Mazda 626 97 Acts like it's missing.

My 97 626 seems like it has a missfiring problem. But the plugs are
almost new. It used to be that it would shake a little at startup and
go away in a few seconds. Lately I have been smelling coolant. Today I
started it up and it did the old shaking thing but did not go away.
Pulled all plugs, looked good and firing. Then noticed a crack on top
of radiator hose. Question? Could this be the reason for the rough
running? Lack of pressure build up in cooling system? Have not checked
codes yet as I would have to buy a device. But want go the cheapest
route in repairs first.

David R.

In article >, Dave R. wrote:
> My 97 626 seems like it has a missfiring problem. But the plugs are
> almost new. It used to be that it would shake a little at startup and
> go away in a few seconds. Lately I have been smelling coolant. Today I
> started it up and it did the old shaking thing but did not go away.
> Pulled all plugs, looked good and firing. Then noticed a crack on top
> of radiator hose. Question? Could this be the reason for the rough
> running? Lack of pressure build up in cooling system? Have not checked
> codes yet as I would have to buy a device. But want go the cheapest
> route in repairs first.

Sounds like what happened to my parents' '96 V6. I diagnosised it to a
bad sensor in the distributor. Forgot which one. They eventually took it
to the dealer, and they found the same thing and fixed it. There was also
an oil leak on the back bank that is covered by the intake. This flooded
one of the spark plug holes. But that was only a contributing factor.

Thanks Brent. It was something to do with the distributor. The cap
itself. Very worn contacts. Replaced cap and rotor. No misfires so
far. Now if I can only get it to idle a tad faster.
Any one know how to increase my idle speed? Shakes a little like it
wants to cut off.


On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:09:36 -0600,
(Brent P) wrote:

>In article >, Dave R. wrote:
>> My 97 626 seems like it has a missfiring problem. But the plugs are
>> almost new. It used to be that it would shake a little at startup and
>> go away in a few seconds. Lately I have been smelling coolant. Today I
>> started it up and it did the old shaking thing but did not go away.
>> Pulled all plugs, looked good and firing. Then noticed a crack on top
>> of radiator hose. Question? Could this be the reason for the rough
>> running? Lack of pressure build up in cooling system? Have not checked
>> codes yet as I would have to buy a device. But want go the cheapest
>> route in repairs first.
>
>Sounds like what happened to my parents' '96 V6. I diagnosised it to a
>bad sensor in the distributor. Forgot which one. They eventually took it
>to the dealer, and they found the same thing and fixed it. There was also
>an oil leak on the back bank that is covered by the intake. This flooded
>one of the spark plug holes. But that was only a contributing factor.
>