Stuttering and check engine light
 

I was driving my 2001 MX-5 (26K, Red) around with my wife looking at the
Fall colors. The car had been stuck in the garage for close to a month as I
had a pallet of building supplies blocking it's egress. Anyhow, got it out
an went for a nice drive. About 1/2 hour into our drive the car started
acting like it was out of fuel. Almost like the ignition was being turned on
an off. I got to a side street and noted that the car could not rev over
1,500 rpm without intermittently losing power. The check engine light came
on about that time. The car would idle but revving it above 1,500 rpm again
caused it to cut power on and off. After about 5 minutes of this, the whole
ting resolved and the car again drove as it always has. However, the check
engine light remains on now. Again, there are no current drivability issues
but the check engine light is on. Any ideas of what happened?? I hate to go
to the dealer but I guess I will need to have them look at it. No problems
ever before with the car. I assumed it was an electronic glitch. There was
no backfiring, but the on-off power thing was almost like turning the
ignition switch on and off.

Does one have to go to a Mazda dealer to see what happened or can any
competent independent shop help me??

Weird!

Thanks for any suggestions!!

Rick

Stuttering and check engine light
 

In article >,
Rick Morris > wrote:

> Does one have to go to a Mazda dealer to see what happened or can any
> competent independent shop help me??

Anyone with an OBD-II scanner can retrieve and interpret the error code
that prompted the CEL. I think AutoZone will do it for free. Once you
have an idea what caused the problem, you can decide what to do next.

---
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Stuttering and check engine light
 

Just for good measu you might want to get a new set of spark plug wires
while you are renting the scanner.

Ken


"Lanny Chambers" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> Rick Morris > wrote:
>
> > Does one have to go to a Mazda dealer to see what happened or can any
> > competent independent shop help me??
>
> Anyone with an OBD-II scanner can retrieve and interpret the error code
> that prompted the CEL. I think AutoZone will do it for free. Once you
> have an idea what caused the problem, you can decide what to do next.
>
> ---
> Lanny Chambers
> '94C, St. Louis
> http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Stuttering and check engine light
 

KWS wrote:
> Just for good measu you might want to get a new set of spark plug wires
> while you are renting the scanner.

I just replaced the wires in my '02 SE; be aware that the wires changed
in in '01+ when Mazda went to a coil-on-plug design. There are only two
wires, one is short and one is long, and NGK does not offer a Blue
replacement. I ended up with NAPA Belden wires, which were $50 for
the set of two (!), but made a substantial difference in performance.

Dana

Stuttering and check engine light
 

i was thinking the same thing... but also the fuel filter and the plugs are
suspect. yet that doesn't explain why the check engine light has stayed on.
it represents so many possible things that only the reader could point you
in the right direction... something is not right. if i had to hazard a
guess i might say it is a faulty coil pack. but if you didn't want to spend
the time and money on dealer diagnostics the i suggest the removal of the
spark plugs to see if they are fouled. plugs are cheap and they might be
all that you need.

"KWS" > wrote in message
...
> Just for good measu you might want to get a new set of spark plug
> wires
> while you are renting the scanner.
>
> Ken
>
>
> "Lanny Chambers" > wrote in message
> ...
>> In article >,
>> Rick Morris > wrote:
>>
>> > Does one have to go to a Mazda dealer to see what happened or can any
>> > competent independent shop help me??
>>
>> Anyone with an OBD-II scanner can retrieve and interpret the error code
>> that prompted the CEL. I think AutoZone will do it for free. Once you
>> have an idea what caused the problem, you can decide what to do next.
>>
>> ---
>> Lanny Chambers
>> '94C, St. Louis
>> http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html
>
>

Stuttering and check engine light
 

ps. regarding the coil pack, this may be interesting reading for you as well
as another way to self diagnose the problem...
http://www.miataforum.com/cgi-bin/ul...c;f=6;t=013929

"Christopher Muto" > wrote in message
news:5%Q4f.11191$f02.10453@trndny02...
>i was thinking the same thing... but also the fuel filter and the plugs
>are suspect. yet that doesn't explain why the check engine light has
>stayed on. it represents so many possible things that only the reader could
>point you in the right direction... something is not right. if i had to
>hazard a guess i might say it is a faulty coil pack. but if you didn't
>want to spend the time and money on dealer diagnostics the i suggest the
>removal of the spark plugs to see if they are fouled. plugs are cheap and
>they might be all that you need.
>
> "KWS" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Just for good measu you might want to get a new set of spark plug
>> wires
>> while you are renting the scanner.
>>
>> Ken
>>
>>
>> "Lanny Chambers" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> In article >,
>>> Rick Morris > wrote:
>>>
>>> > Does one have to go to a Mazda dealer to see what happened or can any
>>> > competent independent shop help me??
>>>
>>> Anyone with an OBD-II scanner can retrieve and interpret the error code
>>> that prompted the CEL. I think AutoZone will do it for free. Once you
>>> have an idea what caused the problem, you can decide what to do next.
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Lanny Chambers
>>> '94C, St. Louis
>>> http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html
>>
>>
>
>

Stuttering and check engine light
 

Christopher Muto wrote:
> i was thinking the same thing... but also the fuel filter and the plugs are
> suspect. yet that doesn't explain why the check engine light has stayed on.
> it represents so many possible things that only the reader could point you
> in the right direction... something is not right. if i had to hazard a
> guess i might say it is a faulty coil pack. but if you didn't want to spend
> the time and money on dealer diagnostics the i suggest the removal of the
> spark plugs to see if they are fouled. plugs are cheap and they might be
> all that you need.

