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Sedans Mazda Protege Mazda Protege Maintenance and Repair
3583 messages, Last post on Nov 09, 2009 at 10:32 PM
You are in the Mazda Protege Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: croft77 (Dec 22, 2007 11:01 am) type engine you have. Hope this helps. |
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Replying to: 1redtag (Dec 22, 2007 4:25 pm) I'll probably upset the protege fans, but I get the impression you need transportation rather than a car hobby. my advice is to unload the protege and find something else. you're looking at spending a grand or more on a 13 year old car that's sat for a couple years - sitting is bad. personally I wouldn't touch a car that old with an automatic. imo the cheapest transportation deal right now is a used Taurus. stay away from pre-96 because of tranny problems though. an alternative, if you're able to do some work, is to find another BG protege ('90-94) with a manual tranny and solid mechanicals. use your existing car as a parts car. swapping wheels/tires, even interiors, is much easier for a diy'r than a transmission swap. |
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Replying to: croft77 (Dec 22, 2007 11:01 am) My Mazda dealer charged me over a $100 for the trans flush and service at 30K. My mechanic must have been thinking about manual trans. He is also from the 'old school' so I tend to discount some of his advice. However I looked in the manual and there is NO mention of a transmission service being required. The flush or don't flush is controversial I know. |
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Replying to: croft77 (Dec 22, 2007 11:01 am) You can identify your vehicle at mazdausa.com. Join as an owner, enter your VIN, and the site will identify your vehicle. |
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Hey all. Well, after my post of December 2, things got worse. When slowing down, the car would surge between 36 & 39 MPH as well as around 15 to 20 MPH. , I made the dealership give me a free loaner car.(the service guy wanted me to pay $30.00 a day for the loaner.) Enough of this sitting around wasting my Saturday as if I have nothing else to do! I brought the car in on December 11th, got it back on December 15th. What was it? It turned out to be the EGR valve after all. (or so they thought - see below) At first they eliminated it, then looked at it and realized how full of junk it was. So, it was replaced to the tune of about $500. Well, I have been driving the car ever since. Do you think it is ok? NO! Christmas Eve day I am driving home. I feel the car hesitate then the "orange light of death" comes on (The check engine light). I dropped off the car on Wednesday after work. Current Status: They know it is misfiring again - they just are not sure why. On the way to the dealership, I felt the car shudder, not hesitate, like I lost 2 cylinders. Anyone have any clues on this? I need this car to be worth something for trade in! Thanks. Happy Holidays!! Dave |
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For the '01 Protege ES the owners manual says to inspect the engine timing belt at 60,000 miles and replace it every 105,000 miles. A non-Mazda mechanic I talked to says to change it at 60,000 miles. Should I wait a bit to change the timing belt (say 70 - 80k miles)? There's no easy way to inspect the belt, you would spend almost the same amount to inspect it as you would to replace it. Thanks for any advice.
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I decided to do some of my own investigating into the check engine light problem I'm having with my 2003 Protege' 5 and happened to stumble upon this website .... EUREKA I think I've come to the right place. My Protege has 130,000 miles on it and about six weeks or so ago I began having an intermittent problem with the check engine light coming on - typically it would flash for maybe 5-10 seconds and occasionally it would act as if it was going die during this 5-10 seconds, then it would go to a steady on position - sometimes it would stay on for a day or two, one time for almost a week but then it would just turn off. The code read a P0300 Random Misfire but the tech  the dealership couldn't get the car to repeat the action. Anyway, this has continued to be a hit and miss problem until yesterday when the check engine light came on & wouldn't quit blinking. Towed it to the dealer who tells me that my cat converter is toast but they can't figure out why - I'm still getting the random misfire code however, in their words, my car was running great & purring like a kitten. Come to find out that in addition to mine, they had TWO other 2003 Protege's in yesterday with the SAME exact symptoms (only their cats aren't toast yet) and they aren't able to diagnose those either. Because it's pretty unusual to have THREE cars w/ the same problem come in on the same day, they'll be calling their technical advisor today to get more information - I'm PRAYING that this is a known issue & that I'm going to get some help fixing it! I appreciate any information you can give me regarding any recalls, etc on this issue. Thanking you in advance - Debbi
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Replying to: syd968 (Jan 01, 2008 1:59 pm) You may be both right. My manual has several schedules and some footnotes. In one footnote, for example the manual says: If vehicle is operated in cold districts {below -18 °C (0 °F)}, replace the timing belt at 96,000 km (60,000 miles). Also, you may want to consider changing the belt if you're driving with "unique driving conditions". According to the manual, "Unique driving conditions consist of : Repeated short-distance driving. Driving in dusty conditions. Driving with extended use of brakes. Driving in areas where salt or other corrosive materials are used. Driving on rough or muddy roads. Extended periods of idling or low-speed operation. Driving for long periods in cold temperatures or extremely humid climates."
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Replying to: autonomous (Jan 03, 2008 10:15 am)
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Replying to: syd968 (Jan 03, 2008 6:29 pm) I changed mine at about 60K miles ... which is when my water pump failed. Which reminds me that it's not only the timing belt that needs replacing. You should also ask about any other components (especially belts) that can fail in the area of the timing belt. Try calling a few independent garages and ask them what they recommend. You may find that they will recommend several services be done at the same time as the timing belt change. My understanding is that the real cost in a timing belt change is the "time"  it takes to get to it by removing / unhooking other components. In other words, while you're there changing one belt you might as well do the related services to avoid the hours it will take in the future to handle the other belts.
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