Emergency Issue - Need Help! Engine randomly stalls and shuts down!

[kms1990]

If it were me, I'd replace the coils,.. they have been known to be bad right out the box,... they can be extremely hard to diagnose because they are essentially un-testable,... they're not too much money,... they're easy to install,... and they're part of regular maintenance (or should be), so they're never a waste of money.

as i did when i saw they were $26 each at autozone (where i work) and with my discount were only $41 for both with tax! even without the discount not a bad price for a lifetime warranty

 

[Fresco]

did this happen before or after the engine belts were changed

 

[kms1990]

did this happen before or after the engine belts were changed

good thought maybe the timing is slightly off

 

[chevelles240]

did this happen before or after the engine belts were changed

This happened well after the belts were replaced, which the belts were replaced around 5,000 miles ago. I also had them repositioned and tensioned properly by the same Mazda dealer as well.

Nice video...Yes it does not look too bad, but I would still RE-SEAT the electrical connector while there.

Like KMS1990 said, the ECU might be a culprit too... I would RE-SEAT the electrical connectors at the ECU also.

sigh... I will still keep pondering on this one while I do my chores today...

I re-seated the fuel pump electrical connector and nothing changed. I pulled the ECU but was unable to actually unhook the giant electrical cable on it. That thing was a pain to maneuver.



At this point I decided to take it to the Mazda Dealership that turned me away on Thursday. I've been here for about two and half hours now and waiting to see what they think it is. I will respond with what they find... hopefully they can fix it this time.

 

[chevelles240]

Problem Solved (I guess)
The ignition coil on the right side was failing which caused misfiring on cylinder 4 and 1.
Lesson Learned I guess you get what you pay for because I bought spark plugs, ignition coils, and ignition wires at Autozone and they were cheap after market parts.. Now I get to cough up $573 in genuine OEM parts. They wanted to charge me an extra $220 for labor and I scoffed at that and told them I'd install these parts myself. $220 for 15 - 20 minutes of their time? Right...

I hope this ACTUALLY fixes the issue because there wasn't any in detail code being displayed, but I spoke with the mechanic and he was very confident in it being an ignition coil problem.

I would have purchased these OEM parts online, but I'm under a time crunch and I didn't have time to find a place online that would over night ship it without missing the opportunity to have the dealer over night them with it hitting the time frame cut off point for them to have the parts shipped today...

 

[kms1990]

i have used autoone coils and wires for years on many of my cars and never had issues, i even have the duralast branded coils and wires on my protege 5 now, with no issues, and a lifetime warranty, so if they do fail i can swap em!

 

[chevelles240]

I was using duralast branded ones. I guess I bought a bad coil to begin with or it somehow got damaged along the way after I installed it in my car.

 

[kms1990]

its possible, they are mass produced and then shipped so a bad one can be on the shelf, always look at your products before installing,thats my 2 cents

 

[downsdr01]

I'm having a very similar problem. Dealer told me it was Vtcs, but that turned out to be completely wrong. No codes for bad coils huh? I'll replace mine tomorrow and let you know how that goes.

 

[chevelles240]

I would recommend changing them too. There apparently was no error code indicating an ignition issue when I had this problem.

 

[hotcracker69]

glad you resolved it