Just installed Cobb AP V3, now car won't start

[kbspeed3]

Hey guys,

I'm stuck and I could use some help. I have a 2007 MS3. I bought it a year ago, and it came with a test pipe and a JBR short ram intake. Yesterday I installed a Cobb AP V3, following the instructions exactly. My battery was hooked up to my trickle charger the entire time, and the process was not interrupted for any reason. I waited the 30 minutes for it to download the stock data, and then I chose the stage 1 map to begin. The map was successfully loaded to the ecu, but afterward the car would not start. All the lights come on like normal, but when I turn the key—nothing. No sounds or clicks of any kind. It's like trying to start your car without depressing the clutch pedal. I have tried leaving the key in the "on" position for awhile, and I've tried turning it over multiple times. Also, the AP has no problem connecting and communicating to my car's ecu.

So I did some searching. I have found some people who have "fried" or "bricked" their ecu, which is certainly possible in my case. But in every other case I have seen, the AP can't connect to the car in the normal way, and my AP and ecu seem to be working together just fine.

Some have suggested it could be the battery. But my battery has been connected to the charger the entire time and has a full charge.

Since it's the weekend I can't contact Cobb directly, so I thought I would reach out to the Mazdaspeed community for some help before calling Cobb tomorrow.

So what do you guys think? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Kyle

[g00s3y]

Might have overcharged the battery. Take it out, take it to autozone/pepboys/whatever and get it tested.

There is no need to hook the battery up to a charger when flashing a map, just for future reference.

[kbspeed3]

Oh okay gotcha. I hooked it up while downloading the stock data because that's what the instructions said to do. I'll take the battery in to Autozone and have them test it this afternoon. Thanks.

[g00s3y]

Originally Posted by kbspeed3 Oh okay gotcha. I hooked it up while downloading the stock data because that's what the instructions said to do. I'll take the battery in to Autozone and have them test it this afternoon. Thanks.

Yeah, I thought about doing it the first time I got my AP and hooked it up, just to be safe. But then thought "if flashing a map can really drain a battery in ~5 minutes, there are other problems to worry about" lol.

[kbspeed3]

UPDATE—It's fixed!

I had the battery tested on Sunday, and it checked out fine. I also realized my trickle charger has a function where it shuts off to prevent overcharging, so that's cool.

On Monday morning I spent over an hour on the phone with Matt at Cobb tuning. He was kind and competent. He ended up talking with their engineers and anyone else in the office trying to solve my problem—but no luck. They believe both my ECU and Cobb AP are working perfectly, so they recommended that I take the car in to the shop.

I wanted to make sure I did all I could before taking it to the shop. So I started crossing things off. I bypassed the clutch switch, I put in a starter relay from my buddy's MS3—still no luck.

A Mazda tech suggested it could be a problem with the immobilizer. But after walking through the steps he suggested, he said the immobilizer appears to be fine.

So last night I decided I would take it in to the dealer today. I figured I could poke around the forum a bit more, just in case I missed something. Boy, did I miss something big! Apparently a known problem on our cars is "poor contact of the connector on the starter motor." A few members suggested wiggling the wire. I wiggled the wire, and the car started right up.

Now to get my AP hooked back up and get the tune right. Huge thanks to this forum for saving me from a trip to the dealer

[amoosenamedhank]

Certainly a strange coincidence but a good lesson out there for people who jump to quick conclusions (not saying you did OP.. but you see it all the time).