Mazda 3 Troubleshooting

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Thoughts

The air/fuel mixture is off. That might fix itself as the computer calibrates. One of the cylinders was not firing, but it is now. A rodent chewed up the wiring to the ignition coil connector.

We did a temporary wiring patch job on the wiring to one of the cylinders. This will affect the voltage to the cylinder, to some small degree. It needs to be properly rewired. It is probably good enough now to get your car to a repair shop but we cannot say for certain.

I wonder if the air intake system is working properly.

If there is a fuel pressure issue, one of many things that could be a culprit is the gas cap. Or fuel pump; fuel filter. Frozen gas lines.

Maybe filling the tank with known good gas will help dilute out any water that might be in there. Ask a knowledgable person about that.

This car has ignition coils; we need to learn more about these. We know a bit about spark plugs, though. It is a good idea to test your spark plugs with a multimeter and also assess them according to a picture guide.

If you have further thoughts, know more about ignition coils or anything else, please feel welcome to leave a note in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

Using the Scan Tool

The scan tool is quite easy to use.

Wait until the check engine light is on, then plug it into the port underneath the steering wheel closer to the pop hood lever.

The grey button will scroll through the codes, one by one.

The red button will clear codes. Press it once, then again to confirm. You might need to clear codes before the car will start.

Codes might reappear after the car is running for a few kilometres or if another problem immediately happens.

Drive until the check engine light comes on. Pull over. Use the tool and record the first codes. Then, a few more km down the road more codes will appear. They might all appear at once.

Knowing which codes are triggered first is great but not essential.

Freeze Frame indicates that a code is the root cause of other error codes.

Pending codes are detected issues but have not reached a certain threshold.

Permanent codes cannot be cleared by the scan tool.

It is difficult to say for sure but you might not need to worry about some of these. It depends on the car but many will run fine forever with error codes related to evap, catalytic converter or oxygen sensor.

Scan Tool Indicator Lights

There were a number of indicator lights lit up on the scan tool, in addition to the codes.

These lights are essentially a summary of the issues. Codes will go into further detail.

Lights

  • MIS – Misfire
  • FUEL – fuel pressure
  • CCM – Comprehensive Component Monitor

Blinking Lights

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