1999 Mazda Miata Starts then Immediately Dies
 

Anyone that lives in New England knows we got a fair bit of snow last weekend. I assumed it was the perfect time to take the Miata out since it had new snows. The car was fantastic, but short lived. I drove it for probably an hour throughout the day between multiple trips throughout the day.

Background: The car had been sitting for roughly 2 months on maybe 1/5 tank gas (assuming gas gauge is correct). Battery is rather weak since it hasn't been run, and it's been so cold.

Issues: On my final trip out (the playful one) the car was great until the RPM started to go crazy. If my foot was off the throttle, the rpm would soar and drop over and over again. The check engine light came on, and under throttle felt like blown coil packs. I was a mile away from home, but it was all 8-10% grade uphill, and about .25 miles from home it died all together. This happened saturday. Sunday, I drove to MA and bought a coil pack. Put it on, and noticed a random sensor on the rear of the engine broken. Not sure if I did it when pulling the coil pack or if it was like that. Anyways, the car would now crank, start, then instantly die. Any throttle made the car die instantly instead of in 1 second. I got a fuel filter in the mail today, hoping maybe years of sediment got flushed into the system from the low tank and sliding, and clogged it. I also bought a cam sensor incase it blew up.

Suggestions? I'm not sure what other options I have or what else it could be. From my research it looks like the cam sensors get heat soaked often. It would also appear the broken sensor is either the front O2 or the coolant level sensor. Neither one should prevent the car from running though.

Any help would be great! I found a few threads about this on an NA, but nothing on NB's

The tacho gauge going crazy points to the crank or cam sensor or wiring.

I chaned the Cam sensor, and the fuel filter today. The car now runs, but mis fires. Guess I’ll change plugs and wires tomorrow?