At this point, the Mazda project has become tremendous success. The near free $100 car that turned into the Money Pit took a dramatic turn from boon to feather in cap upon the successful installation of Felpro multilayer steel head gasket. Doubtful this would have happened were it not for the excellent technical support I received from a select crew of automotive brainiacs at DMS, and my ultimate decision to pay careful attention to their suggestions. This is an excellent example of how a member can leverage expertise at DMS to drive an ambitious project onward to glory.
All in all, the car runs superbly. It is quiet, powerful, and I believe all systems are 100% go on the engine and mechanical components. The manifold pressure is correct. The car starts powerfully, and it shifts and drives like new. The suspension feels solid, and the steering wheel points straight ahead. The brakes are powerful, and all driving systems work as Mazda intended.
But I am writing for a reason, so lets get into my final set of problems I am facing with this car, as hopefully I can get a quick resolution to them so I can quickly return to my native art of electronics. Ironically, it is electronic problems that remain with the Mazda, and here is the breakdown:
-
Cruise control does not work, shows no sign of life. It is actuated by steering wheel based buttons, and I cannot even get the light to come on. I suspect the buttons themselves. I think that they are disconnected, or perhaps the cruise control module is dead.
-
AC and heat work in the cabin. But the system has a digital temperature set point and operates thermostatically. The temperature is stuck on 77 degrees. Fortunately, this is good enough to use AC on a hot day, and kick in heat on a cold day. But I want to be able to control this. And I believe it may be a problem that relates to other problems with the car, so fix it I shall.
-
The check engine light does not come on. I have driven for 200 or so miles since last reset, and no check engine light. I have ELM327 OBDII connecting via Bluetooth to torque lite. When I run state inspection check, it says all items are ‘incomplete’. I have never seen torque lite deviate from this. When I take to DMS and use the Actron OBDII, the check engine light comes on, and the Actron tells me I have 1521 and 1522 which are codes for the two VRIS solenoid selectors (variable resonance induction system). Explained simply, the air intake has two butterfly valves that the ECU can control that can change the length, and thusly the resonant frequencies, of the air intake. I read online that when the engine comes on, one of them should come on. I have yet to see either of them come on, but I have checked the solenoids and they check out. When I unplug the Actron, the check engine light disappears. This problem screams of electrical short. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I cannot dial in a Mazda on the Actron? One last important detail is that when I look at ready/not ready items in the state check list of Actron, the list looks the same as what I got from state inspection place. This points me more toward actron as good solution, and torque lite is somehow lacking. The check engine light and ghost error code points me toward Actron faulty, or my ECU is not handling the connection to this device well at all.
-
For the first time, the car died unexpectedly at idle yesterday, while I was sitting waiting to pull out. I restarted and all was good. Short?
Now I will say this: I had a set of problems like this a few weeks back, and I got lucky and stumbled upon a blurb on some forum suggesting to replace this fuse as it caused one of the problems. I checked it, and yes it was out. When I replaced it, about 6-7 problems I had noticed went away. There are many items on each fuse, so its entirely possible that a single fuse or bad ground could be the source of the whole set of issues.
Any words of wisdom from the DMS experts? I would like to get these figured out quickly where possible, so I can get properly inspected and enjoy the car.
