Just took my 2000 Protege into a shop for a tail pipe test and the car won't start now. Didn't have any issues before the service guy played with it.
Guy tells me the code is SGC1345. Anyone know what that is?

Looks like you are Canadian so maybe your code setup is different than US. The SGC is not familiar to me but the 1345 is a code for a fault in the camshaft position sensor which would certainly give you a no start condition. The engine computer needs to know the position of the camshaft so it knows when to inject fuel and provide a spark for ignition. If you have the vehicle now, check to make sure that it is plugged in to start with. It is located on the very front edge of the valve cover. If it is connected then remove the connector and make sure that the electrical pins inside are not pushed out or bent.

Checked the sensor, or least what I think is the sensor. It's plugged in and the pins aren't bent.
What do you think is next? Replace the sensor?

The thing that is iching me is there wasn't anything wrong with this ride until this ma and pa shop touched it. Anything you think they could have done to make this happen? They were supposed to be doing an e-test. I tried to listen for the fuel pump but couldn't tell if it was running on key-on. Seems to be some fuel at the rail - when the girlfriend turns the key we're getting fuel at the injectors.

Fuel at the injectors is fine but are they injecting fuel when needed. check for spark at the ends of the spark plug wires when disconnected. If you have a good spark from the wires then we can asume that crank/run signal is being received to ecm and also them assume that fuel is also being injected at the correct time. Pull a plug wire off and see if we have ignition spark. Yes there is probably many things they could do to make your vehicle not run. Did it start and run ok when picked up from e test??

Car was stranded at the e-test place so I couldn't do a lot of work on it in their parking lot. We had it towed to the Mazda dealer here in Windsor and they can't find the problem either. They're talking about it maybe being the computer. Funny thing, the guy from the e-test place kept muttering things about the computer being fried. When I went to try jumping the car he kept saying that, "it's his responsibility to tell me that if I try to jump start the car that I may burn out the computer". I thought that sounded funny when he was saying it, and it wasn't his Paki accent that sounded funny.

That does sound really strange. Was the battery dead when you got there? Am assuming it was since you tried to jump start it. Sounds simple and dealer should have already checked this but if he did try to jump start your Protege for whatever reason and hooked the cables up backwards he could have blown the 100 Amp main fuse which will definetly give you a no start. Have seen other fuses also blown from backwards jump start but the main one usually always goes. Make sure they have checked this before they go on checking other things and running up a bill.

No the battery wasn't dead, but i thought I'd try it anyway.
I assume the service guys have checked the main fuse. I just got off the phone with them and they are trying to blame it on the remote starter. They want to remove it totally and rewire the car before they keep diagnosing the problem. They want 3 hours to do this. More money... and it probably isn't the problem.

Is there a Mazda service group to call that can help problem solve?

ok these are just things i need to know before i can direct you to a fix or not


does the car have power and turn over?

what is the actual code windsor mazda pulled from the pcm? not the JOE BLOW GARAGE that gave you that code.

does the vehicle get fuel to the engine and what is the psi coming from fuel pump?

you stated you had an auto starter...does that start the car if you use it?

what is the KM's (ie 100,000km)




please advise,

MazdaService

Thanks for the help.
The KM are about 110K.

Yes the car has power and turns over. Mazda garage in Windsor tells me that the coil fires the first order but seems to be killed after that. They tell me they replaced the coil and the problem didn't go away. They tell me that they replaced the pcm but the problem didn't go away. They tell me that they replaced the cam shaft position sensor and the problem didn't go away. They are saying that there is power everywhere it needs to be so the fuses aren't the problem.

They say that the fuel pump is working, but didn't tell me the fuel pressure - if they measured it. I was checking this myself before we towed the car and there is fuel at the rail. When you wiggle the first injector it squirts out.

I'm not sure what the code is from the dealer. I will ask this morning and add to this thread.
The garage down the street initially started the car with just the key when they didn't have the remote switch, so we haven't been thinking about this. The remote starter is here at the house so we will try that today also.

I will get these answers and add to this thread and email you. Thanks tonnes for the help.

Steve

The remote starter doesn't start the car. We took it to the dealership Friday, they rewired the remote starter back to where it was and it doesn't work.

I have been trying to get the dealership to tell me the error code. They have been playing around and not answering my question. They just told me that the code is P1385, which is the cam position sensor signal. They say that the signal isn't changing. But they say that they replaced the cam position sensor and that didn't fix the problem.

What can we do? The car is stranded at the dealership, they don't know how to fix it and want us to tell them what to do.

I hope someone can help otherwise we need to contact Mazda in Japan, and my Japanese is pretty rusty. Anyone have a phone number for Mazda in Japan?

I was just online looking up how much it costs for a camshaft position sensor and all i can find is a CRANKshaft position sensor. Are these the same sensors? There are two different ones listed in MAZDAPARTSCHEAP.COM one is called the crankshaft position sensor, protege, 1.8L, 2.0L, Upper for $134.05 and another one called crankshaft position sensor, Protege, 1.8L, 2.0L, Lower for $83.20. I assume that there are two different sensors - Upper and Lower.

Anyone have any insight?

The 1385 code would be the upper sensor on the valve cover. It is the cam position sensor and lower one by crank pulley is crank position sensor. Aftermarkets sometimes call the all crank position sensor. I thought the dealer had replaced this sensor and did not fix problem? And how could they expect you to tell them what to do? They are the ones who are supposed to be diagnosing no start!! Am no sure what other things to look at without being able to see myself. They have checked to make sure the timing belt has not slipped or broken haven't they? If the camshaft is not turning then the sensor would not be sending a signal. I disconnected cam sensor from car yesterday and cranked with no start, but did not get the coils to fire once and then quit as you described. Wish I could be of more help.

Thanks babyhuey. I was thinking about the timing chain while I was writing the last entry.
I'll talk to the dealer again and have them investigate. Why wouldn't they have thought about this. That blows my mind how a dealership can redirect issues like this. After they changed the sensor and it didn't fix the issue they measured the voltage coming from the sensor and noted it wasn't changing. I found that out today. That tells me the camshaft isn't rotating, which means the timing chain is kaput. That's where I would have started.

I think I'm going to have the car towed back home and get to work on it myself. If you have any other suggestions I'm all ears.

Thanks,
Steve

I spoke with the dealer service centre again this morning. They say that they checked the cam on engine crank and it's moving consistently, meaning the timing belt is not broken or slipping. I also clarified that the voltage from the cam position sensor is not being measured as constant, but that it is operating correctly, with all the voltage peaks and valleys.

Is it possible the timing chain slipped once and now is grabbing and rotating correctly but the timing is out? The sensor saw an issue when the jump occurred and sent an error code to the ecm. Now the timing is out and the fault from the ecm is to not fire the coil when the timing is out. Does anyone know if the ecm fault condition for bad timing is no coil firing?

Back on 8/30 you posted that the dealer told you the code was a p1385. Is this right? We thought p1345 before. I do not find any listing for a p1385. Would be very easy check just to R and R valve cover and check that cam and crank timing is correct. With all of the computers and electronics the simple mechanical is often overlooked. By the way you have a timing belt and not chain which is much more likely to have problems with skipping a tooth.

MY FIRST GUESS IS THE TIMING BELT,IF THATS NOT IT.....THE PCM, MY NEXT GUESS IS THE DISTRIBUTOR ASSY.