Used my commander to check on my sensors. This is what it showed me. I'm not sure what everything means though.

 

Just climbed under the car and the wires seem firmly attached to the starter

 

Weak starter is my guess. Do a voltage drop test first or remove it and get it tested.

http://easyautodiagnostics.com/bad_s...ar_tests_3.php

 

Ya, it looks like Saturday will be my next open day and that is the plan, take the starter down to pep-boys to be tested. However when I originally went down there they tested my battery and said it was in need of replacement, but it was not the problem.

 

Ok, so I got under the car with some help and a volt meter I tested the voltage from the S-Terminal (hot) to the starter base (ground) and got 10.23 to 10.25 volts. Any suggestions? Should I still take the starter out to be tested?

 

Also, if I need to replace the starter should I only get the mazda brand (kind of pricey) or is there a good cheaper alternative?

 

So, took the starter to pep-boys and their machine says this starter failed every tests

 

Got the car running. It was indeed the starter that went bad. I wish pep-boys didn't sell me a new batter first, that was a waste of money. I originally planned on getting a smaller batter but this is my DD, so if it's down it's a problem.

Quick follow up question though. I jacket it up on one side to work on it and it sat for two weeks while I could get the time and parts to fix it. When i first started it up I got some blueish smoke from what looked like under the exhaust manifold, but that seems to have gone away after I let the warm up to idle, and I was getting a brown/white exhaust from the tail pipe. I tried to smell it, by putting my hand in it and smelling my hand. I couldn't smell anything. Is this common? Or did trying to start my car with bad starter and have it back fire twice kill a water/apexi seal?

 

Glad it was the starter and you got it running. Blue smoke is normal if you havent started your car for awhile. It should go away unless the oil seals are failing. It also could mean you have a oil leak somewhere thats leaking onto the exhaust manifold/pipe causing the blue smoke.

 

Ya, the blue smoke already went away. I'm more concerned about what's coming out of the exhaust.