My friend was going down the road, and the car just lost all power, I believe he was slowing down because of a slow car...well, it will crank up, but only after it reaches like 800rpms or so, maybe more id ont remember...and it has like absolutely no power, and backfires alot...Could it be I lost a seal or 3 on a rotor? or could I have just lost a coil pack? I was going to check the coils tomorrow and see..thanks

 

Do a compression test. That will answer your question.

 

well I would, if I had a compression tester, or a mazda dealership close..I live in the boonies, its not that easy. Thanks for the advice though.

 

a tester without the adapters
should screw into the spark holes for a compression
test
even tho it is not as precise as a mazda one
it will tell you if one side has lower compression then the other

 

first... see if you have spark on each rotor by taking the leading plug boot off, and putting a spare sparkplug in it (any plug will do, in fact, a piston engine plug is easier to see the spark) and ground it against the engine then turn the car over. Don't worry about the trailing yet.. it aint gonna act like that if the trailing is blown.

If you have spark... you can take one trailing plug out at a time and listen to the "pweeshing" sound as the compression leaks out the hole...(the trailing has a much smaller hole in the rotor housing and makes a better sound) all the noises should be similar.. if you have a nuked seal, usually you get two good, loud "pweeshes" and one weak "puh" or two weak "puh's" and one good "Pweesh" depending on how far gone it is.

If you can't tell the difference in the noises, then try a regular pressure testor.... you can either just hold the pressure release on the tester in as you crank the motor and watch for variations in the height that the needle bounces, or, if you are real coordinated, you can push the release button immediately after the compression hits top.