Last night a friend and I drove my fd for around four hours to go pick up some parts to fix my fender. Anyways, during that whole trip I noticed nothing abnormal except for some abnormally low temps when he drove, but when I drove it afterwards they went back up. Also, it was a low on oil and was probably low for about a week beforehand. I checked it last week and it was almost low but could have used some oil and I never got around to it until last night during the trip I checked it and added a quart. When I went to go drop off my friend, I was turning around and my car died. When I started it back up, I started getting all of these symptoms happening:
-Really bad fluctuations in idle rpms
-My vacuum is fluctuating from around 5-10" usually around 16-20"
-When driving thick black clouds of smoke when on the gas
-Had a little more white smoke than usual when starting the car up
-The car still runs but in the lower gears it will vibrate and seems like it has a hesitation, but in higher gears the symptoms seem to be not as bad. Also I heard what I thought was air coming from the engine bay when driving but I'm not sure about it. We thought it may be a vacuum leak but we could not find anything wrong under the hood. Tomorrow morning I'm going to replace my spark plugs, wires, fuel filter, change my oil, and any other maintenance items that may help.
Any advice or ideas would be helpful. I'm just hoping that it's not a blown motor. Thanks everybody.
Ben

 

Please list your mods, mileage on the motor, etc.

Normally, your symptoms would simply indicate that the MAP sensor hose came off but the fact that the engine runs better at higher rpm and under load would tend to indicate a blown engine. Before you spend the money on all of those other things, go get the compression checked (well, first check the MAP sensor hose just in case). Not to rub it in, but that wasn't too smart to run it with low oil levels for that long.

Good luck, I hope it's not the motor.

 

If you think you heard air sounds from the engine bay, check all the turbo outlet hoses, especially the one going to the plastic cross over pipe just after the "Y" pipe. It's really short, and is a very common failure point. You will have to remove it to check it - use your fingers to push outward to see if there is a crack along the length of the hose. These cracks are hard to see, so to check you have to do the above. One reason I got the revised all aluminum "Y" pipe.

 

The motor only has around 30000 miles on it. My mods should be listed in my sig, but since it didn't show up here they are: PFS intake, RB cat back, PFS downpipe and thats it really as far as performance upgrades. The rest have to deal with reliability (silicone hoses and aluminum AST), suspension and looks. I'm going to try to get the compression checked soon, but all that stuff would have had to be done in the near future anyways, so I was going to do it while I had the car off the ground. I checked all of the hoses going to the MAP sensor and they are all attached to the sensor itself, but I wasn't able to look at the other end of each hose to see if that side is still attached yet. I'll also check all the piping around the turbo also. Thanks for your help guys.

 

All the hoses? There is only one... if you give it a slight tug it should give you resistance... you don't have to see it to believe it
Is it a rebuild?
What does the smoke smell like?
Ryker

 

I haven't been able to go check it yet. What I meant was that I was going to check all the vacuum hoses under the hood. With the MAP sensor I know there is only one hose that goes to the bottom, but what I meant was that hose and the plug are both connected. The black smoke definitely smells like fuel and the white smoke smells like the white smoke you get when you start up, except that there is a whole lot more of it now. It's not the stock engine. It was replaced somewhere around 70-80k and I now have a little over a hundred.

Anybody else have any ideas?

 

It sure sounds like a blown motor to me, especially based on the low vacuum readings. You need a compression check.

 

Time to give Ray Crowe a call 888-533-3400

 

Who is Ray Crowe?

 

Malloy Mazda : Ray Crowe Parts manager. 1-888-533-3400

Reman engine is around $2000 plus core.

