Picked up a 99 with no spark.
Picked up a 99 off of Craigslist for very cheep, $1400, 86k. The car came with Elise seats, Hard Dog sport bar, VIS carbon hood, BC coil overs, and TR Motorsport wheels. The only problem is it doesn't run. The history on the car that I know of...
The owner of the car, who probably did the mods, got into some trouble with the law. His brother bailed him out of jail on a personal loan. The little brother didn't have the money to repay him so he gave up the car. The new owner of the car is 6'3" and about 400lbs. He cant really drive the car but has a friend who needs a car so he loans it to him for a few months. The cars starts to misfire and throws what he called a misfire code and a too lean code. I'm not sure how it got to it's non-running state but they bought a new crank sensor for it and it didn't fix it so they sold it, to me.
I put a cam position sensor in it with no change.
The issue I'm having is no spark. I can smell gas after a few seconds of cranking but get no zap. I have tested all of the fuses inside and outside of the engine bay. They are all good as are the relays. I can get them all to click at least. I have set the air gap with a razor blade. I have checked the fuel pump, it's good. I have read tons about the coils in 99-00 being very suspect. I haven't read much about them both going out at the same time however. I also read that other coils are not compatible with the 99-00 setup. I bought a spare 97 motor back in the summer and it came with a coil pack that I don't know anything about, good or trash. I figured it would at least give me spark if it was the coil pack that had failed on the 99. Hooked it up and tested on top of the cam cover, nothing. One thing I did notice is that the driver side coil harness plug has been damaged. Then I saw a dent in the firewall right behind the coil pack which leads be to believe the motor has been out, swapped or jacked up far enough to make contact there. The plug is damaged enough that I can see the 12v socket inside the plastic plug. Its all around crushed and corroded. Looking at the condition of the dent and the crud buildup on the plug I'd guess its been this way for awhile. Just stabbing in the dark but couldn't that arc to the coil pack bracket? Could that feed back to the ECU? I have looked up under the dash. It doesn't look out of order. I checked to see if the ECU was fully plugged in, checked the ignition plug, all connections look good without corrosion. Brand new AGM battery.
I was using the test light to check at all of the sensors last night. The cam sensor, crank sensor, IAC, EGR, fuel pump, coil packs, all get 12v to them. IAC valve hums like a mo-fo. I did hit the test light to the center pin on the crack sensor and the fuel pump turns on and what seems to be the EGR valve clicks several times in a second or two and stops. I don't know what that means.
The head lights and tail lights all work. The dash lights do work as well. The CEL comes on and stays steady on. I need to remember to grab my code reader from the office and check and erase and check again.
I ordered a new 99 coil to use for testing. It hasn't come in yet. Any other bases I need to cover before looking for a ECU to try?
Here's a pic of the connector. I pulled off a few pieces of the plastic that were just hanging on.
The interior after a little wipe down.
Tried to put a V8 in it. I was using it to see if there was a faint spark at all. Turn the lights off and it will light the whole inside of the can even with a tiny spark. Real good spark and you can hear it tick.
Did they gap the Crank Position sensor correctly? When I did my timing belt, I put mine back on, not realizing it had a specific gap setting. I got random missfires, mine was pretty close. I don't know what happens when it is way off. When I searched the pointy board, the gap to the tabs on the crank pulley was .025-.059 in.
'99 Emerald Green - 2015 NASA Texas TTE Season Champion (showing up is really 100% of it)
I set it with a razor blade. Its not quite .05mm.
Yeah, that's going to be a problem. You need a minimum of .028" gap or the sensor will think there is one big tooth.Originally Posted by Mr. Miatie
Mazda OEM CKP sensors are terrible, you should always have a new spare sensor. I keep a new CKP sensor in the glove box of my daily.
TXMC: Drinkin, shootin, racin!
I will regap that sensor tonight when I get home.
It is an unknown after market sensor. It has a small channel down the middle of the business end. I'll try to get it lined up with that channel which will be even less of a gap than measuring from the flat face of corse.. That could be the problem right there.
I'll report back with pics and results.
If it has a channel, it was probably cut by the crank wheel, lol.
TXMC: Drinkin, shootin, racin!
Twas the crank sensor. The PO must have put the new sensor so close it cut right into it. It was hard to see how deep it was from above. I pulled it out and put the nasty greasy one I found in the floor board back in and it fired right up.
Great job.
Thanks for posting up all of what you did ... it'll definitely help someone get their car running.
I will post a few more pics and what not about this too. I like to post a bit more than necessary in hopes that it will help someone if not myself when I go back and re-read.
PS: I found brand new 99-00 coil packs for $40.00. I'll post a link when I get home.
You're welcome.
You still need a spare, Mazda branded sensor. These sensors are awful (especially if you have a pre-2003 sensor) and develop huge sync-loss problems when they get hot.
TXMC: Drinkin, shootin, racin!
Got left on the side of the road in construction on 114 in 110* heat due to an overheated one... very annoying.
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/se...a+coil&submit=
The top one on the page above is what I ordered. Got it in the mail 4 days later including the weekend. Like I stated before it runs the car fine under no load. I've read about different dwell times for different year...
Dwell is the same for all 99-00 coils, both running and cranking.
TXMC: Drinkin, shootin, racin!
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