[ShawLovelock]

Hi so, picked up my turbo MK2 last Thursday and it drove great. Now it won't start and I have no spark...

A quick history of what happened:

• Seen the car running a couple of weeks ago, drove fine no issues.
• Picked up on Thursday, PAS high-pressure pipe came off when pulling onto the driveway (it was recently refitted)
• Moved car across the road
• 2 hours later quickly turned the car around and went up and down the road to do so, parked up
• Next day, struggled to start but did eventually – only ran it for a few seconds before turning off
• 2 hours later, went to start and nothing apart from cranking

I've had the plugs out and they don't seem to be flooded, tested them and no spark.

I'm going to order a new set of plugs and leads, what else can I check next?

I know there are a few sensors, crankshaft and cam, is that the next step?

There's quite a bit of PAS fluid everywhere due to the pipe coming off, could that have impacted something?

Before I picked up the car, the seller refitted the PAS system but did say the battery would need replacing as it seemed to be struggling to start in the cold. I've fitted a new battery since but it didn't start BEFORE the new battery either.

 

[Martin Y]

A fairly common cause of non-starting in Mk.2s is the crank or cam sensor. The PAS thing is probably not involved though if something came loose and a belt could have whacked it against the crank sensor then maybe.

If you have an aftermarket ECU you could hook up a laptop to see whether you're getting crank signals.

 

[ShawLovelock]

A fairly common cause of non-starting in Mk.2s is the crank or cam sensor. The PAS thing is probably not involved though if something came loose and a belt could have whacked it against the crank sensor then maybe.

If you have an aftermarket ECU you could hook up a laptop to see whether you're getting crank signals.

Well, I've picked up some new ignition leads and a set of plugs whilst I'm doing some bits in that area.

I also bought a genuine crank sensor just incase it's that too.

I'll take a look tomorrow and see where I can get too.

It's got a ME221 but I don't have a Windows laptop, if all of the above fails I'll have to go down that diagnostic route!

 

[ShawLovelock]

Well, we fitted the new plugs and leads today and it running.

The only other difference is that the coilpack has been unplugged and refitted (but the same one) so potentially something temperamental there.

Will keep and eye on it for a while and see what happens, good news is I can return the crank sensor!

Don't like it when I can't see something that was physically broken though, this feels a big magic!

 

[guitaristanime]

Coilpacks on MX-5s are made of cheese

Turboing a car will make an unhealthy one die very quickly.

If your coil pack is on the way out, I would expect your car to start misfiring, first at high engine load and eventually & increasingly at idle.

 

[ShawLovelock]

Coilpacks on MX-5s are made of cheese

Turboing a car will make an unhealthy one die very quickly.

If your coil pack is on the way out, I would expect your car to start misfiring, first at high engine load and eventually & increasingly at idle.

I didn't go for the most expensive leads from MX5Parts but just what they recommended would be the cheapest but reliable ones to keep me going for a while.

I want to get the car mapped again and some other work in a few months so may get them to fit coil on plugs whilst there.

 

[guitaristanime]

I didn't go for the most expensive leads from MX5Parts but just what they recommended would be the cheapest but reliable ones to keep me going for a while.

I want to get the car mapped again and some other work in a few months so may get them to fit coil on plugs whilst there.

I'm referring to the actual coil pack, hella expensive - Coil Pack, Genuine Mazda, MX5 Mk2 1.8 1998>2000 (mx5parts.co.uk)

In fact its cheaper to get Audi R8 COPS than it is to buy a new genuine mazda pack.