Just hope that gets his Mazda purring again. lol I'm getting a new exhaust pipe in for mine today. It's the part from the manifold to the cat converter and that has the O2 sensor on it. Mine has a hole right between the wield for the sensor and the flange. The muffler guy said they should have moved that another inch away and it wouldn't have that hole there. The wield made it rust through faster. Anyway, I hope to be in stealth mode after today. Maybe the OP can get his running smooth and we can make Toyota and Honda look bad.

blackbolt22, let us know how this turns out. Don't leave us hanging in the wind here.

 

Yeah that is unbelievable I know. I had my exhaust fixed recently as well and when I saw that top converter and how it was so close to the flange I was like WTF?!!!

I put the cracked cover back in but without it the car never misfired after it warmed up. In the morning when I first start it #4 (not #3) misfired though only at idle. That being said the cover now has a thick layer of silicone over the top and sides where the crack is. It hasn't missed a beat in my test drive last night but I won't know till this morning whether cyl 4 is acting up still or not. I think the whole distributor needs to be changed overall.

I'm also getting a P0505 idle air control on occasion and the idle (after I adjusted it many times) is about 800rpms with a/c on or off. It used to be much much worse. I'm going to take that apart this week and clean it.

Overall the car is running better than ever. I'll post tonight on today's results.

 

Alright the spark issue is fixed and the car is way better but it's still not right.

Another problem that existed all along is that the car bogs at 1k-3k rpms
It's the p1170 code which is bank one sensor staying fixed and that it does

I've replaced the sensor with a Bosch and get the same results as follows:
While idling or driving the O2 reads either 0.00 volts or 1.3 volts but never in between.
0.00 volts - fuel trim is at 25% and car runs amazing
1.3 volts - fuel trim is at -25% and car runs like sht!!! Idle is horrible, acts like its running out of gas, etc

It cycles , long delays, from 0 and 1.3v and during that time when it's in 1.3 phase the PCM goes into open loop due to system failure and the mixture goes to 25%, and the O2 back to 0.

Basically when the car is in closed loop and using the 02 it runs horribly in the times when o2 is also reading 1.3v.

As a test I unplugged BOTH O2s and that triggered a permanent open loop mode and the car had been running perfect for an hour and over 20 miles now.

When it's in closed loop using the sensors at random ill see the system go to 1.3volts and -25% fuel trim.

I tried another PCM and system behaves identically , new o2 behaves identically
Could it be a clogged cat??

 

Right now car is running amazing. No fuel trim reading, open loop and no bogging no hesitatIon!!!!! All sensors are reading information on my tool: maf, coolant, tps, etc

 

So my clutch master cylinder went out and I had to remove the battery in the process. When I was done I looked at the O2 sensor plugs and said "why not, one last try ". Now for some reason car is running beautifully and the O2 that I changed is displaying voltages as it should. In fact the highest reading so far has been like .8 volts

In my head I'm thinking oh I reset the PCM with the new O2. But I put another PCM on it when all of this was going on. One thing I did do whenever I decided to run open loop without the oxygen sensors was adjust the idle, tps to 12%, and also moved the idle mix screw. Could that have beene problem ?


I will update later. Because its too soon to tell if it's fixed

 

P1170 does not mean the sensor is bad it means the obd doesn't like the data coming from that sensor. Usually it means a lean condition from a vacuum leak or when someone messes with the idle air mixture and leans it out to much...

 

I didn't change it because of the P1170. I changed it because I took it out and did a test on it using a flammable substance and it failed. It also used to read 0.00 volts almost all of the time.

Plus it was the original O2 and this Bosch was only 32 dollars

Does anyone have a procedure for the idle mix? I think I have it set correctly since it didn't set a code all day except for the rear 02 which I think is bad as well.

 

Any updates on your problems? Are you up and running again?

 

I posted a reply but somehow it didn't go through I guess.

So far car is running perfect. This is what happened but I'm not 100% sure I fixed it. I'll label it as day 1 and 2.

day 1: Car was running horribly (as usual) and new O2B1S1 was swinging from 0.00 to 1.3V. When it would say 1.3V it would run terrible as the fuel mixture would lean out and I'd lose all power. I unplugged BOTH O2s and the car seemed to run alot better in constant open loop due to O2s being unplugged. That day I adjusted the idle down, the TPS, and the air mix screw to help with the idle since it was high after pulling the O2s.

day 2: posted on forums what I did and all day it ran great except the Clutch Master Cylinder started leaking into the car and left me stranded w/o clutch control. I still managed to a service call, AND drive to walmart without a clutch, bought more fluid, and pumped until I had clutch control.

After making it all the way home I replaced the Master Cylinder and in the process had pulled the battery. After reinstalling the battery I decided what the heck, one more try for the O2s and believe it or not the car has run perfect ever since.

The O2s never reach 1.3V, the highest is .8V, and the car tries to keep the signal midway, usually around .5-.6V. the fuel trim is never extreme @ -25% or +25% either. It's been going strong over a weak and I believe what fixed it ultimately was adjusting the idle in open loop to be where it is, adjusting the TPS to read 11-12% on the tool, and then adjusting the air mix a little to help with the idle drooping. Right now the air mix is 6.5 turns from closed.

At some point I will SABATOGE what I have done with the idle (because I know the settings to put it back) and see if I can recreate my problem and then post back.

Oh and 1 more thing. It wasn't because I reset the PCM that I fixed it because I tried a different PCM and it did the same thing. I do think this car had so many problems but after replacing all of these things, mainly the O2, and then adjusting accordingly, then resetting the PCM, is what ultimately fixed it.

It's not 100% but it's about 90% and night and day vehicle since when I acquired it. Dare I say it, it's getting to be "reliable" lol.

EDIT: Oh ya and all of what I had done has eliminated the P1170, occasional P0505 (this code I believe was final problem). The only code I get now is Bank1 Sensor 2, O2 No activity but I didn't replace that one.

 

Well, update us when you pretty confident that it is fixed or it is messing up again. Sort of let us know how it turns out. May help someone else one day who has the same problem.