FD sometimes wont crank...
 

Hello everyone, so my fd is having a weird issue that just started on tuesday. It went down like this...

I drove down to San Diego to pick up my mother from the airport, then drove back up to oceanside. I parked at the hotel, dropped everything off then left the hotel. the car started just fine. When I went to carlsbad parked at a local shopping plaza and came back to the car about 2 hours later when I tried to start it all the accessories turned on and the fuel pump was buzzing everything seemed normal. When I turned the key to start nothing happened. No starter click or cranking.

I checked all fuses and they were fine. I even tried to jump it with no success. The battery is fine I don't remember the volts, but it was over 12.7. when I used a voltmeter while starting it I got around a .4'ish volt drop when the accessories were turned on. When I tried to start it the volts didn't drop indicating no load.I thought it was a bad starter or solenoid so I had it towed back. The worst part is that my mother was with me and I had to deal with this instead of visiting with her.

Fast forward to today... I hadn't had a chance to really look at it until today and when I went out there I tried to start it and it fired right up. That kinda pissed me off. So I let it warm up and turned it off. I went to start it and it started just fine. Once I let it sit for about a 30 min to a hour I tried to start it with no luck. So it seems to be a big circle at this point. I checked the ignition switch, clutch switch and I'm still at a loss.

Here's my setup,
-It's a 93
-pfc
-aem wideband failsafe
-stock twins
- egr, aws, air pump, deleted

My first suspect is one of the TWO clutch switches. I know you said you checked them, but (if you haven't already) you might want to run a jumper around them to eliminate them for sure.

I'm quickly out of my league with electrical issues, but the FD's wiring from battery to starter sometimes causes a voltage drop. I would pull the smaller wire from the starter and check voltage while someone else turns the key to the 'start' position and maker sure there's AT LEAST 12v there. This link probably describes it better... https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...-relay-872841/

If you DO see plenty of voltage at the starter wire, then I would suspect the solenoid is sticking. Unfortunately unlike my antique car, the solenoid and starter are an assembly.

Alright, so I went out and tried the security relay bypass. That didn't work.

What is happening is the car starts fine cold. once it is started I can turn it off and start it again before it is fully warmed up. BUT when it's warmed up when I turn it off I can't start it.

I don't have a jack right now to test voltage at the starter, but I checked my grounds and all were fine.

I'm really starting to think that maybe the solenoid doesn't like the heat and wont work until everything cools off.

If it's not cranking at all, the 1st two things to look at are the stock alarm system and clutch switch. It's a button under the clutch pedal that gets pushed when you depress the pedal. If it doesn't engage, the car thinks its in gear and wont turn over.

I just dealt with something like this and it ended up being some aftermarket Viper alarm left over from the previous owner. I never even knew it was tucked away until it started acting up. Once we ripped it all outta there my troubles were over.
lol for now.

I looked for a aftermarket alarm there isn't one. I jumpered and disabled the stock alarm with no luck. And both clutch switchs are fine.

Then I would suspect the starter solenoid too. But I would still check voltage at the starter first. And like I said...afaik, the solenoid and starter are an "assembly" and you can't just buy one or the other. You have to buy both.

I'm going to check the starter as soon as I can source a jack. hopefully thats pretty soon. I looked on rockauto and I can buy just the solenoid, but a few bucks more and I can get a starter. So I guess I'll see what it comes down to.

I had a similar issue for me and it was the starter relay, we ended up just jumping it. I can't recall if the security/starter relay was the same so you may have already tried it.

Thanks, I kinda figured it was something to do with the starter considering that this issue never happened before.

Seems like a common issue with the 93, did you ever get to the bottom of this? The source of mine with the security system and I know you covered that already. I thought my starter was bad and Mazda had no clue to the problem. I created a jump with a piece of wire and it fired up without a hitch. This thread help me out a lot
start-problem-remove-oem-security-relay-872841/

Strangely enough, the problem I was having seemed to fix itself. I haven't don't anything to the car and I have not been able to duplicate the problem. But I am fairly certain that the problem is the starter solenoid or possibly a loose connection to the solenoid.