The original poster has an '01, which doesn't feature the coil packs
of the '00 and earlier models. Instead, the '01 and later have two
coils which each plug directly down onto a spark plug; the tail of the
coil is fed to another plug with a single wire. I do not know if the
the coil-on-plug coils are more reliable than the previous coil-pack
coils, but my experience so far with an '02 is that the stock plug wires
die pretty quickly.

Dana

Stuttering and check engine light
 

ugh. sorry for the confusion. and thanks for pointing out my error.

"Dana H. Myers" > wrote in message
...
> Christopher Muto wrote:
>> i was thinking the same thing... but also the fuel filter and the plugs
>> are
>> suspect. yet that doesn't explain why the check engine light has stayed
>> on.
>> it represents so many possible things that only the reader could point
>> you
>> in the right direction... something is not right. if i had to hazard a
>> guess i might say it is a faulty coil pack. but if you didn't want to
>> spend
>> the time and money on dealer diagnostics the i suggest the removal of the
>> spark plugs to see if they are fouled. plugs are cheap and they might be
>> all that you need.
>
> The original poster has an '01, which doesn't feature the coil packs
> of the '00 and earlier models. Instead, the '01 and later have two
> coils which each plug directly down onto a spark plug; the tail of the
> coil is fed to another plug with a single wire. I do not know if the
> the coil-on-plug coils are more reliable than the previous coil-pack
> coils, but my experience so far with an '02 is that the stock plug wires
> die pretty quickly.
>
> Dana

Stuttering and check engine light
 

Christopher Muto wrote:
> ugh. sorry for the confusion. and thanks for pointing out my error.

It could still be a bad coil, of course - I just don't know
how the 'new' coil-on-plug coils do compared to the 'old'
coils.


>
> "Dana H. Myers" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Christopher Muto wrote:
>>
>>>i was thinking the same thing... but also the fuel filter and the plugs
>>>are
>>>suspect. yet that doesn't explain why the check engine light has stayed
>>>on.
>>>it represents so many possible things that only the reader could point
>>>you
>>>in the right direction... something is not right. if i had to hazard a
>>>guess i might say it is a faulty coil pack. but if you didn't want to
>>>spend
>>>the time and money on dealer diagnostics the i suggest the removal of the
>>>spark plugs to see if they are fouled. plugs are cheap and they might be
>>>all that you need.
>>
>>The original poster has an '01, which doesn't feature the coil packs
>>of the '00 and earlier models. Instead, the '01 and later have two
>>coils which each plug directly down onto a spark plug; the tail of the
>>coil is fed to another plug with a single wire. I do not know if the
>>the coil-on-plug coils are more reliable than the previous coil-pack
>>coils, but my experience so far with an '02 is that the stock plug wires
>>die pretty quickly.
>>
>>Dana
>
>
>

Stuttering and check engine light
 

Rick Morris > wrote:

>I was driving my 2001 MX-5 (26K, Red) around with my wife looking at the
>Fall colors. The car had been stuck in the garage for close to a month as I
>had a pallet of building supplies blocking it's egress. Anyhow, got it out
>an went for a nice drive. About 1/2 hour into our drive the car started
>acting like it was out of fuel. Almost like the ignition was being turned on
>an off. I got to a side street and noted that the car could not rev over
>1,500 rpm without intermittently losing power. The check engine light came
>on about that time. The car would idle but revving it above 1,500 rpm again
>caused it to cut power on and off. After about 5 minutes of this, the whole
>ting resolved and the car again drove as it always has. However, the check
>engine light remains on now. Again, there are no current drivability issues
>but the check engine light is on. Any ideas of what happened?? I hate to go
>to the dealer but I guess I will need to have them look at it. No problems
>ever before with the car. I assumed it was an electronic glitch. There was
>no backfiring, but the on-off power thing was almost like turning the
>ignition switch on and off.

It cannot have been water in the fuel that collected at the bottom of the
tank while standing?

Leon

>Does one have to go to a Mazda dealer to see what happened or can any
>competent independent shop help me??
>
>Weird!
>
>Thanks for any suggestions!!
>
>Rick
--
Leon van Dommelen :) Bozo, the White 96 Sebring Miata .)
http://www.dommelen.net/miata
EXIT THE INTERSTATES (Jamie Jensen)