My Mazda3 won't start.
 

This problem has been persistent over the past year. My car would not start. I would need to slam it into park in order to get it started.

Now, it won't start at all. All the lights come on, the radio, etc.. but the engine won't turn over.

It's a Mazda3 2006, Automatic Transmission.

Is there a way to get it started other than in park? Any idea what the issue might be?

put it in neutral
and replace the park / neutral safety switch - that sounds like your issue, but i'm not sure where they are mounted to help much further.

Ok so the car will start in neutral?

Any automatic transmission has a safety switch so you can't start it in gear, there's an enable switch in park, and another in neutral.
The "TR" switch is located right at the shift linkage end on the transmission. I don't have time to take pics, but if you're going to work on it yourself, message back and I can take some pics from the manual to help you out.

I have a similar problem:

The other day I went to start my 2006 and it would not start. The dash lights, cd player etc all came on- but once I turned the ignition there was no sound from the ignition or engine.

I got the car towed the nearest garage. While on the way over the tow truck driver was talking about a similar situation that he had encountered earlier with the exact same car. Once he had dropped the individual off with their car it mysteriously started again. And you can imagine my surprise when that exact scenario happened to me. My car started again as if there was no problem.

Should I be looking at getting a new starter?

I think the key transponder / security system has the same effect. I'm not 100% sure on this one, but on other vehicles, if it's not reading the proper key code it will not start the engine, but it also flashes the security key light. So have a look for that next time it happens to see if it's an issue with the key / security system.

hi am not sure how this forum works, was looking to star a thread but dont know how to, anyway my problem is with my mazda 3 1.6td, about 6 weeks the turbo went, we replaced ourselves £480 and all was fine for around a week then it felt like being dragged back whilst driving, thought it was fuel filter so replaced £34 and sice then it just wont start, when it does the rev counter is raising and dropping in idle, have cleared all fuel lines with compressed air, refuleled without any air in system, done oil change since the turbo kicked all the oil into the air filter which i obviously changed £13. i thought oil may have gone down dpf filter so had it regenerated at mazda (£230) no joy took it to local garage who said it would be aprox £350 - £400 but said couldnt garatee it would be fixed, tok the chance and he had it for a week and a half got it back today and still not fixed said he would sort it if i had an open cheque book, i gonna take exhaust off tomorrow to check that (only because i cant think of a single thing left to try) any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Did these two things happen at the same time? - poor performance and "hunting" idle?
The idle issue is typical of an air leak, since you just did the turbo there could be a fitting that's loose or not properly sealed.
Another option is if the turbo was performing poorly before, the engine computer could have been compensating for it (with O2 sensors telling it something was wrong). SO it may take some time to get back to normal, or need a battery reset to relearn what's happening with performance.

I recently cleaned the throttle body and idle control valve on an old forester and it was high idle and hunting idle for a couple of ignition cycles before it smoothed out to normal.

If you have a workshop manual, it may have some troubleshooting tips about the problems you have - sometimes the books are helpful (suggesting an air leak), and sometimes they aren't (suggesting bad sensor but specifically saying which sensor).

hi there, thank you for your reply, after the turbo was replaced we drove it a few miles and it felt like it was being dragged back as if the brakes were coming on then it would be fine, with the occational cut out but would usually turn off the key first or second time, this is what led me to change the fuel filter thinking it may be blocked giving brief fuel starvation. Once fuel filter was changed it would not start at all, this is an intermittent problem as today i jumped it from a tow first attempt, since then it has started first time every time apart from once which was 3rd attempt. in the morning it probably wont start at all, but i think i have located the problem, was reving the car today and coincidently noticed that a few tiny bubbles were coming from the third injector base which increased when hard revving, so am going to change the injector seal on monday, as my theory is that as you mentioned that the idle prob is a classic example of air in the system, and if air is leaking out when under pressure that when the engin is off its going to start sucking air in slowly but enough to give it the non start problem, i will let you know how i get on, once again thanks for your input.

mazda 3 downt strat
 

I have a mazda 3 automatic 2.0 it cranks over but it wont star (what it could be)

Transponder/Security System
 

I saw your response about the Mazda3(we have the Manual 5 Speed) sporadically not starting, & yes we are pushing in the clutch. Lol...Ours is doing exactly as you have described. The Red Key Sensor Light comes on on the dashboard, then goes off after each cycle, just as I understood you to describe. We have tried SEVERAL different techniques suggested on the web. ie: Locking doors, then unlocking with key, turning ignition on & off repeatedly as suggested, letting ignition "cycle." Sometimes these steps work, and other times they do not. Some people have said the easy fix is to just replace our key. That the computer chip and "brains of the car are no longer communicating." Some say this isnt the problem, and that replacing the key doesn't solve the problem....
Do you personally know how to resolve this problem?
T.I.A