Mazda :: 1988 - Won't Start Sometimes - Key Fell Out Of Ignition Randomly
May 7, 2011
I'm a rural mail carrier driving an '88 Mazda, manual transmission. Recently noticed that sometimes the car won't start. Didn't have it looked at yet, because it always starts for the mechanic. One of the times I tried to start it and it didn't start on the first try. It did start on the second try and then the keys fell out onto my feet. I put them back in and kept delivering mail. Previous to that incident, I thought the keys were "loose" in the ignition.
So, I switched to a different keyring with only that key on it. Still have incidences of the car not starting. All the lights come on the dashboard when I try it but it doesn't make any noise at all, not even the ding ding ding, you're seatbelt's not on.
I think maybe it might be the battery. It seems like that was it the last time when all the lights came on but it didn't make any noise. However, I don't think a low battery should make the keys fall out. That's not normal, is it?
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I have a 2000 Mazda 626 and it randomly does not start. Sometimes I try to start the car and when I turn the ignition, there is no sound. The battery is brand new and so are the spark plugs. This happened a couple times. The first time I just tried again about 15 minutes later and it started up. The next time I was playing with battery terminal wires and it started. The third time I tried to move the battery terminals but that did not work so I put the car in neutral and moved it front and back and it started. Why is this happening?
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When my wife went to put the key in the ignition switch, the ignition switch fell in behind the dash.
So I took off work early today and went to trade in my 95 Trooper and get an '04 Touareg. I guess I'll have to cancel my Planet Isuzu account. A friend of mine works at a dealership and they had two '04s on the lot, one black, one beige. I went with the beige because my black Jetta doesn't hide dirt well at all and the bird poop really stands out. Also, the beige, although it has more miles (47,000), was in much better shape, was more cush, and felt safer on the test drive. Not sure the why of that other than the owner of the black one put some really hard miles on it, or perhaps he had a sportier suspension.
Anyway, I buy the thing, take it home, and park it up by the mailboxes. I then put the key in the mailbox and walked home. I told my wife the Trooper broke down (a very believable story) and asked her to come for a ride with me in the golf cart to get the mail so I could vent.
On the ride there, I tell her a great story about how and where the Trooper broke down and what a pain in the ass it was and how I couldn't reach her on her cell phone, and it's a good thing our friend Marc runs a towing service and she's buying it. And she opens the mailbox. And she gets the key and is thrilled.
So she drives it home and I drive the golf cart home and we go inside and decide to go take a ride to get some dinner. I let her drive. We get in and she goes to put the key in the ignition and says, "That's weird." And as I say, "What's weird?" she goes to put the key in again and the ignition switch disappears and falls in behind the dash. There's a hole in my dash where my key used to go.
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Deliver mail so make many starts and stops throughout the day. I drive a 1988 Mazda 323 manual transmission. Recently, it has had trouble starting in the rain (like it isn't turning over). When it isn't going to start, the red lights come on the dash and then fade out to black.
The first time I noticed it, I was running the lights, windshield wipers, radio, rear window defogger and the a/c on and off to clear up the front window. It eventually started. The mechanic replaced the battery.
The next time it wouldn't start, I had accidentally killed it and was running the lights and windshield wipers and radio. It eventually started. The mechanic replaced the alternator.
The next time it wouldn't start, I only had the the lights and windshield wiper on. It eventually started. The mechanic replaced the distributor cap and wires.
Now today, it wouldn't start again but eventually did. I had the lights and windshield wipers and radio on. I turned off the radio before trying to start it the second time and it started.
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When I went to pull my key out of the ignition yesterday the key got a bit stuck and when I jiggled it a little to pull it out the chrome bezel that locks the tumbler in fell out. Now the tumbler is out as well and I cant figure out how to get the tumbler in and lock the bezel in place.
I see a pin on the bottom of the ignition cylinder that I should be able to push in and pull the cylinder out but I cant seem to push the pin in at all.
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The engine "pings" shortly after I get in and drive it when the car is warming up. I watch the engine temp rise...and when it starts to get warm just before the thermostat opens and the temp drops the car "ping or pre-detonate" when the accelerator is gently pressed. After the engine warms up... no problems. I drove it from Port Angeles Wa to southern Oregon with out it ever happening... but when I drive a short distance to town it consistently happens. I have checked what I know how to but beyond that it seems odd. Its it normal for the engine temp to rise up warmer than the normal operating temp, and then drop back down? The thermostat was recently replaced. It seems something is creating excess vacuumduring the warmup time that makes the engine ping. All the vacuum gizmos and gadgets make me crazy...
