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no spark

V

vwguy

New Member
Hi there, I'm new to the mazda world, just acquired a 94 protege LX with the 1.8 16v as a winter car and it has been great up to the other when it died as I was driving it. I'm a big VW, and this is my first experience trying to work on a mazda. Anyways, to the problem!

I was driving along, and go to accelerate and it has nothing, look at the RPM gauge and it was at zero. Tried to restart the car and no go. Got it towed home. The engine turns over, and I can smell it getting gas. I have checked the spark from the distibutor, and from the ignition coil, no spark from either place. Even tested a friends ignition coil from his winter mazda, and still no spark.

Anyone with any ideas as to what could be wrong there? I'm not sure what the next step is.
 
dmention7

dmention7

Hater
I did a few searches at mazdas247.com, and two things that comes up are a broken timing belt or a bad ignition control module.

I had that same 1.8 16v motor (BP) in my old escort GT, but I don't remember enough about it to know exactly where the ignition control module is located. Could be part of the distributor, or a box elsewhere in the engine bay. Have you checked the power being supplied to the ignition coil? If the control module is dead, the coil will not see power and will not trigger a spark, otherwise, you should see intermittent +12v being supplied to the coil (sorry I can't be more specific, I'm just going off general principles here)

Also, IIRC, that BP motor is not an interference motor, so a broken timing belt would allow the motor to turn over, but you'd never see spark since the camshaft is stationary. You can peek inside the valve cover through the oil cap, or remove the distributor cap while someone is cranking the engine. If the distributor rotor doesn't turn, or you can't see any movement inside the valve cover (I'm pretty sure some part of the valve train is visible...) then a broken timing belt is your culprit.
 
V

vwguy

New Member
it turned out to be the ignitor not working, swapped in another one and it fired right up!

thanks for the help!
 
dmention7

dmention7

Hater
np.

Just out of curiosity, by "ignitor", do you mean the ignition control unit (or whatever you want to call the device that controls the coil)? Seems like some parts have so many casual names that it's hard to keep track sometimes.... hehe
 
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