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It shouldn’t be a timing problem. I’ve seen the flex plate crack around the mounting bolts an the entire plate shifted forward throwing off the crank signal timing, but that affected the engine as a whole so no one cylinder was causing a misfire or a backfire. If you’ve got a vacuum gauge, throw it onto a vacuum port and see what it’s telling you. I’d assume that it’s going to show a vacuum of 19-21″ with negative spikes in vacuum.
Since you seem to be suggesting the backfire can have an on again/off again quality to it, I’d stick with misfire diagnosis of the coil pack or injectors for now. Unfortunately, you don’t have much to access to disable cylinders though for a power contribution test. My method might scare some, but it’s all I can offer. I have jumper wires with alligator clips attached to them. I’ll attach one clip to a long handle screwdriver and the other to a clean ground on the block or transmission. Never go directly to battery ground for this test. With the engine running, leave the screwdriver tip close to a coil terminal as you pull the plug wire off. If that cylinder is firing normally, the engine will run worse with pulling the plug wire. A dead cylinder wont cause a change in idle characteristics. As you’re pulling the wires off at the coil, watch for spark from the coil to the screwdriver tip. And always make sure that the tip stays nearby each coil terminal so the spark has some place to go. If you don’t keep that screwdriver wired to a good ground, you get a jolt or 12 for the effort.
Start there if you like, and keep reporting as you learn stuff.
Coils can fail intermittently and can also be temperature dependent. It would be good to check codes if you can. Early on in that generation, the fuel injector harness was prone to melting and shorting out on itself. It wasn’t very well protected from the heat coming off the exhaust pipe that crosses over between the exhaust manifolds. Look at the left end of the of the engine behind the upper intake and it’s usually pretty obvious if there is a melt down.
I hope you already had a new job lined up before you made that phone call to the customer. It’s fine that you want to burn bridges with this shop, but it seems like you left yourself standing in the middle when you lit the match.
[quote=”jdburge17″ post=165477]my skills have nothing to do with if i can or cant do it[/quote]
LMAO
Sir, please step away from the vehicle.
I don’t appreciate that you assumed the worst of that. I’d have hoped you had the common sense to look at that statement and realize that since I dared place it where millions of people around the world could read it, it just might be a lot more innocuous than how you interpreted it. I did start this thread trying to display a sense of humor after all. Since you’ve made a bad assumption of me, I’m going to make an assumption of you and interpret your statement to say I’m behaving like a pedophile. Since that seems to be your immediate interpretation of what I was saying, I submit to you that you actually have much more in common with Jared Fogle than I do.
Oh, and Hey; If it’s your birthday, GFY 😀
Believe it or not, there’s room for you to misinterpret that too.
I Googled this part of the number by itself: ARW 868011. I think I found the guy you bought your PCM from but that may be it.
Hard start and 3000 RPMs sounds more like a vacuum leak to me. Is there any other tinkering under the hood you’ve been up to? If you have, it would be good to go over your work and look for something you forgot to reconnect.
Have you gotten any codes pulled yet? Don’t be afraid to look for them even if there isn’t a check engine light on. The PCM can store codes without turning the light on.
This might actually be a really simple one to diagnose once the no crank condition comes back. 6 volts at that S terminal on the solenoid is good evidence for where to start. The wiring diagram says there’s a starter relay under the center of the dash. I don’t know exactly where that is, but once you find it, you’re going to look for battery voltage on the back side of the relay at the black and white wire with key in crank position. You don’t have to press the clutch for this test. You do have to press the clutch pedal for the black and red wire. With the key in crank position and clutch to the floor, the black and red wire should have battery voltage. If you can hear the starter relay clicking with this test, but the starter still doesn’t crank, you can pretty much rule out the control side of the relay and its circuit. I think you’re down to that relay having burnt contacts or that black and red wire has a problem. Here’s a wiring diagram and good luck! Keep us posted.
It’s definitely plausible, but it’s something worth proving before you throw money at a part. I can’t find a price tag when referencing a Mazda Tribute, but it shows me that it’s about $143 for what should be the exact same driver module from Ford at my local dealer. It could be equal to or greater at a Mazda parts counter if they’re not exactly the same.
There are aftermarket FPDM’s available and they’re cheaper than OE, but I see they’re made by Dorman. I’ve found Dorman parts to be pretty unreliable parts over the years. A used part from a donor isn’t a very good idea either. These are known pattern failure parts which means you could be buying a dud right out of the scrap yard.
It’s a good gamble to try and throw an FPDM at it, but it’s still a gamble. If you didn’t guess the right part that module, one way or the next, becomes yours to keep. A lot of parts houses won’t offer refunds on electronic parts anymore. Whatever choice you make from here is yours to make. Just keep in mind that it is a gamble at this point and you know the consequences if you miss.
Personally, I hope it’s a very good gamble. Keep us posted.
I don’t have an answer as to which is the inlet or outlet. However, I don’t see a reason why it needs to be in one hose or the other. It’s just fluid passing through plumbing. You probably do have to worry if the filter has a direction of flow. I’d suggest this; just disconnect one of those transmission hoses from the radiator, connect an alternate hose to the radiator fitting, and set both hoses into a drain pan. Run the car briefly to see which hose is pushing out transmission fluid. (You can have a friend help out on this one. The ATF won’t flow so strong so you can do this without any harm or making too much of a mess.) That will tell you which direction the fluid is flowing in. Then set up your inline filter accordingly and top off the transmission fluid as needed with new ATF.
It’s a crap shoot and I can’t predict an outcome from here. I’d guess you’re trying to save the cost of a tow bill, but you’re risking a stall condition that could happen anywhere and that can lead to dangerous situations in traffic conditions I likewise can’t predict. Spend the money on a tow and, since you’re worried about unscrupulous technicians, maybe do some due diligence on finding a shop that’s honest if you can afford the time for it.
It’s late so I just did a quick check on Idenfitix with the P1233 and P1235 codes. The most common reported fix, by far was the fuel pump driver module. I’m not saying to just go buy a new FPDM, but start your diagnosing at that module. If it’s anything like the F series pickups and their FPDM failures, they bolted that module somewhere that it could collect dirt, debris, and road salt (If you’re in a climate for road salt anyway). Then the module becomes permeated by nature and the aluminum casing corrodes into a chalky oxide.
Now that I’m typing that all out loud and thinking about it, I can recommend you just go find the fuel pump driver module in its physical location and disconnect it from its electrical connector and whatever it’s mounted to. Look for corrosion on the electrical pins and then look for the back half of the case to be corroded. I just did a wiring repair leading to the driver module last month on a Ford Escape, which is the same vehicle. The driver module is on the left side behind the fuel tank mounted to the bottom of the floor pan. If you can’t see anything obvious, I can get some wiring diagrams posted later for some proper diagnosis.
