25Mar2012
Mazda Tribute..CEL
So one of our great Porsche customers bought his son this little Mazda a while back. Lately is has a stumble off idle and a CEL. Code shows a failure of bank 2 primary coil. Only trouble is that this is a v6 COP car, so there are 3 coils on that bank. After some searching we find a break inside the insulation of one of the wires just beyond the ECU connector. After cutting back the insulation to reveal …
07Mar2012
Mazda 3 Engine Mount
Had the little Mazda back in the other day for an engine mount replacement. Pretty common failure on this car, the passenger mount falls apart and causes vibration at idle. The dealer quoted over $400 for this repair! The part was about 125 bucks, and a half hour of labor only! Not sure how you get $400 out of that. Didn’t even need a lift….or jackstands…..or a jack. There it is bolted to the frame. 4 bolts. The coolant tank …
14Feb2012
Miata Exhaust CEL P0420
This is a common issue we see these days with OBDII cars and aftermarket exhaust systems. Some systems are very finicky about properly sensing the airflow going through the exhaust system, that if they sense too much air at the downstream oxygen sensor, it will trigger a check engine light. This can be caused with a larger diameter exhaust, high flow catalytic converter, or a catalytic converter delete exhaust. This miata came in due to this issue after the owner …
17Jan2012
RX-7 Continued
Due to popular request by regular subscribers, I bring you another fine RX-7 post. After getting the intake off the top of the motor, I just couldn’t 100% locate any coolant leaks. It is possible there may be some intake/throttle gaskets leaking, but even under pressure it was hard to pinpoint. Since this car is needed at school, I have to put it back together for now. Unfortunately, I found out that parts for these rotary engines are only available …
12Jan2012
Mazda Gen 2 RX-7 ABS Delete
Parts finally came in for the RX-7 ABS delete project (Non ABS lines, and the coolant pipe to replace a leak). Since the ABS pump was leaking fluid, and new ones cost about 1800 bucks, we decided to convert the entire system to non ABS. The ABS had been disconnected previously for other reasons anyway, lol. While Wes and Richard were plugging away at the chump car, I tackled this one. The leaking abs pump is on the passenger side, …
29Dec2011
RX7 Brake Fluid Leak.
Tim brought by his son’s RX7 the other day to diagnose a soft pedal and empty brake fluid reservoir 🙂 It took some searching, but I finally found the leak at the ABS pump. The bad news is the ABS pump is about $1500. The good news is Tim had disconnected it awhile back, and I can convert this thing over to a full non ABS system fairly cheaply. We have the new lines on order, then we will rip …
10Dec2011
Mazda 3…..is back ;)
Since seem to have been having a couple weeks of hell lately, I decided to shut things down early Friday afternoon and head for home to relax a little. Oh how things change 🙂 Got home and hung the microwave in the kitchen (we installed a new backsplash), sanded some drywall, mudded some drywall, then got a call about a CEL in the gray Mazda 3. No big deal, drop it off at the house. Pulled down the codes and …
Had a couple of Mazda 3’s in this week for daily driver service. The first one stopped for new brake pads all the way around, and this one for new rear wheel bearings/hubs. I had changed the pads on this 3 awhile back and noticed the bearings were very crunchy in the rear, so it was time to get them replaced. Since they are special order hubs, we had to leave them be at the brake change, and come back …