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i have a 1988 2.4L 185,000+ miles chevy s10 pu. the check gauges light has been coming on for some time. the gauge bounces up and down a lot. but settles to 20psi at driving speeds. there is no tapping or noises from the engine and has good power and oil. what should i have check
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As the title states, I have a 2002 Mazda B3000 series Pickup and while everything is working great, the a/c is driving me insane!
Here's how it goes:
- Start the car, turn on the A/C, hear a click
- As I drive, after 10-20 minutes, the A/C would just either switch to (what I think is) vent; it blows humid, warm air.
- Another way to turn it off is to accelerate quickly; Note: these two scenarios are sometimes inconsistent
- Sometimes, it would occur, while other times it would just randomly turn itself off
- A solution I've found is to switch over to vent, leave it on there for a few minutes, then switch back to A/C; works for another 10-20 minutes
What I have done to fix it is to replace the freon (even though, it was never really empty; still isn't empty) and have replaced the fuse associated with the A/C.
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Can a problem elsewhere in the system cause ignition coils to go bad? I have an '03 Mazda 6s, 147k miles, owned it since new (Dec '02). 3 1/2 ~ 4 years ago, over a period of 6 months I had to replace 4 of the 6 coils. A month ago, one of the replaced coils went bad so I had all three rear bank coils replaced (cheaper to do all three at once rather than one at at a time since half the engine needs to be disassembled to get at them). This week, I started to get the initial symptom of a coil going bad on me: Occasional stuttering in the engine.
This issue always starts when it's wet outside. The first few times it started when going through a car wash, this last time was right after Super Storm Sandy dumped a lot of rain (I am not in one of the flooded areas, NH just got a lot of rain).
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My 89 Mazda B2600i conked out on me suddenly about 10 days ago. My local mechanic replaced the distributor, cap, and rotor and the ignition coil and now it's running again. But starting it up at the mechanic's, I noticed a new faint sound like a clock ticking rapidly. From under the hood it sounds more like an exposed spark plug firing, but fainter.
After driving around to make sure I wasn't imagining it, I had the mechanic take a quick listen and look. He couldn't say for sure what it was, but said it was probably nothing to worry about.Taking a look under the hood at night, I saw lights running along the spark plug wires (continuous) and flashes of light where the spark plugs insert (frequent).
If one terminal of a volt meter is placed on the outside of the wire running from the ignition coil to the distributor and the other held in the air, the voltage rapidly builds up to 4 volts (a few seconds) and then immediately drops back to zero. This happens in roughly the same time frame as the flashes of light where the spark plugs insert, but I can't tell if it's the exact same frequency. What's going on?
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Have a 2007 GX 470 with 70,000 Miles. Recently we have had problems with the ignition getting stuck. Key will go in, but, will not turn. Happens randomly and unpredictably. Will start after a period of time. Sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes several hours. My not happen for a few weeks or sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. Neither Lexus or Toyota claims to have heard of this problem.
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With the car ignition off, the brake lights have been coming on randomly. With the car still off, I have depressed and released the brake pedal and the lights go off. Then about two hours later I will go out to the garage and the brake lights are on! I have driven the car since the first occassion and it happened again. Possibly related or not, the key fab battery is low as I get the quaint "battery empty" warning icon.
I have had my 2006 Phaeton for a year and half now and this is the only problem I have run into in 12,000 miles.
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My car was randomly not starting for past 2 months. I would get in the car, press the break pedal and push the start button. The car would not start and the ignition would just go to ON. I turned the ignition off, closed and reopened the door with the remote and then was able to start it. Few days later the trick stopped working. Did some research and found something on faulty P gear selector sensor. They recommended starting the car on N. That has been working for me for few weeks until one day this tricked stopped working for me. I decided to replace remote battery and had no issue for past two weeks. New remote batteries solved my problem.
