hi my daughter bought a mazda mx-3 a little while ago, and it has now faild to start, she whent out one morning and it just would not fire, i took a look at the spark on the plugs and there was not one, looked into the distributor and found that the rotor arm conntact pin was broken and also the distributor cap centre pin was broken.

today i have replaced both units with new ones but still have no spark to the plugs, cannot find the location of the coil to see if it is supplying the voltage.

has anyone got any ideas as to what to do next.

do you have to re-set the ecu or anything like that, i have never had one of these cars to deal with before so dont know much about them.

by the way the car was running fine before parking it on the drive and going to it the next morning and it failing to start.

hope someone can help
regards kevin

 

Should not have to reset the ECU. The ignition coils for both the 4 cyl and V6 engines are built right into the distributor. There is normally a spring in the cap that makes the electrical connection between cap and coil post. Make sure the new cap had one as some aftermarkets do not.

 

high thanks for your input, yes the cap does have the pin which connects the cap.
do you now how to check if the built in coil is working ?
or do you now if the location of the rotor is critical ?

 

you say that there should be a spring buit into the cap, there is not a spring but a 1/4 inch pole which goes into the distributor body the hole has a spring at the bottom, which i asumme the coil voltage come from, but i have put a meter across those points
i.e.
the 1/4 pole and the centre pin and there is not conternuity, even on the old one that is was fitted,
so how does the voltage reach the centre pin?
i have purchased a manial today which should arrive tommorow so hopefully this will give me some answers.

thanks kevin

 

Assuming then that you have the V6 engine as the 4 cyl should have the pole coming out of the distributor. Location or direction that the rotor points to is absolutely critical. Some Mazda distributors will allow you to install the rotor in three different directions. If unsure then try rotating the rotor one notch clockwise and see if it will start or spark has returned. If no then rotate one more notch clockwise. Has to be one of the 3.
You should have continuity between the metal tip of the pole and center button of the cap. Will not be low like 5 ohms but more like 4000-6000 ohms much like your plug wires.