I had just overtaken a couple of very slow compacts that had just started up the steep climb on Pine Creek Road, near Springbrook-Mudgeeraba. I guess they were travelling at about 40-50kph, so I wasn't exactly hammering it to get by. I had been trailing them for about 5kms before that working 3rd & 4th, waiting for a suitable overtaking spot as the road was steep and twisty in parts. When the chance came I zipped back to 2nd and changed up on the way passed. The SP seemed to misfire and I thought I'd over-revved it, but knew that I hadn't been that aggressive. Anyway a few hundred metres further on after I'd cleared the slower cars the SP suddenly lost power and started misfiring. The loss of power was complete and I couldn't continue further so I had to pull over as best as I could trying to figure out what the problem was, then the car stalled.
The embarrassing bit came as the slower cars putted on by tootling me as they went up the hill
.A couple of turns of the key failed to get the engine started.
- 1. A quick look under the bonnet didn't reveal any strange sights, smells, fumes, or smoke.
2. No signs of anything loose, or not in its normal place.
3. Plenty of fuel in the tank (always used BP Ultimate)
As I was pulled over in a very awkward spot, I immediately called the RACQ for assistance. After the call was processed the BOV suggested I try restarting the car, which was against my better judgement as it sounding like a catastrophic failure to me. However, the car restarted and sounded normal. We were able to drive it home without incident (...cancelled the RACQ request of course).
- 1. What is the likely cause?....fuel, electrical, ECU, heat build-up?
2. I hadn't been driving the car hard, well any harder than I normally do.
3. The only mods to the engine is the SP T-Piece mod.
4. The car has been regularly and recently serviced.
5. Engine bay was dry, no rain, nor any water on the road.
6. Nothing was touched, or replaced, tweaked or fondled between the initial failure and the restart, which would have been about 5mins, 10mins at the most. So what happened during that period? Temperature drop? Fuel replenishment? What else could change with just the passing of time that affected this situation (...other than the BOV getting a bit more that very stroppy)? ECU reboot? (...do they do that?)
It seems odd to me that such a catastrophic failure could be self-correcting.
Has anyone else had a similar failure? Can the problem be analysed? Any clues before I seek assistance from Mazda?
FYI:
- - 2002 MX5 SP, engine is stock other than the T-piece.
- just covered 62,000kms - regularly serviced.
- ambient temperature on the day ...about 23-25C, not very hot, and not excessively humid for Queensland.
- the car has never missed a beat, except one very brief glitch attributed to some dodgy fuel returning from NatMeet at Easter.
- car continues to restart ok.
- I did almost run out of fuel once whilst at Natmeet and then again on the recent Bum-Freezer weekend in July, but I've used the car many times since then, so I am assuming any fuel tank debris would have made its presence felt earlier.
- Oh, and I've recent had the battery changed, ... I seriously doubt if this would have any affect on electrical components, but I mention it in case any item is susceptible to problems after a change.
Totally clueless (...as usual)
