My wife was driving around town yesterday and the car just stopped dead while turning left through an intersection. She coasted to the side and turned off key. Tried to start again and all lights on dash lit for a few seconds and all gauges pegged. Car started on second attempt and she made it straight home. She described it as a sudden cut out, no sputtering, chugging or stalling before car died, just driving fine and then "poof" dead car. Have changed battery, plugs, and all 6 coils within the past year. Battery voltage checks out fine and there is definite spark on all the cols. Am in the process of testing for draw on all fuses and checking for loose grounds. Does anyone have any experience with this problem? Any idea where to start would be helpful.

Just finished batt draw check, all looks good. All harness connections look tight, can't find any bad grounds but have just scratched that surface. The car starts and runs around the block just fine. Still worried to let my wife take it to work due to the random nature of the problem. Battery sits on 12.3 V at rest, cranks down to 10.5 V and idles at 14.9 - 13.5 V. Could this cut out problem be a circuit breaker or relay issue?

 

Maybe the immobiliser lost contact with the transponder key, check the aerial connection inside the steering column shroud and check the spare key works as it should.

Failing that (or as well as), have the car scanned for codes.

 

For the gauges to go to their highest point usually occurs after the battery is disconnected, so to me sounds like a temporary loss of electrical power not too sure where to start looking though

 

OK. I have poked and probed every electrical connection I can find on this car without completely tearing it apart. All my electrical testing shows nothing wrong with this car. Code reader says there are no codes stored in the on board computer. Fuel cut off switch is not at fault, battery is holding a full charge with no "leaks". All cable and harness connections are tight and clean. According to my mechanic friend there is nothing wrong with this car except that the crappy paint Mazda uses is peeling like a bad sun burn. So I put it through a test drive yesterday. Drove a few blocks to the store and ran like a champ. Until I came back out to my parking spot and tried to start it to drive home. Key goes in, one click, dash lights up as usual, signal beeps as usual. Two clicks, radio and seat belt idiot chime come on as usual. Third click to start the car, and nothing. No power at all. No click, click from the alternator, no kick from the starter, no lights on the dash, nothing. Waited five minutes after looking under the hood, tried to start it again and, vroom. Backed out of parking spot and switching from reverse to drive killed it again for one second and then it restarted on it's own without me even turning the key. Pulled out of parking lot turning right onto main street and, BAM, dead again for one second and then started back on it's own without me touching the key. Drive around the block to get home ASAP, had to stop at traffic light, when light turned green car died in middle of intersection. Jumped out pushed it to the curb, after three attempts at key turning, car starts as usual and made it home. Left car running in driveway, checked with code reader again and still not throwing any codes. I'm about to roll this thing over a cliff if I can't find out what is causing this very dangerous malfunction. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this to happen??? I'm at my wits end.

 

No real idea
could be a dodgy ignition switch
only thowing random thoughts out to you as complete shut down and restart is a strange one