My 94 died on the interstate & won't start.

[jimmeladdie]

A couple of months back, my 1994 Mazda 626 died on the interstate & hasn't started since. My fiancee was driving it. She said she was just driving as normal when she looked down & the RPMs were at zero. Prior to this when I'd drive it, it would be touchy when being started. Sometimes it would semi-start, sputter then die. It would not immediately re-start. I'd have to let it sit for a minute & make sure everything had stopped (including the power antenna). Then I'd try again making sure it got a good rollover & start & it'd be okay. There were also acouple of times whe she was driving it & it would just die on her at a stop light. Eventually after a bit it would start up.

My neighbor, a mechanic, after listening to it, said there was no compression & therefore the timing belt. Well, after spending a day & a half getting down to the timing belt, I find out that is not it. My neighbor came & looked at it again (now that it was all taken apart) and he now says it must be the distributor. Does this sound correct?

Also, when he was messing with the distributor, he did not mark the timing. I am getting a used distributor off of ebay. Can anyone tell me how to time it?

[RicW]

Sounds a lot like my wifes Telstar (the Ford variant). There is a white emission-control cannister (approx 60mm or 2.5" dia X 100mm or 4" long) under the inlet mainifold that controls the excess air when idling. The diaphram tends to leak when worn out giving the small lead up problems of rough idling. Use a can of ignition-start to test - just spray this into the space under the manifold (between the windscreen end and the carburettor) whilst starting. If it fires up and keeps going while the spray is used but dies when you stop you have the problem. No replacement available for mine so I removed the unit and blocked off the hose (use a threaded hose clamp). To confirm it is this problem , it will keep going usually under accelleration without the spray (in the driveway) but dies after taking your foot off the accellerator.
Mine cost me two gaskets and much mucking about and a trip to a carby tuner after I found the problem (via a mobile mechanic) as I had changed some carby settings by mistake.

Dont muck about with another distributor - its not going to do anything except mess up the budget. If you cant sort out the timing just remove the No1 plug lead (belt end of the motor) and plug onto an old spark plug. Place the plugs metal side onto a clean section of the head-cover. Get the crankshaft settings onto top dead centre (note that you may have to rotate it another full turn) - and with the ignition on and distributor cap in-place gently turn the distributor back and forth on its shaft (release the lock bolt slightly on the top of the head RHS) until you can see the spark plug fire. It does not need the engine running to check this. Good luck.

[kjbuente]

This is interesting....

I have a 93 626 and it is curently running. It to is a little touchy when I start it, But I'll get to that later.

With the distrubitor, are you talking about the actually distributor, or the cap? The cap should be replaced after so many miles anyhow. If you are reciving spark in the corect time, this is not your problem. Start off with the basics. Is it getting spark, and is it getting fuel. Always check these first before messing with the timming. Even if your nieghbor said so. I'm doughting his mechanic skills if he said it was a compression issue and he was just listening to it. There are a MILLION things that can cause these issues. 80% it is not due to compression, the only way to say if it is compression is to hook a compression tool to it. You really can not say for sure if it is until this has been done. Double check spark and fuel, then post back.

Now, what I found interesting. You mention that you whould have to wait for a little while before being able to start the car. Well, what really cought my attention is the power ant. I have to wait until my power ant is fully extened until the car will start. It will just sit there and turn over until the ant is done, once it is done the thing will start right up and run like a champ! I'm thinking my ECU may of gone bad.

TIP... Now that I mention my ECU, see if you can pull some codes off of yours. This can greatly help you finding the problem!

[mazdatech177]

distributor does sound correct. that would be my first guess without being able to diag the car myself