1994 Mazda Protege Won't Start
 

Ok my roomate owns a 1994 Mazda Protege LX with a 1.8 DOHC 4 banger in it. He doesn't have much for mods (besides a CAI) but all of a sudden after a cold snap hits it won't start (in either warm or cold weather now) When the engine cranks over it doesn't sound like it's firing on all cylinders. His cap, rotors, wires,plugs and coil are all good, we tested them. We are pretty sure its his distributor which is bad. Its a hall effect sensor type and I've heard that they are bad. Since I don't know the actually wiring pinout of it, I can't fully test it. Should we buy one and replace it? We know for 100% its not a fuel problem, it has cleaned injectors in it and it's getting plenty of fuel pressure (almost 40psi).

are you getting spark to the plugs?

u might wanna check the connections etc to the starter motor. If the starter is screwy, it wont be able to crank over the motor.

It cranks over just fine. And we pulled a plug and it gets spark, doesn't look to strong, but it just doesn't seem like its firing all the time.

if it gets spark, the distro is probably fine. If it's not strong spark, the coil is likely the culprit.

Unless your plugs are gapped incorrectly - -- check that.

You only checked one? Check them all.

But first, how old is the battery, it could be weak and not have enough power to turn the starter and provide sufficient spark to start the car.

Well it cranks over, but intermittely fires, we think we found the problem, on the back of the firewall there is this little module called an "igniter module" so we are gonna replace that. Stupid chiltons manual didnt' mention that part at all.