Let me start by introducing myself; my name is Todd and right now my beloved ride is named Lucifer.



It is a 05 Mazda 6 with a 4cyl automatic/ac

My son and I are in desperate need of assistance because we have need to be in Wildwood NJ by Thursday night for a busy weekend. We are sponsored riders and definitely need to make a showing. The Mazda is a walking billboard so to speak so it needs to make an appearance as well.


The symptoms:

*Cold morning start can barely fire up and will hunt for the idle.
*Upon running temperature car accelerates fine (CEL lit).
*When I decelerate that's when things get funky... Tack will go to zero then
back up to original spot then repeat. The traction control dummy light is on
and the TCS light is flashing on and off.

I stopped by Auto Zone and the computer flagged the crank position sensor as being the culprit. This was replaced and still a no go... it seems to have gotten worse! I found this forum during a search and from the looks of it I have come to the right place! I have been overwhelmed over the amount of information there is on my car.

I keep reading that a lot of the symptoms could be because of the EGR valve not functioning properly. Could this be the culprit as well?

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this, the dealer option is out of the question because it is way too far away. Any thoughts?

At a loss in a sea of sensors,
Todd

 

Actually, your car does not have an EGR valve. They went out with the back water... so to speak.
I would be thinking more along the lines of an PCM reset, or MAP sensor cleaning, but because of the tach going crazy, I have more faith in the first one.
To reset the PCM is simple. Remove the negative batt cable. Turn on everything you can think of turning on in the car. e.g. ignition, lights, etc.... This will quickly sap any capacitor charge in the system.
After about 10 mins (longer if you are a skeptic,) reconnect and try it out. It may take a while for the CEL to go out, or if it comes on again after a few miles, you have another problem.
Either way, it sounds electrical/electronic to me. Try it. The only thing you have to lose is 10 mins.

And hey! If this works, send me $10, or just pray for my heathen soul.

 

been 24hrs. any news? i have to believe there is a garage you can go to nearby. does not have to be dealer. AZ said you had a crank code. computer thinks there is a problem. is it confused? who knows. motor runs on fuel/spark. is it a spark issue or fuel delivery? sensors tell computer whats happening and makes adjustments. funky idle can be crank sensor, cam sensor, idle air control, map sensor, low fuel pressure. maybe the maf, but the fuel pump and maf is $$. lots of things. any shop can put the car on a scope and figure out what is happening.

 

Thank you for the replies...

I reset the PCM as per instruction and when I fired it back up I had NO CEL so I let it idle which it did fine for about 15m. Went back out and gave it a short rev to discover that it sounded like it wanted to bog down. You guessed it the CEL came back on.

This morning it was the same thing, searching for an idle and when it's warm it runs fine. The deceleration thing bothers me the most with the tach and TCS light going on & off.

As of right now it's at a shop being put on the analyzer so we will have to see what the next step is.

Thank you both for your insight!

 

flashing cel is misfire. might be a bad coil, plug wire or plug itself. constant cel is usually something else. clogged cat conv? that will cause power loss. happens a lot and is easily missed.

 

After renting a vehicle for the weekend not wanting to harm the motor any further, I have a possible route to the problem.

The mechanic who has been doing the work tells me that there is an internal cam sensor that has gone bad. This is located in the timing chain area on the face of the motor. Apparently they shorted out this sensor and it ran fine but this is going to cost in the neighbor hood of $1500 to fix.

Does this sound right? I feel about sick to my stomach right now.

 

That DOES sound kinda' steep to me.
Could he be talking about the VVT sensor that controls the cam timing?
I would also ask what's involved in replacing it, will they refund the cost if that turns out not to be the problem, can he show you the part or a picture of what and where it is... stuff like that?

 

The correct term I was told was variable timing phaser, is vvt the same thing? I was just told this about 5 minutes ago. Where is this located and can it be tackled easily?

Thanks so much for the help on this; I really appreciate your time.

 

Yes. VVT is the vernacular for Variable Valve Timing.

 

As of right now the car is running fine due to the fact that the sensor is grounded out. This sensor is located in the timing chain area with the lead wires coming out of the top left of the valve cover. I am going to make an appointment for second opinion for the replacement of the sensor. I will have them install a new timing chain in at this point as well. Good idea?