For reason unknown my car will not start. I think I know why but I can’t figure out why. My leading coil pack is not firing. However the two trailing coil pack are firing. I thought it was the old coils so I replaced all three. Checked both my CAS and the resistance are within normal parameters (1.023 Ω).

Respectfully,
Patrick

 

Bump for answer

 

you can find the problem very quick
first check were the condenser is plugged in if their is good battery voltage if all ok then it might be same problem i had
without un-pluging the igniter. counting from right to left is pins 7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0
make sure you do not count the blanked one
would make diagnosis easy if you have an osciliscope if not then multimeter is ok
right

pin 2, and 5 (5 is already working thats trailing rear just so you can get an idea of what signal you should be expecting the leading signal will be a duel signal unlike trailing signal ) on igniter,is straight from ecu check for a signal while cranking engine its only a signal so dont expect battery voltage

if all input signals ok then check
pin 1,and 3 (3 is already working the rear trailing output) on igniter's this is output same process while cranking engine

now the voltage should be in the 12V range

if all ok

check the plugs that clip into the coil. one side is the signal wire make sure its the same signal/ voltage coming out of the igniter. the other side of the plug that goes into the coil is a constant battery voltage
that goes to pin 4 on the igniter

hope this helps
let us no what happens

 

Thank you, this will be the first thing I do when I get home sunday morning. I will let you know sometime that afternoon.

 

I had a problem a while back with my leading coil not firing. My problem was a bad wire in the coil harness. You might try unplugging it and running a continuity check on each of the wires. If I remember correctly, there are 4 wires, one is a common to all coils, the other one the contact which allows each coil to fire. The wiring manual shows all of this clearly.

Another way would be to pull your plug wires off the plugs, switching one of the trailing connectors with the leading connector at the coils and see what fires and what doesn't.

I plugged a tone emitting continuity checker into each harness connector at the coils and could hear a beep each time the ECU grounded and allowed the coil to fire.

Just start working back from the plugs until you find the problem.

 

If i did everything correct, my igniter is working. I was test again but i have another question. I was unsure how to test the iginter condensor as stated above. however i did google search how to test to see if it is working with a multimeter. According to what i found, i placed my meter on ohm's and connected the two ends. the multimeter should climb from 0.00 to infinity, which it did. then it said to switch the ends and it should climb backwards from infinity to 0.00. it did not do that.

Question is; would a bad condension cause the coil not to spark. everything i have read saids YES but i asked the mazda dealer and they said NO. Who's right

 

no m8 you can have the condenser disconnected and still would work

is their power going to the coil at the coil

 

a bad connection can cause the coil not to spark

you need to check the coil wires
take plenum off

and use a multimeter to the leading coil(centre coil) unplug and turn on ignition and check each side of the plug
coming from the car loom
only has 2 pin connector
use a ground of the car body

 

There is no power going to the lead coil connector. When I inserted the probes into the connecter and had the multimeter set to DC. I was getting little to no reading on the plug itself. I checked for signal further down the wiring harness and I was getting signal. I also checked ohms and continuity, found nothing out of specs.

I did not try the method that you suggested above. I will do that tonight a let you know. I will probably retest everything again just to make sure.

 

correction to the statement above. I DID NOT get signal future down the wiring harness but ohms and continuity was good as well as the igniter.

 

the black and red wire on each of the 3 coils should have 12V DC when ignition is on
check all 3 coils to make sure the other 2 Trailing coils have 12V DC going to them (these should be working)

make sure ignition switch is switched on
use one end of the multimeter probe to the black/red wire, and the other end of the multimeter probe to the body a good earth point

if im unclear at any point just tell me m8

 

I have uploaded some youtube videos to show how i tested the coils wiring. Hope this helps


Front Trailing Coil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ks0e_KhME8

Leading Coil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW0neP6U5_Q

Rear Trailing Coil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVig5U8vKHA

 

it would be fantastic if you could put those videos back up please!!!

 

If you want to test coils, just look in the FSM, it has a good diagram and what values you want.

 

Yeah, I've done that. Good suggestion though! I just wanted to see what this person was doing or did in the video.

 

which condenser. not ac right

and yea them videos would be sweet. im a visual learning type of guy. haha

 

is this problem still not solved ?

cant remember who i made this vid for but if you are willing to take the coils out you can test them Manually
it took me about 15 min to set up but you need some small spade connectors


and the incar test to check for signal