Im about to take my car to Mazda to get some electrical problems fixed, well, diagnosed.. I figure I can fix it myself. Does anyone know how much they charge to diagnose electrical problems. I know its going to be pretty steep, so any alternatives, or good mechanics in the SFV So Cal area would be really appreciated.

 

Uh, whats wrong with the car? 99% of the time someone on the forum (read:HAILERS, Icemark, Aaron Cake, RETed) will chime in and tell you how to fix it easily.


Don't take an FC to a Mazda Dealership. A vast majority of them don't even know how to work on the RX-8 (which...is...from there time)...I can't even imagine what they might do if you bring in something like an FC. Most likely, they would guess for hours on end, temp. fix it, and charge you hundreds in labor.

 

I recently removed the wires to an alarm that was no longer in the car. I would have left well enough alone, but the wires liked to wrap themselves around the clutch and brake pedal. Now that I took them all out I have no gauges or warning lights, but the clock works. And the car cranks, but will not start. HELP!

 

well, aftermarket alarms are tied into the dimmer circuit so if you took a pair of cutters and just started cutting wires you could have cut through the wire attached to the dimmer circuit while cutting a wire that was grounded which would have resulted in a blown fuse. when removing aftermarket electronics it is as simple as cutting out the easily identified installed wires and soldering the original wiring back together.

does any of this sound like what you did?

 

Ah yes Karack, I knew Adrock was forgetting someone in his list.
I didnt cut any wires, I traced them and disconnected them from the wires, grounds, and relays that they were attached too (Alot of them were connected to nothing at all). I did remove a couple ground wires. I checked the "Meter" fuse and it was fine. What fuse would I have blown?

 

Also, this was one of those alarms that starts the car, and all that other useless crap. It drained the hell out of 2 batteries wihch is why the last owner removed it.

 

alarms like that are tied into the ignition so i would trace all the ignition wires up to the ignition key cylinder and see if any were cut and spliced, cut and resolder any back to their original wires omitting any of the non factory wiring from the system again unless you need a length of wire to jumper the connections since some splices are too short to resolder back to original.

as for the fuse, well i would check the illumination fuse but really i just check them all, at least be sure the illumination fuse has power at it otherwise there could be a problem further up towards the battery.

as for the not starting issue i would guess that is tied into the splice at the ignition like i mentioned, i would just start poking around further in the column and see if you are getting power in and out of the ignition lock cylinder for the acc1 and acc2 circuits.

 

Somehow one of those wires was connected to something vital...
You need to just hunker down and get a copy of the FSM.
Electrical diagnosis is a royal pain in the *** and takes up a lot of time.
It's not hard if you can read schematics.
It just takes a lot of time to figure everything out.
Have a good DMM handy.

Last time I checked, the local Mazda dealer was charging $150 / hour shop rate.


-Ted

 

I still have my copy of all the manuals on-line at the link in my sig.
You may download & print whatever you need.
(RX-8 manuals recently added)

 

If the parking lights are working, but the dash lights are not, then you have a bad light switch, probably unrelated to the aftermarket alarm wiring.

as far as not starting, have you confirmed that the car is not flooded. Try cranking/starting the car while holding the accell pedal all the way down (don't pump it no matter what). Lift up on the accell pedal once the car is running.

I would never ever recommend that anyone takes their car into the dealer. He will probably suggest you need a new motor, if your dash lights are not working.

 

The guage lights work, the guages themselves do not. I tried cranking with the pedal down, I am not sure if it not starting is an electrical problem, or because it already had low compression before, and the last time I ran it, it overheated.

 

first of all how are you planning on taking the car to the dealership to diagnose electrical problems if the car isn't even running?

Wouldn't getting it running be the top priority?

Also you don't start a 20 year old car with the pedal down period and especially not a rotary

you've got the engine flooded to hell so search for unflooding and give that a shot first before your woried about a blown engine.

 

search and let us help you. last resort take it to a mechanic, and id find a local mechanic that does good work over a dealership, they always seem pretty stupid IMO

 

Apparently you have never read your owners manual or owned a rotary for any length of time.

Holding the pedal all the way down without pumping it, is how you clear a flooded fuel injected rotary engine.

Don't post what you don't know!

 

blown meter fuse

yes, overheated means blown motor. You will need to rebuild or replace it. No sense going any further trying to start it

 

Ive known the engine was blown for quite some time and have been saving for a new one. I do need to drive the car to get back and forth to work while I save up the last few hundred. I checked the meter fuse, thats what I assumed it would have been too, but it was fine.
Power to the warning lights, and guages goes through that fuse right?

 

power to the gauges, and parts of the idiot lights are powered by the meter fuse. Your speedo should still work regardless.

 

With no power to the gauges, my signal arrows should not work either right? But they do..

 

no, they are powered on a different circuit. not tied together at all

 

What does the interlock switch in the starting system do, and what is it supposed to look like?
Someone screwed up the black and green wires that go to the switch, so I want to know if I can connect them directly.

 

Is there a primary ground for the meter and warning light system?

 

How do I test the circuit using a multimeter. I have one but am not sure how to use it.

 

I tested all the fuses with a test light and, for some reason there is no power to the entire third column on fuses. That is, no power to the Power Wind, Meter, Engine, Power St, and Turn fuses. The fuses are not bad, I removed them and tested the connections.

 

did you cut any wires near the fuse box? sounds like one of the feed wires for that row was cut on accident.

 

None of the wires were really close to the fuse box and, and the wires from the fuse box and under the dash all seem to be in tact.