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Well, I may have phinaly phixed the Phestiva
for all you injected 90-93 phartiva owners with the optical distributor and this problem I will explain.
I was searching the Distributor number T2T52371 all over the web, I found what other cars it fit.
Mazda 323 Mazda Protoge Kia sephia Mercury Tracer
I went to some help phorums about the Mazda and read.
Somewhere, and for the life of me I can't remember where, I saw a similar intermittent problem described. Unfortunately, every driver describes it differently, although lack of power, bad idle and the giveaway.......ta da......turn the key off, turn the key back on and it starts and runs ok for a while again.
Seems as though as with it gets worse daily. Most people replace a Vane airflow meter, and numerous other things, myself included.
Someone on the 323 board I was reading answered the question with an answer that seemed to make some sense
.
He said: On the optical sensor distributor, the seal, between the engine and the front bearing, will leak after a time.
When oil gets on the optical diodes or lights or LED's or whatever they are. it goes blind from time to time.
If there is any oil in the Distributor you have a problem. The cure was a new Distributor!
Being both cheap and inquisitive I decided to take both my distributors apart and make a good one from the two.
Once I get a new bearing and seal I will fix the one that remains.
I disassembled the entire thing all the way to the sensor level. it was soaked with oil. I removed the sensor and cleaned and cleaned it with alcohol and compressed air, about five times.
I took the better of the two distributors, the one without any oil seepage, and put the known good sensor in that one.
I then reassembled it and put it in the car and it ran and so far after twenty miles or so it hasn't quit.
I am going to reserve judgment but I couldn't make two mi. yesterday.
I know I have false alarmed before but now I think it makes sense.
Dirty optics was one thing I did ask the master technician and he said he had never seen that to be problem. I called him back!
He never thought of Oil on the led's but he said it made perfect sense. And he remembered he had read that somewhere also long ago.
My guess is that positive crankcase pressure could push a little oil between the seal and the shaft. A known Problem on other cars that use this distributor.
I replaced the PCV valve with a quality new one. Weird how that came about: A friend came over with a Mazda truck and asked me to replace his plugs and PCV valve the parts house gave him the wrong PCV valve, it was for my festiva!
The initial cleaning was not enough, because after a while some oil seeped out of the optical sensor again. I cleaned the sensor again yesterday, brake clean, compressed air, alcohol, compressed air, on again off again cleaned and cleaned it.
I reassembled it yesterday and took it for a test drive. all seemed well except when I let off the gas between shifts, and when I decelerated to a stop sign from 55-65 mph. it would screw up again. not as bad and not as often. I decided to adjust the Dashpot on the throttle stop, to keep vacuum down on deceleration, I lengthened the screw about 1/32-3/64" maybe 1-1/12 turns, then drove it again. it was a little too much, so I stopped and shortened it about 1/2 turn.
So far so good.
for all you injected 90-93 phartiva owners with the optical distributor and this problem I will explain.
I was searching the Distributor number T2T52371 all over the web, I found what other cars it fit.
Mazda 323 Mazda Protoge Kia sephia Mercury Tracer
I went to some help phorums about the Mazda and read.
Somewhere, and for the life of me I can't remember where, I saw a similar intermittent problem described. Unfortunately, every driver describes it differently, although lack of power, bad idle and the giveaway.......ta da......turn the key off, turn the key back on and it starts and runs ok for a while again.
Seems as though as with it gets worse daily. Most people replace a Vane airflow meter, and numerous other things, myself included.
Someone on the 323 board I was reading answered the question with an answer that seemed to make some sense
.
He said: On the optical sensor distributor, the seal, between the engine and the front bearing, will leak after a time.
When oil gets on the optical diodes or lights or LED's or whatever they are. it goes blind from time to time.
If there is any oil in the Distributor you have a problem. The cure was a new Distributor!
Being both cheap and inquisitive I decided to take both my distributors apart and make a good one from the two.
Once I get a new bearing and seal I will fix the one that remains.
I disassembled the entire thing all the way to the sensor level. it was soaked with oil. I removed the sensor and cleaned and cleaned it with alcohol and compressed air, about five times.
I took the better of the two distributors, the one without any oil seepage, and put the known good sensor in that one.
I then reassembled it and put it in the car and it ran and so far after twenty miles or so it hasn't quit.
I am going to reserve judgment but I couldn't make two mi. yesterday.
I know I have false alarmed before but now I think it makes sense.
Dirty optics was one thing I did ask the master technician and he said he had never seen that to be problem. I called him back!
He never thought of Oil on the led's but he said it made perfect sense. And he remembered he had read that somewhere also long ago.
My guess is that positive crankcase pressure could push a little oil between the seal and the shaft. A known Problem on other cars that use this distributor.
I replaced the PCV valve with a quality new one. Weird how that came about: A friend came over with a Mazda truck and asked me to replace his plugs and PCV valve the parts house gave him the wrong PCV valve, it was for my festiva!
The initial cleaning was not enough, because after a while some oil seeped out of the optical sensor again. I cleaned the sensor again yesterday, brake clean, compressed air, alcohol, compressed air, on again off again cleaned and cleaned it.
I reassembled it yesterday and took it for a test drive. all seemed well except when I let off the gas between shifts, and when I decelerated to a stop sign from 55-65 mph. it would screw up again. not as bad and not as often. I decided to adjust the Dashpot on the throttle stop, to keep vacuum down on deceleration, I lengthened the screw about 1/32-3/64" maybe 1-1/12 turns, then drove it again. it was a little too much, so I stopped and shortened it about 1/2 turn.
So far so good.
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