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Fixed, I believe
Since I posted this in October on a couple of boards, I've taken a few steps and have it finally fixed, I believe. Until the final fix, I would have it happen at least once a day if not more. Since the fix, I haven't had it happen at all.
1. First, based on knowledgable advice, I cleaned the ground points next to the battery and under the dash. This did not fix the problem, but it was overdue anyway.
2. Most people had guessed it would be connected to the ignition switch. I replaced the ignition switch, but it did not help. The logic in swapping out the switch was solid, but it just wasn't that point where the problem was happening.
3. Finally, I took it to the local Mazda dealer. Realize, my car is a US model 626, but I live in the Netherlands and my mechanic speaks English well, but not perfectly. He agreed with me that I did not have an immobilizer system on my car. There was no chip or anything else embedded in my car's key. However, in between when I scheduled my appointment and the actual appointment, I began timing how long it would take my car to start after the initial failure. I found out that it was consistently 7 or 8 minutes in between a failed start and starting fine. After I told that to my mechanic, he surmised it was something he called a "start block". His solution was to bypass this "start block" wiring, taking it out of the equation. Since he performed this change (around half an hour of labor, minimal parts), my car has started fine each and every time. This was the first I had heard of a "start block" and perhaps his English skills are coming into play, but it has been 5 days now and not a hint of the old starting problem.
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