So here is the deal, I have a 2006 mazda 3 S 2.3l that was running great getting about 31-33 MPG on my morning commutes to work and home. Approximately one week ago, I went to shuffle vehicles in the driveway and bam! the car wouldnt start. At first it sounded like the starter wasnt fully engaging, like it was just spinning and not turning the car all the way over, so I jumped the battery and gave her another go- now the engine fully turns over but she's simply not firing up. I pulled off the fuel line coming through the firewall and pulled out a cup, had my wife prime the fuel pump and fuel shot out of the hard line with good force- now I know I have fuel. I pulled the plugs (and found out my plug well seals need replaced) and noticed they are probably factory because they are full of carbon and, now, coated with oil so I replaced them. I unhooked all the coil packs except #4 which I pulled off with the plug still in it, grounded the threads and had my wife turn the car over- it's sparking bright and blue- now I know I have spark. Seeing how the oils always been changed with mobile 1 synthetic (pennzoil full synthetic once) and I had driven the car previously in the day that it died with no catastrophic failure I'm very confident the engine has compression. The CEL has been on since we got it, throwing an o2 emissions code even though i've hooked my wideband o2 sensor (from my srt-4) into the o2 bung and it reads just fine downstream. Having said that it's never thrown another code and currently is code free according to my diablosport in-tune tuner. I don't know where to turn with this issue. I don't want to sway the mazda expert's, in this forum, opinion about what I think it is before you guys give it a unbiased diagnosis. Are there any tell tales that are poking out at you guys that are mazda specific? We had one other mazda before but i'm used to working on my neon a lot more than this car (which I love and wish I had a big turbo speed 3 instead of the srt). The other mazda was millenia with 214k miles before it was given a good riddance. Thanks in advance and i'm glad to be a new part of these forums.

 

When the car didn't start - was the previous time it ran a short run (under 5 mins)?
I've had mine flood a couple times after doing this & how to fix it is to pull the fuel pump fuse / relay & fire it up, then install the relay / fuse and you should be good to go.

I had an 84 RX7 that would flood and the exact same issue / solution worked. It's sad that after some 23 years they still can't use the O2 or some other sensor to figure out the engine is flooded!. UGH!

 

Ok, I'll admit I didn't have one bit of confidence that pulling the fuel pump fuse would remedy what happened- while I still don't understand what in the world happened. This worked like a charm. I pulled the fuse, turn it over and it started for about 3 seconds(fuel drained from line) then fizzled out. Popped the fuse back in and bam fired up like nothing happened. Then I quickly went online and canceled the crankshaft and camshaft position sensors I ordered last night. Thanks DJS, you really made me scratch my head but... it worked. you rox.

 

Glad that it worked for you - it is nice when ther's closure on the forum like this