4) Distributors

Symptoms

Engine cuts-out with tachometer dropping to zero. Attempting to restart the car immediately is futile, with no spark. After a wait of 5 seconds to 20 minutes the car can be restarted. However, once the failure has occurred it will repeat unpredictably & increasingly repeatedly. No ECU codes are set and the prime indicator of the condition is no spark is generated when an ignition lead is placed on the spark plug cover with a spark plug in it.

Cause

Failing ignitor module within the distributor.

Solution

US owners - rebuilt distributor discounted from Trussville Mazda, or the actual components themselves listed in Ford USA TSB #97137.
- Ignitor - F32Z-12A112-BA (Ford)
- Coil - F32Z-12029-AA (Ford)

- Ignitor - KLY1-18-V20 (Mazda)
- Coil - KLY1-18-V80 (Mazda)

UK owners - individual parts are available from Ford UK
- Coil - 3974598 (Ford, £33.15)
- Ignitor - 3974599 (Ford)


The TSB is known to all Ford main dealers.
A new entire distributor is not required - just the parts.

Causation is thermal overload causing permanent damage to the transistor in the ignitor module as the semiconductor substrate breaks down. Typical causes are heat-soak or hot conditions.

An alternative failure can be the Crank Angle Sensor, at the Crank Pulley end which can have 2 failure modes - temperature (cold mornings) and complete failure. 1993/94 cars have two crank sensors therefore - distributor and crank pulley end, this is not true of later vehicles. Failures of the crank angle sensor, a hall-effect-switch with no moving parts is rare.

TSB #97137:

p1 (35KB) p2 (24KB) p3 (16KB) p4 (25KB)

Full installation details are available giving photographs to support the ignitor/coil change procedure.

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Last Upload: 14th April, 2002. V1.50a
URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dorothy.bradbury/probemx/p_p4.htm