- My model of MX-5 is: 1800 cc 2.5
- I’m based near: Melksham
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: _Engine check light has come on, local garage says cam belt could be loose and needs replacing, may be solenoid! what else could it be.
There should be a fault code stored, did the local garage obtain it? I’d guess it’s a VVT fault, Intake Camshaft Over Retard or similar. Can you confirm?
VVT was mentioned but no code was given over, I’ll chase it up tomorrow. It’s my wifes car and she called into the garage on the way home. This has happened before many months ago and it was cleared.
Can be caused by something as simple as a low engine oil level or degraded oil in need of a change. Some people have changed or cleaned the VVT solenoid valve. I’d rule out the basics first.
Thank you for your info’, will check things out tomorrow.
The Engine Management light unfortunately means only one thing, and that there’s a fault.
It’s impossible to guess what the fault might be without diagnosis.
It would be a little bit like calling your doctor, saying that you feel unwell, what’s the problem, and expect him to know without doing any diagnostics.
We really need to know the fault code before anyone can even have half a chance of knowing where to start.
Buy a cheap code reader, it will save you in the long run.
I’m going to guess that the garage probably charged you as nuch for the diagnostic check, as a code reader would have cost you, and you’re still no better off.
As it is our local garage and we get both our 5’s serviced there, there was no charge, but the code reader did not save the fault code.
Cam belt changed along with auxiliary drive belt and solenoid cleaned, hopefully all is well, proof of the pudding will be a nice long drive out next week.
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Well the light came on again when the Wife was driving home from work, so into the garage to be plugged in for the code, and it reads POO12 (‘A’ camshaft position - timing over retarded bank 1.) basic checks done by garage all at no cost.
I have had this fault code on my 2.5 twice in the last 3 years - I believe that once was on a very cold morning and the other was when I accelerated hard immediately after start up. I suspected that this is an oil viscosity problem so I always make sure that there is some heat in the engine/oil before driving off.
Incidentally error P0012 on this model was an intermittant problem identified by Mazda in the USA (Service Bulletin 01-025/06 - issued 7/7/2006) due to the factory fault parameters in the PCM being set too narrow. The subsequent recall required the replacement of the PCM.
I am not a mechanic but based on this I decided not to start pulling apart and replacing the whole system as this might not solve the problem - so I can live with cancelling the fault code on the rare occasion it occurs. However if the fault does reoccur on a regular basis this might point to other problems in the VVT system.
BTW Replacing the cam belts is a sensible thing to do on a car of this age anyway – so having had this done is not a wasted expense in my opinion.
Thank you for the info’ and welcome to this community, Wife has driven off to work in it this morning.
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