Tim

 

Hey everybody. I've had a chance to take a better look under the hood looking for stuff. Right now the car will not start anymore. The starter still cranks but will not turn over. I've also found the following:
- When taking off intake the hose that connects the forward turbo to the intake was way too lose, so we reconnected that better, but it did not help any.
- There was an electrical harness that was disconnected under the intake. I think we may have shook it loose when removing intake, but it is reconnected and car still will not start anymore.
- Spark plugs on the forward rotor have gunk all over them and all four plugs are pretty fouled. I ordered new plugs and wires and will replace them tomorrow and see if that does anything.
- When we tried to start the car, it seems like the fuel pump is running but not sure about it, but I do not think that could be the problem. Does anybody know a good way to check to see if fuel pump is working properly?

Tomorrow I'm going to put new spark plugs in and see what happens. I'm also going to check fuel filter to see if it is clogged and probably order a new one since I need to replace it anyways.

Any more suggestions? I also need to try to get a compression check but I cant get it to the dealership since it wont start. I'm going to try to borrow one and see what that tells me. Anyways, any more help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Does the engine sound or feel like it is *trying* to turn over? Replace the plugs first and let us know.

Doesn't sound good right now.

 

What kind of gunk did you find on the plugs? Yikes!

 

Is there any way to do a compression check on your own? What's required. nOOb question I know....

Jonesie -

 

I got new plugs and they go in saturday morning. I guess we'll see what happens. The gunk from what i can see looks like burnt oil or carbon deposits or something like that. It is a thick black residue that is both inside and outside of the threaded part that forms the seal. The tips are scorched black.

Anybody else have any input?

 

Strange symptoms but you never know, oil does about 1/3 of the cooling on the rotary so if you're low on oil, it's not being cooled as intended. But insufficient cooling shouldn't lead to broken or cracked apex seal. May be there wasn't enough oil injected??

I'm curious about this. You should know that reman typically lasts about 30k-50k. The last reman I had lasted 50K but then again, the housing was reused twice. The Malloy reman has brand new housing and rotors.

 

If the plugs dont fix it id take a look at the fuel filter also. If the motor was starved for fuel and oil then a compresion check would be a very good idea.

 

I'd still hold out hope for some kind of vacuum leak. If your MAP sensor is not reading properly, the fuel maps will be all over the place, possibly causing the fouled plugs that you've seen. But when my MAP hose popped off, the car would still start, otherwise the symptoms were similar to what you describe.

 

My car originally started for a day or two after the initial fuss. Now it will not start at all. I've checked the MAP sensor already. I'm hoping to find something that is wrong and not have a blown motor, but I'm prepared for the worst if that is it. I do need a compression check though.
Does anybody know where I can buy a compression checker? I am not able to take it to the dealership.

 

motor

 

NukeGenius,
You say you can't take it to a shop, but I think it is quite evident that this is the only choice you have. You seem to have a small grasp of what to check and none of that is showing signs of life in the car.

Not to be a downer for ya, but things sound bad and I think you need to suck up the pride (and money unfortunately) and have a rotary Dr. look it over.

 

I say I can't take it to a shop because there are really no shops around here. I've been saying I don't want to take it to the dealership. Anyways, it looks like I'm going to be sending the motor off to be rebuilt if replacing the spark plugs and fuel filter don't help any. Thanks for all the help though.

 

Won't it be cheaper to get a reman from Malloy and send yours off as the core, rather than send yours away and ahve it rebuilt?

 

You can buy the traditional type compression tester from NAPA or other auto stores. Pull the top plugs out(trailing) Make sure your BATT is in good condition. Hold the throttle wide open (have a friend help) Watch the readings come up on the gauge. They should come up equally(each chamber of the rotor 3 ) Anything aroun 100 psi is OK It's more important to get equall rise in the chambers( no cracked apex seals) .....Next while your at the auto store buy a coolant pressure tester *** well. This will check your o-ring condition. Good luck, I hope for the best! FORGOT THIS!! Remove the circuit opening relay and unplug the igniter connector so it doesn' spark and accidently start!!! VERY IMPORTANT Sorry i forgot it earlier!

 

For the price of the reman I can get my motor rebuilt and ported so I'm probably going to do that if I cant fix it this weekend. I bought a compression tester and I'm going to go work on it in an hour or two.
Thanks for the info BigIsland.