Mrs. CRWLR called me at work today to say that our van was riding around on the back of a flatbed. I checked spark, there is none. She said that power loss was gradual, not sudden. That said, it gradually lost power but she still couldn't get in into the parking lot and had to bail out in the street. She described the motor as lagging in power, and missing as it was going down.
I am inclined to not go after the CPS (multiport injected V6 in a Mazda MPV), mostly because I don't know where the damn thing is, but the coil and igniter are right on the fender and easy to take off.
The igniter (it says igniter right on the side) has a 5-pin connector, the pins are marked in order C G B IGt IGf. Is there a way to test this device with a multi meter to determine if it is serviceable or not? The wires that go to the igniter also appear to go to the coil and a gizmo that looks for all the world like a huge transistor.
The assembly that contains the coil includes the igniter, and another device that appears similar to a transistor. The transistor has one leg grounded to the frame of the assembly, and two other legs that go to a connector. All three of thest parts appear to be interconnected; I say this because of the shared wire colors, the wires actually all go into a loom, then come out again on another connector. It is difficult to tell if the wires really are the same, but a few test with my multimeter will get this sorted out.
My main concerns are, can I test the igniter thingie, and can I test the coil?
I could simply exercise the checkbook, but I prefer to understand stuff more complicated than the Bic pen I use to fill in the blanks.