Hi guys,

As the title suggests, that is essentially what happened last night. I filled up my car with premium fuel, bought a mid-grade car wash that included the under-carriage wash, and then upon leaving the wash, the car was struggling to get any power. Luckily I was down the street from my parent's house and was able to hobble home.

In the driveway, the car had a hard time idling...struggling to keep it going, almost to the point of dying. Bouncing up and down from 100-600 rpms. My dad and I thought it may be bad fuel...checked the receipt - definitely premium fuel.

Next we made sure it wasn't any water on the connections so we popped the hood and it was dry, battery connections were good, bypass valve was on nice and snug. (it was the same kind of symptoms as if there was no vacuum pressure - i experienced this power loss before when the bypass valve came loose a couple of years ago). I also have the factory plastic guard underneath the engine bay to protect from water.

It's not the battery, as the lights turn on just fine. So last night, it was an issue of starting and idling properly. We let the car dry off for a bit, in case it was a sensor that had gotten wet from the car wash. After a bit, the idle became steady and I thought 'great - that's it' - Not the case - drove the car 50 feet and it was having the same problems. Since it was dark and i had to be somewhere, we decided to revisit the issue in the morning.

In the morning, the car won't start. If it does turn on, it dies immediately, no matter how much throttle i give (without flooding the engine). It's not the battery as we tried jumper cables.

We're heading down to get a check engine unit that my dad has at his office - the car doesn't stay on long enough to determine if there is a CEL so we're not sure if there could be one.

The car has basic bolt-ons; TIP, CAI, TMIC, spark plugs, mid-pipe, hypertech tune.

And to preface this all, I took the car out driving yesterday afternoon for a good 30 minute cruise and it ran just fine - it also ran fine on the way last night to get gas and a car wash.

It must be a bad sensor somewhere - we need to jack it up and take a look, but I thought I'd throw this out there to see if anyone has any ideas.

Thanks for any input/suggestions guys!

Paul

Wish I had some specific tips to try and help you out. My experience though, is that you don't actually want the car on (read: running) to check for a CEL, you just need the key in the the forward-most "on" position. Maybe check it again, and see. (?)

Also got under the car. Everything looks as normal and dry. The O2 sensor at the end of the catalytic converter looks normal and fits snug. That's the only sensor that is visible from crawling under the car.

MAF sensor? Try it. Solved my problem that sounds similar I had last week. Check if it's dirty. If so clean it.

If the MAF sensor gets wet, it will not read correctly, and will screw up the calibration in a big way. This happened to my RX-8 before, pull the MAF and make sure it's dry.

Cold air intake, probably sucked up some water.

another vote for the MAF.

side note: where in MN are you?

It could be the gas too. Seems like if it's the water it would happen instantly instead of after the wash was done. Hope you get it figured out and all taken care of soon

i vote bad fuel...

MAF seems likely, that'd have to be some really bad fuel. Is your gas cap on tight? A bunch of water in the tank could mess things up.

Mortose wrote:side note: where in MN are you?

I think Paul is actually in Illinois now.

I'd go with what everyone else has said. But then again, I know nothing lol.

Sorry for not posting a follow up yesterday.

Bad MAF sensor. Saw remnants of water so I took the cold air intake off which is shaped like a 'U' at the bottom...and had a nice pool of dirty water just sitting there.

Time to clean the MAF sensor, the filter, and the charge pipe this morning.

+10 points for each of you guessing the MAF sensor!

I give credit to Dave and Pat for my guess! They only helped me when I had the same problem.

Cleaned the MAF with carburetor cleaner
Cleaned the Air Filter with water
Cleaned the Intake Pipe with water

Changed the oil
Washed the car
Cleaned the interior.

Car runs strong again and looks good doing it. Sunday win.

I've been doing some travelling this past year. I spent a few months in Minneapolis, then in February, I started working in Illinois and travelled to Florida for the last month. I start in Virginia for a month on Monday but should return to Illinois, upon which time I'll have my car shipped out there.

I miss driving the Mazda, as always driving mid-size rentals like Altimas or Impalas = boring