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My 96 Metro for some reason is popping the 15 amp ignition fuse randomly. First time it happened I disconnected the alternator and replaced the fuse and it got me home. Pulled the alternator and had it tested and it tested fine. Put it back in and everything worked for about a month. It popped the fuse again while driving down the road. I disconnected the alternator again but this time the fuse still blew. I disconnected the coil replaced the fuse turned on the key and the fuse did not pop. I reconnected everything and it worked fine. Hasn't repeated itself in a week. I think there is a short somewhere. Just can't find it.
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I have a 1998 Mazda Protege LX Automatic, and my ignition switch is completely unresponsive: when on accessory or run position nothing comes on.
I am also noticing that I can switch gears even with the key out and brake pedal not depressed.
I tried to check the function of the ignition switch, and found the following:1) It has one white wire with 3.5v2) When the switch is in Acc position, a black wire with white stripe also has 3.5V on it now3) WHen the switch is in On position, all the wires going into the Switch have 3.5V on them...
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Quite awhile ago my key started to randomly get stuck in the middle ignition position but it was happening very rarely and some gentle jiggling was letting me take it out easily. Well a few days ago that went from very rarely to each and every time I start the car.
Now its a tossup whenever I go somewhere whether the key will pop out like it should or I'll have to fiddle with it for anywhere up to ten minutes.
The car never has a problem starting, its only when I have arrived somewhere and need to take the key out that is an issue. I've managed to remove it every time so far but it has taken a fair amount of WD-40, jiggling the bejeezus out of the key and steering wheel and plenty of patience.
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Recently my car has been giving me lots of problems starting. At first I thought it was a battery issue. All the lights on my dashboard would turn on but once I turn my key nothing happens . After trying to turn my car on all I would hear is one click . I get a new battery and the problem happened again . Thing is , it only happens sometimes and at the most inconvenient times at that.
I then thought it was a alternator problem but I ran the test to check that like taking off the the negative cable and even both after I started my car and the car stood running smoothly. Had someone else check the alternator and they said it was fine.
Today I had to turn the ignition switch about 5 times before the car even started . When it finally started , it sound like it was struggling to turn on. I have a 2001 eclipse gt.
What it can be?? Sometimes I'm scared to turn my car off . Someone told me it could be the cold weather , but I find it so hard to believe that it's just that. Especially when it happens at the most random times . When it wants to basically .
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88 s10 2wd 2.5 litre will not run with the f terminal of the alternator connected. Had alternator tested showed good but needle jumped around some, so went ahead and bought a reman. Put it on same issue. No codes. Unplug the f terminal vehicle will run. This is circuit 39goes to ign/gauge fuse 20A, which ties into the instrument cluster so i unplug the cluster no change.same fuse and circuit 39 go to ses lamp which should have been eliminated as a possible cause by unplugging the ipc. Other places circuit 39 goes is ac cutout relay, shift lamp, vss buffer.
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3 months ago I bought a beautiful dark-blue 1988 Volvo 240, manual transmission. This is my first Volvo and I'm already hooked! It's the car that's going to teach me to work on cars because for the most part it's beautifully simple. I bought a repair manual to be prepared, and have now encountered my first real issue.
For several months, even in the rain, it would start and run beautifully. Now when it sits in the rain overnight it will not start the following morning, or until the weather subsides. Once it has a few hours to "dry out" after the rain and humidity stops it starts beautifully. In the wet weather it wants to start, the starter goes and goes and at points it sounds like it almost catches, though ultimately won't. I imagine moisture is getting in somewhere and preventing spark at some point in the ignition system, but, like I mentioned, I'm new to this. Where to begin; what I should replace to begin troubleshooting this?
In a separate issue I can't get fuses for the rear tail/brake lights to keep from blowing when I replace them.
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Recently replaced alternator and battery (was told by Brakes Plus that was the issue). The car (with no warning) sometimes just won't start. Whether after driving it or if it's been sitting for a day or two, sometimes it will only turn over once, but never start. Not sure if it's a timing issue or an issue with spark/fuel. There's also a loud click in time with engine rotation when it does start, may be an injector, also not sure with that.
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1988 s10 blazer 2.8 4x4 automatic. I just upgraded to a 3.4 v6, all machine work done, engine has all new internals. I have spark, i have fuel, but it will not start. I have checked the timing over and over, it is fine. I need a checklist or something to look for, all sensors seem to be hooked up and it still wont fire.
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