Trouble starting

[Peter B]

RECALL! I GOT A LEMON I WANT A 2010 FOR A REPLACEMENT FOR THE MENTAL ANGUISH I SUFFERED FROM A CAR THAT HAS TROUBLE STARTING!

Ok sorry although that would be sweet. Its interesting that im not the only one having this issue.

I also noticed the idle seemed a bit rough today. Again i feel that after not quite 20K, the car should be issue free. Hmmm.

 

[karl hungus]

clean the maf/iat, but also a great opportunity to seafoam. make sure the neighborhood kids are around for the smoke show.

 

[squidmotion]

batteries die all the time here in warm old texas...

have you thought about changing it? and if not, why not?

am i missing something here?

is the car turning over but just not starting, or is it struggling to turn over? is it winging over too easy, but not starting? all different things.

if you have a hard time turning over, i would look at the connections on the battery first, then the fusable links, alternator next, then the starter, all the time checking every connection and wire i could...

a bad ground or something not connecting right can also make one hard to start and idle weird among many other things...

if it is turning over easy but not starting... then you could have a control issue... electrical or fuel related... then i could see a sensor or something being wacky.... no CEL, right?


where i live... heat kills our batteries... and if you have one getting hard to crank, you get a battery, 90% of the time, you are fixed. they just don't last. you can only make a price marketed battery (they all are) so well. if i get two years out of one, i feel lucky... more so if it is a factory battery. and it doesn't matter if it is cold, that kind of damage can take a while to surface...

by the way, does anyone know the group number for our batteries?

 

[my3needsaname]

RECALL! I GOT A LEMON I WANT A 2010 FOR A REPLACEMENT FOR THE MENTAL ANGUISH I SUFFERED FROM A CAR THAT HAS TROUBLE STARTING!

Ok sorry although that would be sweet. Its interesting that im not the only one having this issue.

I also noticed the idle seemed a bit rough today. Again i feel that after not quite 20K, the car should be issue free. Hmmm.

lol
Again, I may not be a speed but the rough idle set in literally at 5K for me. Dunno what it is...don't really want to ask questions...but if you find something out let me know. I've been to the dealer and they don't really help out here.

 

[Peter B]

This morning it was cold again. I turned the key into the start position, let al the dials come on and gave my baby a second to wake up. I pumped the gas twice too. Started pretty normal. I am going to keep my eye on this and see if maybe she just doesn't have enough fuel in the lines to turn over properly.

Hmmm

Squid, to answer your question, the car seems to have trouble turning over, like a weak starter or like a piston isn't firing or something. Like I mentioned before its sort of like trying to pull away from a stop while in 5th gear. Or another we to describe it would almost be like the reverse of a stall. Rather then running and then sputtering out... It sputters and then smooths out and runs.

Edit: While I am aware there are several things I could fix, the car is still stock and my warranty in tact. If it doesn't correct itself, Im going to bring it to mazda.

 

[chief_wiggum]

I pumped the gas twice too. .

pumping the gas won't do anything for a fuel injected car.

Strange -- as much as it would suck, may be time to take it to the dealers to see if/what they can find.

good luck.

 

[oaklandopen]

i don't think it's a battery or starter problem cuz i think you could tell that from the the initial turning of the key. if it were the battery or starter then as soon as you attempt to turn the engine over it would sound slow or generally a whole lot different

with mine (and i think this describes other problems too) the engine starts turning over, but in that split second after you turn the key and hear the engine trying to run itself (instead of the starter turning it) there's a small hesitation to start.

and the example of trying to start in 5th gear is pretty close to what i am sensing. only i would have described it as engaging the clutch slowly while in gear (from a stop) but not giving it any throttle, and then dissengaging the clutch right away. very hard to describe, but i'll try to take vid of it.

this only happens though after it's been sitting overnight, when everything has had plenty of time to cool down to ambient temperature. i can try it today when im done work but i don't think 4 hours of sitting will be enough time

 

[Peter B]

Yep thats what i get too. It doesn't sound like a dead battery as much as it sounds like the engine is having trouble running itself but only for a second.

