88 GXL
Ok, here's my story.

Last night
I get in, no door lights, no interior lights. Ok, maybe battery is dead because i'm an idiot who left some kind of lights on. I get a jump start, problem solved. Drive home no problems.

Morning
I get in, door lights, interior lights, everything working. Start the car, idles for about 20 seconds, than dies. NOT HAPPY. Try to jump start it again, idles for 10 seconds and dies. Try again, dies after 5 seconds. I go through the whole un-flooding procedure just in case its a flooding issue. Again, it starts right up, but dies again.

Heres what I think. Alternator! But if its an alternator issue, wouldnt it stay started if the jumper cables from my friends car are still attatched?

Please tell me its only an alternator problem. I am going to take the alternator off and bring it to autozone tomorrow to test. I already called mazda to ask how much a replacement alternator cost and it was around $300. Thats bananas!! So i checked autozone and they have them for $120. Should I buy an autozone alternator? Can I upgrade my alternator to something better?

 

some people sell the FD alternator for less than the dealership one..... and its an upgrade

oh yeah

parts directly from Mazda will be monies up the ***

 

make sure your battery terminals are nice and clean and tight.

could be a MAF problem though, try jumpering the fuel pump test connector on the rf strut tower, if it starts and runs fine then you have a fuel pump wiring/circuit issue.

 

Zeromage
Who are these "some people"? I DO NOT want a used one if thats what your gettting at. I was reading another thread about dead battery issues if I try to use a strongar amp alternator. There are a bunch of steps to correct the problem, but I just wanna bolt n go.

Karack
Thank you for the advice, but its all japanese to me. MAF??? What is the fuel pump test connector and how do I jump it? Is it a fuse? I'm going downstairs right now to look for it. I might figure it out by the time u respond.

 

proper term is AFM, just thought i'd be an *** about that. look up the connector in the FSM, its on the passanger side of the engine bay near the shock tower.

 

Bcool

Your car is my twin! I dont have the white mirrors or rear spoiler though. What does AFM stand for? What does FSM stand for?

 

Air Flow Meter
Factory Service Manual (Look in the stickies, its free)

and I painted my mirrors and got the "GTU style" spoiler

 

Ok, I think i found the connector. Is it yellow? Or is it the green one? I found an online manual @ iluvmyrx7.com. Now how do I jump it? Can i just stick a paperclip on both sides? After I "jump" it, than what? Try starting the car with it jumped? What exactly is this accomplishing? By jumping this test connector, am I stopping my fuel pump or leaving it in the "open position"? If it was a fuel problem, why would it start right up and die. If i'm not getting fuel, wouldnt that mean the car wont even turn over?

 

Well dont kill anything trying to jump start a car that doesn't need to be jump started, you'll cause yourself more problems then you started with.

Test the AFM to see if its working correctly..like make sure its getting voltage, or is it resistance...sorry it's late and im tired. Do you have a Volt Meter, or a Mutli Meter?

 

Buffdaddy
How does jump starting cause problems if it doesnt need to be jumped?

I do not have a volt meter.

 

Ill concur with Karack on this too. Mine did a similar action like this shortly after i bought it. Turned out to be crappy connections on the battery even though they looked good and were tight. I ended up replacing them and its been fine ever since.

 

Update. I went to autozone and tested the alternator. It passed. So we can forget about that issue. I am going to exchange my battery tomorrow and replace the terminals. If that doesnt fix the problem, I guess I should be looking at fuel delivery issues.

Oh, when I took off my alternator, it had a mitsubishi symbol on the back. Is that normal?? Does mazda use mitsubishi parts? The last owner of the car was a mazda tech, so I dont think he would use mitsubishi parts.

 

Vroooooooom!!!

Thank you guys for your advice. Special thanks goes out to Karack and Therotaryrocket85.
I brought my alternator to autozone, and it was working just fine. Before i got crazy with fuel issues, I decided to try the battery terminal solution. I went to my local audio "hook up" store and bought the best terminals I could find. When i was stripping the terminal wires, my positive wire had that greenish white battery acid corrosion look to it. I had to cut two inches off the wire until I reached clean wire. I was amazed at how much that stuff spreads like a disease down through the wire jacket. I hooked everything up, prayed to the car gods and it started right up. Thanks again.

 

if it does then could be a dead cell in the battery...and if it does, to be sure that's what it was ..take it to one of those places that test your battery for free.. ('cause they wanna sell ya a new one!)take it from there...$.02 worth of afterthought

 

thought you were or had replaced alternator ...but goin through the motions and tryinthis and that ,this is another try this post.

 

you should put dialectric grease on the connections to keep it from corroding again.