We took the miata out for an errand and had it stall on 1st and Milwaukee. Mandy, reliving her experience with the beloved Suzuki Samurai, the shitheap, knew exactly what to do. We waited for the red light, crossed two lanes of stopped traffic and got into a parking spot on Milwaukee. It was doing the same old thing: not starting. This time, the pump was exposed and I could hear it buzz. We walked the rest of the way, did some errands and came back. It ran well enough for us to get it a block further before it quit running. Lots of space here and a bar across the street. We called AAA and they showed up before we could finish a drink. The three and half miles home were within the four mile radius, so there was no extra charge.
Then the debugging process started again. I was assuming that the noise meant fuel. I'm also assuming that the computer is working and that no error codes means the computer thinks the sensors work. To test part of this hypothesis, I unplugged the cam position sensor, aka cam angle sensor, aka CAS, and tried to start the car. I thought I had read that if the computer doesn't like the signals it's getting, it won't power the fuel pump making a lot of other problems look like fuel pump problems.
The pump buzzed. The car didn't start. I went and read posts on miata.net.
There seems to be some consensus that lots of problems have the same symptoms. Most posters imply their solution to be the one I should follow since it fixed the symptom in their instance. I resolved that it's very hard with a home toolbox to find out exactly what the problem is and prepared to fix more than one thing.
My new fuel pump arrives at the store this afternoon. Time to mow the lawn and get a short bike ride in.
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