Starting issue. Bad starter?
 

just hit a hiccup in my plan for the winter. The car doesn't start....

Two weeks ago I had trouble turning it on and it was misfiring like a bitch. It felt like a 4-cyl running on 3. It quickly subsided and was back to normal, revved freely and eagerly as it should. Its been a week since I drove it as I wasn't feeling well and I don't take the car out often in the winter. Today, it didn't want to start at all. I even tried to jump it and it was a no go. It now sits half way up my drive way. I called up the dealership and they said that the rotors could be seized (i.e. no oil and over heated) which doesn't make sense as the car has plenty of oil and has been running less than 206 degrees. I'm thinking its just the starter but I would like to make sure. I don't know if I should take it to the Mazda dealership or have my buddy's shop take a look at it. Any advice? Also, how do you start a car with a bad starter? I did it with an older car but the starter wasn't underneath the car like it is mine. Do I still tap on it while someone is cranking it?

If the roads aren't too bad and if you have a hill or some buddies to push, you could pop the clutch to start it, just enough to get it into the garage or somewhere to work on it. You could try tapping on it, but that didn't work for me every time I tried it, although that was on equipment at work and not on the car, I've never done it on the car.

But that's if it's the starter and not something else.

Yea, it ended up being that the motor was seized. Its time for a rebuild. I'm going to head to my friend's shop and see what my options are. I don't know whether to rebuild and turbo it or go with a NA 3-rotor. I'm going to get an entire cost thing written up.

You'll spend double or more on a 3 rotor swap. Not that it's a bad thing, but for sure not the cheapest route.