Questions and Answers

Mazda 323 Seems Like It's Flooding Out Q. This is proved to be a reliable car however I must be careful with unnecessary repairs because the car is quite old. two problems bothered me recently 1. Sometimes the engine stops at a long stop at intersections. Then the car is hard to start again. I usually have to press full down on the gas pedal to get it started again which is really bad in a crowded traffic.

The first time this happened the mechanic said it was the vacuum booster. For six months after the repair the problem didn't appear. Now it happens again but very rarely. Again it is hard to start after the engine dies. My guess for the hard starting was that the engine gets flooded with gas.

As I said I manage to deal with this either by pressing the gas pedal to the floor or, when it gets really stubborn,I unplug the fuel injector fuse and then crank the engine few times to burn the extra fuel in the engine. This usually works.

Most of the time this problem doesn't happen so when I went to the repair shop they said that unless I can recreate the situation with them I have to pay $70.00 just for a comprehensive check of the engine

2. The second problem happened only once at high speed on the highway. I noticed that the engine revs up/down by itself sometime during the trip without other symptoms so I didn't really care However, once, for like five or ten minutes I experienced a sudden loss of power.

Although I kept pressing the gas pedal the car wouldn't speed up. I couldn't get the car to go with more than 50 mph for like ten minutes. The feeling in the foot when pressing the gas pedal was like no extra gas was burned when trying to speed up. The problem fixed by itself during that trip and it never happened, but I didn't dare to go on the highway again.

After that I made a computer test at a garage and it showed two problems The Oxygen Sensor and the coolant temperature Sensor.

The most important thing I want to know is if these two things could cause the problems described above and if not what do you think is the problem.

• 1990 Mazda 323 Hatchback
• 1.6 liter 4 cylinder
• Automatic transmission
• 100,000 miles
• Fuel Injection
• P/S, A/C

Thanks for patience!
Daniel

A. You can pull the codes from the computer yourself. You do not need a scan tool to do it. Check Diagnostic Trouble Codes - 1990 Mazda for the procedure.

A bad Coolant Temperature Sensor (CTS) or a bad Oxygen Sensor (O2) can cause both of the problems you describe. The CTS can be tested with a scan tool and comparing actual ambient air temperature and the reading the CTS is giving. They should be within 2 or 3 degrees of each other.

Or put a thermometer in the radiator while the engine is running and compare the CTS reading and actual coolant temperature.