2000 Mazda Protégé~
Hello older Mazda friends~
At a loss here~I have changed the Ignition coils myself unsuccessfully 3 times over the past 10 years. What I mean by this is that I buy the new ignition coils install them and then the car does not just run rough, it doesn't even run (turns over doesn't run) This occurs even if I just disconnect the spark plug wires and then reinstall the same ones (such as when just changing spark plugs) I have yet to get the car to run on its own every time I disconnect the spark plug wire from a spark plug. I've had the pros do the same task and they have successfully fixed it every time. (they also confirmed that the old coils were bad) Do the wires have difficulty reaching or making enough contact to run?
In reading other threads on this site there was a mention of after market spark plug wires being too short and not reaching the Spark Plug. Based on the symptoms, and it only occurring this way when I disconnect/reconnect I'd say there is a certainly a connection issue.
1. Has anyone else experienced this?
2. What is your recommended fix?
Thanks in advance!

Haineswood

 

Welcome to the forum

 

We have worked on a few Mazda protege preforming a ignition tune up. The first thing we do is run a scope to determine the health of the ignition system. If the coils or wires show more then a 35% decline in performance we recommend that they be replaced. We do not use Mazda coils and have use generic branded coils with no problem. We also use the sale brand ignition wire. (unless the customer specifies a different brand name of parts) After the ignition tune up the engine is run again on the scope. No issues using none brand products. The warranty on coils and wires is 90 days labor free and 1 year unlimited miles. Looking at records of servicing several proteges in 36 months none have returned? While this means nothing really overall nation wide because there are so many operating and location factors that can effect how long parts last it does show the coils sparkplugs and wires do not wear at any unusual rate?
The shop that tested your ignition system would have had to do a basic resistance test (at least you would hope) to conclude faulty parts. If you are lucky the person working on your Mazda made notes? I would ask and see they would be helpful to determine better "guess" answering your questions about personal Mazda?

 

Is your Check Engine Light (cel) on when this happens? Have you scanned for OBD codes?

When you changed the coils, did you include the coil wires to the other cylinders?

 

1995- 2000= up to about 2005 ECUs did not have the programing definitively as newer ECU 2014 to present for minor coil, sparkplug and wire resistance value to generate a CEL/DTC =check engine light? It may have simply been in pending and cleared after several cycle only to happen again and return to pending. The proper place to look would be in the monitors there you can and likely will see one or more that are not in the state of readiness.