Hi guys and gals, I volunteered to fix a friends 323 which quit on the Indiana toll road about a year ago. several "mechanics" have looked at it, and significant money has been thrown at the problem before I took over. The car turns over, the plugs fire, it tries to idle for 1 to 2 seconds and then dies. I've done the cap, rotor, plugs, the wires were recently done and don't arc to anything. The fuel tank was almost but not quite empty, I threw in some high octane, and some water eliminating additive as well as some B-12 Chemtool. Nothing has had any effect on the problem (I really can't believe none of these "mechanics" did the cap, rotor and plugs)
The guy at Auto Zone said something about oil in the distributor, he said if you can see oil in the distributor that it's shot and needs to be replaced. I need to talk to him further, but I wanted to know if anyone has any experience with this problem. The car has 119000 miles on it and it looks really tight and un-tampered with. It's a non-turbo 1.6 with the automatic transmission
Someone tell me about this distributor, how would oil destroy it? I see a sensor with three wires, does the oil mess up the sensor? I took the distributor out, disassembled it, cleaned what I could and reassembled it and still the same thing, but there definately was a fair amount of oil coating the sensor and the inside bottom of the distributor, and the moving timing adjusters were stuck in place until I got them to loosen up some but they are gritty at best. It seems to me like the sensor is the only thing that might be affected, but it is conveniently located on the main distributor shaft between two pressed on metal components, and can't be removed without a special puller. So I am not sure if I want to shill out a bunch of money on one person's say so for a new distributor. If someone can verify the oily distributor theory I would greatly appreciate it.
The only other thing it could be is the fuel pump, but I got a spray of gas when I undid the clamp on the hose on the fuel filter and wiggled it around so I figure it's ok. The fuel filter itself is nice and clear, and after cranking it over enough to heat up the engine I can smell exhaust at the tail pipe. I don't have a fuel pressure gauge, so I'm stumped between two fairly expensive items, fuel pump, or distributor, or perhaps some sensor that is telling the engine not to run. I could really use any advice from you techy types out there if you have had this trouble or know what it's all about. Thanks in advance everyone, and Happy Halloween :O)

 

Do you know if it dies because of spark or fuel? Have you tried to keep it running with carb cleaner? This is an easy way to verify a lack of fuel. Just take off one of the tubes on the intake air tube and spray carb spray with the supplied straw on the can. Do this with help of a buddy. If it is a fuel problem, the car will run on carb spray. Do a few quick squirts into the intake tube, but do not disconnect the tube from the mass air flow meter.

If this does not work, disconnect one spark plug wire and with the help of the buddy do this. Crank the engine and monitor to see if you lose spark.

I think you might have a problem with the fuel pump relay, I supplied a page from the manual how it works.

As for the distributor with oil in it, it is not uncommon to see this, it just need to be re-sealed. You already have it cleaned out. I had the same thing on my 87 323 and just cleaned out the oil seepage and just didn't worry about it.

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Yeah, I did try it with Starter fluid which got it sputtering for 30-40 seconds however I have the intake tube disconnected from the Mass Air Sensor right now, I'm old school and I didn't even think about the air flow metering. The car never did reach the correct idle speed.
On your distributor did you look at the mechanical advance mechanism? This cars mechanical advance was stuck solid, I got it loosened up a little, but it's got a gritty feel, I'm thinking it's not supposed to be that way.
Thanks for the F.P. Relay info, I hadn't thought about that. I did release the pressure on the fuel system, checked the flow through the fuel filter (not in the least clogged) and ran the fuel line into a bottle to watch the flow(being that I don't have a pressure gauge for it. When I cranked the car over 3-4 times (maybe ten seconds worth of cranking overall) it pumped about a tablespoon of gas into the bottle, so I assume the pump is working, and it did have pressure on the line enough to squirt-gun some gasoline onto the firewall.
I really appreciate the info., since you have the manual, do you have the capacity to send me a page with the wiring diagrams for the engine? (oddjobdobson@hotmail.com) I'd feel a lot better if I could check more of the sensors. I found the diagnostic codes, I haven't checked them yet because the car is ten miles away. I'm kinda getting attached to the car though, it seems to hold me well for a small car (6'3" 260lbs) and everything under the hood is rust free (brake and fuel lines etc.) If this is generally the case for these, I may have to hunt one down with a five speed for myself. I love the Mazda trucks, and I've had several from this generation, and I'd like a vehicle thats a little more efficient than my Accord Wagon.
The F.P. Relay, is it repairable? I could imagine if it had bad solder joints it could be weak and not dead altogether. I'll check the spark, I assume it's ok (can you tell I work with a lot of assumptions) because of the fact it tries to run. I had it going once for a full minute on starter fluid. I freaked myself out at one point when the thermally protected starter quit, but it came back after a rest.
Thanks again for the info., you've given me some more stuff to check, and thanks for the quick reply. I'll post back and let you know what I find out.

 

where can i find the fuel pump relay for my 93 323 cuz my car is doing the same thing