i have a 93 mx6. after about 5 to 10 minutes it just dies and has to sit for a few minutes before it starts again the more stress i put on the car the faster this happens, like going up a hill or driving on the highway. the engine lightgoes on and offpretty regularly. i knowits not the fuel pump or filter,I alreadychecked that out. it does this while in idle or while driving down the road. when it dies if I spray starting fluid into the intake the car starts but then dies right away, so its not getting any fuel. also my wipers and my washer fluid stopped working.I dont know if this has anything to do with it, I dont know if they run off the vacuum or not, if they do then that might answer alot. i checked a few forums and came up with some possible problems.... distributer, o2 sensor, or a vacuum leak. i took it to a mazda dealer and they said the code they got was a vacuum leak but could not find anything.maybe I should have taken it somewhere else.this is driving me out of my mind [sm=wtf.gif]


any insight on this problem would be greatly appreciated thank you

 

I was going to lean toward a distributor, myself until you said that it'll start on starting fluid.

Question: Does it actually start and idle for a few seconds? or does it lope - like it wants to start on fluid?

A vacuum leak will not keep an engine from starting unless that vacuum leak is a gigantic hole punched into your intake manifold.

I say it's a heat related electrical problem.

2 points towards distributor.
The distributor may have something inside it called an 'Ignitor' which may or may not control both fuel and spark timing.
Being mounted on the engine it's constantly soaked in engine heat and then cooled off and reheated several times in it's life.

 

when i spray starting fluid into it it starts and runs for about 2 seconds but then it dies .its not getting any fuel. also i fixed the vacuum leak so thats not it anyway. thanks for responding. i am going crazy figuring out what is wrong

 

Try....fuel filter. It's a simple $7 guess.

 

I had a very similar problem with my mazda 323 and for me it turned out to be a Ignition Module, I replaced it and the distributor and it ran fine. as for your wiper? i aint got a clue other than the obvious blown fuse.

 

well im going to be replacing the distributer this week i will see what happens then. hopefully that does it.