loss of power

[ammo5]

I'm new to this forum and was looking for some insite on a recent problem. My '02 P5 has 150k on it. Recently my check engine light came on and didn't notice any problem so I ignored it for a while because it would come and go. The other night while coming home from a road trip traveling down the interstate, there was a sudden loss of power and the engine light was flashing. I pulled over and let the car just idle. I checked under the hood to see if I could see anything obvious. I just changed the oil and put new plugs in the day before. The engine seem to rev just fine in park. I proceeded down the road and all was fine. I was 100 miles from home and had no problem. The next day no problem, then today same thing. Does anyone have any idea what this might be. I was wondering about the fuel filters on this car. I'm sure they have not been changed. I realize that there are many possibilities here. I suppose I may have to take it to my Mazda dealer for a diagnostic.
Any thoughts out there?

 

[FORZWIN]

Have you done plug wires/coil packs recently? Maybe try and hit the nearest autozone to have them read the code behind the CEL.

 

[iJay]

If its a flashing CEL light, it was a misfire, as stated before, things to look at would be ur spark plugs, wires, coils. Start with the plugs as they are the cheapest.

 

[martispeed]

You probably had a misfire and now had destroyed your primary cat basically by melting it with all the unburnt fuel igniting and melting it. Now it's a huge restriction in your exhaust causing your car to lose power under load but still rev freely in neutral.

 

[iJay]

^
Thats a bit much LOL

I had a misfire replaced the spark plugs and the issue was gone.

 

[martispeed]

Well i said that because of what the OP stated. He/she said they drove with the cel for a while and then the car lost power...

Yet it would still rev freely in neutral. IDK... I would say go to autozone and get your CEL scanned for free and go from there.

 

[ammo5]

Thanks for all the replies. One other thing I failed to mention, was while in nuetral, and the engine not being that hot my cooling fan kept kicking on. I noticed from some previous topics someone had a similar issue and there was a suggestion about replacing a thermostat. Would this cause those kind of symptoms?

 

[njaremka]

you NEED to find out what code is on the ECU for the check engine light. afterall, that IS why it illuminates. we could guess on what wrong until you rebuild the entire car. but, without the code, its like shooting flying bats in the dark while wearing a blindfold.

 

[Rage87]

Same thing happened to me and it was a misfire code. Looked and changed things in the ignition and fuel systems, light still came on. Mazda diagnostic turned up nothing twice and then the dealer suggested trying 89 octane from Chevron or Shell. It's never happened since.