Mazda 3 MPS Help

[Ruairi83]

Mate sent me this below if anyone can help.

******
Mk1 Mazda 3 MPS late 2009. Petrol 2.3 disi turbo

Wondering if anyone has come across this. My motor has been doing this for a while and its intermittent which makes it a joy to troubleshoot and it only happens when in boost. In the mechanics today had the diagnostics on it ..nothing no mil comes on, no codes logged and no abnormal values. He took it for a spin and typical it was on its best behaviour !

All coils and sparks have been replaced btw.

Wednesday evening was the worst its happened coming onto the motor way 5th gear and gave it a boot full 3.5k and it started to pick up then it was like hitting a brick wall felt it though the whole car. Pulled back of the throttle slight still doing it, dropped into 4th squeezed the throttle still doing it, totally let off in 4th then squeezed it on and it started to pick up again gave it a boot full and away it went.

The whole way home even in the lower gears 3rd it would do it when you asked for full throttle…it wasn’t having any off it. Thought I bust something for sure.

The only way I can describe it was like being off a cylinder…stutter…stutter..stutter like a machine gun. It can be a load of stutters till you let off or it can be like a hiccup when picking up through the rpms/ in boost.

No consistency at all but happens more often than not like today did a 4th gear pull didn’t miss a beat. Next min in 3rd stuttering again !

No smoke out the exhaust when it happens
Not sure if its got a map on it

Any help appreciated dont want to be throwing more £££ parts at just to see if it fixes it.

Anyone know a mechanic that would be handy with jap turbo car. Belfast, antrim location. Cheers
******

 

[weeloaney]

Maztec in Bangor are probably the best bet. Had them do the timing chain on mine back in February.

I’ll post that description onto the Facebook page and see what they say.

What it’s doing sounds very similar to when my MAF, was fine on normal driving, but full throttle and when the revs reached 4-5k it hit a wall, but mine through on the engine management light when it done it a few times

 

[Ruairi83]

Maztec in Bangor are probably the best bet. Had them do the timing chain on mine back in February.

I’ll post that description onto the Facebook page and see what they say.

What it’s doing sounds very similar to when my MAF, was fine on normal driving, but full throttle and when the revs reached 4-5k it hit a wall, but mine through on the engine management light when it done it a few times

Cheers bud, I haven’t a clue just said I’d mention on here. Il pass that on and if you hear anything message me. Thanks

 

[weeloaney]

Cheers bud, I haven’t a clue just said I’d mention on here. Il pass that on and if you hear anything message me. Thanks

I’ll get the replies and post ideas on here

 

[scub]

my evo did this & ive a feeling the actuator was away on it.
cheap fix if that's all it is

 

[Burt2000]

Is the throttle body dirty?
one of my evo’s did the same but it was plugs which I see you have changed. Make sure they are gapped correctly

 

[weeloaney]

my evo did this & ive a feeling the actuator was away on it.
cheap fix if that's all it is

Actuator was mentioned on Facebook, also the swas too. Steering Wheel Angle Sensor, this can be unplugged to eliminate it, it lowers the power when there’s a centre steering angle on.
These cars also limit torque in 1st and 2nd gears.

Being plug in and data logs being recorded while it’s driving and hopefully catch when it’s running bad would be a big help.

 

[Ruairi83]

Cheers lad will pass these on

 

[weeloaney]

Also spark plugs are worth getting double check. These cars are sensitive to them. If car isn’t tuned then Denso itv20 or NGK LTR6IX-11 gapped to 0.8mm. If tuned 1 step colder gapped to 0.7mm is recommend.

 

[Nigelo]

I had something very similar when my mps was mapped.... Think it was the safety systems cutting the power as the fuel pump couldn't supply the necessary fuel.

My solution was to get the uprated fuel pump internals that are available fitted. Solved the problem, and if its the same situation here, I wouldn't push it until its sorted. The ecu isn't particularly good at protecting the engine if it has been mapped.

 

[Ruairi83]

Cheers guys, sounds very similar to that @Nigelo and he doesn’t know if it’s mapped.

 

[Nigelo]

Cheers guys, sounds very similar to that @Nigelo and he doesn’t know if it’s mapped.

Here's an example of the pump internals - might be able to get it cheaper elsewhere (think the golf GTI mk5 engine had the same HPFP so has the same upgrade available)
HPFP upgrade

I did a lot of reading up when I had mine, and would've been one of the first to starting tuning it in the UK, so have encountered a lot of the potential issues . Make sure he checks the oil level regularly.

 

[Noel McQ]

What engine modifictions does the car have. These things are stupidly tempermental. Id start with a spark plug change then coil and maybe even injector. Mine done this before and it threw up an eml for a misfire in cylinder one. Just have to go by process of elimination, could even be worth cleaning the maf sensor too.

If hes not sure if the cars mapped but it has some modifications I would be in a big hurry to find out if it has been mapped or needs to be as running engine mods with no map to support them is disastrous on these.

 

[Noel McQ]

Also as @Nigelo says if it hasn't got upgraded fuel pump internals get some asap lol! Can link you to a few other good UK tuners/long time owners who have encountered pretty much every problem for help if need be.

Thankfully mine was resolved with a good service and plug change etc but I have had the nightmare with the standard turbo before too. Other than that they're great, can get plenty of power out of them