Hello folks,



First time posting, long time user of this Mazda forum.



So here is my story/problem....I have a 2013 Mazda 3. Purchased brand new back in 2013. It has been a wonderful reliable car until roughly March of 2019…

…the car all of the sudden would not start. No crank no nothing! The car still had power; all the lights came on, heater, welcome sign, dinger (the noise the car makes) and indicator lights all worked, just not starting. This would only happen intermittently at first. I had tested the starter and all fuses. Everything checked out. Than all of the sudden it started happen more and more often leaving me stranded, sometimes at the gas pump just waiting and trying to start. It seemed to happen mostly when it was wet or moist/humid outside. (I live in south eastern Ontario, Canada) but not always. Sometimes it was dry.

Fast forward a few months of annoyance and hundreds of dollars at different shops. Until finally one mechanic had an opinion. It turned out that the PCM was dead. There was no information going in or coming out of the PCM. – They replaced it. At a cost!!!

The car worked perfect after that, starting every time…….for a quite a few months. Now it’s going down the same exact path! In I go to the shop and the guys, of course, could not replicate the problem while it was there and hooked up to the computer. (It only happens when wet mostly now and never when I want it to happen) They ended up connecting a wire from the starter to the PMC with a little light in the middle. The light went into the cabin of the car so I could see it light up every time I stared the car. I THINK that their idea was that the light lights up when the starter is engaged and talking to the computer. If the light did not light up that that means the starter was not talking to the PMC (or something like that). But the light did not light up when attempting to start when the car was having the problem. Uh oh!

I am completely stuck! I have done hours or reading and video watching as have the mechanic. The trunk was leaking some water into the well under the spare, so I thought maybe there was water coming in through the taillight and shorting something out. But the lights were dry inside. I guess the seal or something on the trunk is leaking. I have tested every fuse and looked at as many wires as I can see, as have the mechanic. They are stumped as well. I have been forced to buy a new vehicle because I was tired of throwing money at people to try to find the problem. There seems to be SOMETHING somewhere in this car that is slowly killing the PCM, like a short that eventually finishes the computer (I think). Could there be something that I am missing? I am willing to try almost anything at this point to try to fix this care to get some money back out of it! It seems like I paid the car off...and it happened. Like there is a sleeping malware in another computer in the car that makes this happen. J

Please HELP!

 

I have a 98 Mazda b4000 I bought from my boss a few weeks ago. It had been setting up for close to four years, he said they had bought his car they currently drive so he just parked the Mazda and never messed with it again, claims that there was nothing wrong with it when he parked it. It ran fine for couple days. Before I moved it though I replaced the battery, the gas, oil, transmission fluid, put water in it, replaced the hoses and belt...etc. I drove it home like five miles away it ran fine.
Got it home, started it the next day and it acted like it wasn't getting gas then I snapped that I didn't replace the fuel filter so I did that. It still was acting up so I dropped the tank checked the fuel pump it was working fine but replaced it anyways cuz it was pretty rusted up. Then I drove it like six miles it started acting like it just didn't have much power and the catalytic converter was cherry red. Well my brother took it upon his self to knock all of the honeycomb out of it cuz he thought that would fix it. Now mind u I was not present when he did this, and was pretty pissed when he told me. It still didn't help so I changed the spark plugs wires and sparkplugs. Still no change it actually got worse, it would start and idle a bit as long as I didn't touch the gas as soon as I did it would sputter and occasionally backfire from the exhaust and under the hood. So I changed the throttle position sensor I've checked the injectors I'm waiting for the crankshaft sensor to come from Amazon tomorrow. But now it won't even start it'll turn over all day but no start. I'm nearly at the end of my rope with this truck can someone plz help..oh and I did put a obdll reader on it and it threw a few codes. P0125, p0141, p1131, p1151, po171, po174, but those were before I changed the sensor I have gotten to put one back on it since then. I can't afford another vehicle please I'm open to suggestions