Hi, I own a 1990 Mazda Hatchback, model 323. And just recently, two days ago when I started to drive out of the parking lot of the shopping mall, the car, all of a sudden, stopped While the transmission was on drive. I moved the transmission from drive to park and tried to start the engine. Unfortunately, it wouldn't start but all it gave me was a long cranking sound. I tried checking the life of the battery, the transmission, and the starter but they were all good. I stayed with the car for 1 hour and half and then I tried to turn on the engine and at that time it went smoothly.
Since that time my car has been running fine ,but the only thing is I don’t have a peace of mind while I drive it.Do you have any suggestions of what the problem was? and I would appreciate for some advice.

Thanks, M.A.

 

hmmm tough one, I also own a 323 but mines a 92 manual. Well its hard to say with out looking at the car. I would guess a short, maybe check the fused just to see if something poped and it just started when the circut breaker just reset it self.

I have had this happen only once and it was because I had a short in one of my battery cables, but this can happen for a couple diffrent reason I think.

 

Thank you Alucard, for your suggestion. Just to let you know that this problem also happened three weeks ago at the same place and time while I was doing shopping. In case it might help you to figure out this problem, The car's odometer reading is 222,966. The other thing I have suggestion in my mind is it might be over heating. Am I right ?


thanks M.A.

 

Could it be bad spark plugs? I mean maybe there bad and your just not getting a good enogh spark sometimes. When was the last time you changed out your wires and spark plugs?... Could be distribitor. I mean I had the same problem once and after I did that I didn't have it again. I would just pull them out and check them just to be sure.

I mean if it was over heating you should still be able to turn the car over and it would run still.

Check your grounds also.

I am looking in to this so any more info on your car would help.

I'll see what I can turn you for yah.

 

Was the car hot (like normal temp) when you were leaving the parking lot or was it cold?

Electrical systems when they go down will work cold and not hot usually. Long crank (like slow?) would imply poor power. I would check the battery cables with a voltmeter, have the battery tested (its free) etc. Shutting off might be a poor ground... you said it was sudden right? I would check/ replace the ground cable. It should go from the battery to the frame... you would have no circuit and lose all power.

Try the starter solenoid or ignition switch if that does not work... the solenoid & ignition switch are in line between the battery and working. Solenoid is where your positive cable goes. Ignition switch is what makes your key spring.

Most likely you lost your ground cable though (either not tight on the frame or needs to be replaced)

 

I don't think so, because I changed it last year. So the spark plugs are pretty new.

Recently, I have seen on my stereo that the number's on the display doesn't show up properly and this happened right after the incident. Don't you think this problem of the stereo connected to the car's electrical system?

Regarding to dan
At this time, I can't remember because when the car stopped I didn't take a look at the gauge.

Well, I haven't checked it but is the ground cable connected to the negative side of the battery, dan?

Thanks M.A.

 

Yeah your ground goes to the negative side of the battery and usually to the closest big chunk of metal nearby. Frame, Block, Etc.

Hmm, radio lights going out sounds like a ground too. Did the radio make a pop when the car shut down? I know that is tough to remember, but if your ground is loose it would probably make a little pop over the speakers when it lost power. You car could probably stay running through most short outs on the ground, so little things like gauges lower than normal, radio power loss, flickering headlights would be signs when your ground wire was first going out. As it got looser, the car would shut down.

I would start by cleaning the battery posts and inspecting the negative wire on the battery

By normal temp I meant were you shopping for an hour or less (normal temp) or like 6-8 hours. Most people get stranded on short trips with electrical problems because it works fine cold but as things heat up, wires have thermal expansion and increased resistance and a wire that was barely conducting, stops conducting.

 

Thanks Dan for giving me a wide range of information regarding my car’s problem, but I have two related question about ground cable. As you know my car stopped for one hour and then started. Actually, since that time, thanks god, it‘s been working. If it was a ground cable problem, how this car could start again after one hour with out the ground cable being fixed? Does the electrical pole that exists at the shopping mall affect to the car’s ground cable? Since the problem occurred twice at that place. Do you have any explanation to those questions?

I would appreciate for any suggestions.

M.A.

Note:The radio stereo’s light is working fine after I reset the it's button.

 

Here's my two cents...i noticed that you said it died but it would still crank over. If you were having a ground problem, you would not get it to crank, the car would not do anything like a dead battery. It would have been great if you could have pulled off a plug wire to see if you lost spark or if its a fuel problem. The first two things that come to mind is igniter if its a spark loss problem. The second is a fuel pump or relay. Have you had the fuel filter replaced?

 

Well I guess what did he mean by long cranking sound? I think of long crank as a really slow turn over. But he could just mean he cranked it for a few minutes.

I am thinking the cable is old and either corroded on the interior or corroded at the posts.

If that were the case, when the car warmed up, and then was shut off, it would not be capable of overcoming the resistance in the cable. Most of the time you probably drive the car, park it for hours, and then drive it? Hot wires have more resistance. But shopping would be a short trip where the wires would still be hot.

That is usually why people with starter problems get stranded somewhere away from home (starts cold then not hot)

Anyway, a long crank sounded like a wire that has high resistance and was not creating enough power for the starter (so it lagged). There are very few cables between the starter and battery, and only one that could shut the car off (the ground) but if it cranked normal for a long time... I would agree with bkey... I would say yeah look at ignition, and since it started again, look at fuel pump/ filter (filters are really common to start again after the blockage settles, but the car would run choppy) Fuel pumps that are going bad work on and off.

PS answer to the first question, the car cooled off nothing got fixed. The mall was probably just the right length trip to get it hot enough and not have a long enough cool down period.