I can drive this car where ever and it will start and run great. But once I park it and go into a store and come out it won't start again. The engine cranks but won't start. Bought this car 3 months ago with a 12 month warranty from Rivergate Toyota who has had me take it to a Mazda dealership. They first charged to put a loose wire back to the crank case and Rivergate charged to install a low beam light which also went out. I told both of them the keyless remote quit working as well. Second time it went back, all of this with a week to 10 days, they said it was the positive battery cable and charged me another $56.00. That was yesterday, and I got stuck again today. The battle to get the dealership to cover their promises and warranty is one battle, but I need the car fixed. The dealership today said they believed it could be a problem with the alarm system and ignition, but of course none of this would be covered under warranty. Can't afford to be miss any more work, or be late, and sure can't afford this stress this is causing. Can anyone please help?

 

If it cranks it has power, I would look at spark or fuel delivery

Considering what you descibe, I would go fuel pump or spark plug wires maybe. It is something electrical because it works cold but not hot. But to say it is the pos wire, only if it were not cranking. If you have crank and it is strong, check that your fuel pump works and check that you have spark across the distributor and to the spark plugs.

 

Ooo, alarms can do that if it had a kill on the fuel pump. But, if the kill is on the starter, then it won't crank and they are full of crap... but that would be hard to diagnose from here. If you have fuel deliver and spark then I guess you could unhook the alarm.

 

Car has plenty of crank and often isn't driven more than 5 miles so not sure if getting hot would be an issue. Shouldn't a fuel pump have been noticed when a diagnostic was ran or check by the technicians? I could start by getting rid of the alarm system. Is there a way for me to turn it off to see it that is what's causing this?

 

I think I need to come up with a new phrase that means that the temperature comes off of the cold and goes anywhere on the dial.

I did not mean overheat, I mean get hot. Like when you drive your car a block and don't touch the muffler because it is hot.

Anyway, that is my rant on what hot is... the temperature above cold.

Electronics that are failed work cold, but when they get hot (ie driving for any period of time) the electronics no longer work. It is because of the resistance change with temperature change from running all the little electrons through the wire.

So that said. A fuel pump has electricity run to it while you drive, which heats up the wires. That heat changes the resistance and the fuel pump runs slowly, but you don't notice when you are driving (unless you are really good at sensing lost power). When you shut the car off though, the low pressure fuel from your weak electric pulse to the fuel pump cannot restart it. So you wait for the wire to cool and the resistance reduces to allow you to get enough power to the fuel pump to restart the car.

So... that said, a positive cable goes to the starter. If the starter works just fine then it is getting the full electric pulse.

But your plug wire between your coil and distributor (if you have one) or your spark plug wires can have the resistance to prevent spark, then you will not spark your fuel you will only crank your engine over.

And if your fuel pump is not getting enough power then your will have spark but no fuel delivery because it is getting to little juice.

It is like trying to run something with dying batteries. Only instead of a dead battery you just have a blockage in your wire.

Most alarm systems kill your starter... so a bad alarm would stop it from cranking. Unless you know that your alarm is a fuel kill, I would not assume it is the alarm.

Basically cars crank but don't start for 2 reasons, no spark or no fuel. Fuel filter, fuel pump or spark plugs spark plug wires.

So your mechanic is horrible for telling you that your starter is not working (which is basically what he said by saying it was the pos. wire or anything to do with the starter) when you and I both know it was cranking just fine (per your word). It is something electrical past the starter. Take it to a good shop and they can find it or you can find it yourself with a voltmeter and a couple of hours with the car in the on position.

 

I agree with you that the 2 areas to look are fuel and sparks. The heat generated by the electrons running through the fuel pump wires is minimal and should not be hot enough that it has to be cooled down for a normal flow of electrons. I suspect bad electrical contacts such as fuel pump, ignition and the alarm that might cut the fuel or sparks. Other possibilties are: vapor lock, clutch not firmly held down in a manual tranny car or not in P in an auto tranny car.

 

That is not going to work (on the park/ clutch) sometimes there is a sensor that goes out or the clutch is not getting pushed in all the way, but then it won't crank, and his car cranks.

But seriously, and I know it is totally crazy, electronics especially on cars work cold but don't work when the car is warmed up. It is true for starters, fuel pumps and spark plug wires especially (cause they have thick heavy wires). That is why you never hear about someone's starter dying on them at their house, it is always I drove to the market and when I came back it would not start. And that is why evey mechanic can sit there and say it is a bad wire when you say it started fine cold but then I drove it and shut it off and now nothing.

And what does your mechanic do to get it to start? Hits it with a hammer to break the resistance (in the case of fuel pumps or starters anyway).

Ooo jumper cables are another good example. No matter how jacked up and corroded your battery posts are, if you run heavy gauge jumper cables off a big tow truck your car jumps in seconds (AAA). But, have your friend jump you with a 4 cylinder and 12 gauge cables and nothing (or it takes a really long time). You have to over come the resistance, and an alternator on a 4 cyl just does not do the trick. Of course if your posts are clean then you can jump start off of any car.

Home computers are the same way. When your computer has a part go bad, what happens? You turned it on and it worked fine and then all the sudden it shut off and would not come back on. Five hours later I tried it again and it worked fine... weirdest thing... nope, just a power supply that is bad.

 

Car runs normal - but for some unknown reasons, it goes into "engine kill" mode - and it would not start, no cranks, no sound at all, only all the indicator lights come on. It always happened when the car was warm after being driven for a while. This happened four times already. Took the car to the dealer twice, the dealer mechanics had no idea what to do!!
I have a feeling that they know this problem of Mazda 6, but like to keep quiet about it. They even indicated that it was time to look for a new car.

Can somebody kindly share some ideas? How do I reset the "engine kill" mode?
How do I bypass the alarm system?

 

2003 Mazda 6 will not start. Once started it runs fine, next day will crank but will not Start. I can hear the fuel pump running, and the crank is strong. Had it towed to D. Dahle Mazda they can't get it to act up. It does not appear to have any spark. I'LL bet if I have it towed again it will work fine. It does not show up on computer, so they don't know what to fix. This is the problem with many Dealerships, they have replacement people who only rely on computers. This seems like a Mazda problem, I know it is not under warranty anymore, but it is so much junk if you cannot rely on the car to start.