 

[squidmotion]

wow... this is interesting, for sure. i would still try a battery, before i went to all of the time and trouble to de-mod toget the dealer to look at it.... just for kicks!

good luck... i hope you figure it out, and it doesn't leave you stuck somewhere!...

 

[Peter B]

Hmm, Carpooled today and when I got back to my my car and it did it again. This time I did not give it a second to wake up. I will have to try again tomorrow morning and see what happens.

Sadly, no de-modding for me. I run stock except for my my mudflaps... and my sick ass wax job i did this past weekend She sure is shiny!

 

[LostViper]

Same thing is happening with mine. 2008.5 - 6700 miles. Turn the key, it sounds normal, then right as it turns over, it's like the car decides to cough and it takes a second before it completely fires up.

 

[Sport6]

Same problems as this? Scroll down to the TSB.
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123742041

 

[my3needsaname]

Same thing is happening with mine. 2008.5 - 6700 miles. Turn the key, it sounds normal, then right as it turns over, it's like the car decides to cough and it takes a second before it completely fires up.

Is that what he means? Because mine has had issues with starting like it was -20 out and the car's oil was frozen solid.

My other problem is sometimes when I start it, it starts up but then as it's starting it coughs and doesn't backfire but seems like it should and then dies or slowly gets fully started.

 

[MikeHTally]

pumping the gas won't do anything for a fuel injected car...

good luck.

Ditto that. You can even aggravate it pumping the pedal. Done there, been that. Not a pretty sight.

 

[Peter B]

So the problem got pretty bad last week. To the point where I was actually afraid it might not start at all. I took it in over the weekend and hopefully will get it back by tonight.

Im hoping its nothing serious.

in the mean time, they gave me a bandy new 3 to drive. It only has 1200 or so miles on it! So until I do get it back I have a new car to drive around . The regular 3 is a very nice car, just lacks that um.... whats it called... ummm ... oh .. right: BALLS TO THE WALL ACCELERATION!

I will keep posting when I find out what it is.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Thanks for the update

So the problem got pretty bad last week. To the point where I was actually afraid it might not start at all. I took it in over the weekend and hopefully will get it back by tonight.

Im hoping its nothing serious.

in the mean time, they gave me a bandy new 3 to drive. It only has 1200 or so miles on it! So until I do get it back I have a new car to drive around . The regular 3 is a very nice car, just lacks that um.... whats it called... ummm ... oh .. right: BALLS TO THE WALL ACCELERATION!

I will keep posting when I find out what it is.

I've been meaning to bring it in for the same thing as well but it hasn't gotten so bad that I can't wait until my next service. Which dealer did you bring it to?

 

[Peter B]

I brought it to Wellesley Mazda where I bought the car. They give free loaner cars which is useful because I don't have reliable access to another car on my own.

My update for it is they didnt find anything wrong. They checked for codes, checked fuel pressure, checked everything they could think of that could cause a problem. Dan (the guy at the shop) told me it started fine. I even left it there overnight again last night so they could try cold starting it again this morning and got nothing. Im wondering if it is happening for them and they just think its normal or if im really that unlucky and its not happening for them.

I might try sentry west again. I know there is someone over there who knows the speeds, I gotta look up his name and call him.

-Pete

 

[bacarl]

I have a similar issue, although probably not as bad as you, Peter. Just a stumble or three immediately upon/after starting in the morning.

As for the dealer visit, I would try to be there with them first thing in the morning to see if it happens. Even if it does happen, they probably won't notice or care, and say everything is fine. You have to be there to say "there it was, did you notice? That's what I'm talking about." Even then they might not notice or care, haha.

 

[GoFast]

would it matter if the dealer left it in the shop over night or not?

 

[Peter B]

Well I dropped the car off saturday, which meant it sat there the rest of the day and all sunday. They were not able to duplicate the issue when they started it monday morning. So I left it there last night too and they tried cold starting it again this morning but again they didn't find anything wrong. My guess is that it probably is happening, but either not as bad or they think its normal.