Hi all – I’m new to the MX5OC community. I’m having some serious issues with my car and hoping someone here can help.
Apologies for starting a new thread as I couldn’t find a relevant one.
I bought a 1.8 2006 MX5 (Reg year GJ56) car privately back in October/November, drove the car around for 2/3 weeks before parking it up for winter. The car was completely fine, no issues at all.
The car was then stored outside (stupidly) during the winter period. The car was moved around a couple of times to be able to access the area it was parked in and had to be jump started due to a drained battery – all started and moved fine.
However, when I went to start it last month to get it back up and running again ready for the summer, it does not want to start. There is no cranking from the starter motor, and I have the “car with key” (assuming immobiliser) light flashing on the dash.
Through a lot of online searching, below is a list of things I have done to try get to the bottom of this but no luck.
Changed battery in the car and the key fob
Changed/Tested the transponder/antenna which sits around the ignition on another MX5 (all fine)
The electrician fed the starter motor directly to diagnose it and it is spinning so assumed the issue does not sit with the starter motor.
After speaking to somebody, I have also tried a new ECU, Cluster unit and the transponder chip in the key as a complete set but no luck.
I am running out of ideas now and not sure what else to try.
The car had collected a lot of condensation during the winter period, so not sure if that has a part to play in it? Are there any electrical wires at the bottom of the car which I need to pay particular attention to? I’ve had an instance in the past where some pest has cut through the wires at the bottom of a car (but everything seems to be fine on the MX5).
Please can someone help if they faced similar issue or point me in the right direction.
Well I’m no expert but it sounds to me that the key transponder is not communicating with the ecu (no crank and flashing immobiliser).
Chances are due to loss of battery charge the key fob needs to be reset up with the ecu - have a look at below - although it says Mazda3 it’s valid for mx5 I’ve used it in the past.
There are likely a number of threads on this forum re reprogramming and maybe somebody else will jump in that knows more about it than me - hope you manage to sort it👍
Hi
To me this sounds like the infamous MK3 scuttle grommet leaks.
If you have changed the ECU and associated keys then a communication issue could be a water soaked connector block under the dash that is not sending the signal from the antenna to the instrument cluster.
I believe UK cars do not communicate directly to the ECU from the Antenna unless you have keyless entry.
A bit of a pain but worth checking continuity and resistance between the antenna and the instrument cluster, sorry I cannot help with pinouts, perhaps someone else can.
Good luck solving this.
Thanks @Suggy - I forgot to mention that I had already tried this before with the old set before changing over to new ECU but the only thing that got programmed was the central locking got working from the key but no luck with the starting issue. I will give it another go as I may have missed something.
Thanks @Roadster_Robbie - That’s one thing I have not done myself as obviously I cant drive the car to a garage and there aren’t any mobile mechanics that I know. I did have a key programmer come out and he confirmed that its coming up as unable to communicate with the key etc, however, I’m not sure where in the system the communication is breaking down.
Thanks @k1drive - I will check this again, I believe you are talking about the wiring/connector block that connect the cluster unit to the rest of the system inc antenna? This could be a possibility as I did notice some signs of condensation around the area
The electrician did confirm that he had a check of all this and everything was working etc but will recheck again.
Yes thinking about it you are right, reprogramming only gets the buttons working!
I had to get a main dealer to recode a replacement spare fob, trouble is they need the car to do it - cost £50!
Like I said hope you manage to sort it - cheers
I have been watching this thread in the hope that this situation would have been resolved by now.
As the car has not started, but many attempts have been made there will hopefully be error codes stored in the system. Of course if the battery has been disconnected, these would be lost. Assuming that not to be the case, you just need to plug in a cheap(£10) OBD II reader into the OBD II port on your car, turn the ignition on and the error codes should present themselves. If you need to know where the OBD II port is on a MK3 MX5, give me a call.
The other matter that has come up in this thread is the possibility that key fuses in the passenger footwell area(panel in front of door hinges) may have been damaged or blown. Has this area been checked and all connections and fuses tested?
After a lot of trail and error, swapping key antenna/transponder ECU etc and help from Rob(MX5Bitz) we couldn’t get this resolved. Last resort was to send this to Mazda.
The very first thing Mazda did naturally was put a new battery on the car and it got firing straight away. Bearing in mind I had already purchased a new battery and tried it before going down the whole route of changing transponder ECU and then giving it to Mazda.
I then bought another new battery Euro Car Parts, installed and drove home from Mazda. I left the car for 2 weeks as it now needed an MOT and 2 weeks was the quickest slot I could find. On the day of the MOT test , went to start the car and same issue again. Spoke to Mazda and now purchased a brand new battery from them directly in case it made a difference but it did not seem to work.
I am not sure exactly what the issue is as seems like an intermittent problem - possibly related to battery or something. I have since been abroad and the car is still stood in the yard.
I put a different ECU and instrument cluster on the car and it fired up. This was supposedly tried in the past, so it must possibly be attributed to user error.