Dying Alternator, or what?

Well, tonight took the car out after installing the Randal Cowl intake. Drove the car around for a few minutes to warm her up, and then floored her. At which point (WOT, 50mph) she stuttered, the battery light came on and the car died... I coasted for a bit, then dropped it into 2nd and popped the clutch. She started again and drove for a bit. Heading home, leaving from a stop she almost did the same thing again. Drove around the neighborhood for another 15 minutes, but couldn't get it to replicate.

I had similar issues on the ZX2 as the alternator was dying, so I'm leaning that way.... any other opinions?

My experience with the alternator dying was that the battery drained down and the car stumbled, the battery light came on. Kept the car going a little longer, the alternator kicked back in and juice came back and things were fine again. It did that 2 to 3 times and totally dead. The parts stores can check that for you if you can risk being stranded in between. If I were you I wouldl take along one of those portable jumper battery, if you have or can borrow one. That was what I did to get my son's car home from Dallas to Rowlett last year.

That's pretty much what happened to me, except i don't know if the battery was dead.... 20 year old alternator failing... what kind of crap parts does mazda make... pshhh

I do also know that my battery has very little life remaining. If the car sits for more than a week, it has to be jumped, or if the running lights are accidentally left on for about an hour ... that said, i think the battery is almost 9 years old too.... so might be time to replace that too :/



Why couldn't the alternator have died before the car was apart to do the timing belt *facepalm*

FWIW I had a similar thing happen in the Element. Could have swore it was the alternator, but it tested fine. Turns out the battery was so dead the engine would die with any load.

Replaced the battery and not a single issue since, That was over 3 years ago.

If you install the alternator yourself, make sure you check out the long bottom bolt. You may need to get a nut and washer for it or you will end up stranded again. Sometimes you cannot get the bottom bolt tight because the replacement alternator will not hold the bolt tight. Gabkwong and I have both had this issue with replacement alternators.

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Originally Posted by sxk122

I do also know that my battery has very little life remaining. If the car sits for more than a week, it has to be jumped, or if the running lights are accidentally left on for about an hour ... that said, i think the battery is almost 9 years old too.... so might be time to replace that too

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I'm thinking it is the battery.

Do you have a meter have you checked the alternator??

You got a multi-meter? Check the battery with the car off, then again with it running. Make sure the alternator's not charging before you replace it.

Also double-check the battery cables. I've had badly corroded battery cables/terminals cause the exact same symptoms.

Here is a nice video on how to check the battery & alternator. Keep in mind your battery is in the trunk! ;)

lol, thanks pos.

I did check the connections first... always check the easy stuff. I don't have a multi-meter, in fact i still have very few tools. Haven't replaced much since they were stolen.

Might go buy a multimeter this weekend. Car can sit for now. grrr....

"Basic Multimeters are about $25"

Where the hell does that guy shop??? ::Banana::

Harbor Freight was giving away free ones for a while. Now I think they're $3.99. That's all you need for checking your alternator and doing stuff around the house.

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Originally Posted by trickyrix

Harbor Freight was giving away free ones for a while. Now I think they're $3.99. That's all you need for checking your alternator and doing stuff around the house.

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Harbor Freight for the win I got 4 of the TCB meters! They are awesome!

So, why buy 4 cheap meters instead of 1 nice one? :)

FYI - I bought a used fluke from a pawn shop for $20. They might ask more, but cash talks.

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Originally Posted by OZMDD

So, why buy 4 cheap meters instead of 1 nice one? :)

FYI - I bought a used fluke from a pawn shop for $20. They might ask more, but cash talks.

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The Harbor Freight ones were free! ::Banana::

I got a nice Fluke here at the world headquarters I haven't used it in a while....

I'm not a name dropping multimeter snob. ;)

It seems it would have been nice had Mazda included a volt meter with the other gauges. Wal-Mart sells a half-way decent digital volt meter (digital read-out and also three lights, green, yellow and red) that plugs into a power socket. Since the Miata socket isn't powered when the ignition is off, I just leave it plugged in until I need to charge the cell phone.

i was at HF sunday picking up a hole saw to install the randal cowl intake (miata firewall 1, harbor freight hole saw 0 by the way) I should just go get a cheapie from there..... return the mangled hole saw and say it was defective.....

