as well.