Randomly doesn't start/random misfire

[tkhelmo]

I recently purchased a 2001 Mazda Protege from a soldier who was being deployed. He was formerly employed as a mechanic for Mazda so he worked on this car as needed. He informed me that he had recently replaced the timing belt and spark plugs. A month after I bought the car I went to start it. It cranked but would not fire. A few hours later it started just fine. It did this again two weeks later but started up after a couple of tries. Two days later my CEL was on. My cousin (a mechanic) checked it out and the diagnostic showed a random misfire. He found nothing else wrong so I picked up the car and took it home. A week later my car cranked but wouldn't start. My neighbor (a mechanic) looked at it but saw nothing unusual. It started just fine for him but did misfire while it was idling. Two days later it did the same as before but after letting it sit for a few hours it started weak but ran fine. I took it to another mechanic and the car behaved for two days. Almost a week later, I was driving home when the car hesitated and lost speed I tried to accelerate and got nothing then it just came back. The whole thing lasted about three seconds. What's going on?

 

[tkhelmo]

one more thing

After the car hesitated the CEL blinked for a bit then went solid.

 

[gozz]

Well, my cards are on the camshaft and/or camshaft position sensors...

Both read and tell the ECU the engine speed and more importantly the TIME when to open the injectors and when to fire the spark plugs...

If the contacts are corroded the engine will be on the fritz...

If the distance between the sensor's sensing tip and the trigger notch on the crank/cam shaft is greater than in the specs, it will give you the hard time as well!!!

 

[tkhelmo]

Thanks for the reply. Just had the coils replaced. It was running good, no hesitation, no misfire but it almost didn't start today. It seems to do this when it's really hot outside.

 

[concept]

I had a weird issue with my MX6 GT a while back. The local mechanics couldn't figure it out, so I took my car to a Mazda dealership that had a mechanic who had been working on Mazdas for over 20 years. He found the problem within 30 minutes. My advice? Find a well-experienced Mazda mechanic who works on Mazdas. The aggravation it saves you may be worth the extra money you'll spend. In my MX6's case, it was the distributor that was finally gone - the first time I had to have a distributor replaced in all my years of driving. This one was 17 years old, so it didn't bother me too much.