Harbor freight hole saw fail... made 3/4 of one hole in the firewall
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6...to0528t.th.jpg

Ended up using my ryobi bits in my HF drill (it's still alive!!!!... it even tries to eat appendages-- it's a beast, ask rick, lol) to drill lots of tiny holes and then just used a coping saw to connect the dots. Smoothed it out with my $1 Harbor freight flat file, and finished the hole of with a dab of paint. Covered the edge with a bit of tubing to make it look a bit more finished

Can't say on performance increase yet due to the car not wanting to co-operate.
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/4...o0529yw.th.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/690...o0530jn.th.jpg


The car already feels a bit faster anyways, just got it back from a timing belt job at Track Dog. Turns out the belt was off a tooth, so free performance gain, lol.

Wow! Carbon Fiber! How TCB unfriendly it is?

not bad.... got it very lightly used on clubroadster for $125 shipped

i also killed the TCB status with this find......


http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/att...8&d=1297814464

http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/att...5&d=1297814464

I've killed the budget here at Team Kuonen Headquarters... cowl intake, track dog maintenance, and the exhaust...... lets hope whatever is wrong is a cheap fix, lol or i won't get to enjoy my parts till next month

I hate electrical problems. That's why my car has a voltmeter. $5 at HF. I need a new battery too, the one I bought at Vatozone lasted 14 months. Maybe I should start the car more than once a month?

I vote battery on yours.

my wonderful fiance picked me up a multimeter this afternoon when she was near harbor freight. i'll go play tomorrow....

How you been doing paul, haven't heard from you in ages!

Crap.

The good news is battery tested at 12.44

That is also the bad news, as that rules out an easy fix I think, especially when combined with what happened next.

Tried to start the car to test the alternator, car turned and 'stated' on first crank,stumbled to 2k rpm and died.

Tried a 2nd time with the same result.

Tried jumping the car with the lancer, same results again.

I don't think it's the battery-- although it's not strong it is working.
I can't test the alternator because i can't start the car, but even with a bad alternator I should be able to start the car with the battery, and/ or with a jumper boost?

Could a bolt or something have worked loose when i went WOT? Could the new timing belt have jumped or something?

Any help is appreciated, because I have no clue. .

:(

fuel pump has also been suggested as a culprit by rick...
car has 133k miles, prior maintenance unkown.
i've owned her for 3 years with no major issues.

i did have an instance this past summer on a 110° day where she died backing into the garage and i couldn't get her to start again until hours later. car was not overheated,an hasn't repeated the act....

well FSCK


More pieces added to the puzzle.....

Just went and played with the car. Looked at the intake tract again and felt it up. Couldn't find any breaks or loose connections on the intake, and all the plugs were seated firmly in regards to the MAF. Figured what the hell, and tried to start the car. She started right up, normally. Scratched my head, walked to the front of the car, pulleys appeared to be tracking just fine. Couldn't see anything wrong. Revved the car lightly while watching pulleys, still looked fine. Scratched head again. Car then died. She ran for between 2-3 minutes total. Tried the paperclip diagnostic and came up with 1 code " 1 5 " which translates to "Oxygen sensor <0.55v 180 seconds after 1500 rpm". Called william who translated that into english for me-- o2 sensor gone bad. So looks like the o2 sensor is bad, but that shouldn't kill the car, should it?

Bought a new o2 sensor, guess i'll find out sunday.....

Is the CAT OK? Since the O2 sensor is possibly dead, I wonder if the CAT broke apart and clogged your exhaust which kills the engine after running for a short time. It is possibly not your problem, but just another thing to r/o. A bad O2 sensor should NOT kill the engine.

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Originally Posted by sxk122

... after installing the Randal Cowl intake...

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Did you have to mess with the wiring on the air flow meter for the install??

Link - http://www.miata.net/garage/afm_fix.html

no, didn't have to do anything with the intake at all. unbolted the stock snorkel, and bolted this one in.....

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Originally Posted by gabkwong

Is the CAT OK? Since the O2 sensor is possibly dead, I wonder if the CAT broke apart and clogged your exhaust which kills the engine after running for a short time. It is possibly not your problem, but just another thing to r/o. A bad O2 sensor should NOT kill the engine.

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Good point Gabe. However, when I drove the car, it seemed OK on power. Clogged cats usually result in poor acceleration as well. I also told Simon I didn't think a bad O2 would kill the car. Car drove great when it left TDR. I was thinking vacuum leak as a possibility.

Car ran just fine today. I think the gremlins got scared when they felt my presence... ;)

that may have been the case... car died after rick left ::Censor::


Car was idling, and had been for about 10 minutes when it just died.

Now I'm getting Code 1 and 15 when i jump the pins, but still no CEL when just running....

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH