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My 2011 Mazda 6 3.7L V6 does not always crank the first time, especially after sitting overnight or a few hours. The car seems to operate perfectly other than that.

It's a push-to-start. Once I press the ignition button there is no crank, and the navigation system turns off. Sometimes, if I keep the brake held down, it would begin to crank after a delay of several seconds. Sometimes it doesn't crank at all, or maybe I am not trying long enough.

If I drive around for a while and turn it off, and turn it back on, it'll crank as usual.

I did notice that my battery was at 11.8V in the morning (which is very low) and so I had replaced it, and can confirm that the new battery is 12.5V in the mornings. The battery terminals read the battery voltage and the first ground terminal that I see from the negative terminal is also reading battery voltage.

I have also checked the ignition signal fuse and starting system fuse and they look intact.

I have also attempted to reset my ECU by unplugging the negative battery terminal, pressing on the brakes a few times and waiting more than 20 minutes, but the problem remains.

This issue popped up after installing my Injen SRI. This installation only involved the following:

  • Resetting the MAF sensor
  • Resetting the negative battery terminal
  • Removing the airbox

I did have the MAF backwards right after installing my SRI, but have since fixed it. Not sure if that could have caused some electrical issue.

I've also confirmed that there are no vacuum leaks and that the intake is completely dry, though I don't think that either of those things would produce this symptom.

There are no codes, and as I have said, the car operates perfectly other than the no-crank issue.

What else should I be checking? If it is something wrong with the starter itself, I don't understand why my installation would have caused it.

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  • Hi there - please don't post updates in the question post. Stack Exchange works best if you post this as an answer, and if necessary update the answer if you get more detail.
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 15:13
  • Thanks @RoryAlsop - I will post my update in the answer section.
    – yoni
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 17:16
  • Excellent - have an upvote from me :-)
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 17:26

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The problem had gotten worse, with the engine taking 5-10 minutes of pressing the ignition before it would crank, and with the A/C no longer functioning either. I brought my Mazda to a mechanic and he diagnosed the problem as being related to a failing engine bay fuse box--due to excessive corrosion--as there is no signal to the starter despite the starter relay functioning normally. We are replacing the engine bay fuse box, which I hope will resolve this issue.

He insists I did not directly cause this issue by installing the intake, but the fact that I was messing around in the engine bay (especially considering the fact that the intake sits right next to the fuse box) may have exacerbated this issue.

Edit: This ended up being a bad ground connection from one of the wires connected to the starter relay and the chassis. We manually added another ground wire to the chassis and it fixed the problem.

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