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Mazda Protege Maintenance and Repair

3600 messages,  Last post on Nov 28, 2009 at 3:21 PM

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#7 of 3600 protege brake and engine cleaning by j70005t Jun 16, 2000 (8:56 pm)
i have a 97' protege DX, having similar problems as jolou has, hope experts here can give me some suggestions: when braking, right before coming to a full stop, i can hear some "rubbing" noise, seems the pad is runnbing against sth. more annoyingly, after coming to a full stop (e.g. in front of redlight), the some vibrating noise is heard from the hood, seems coming from engine. I took the car to a Mazda dealership, they checked , saying my braking pads are fine, it is engine that is running rough because carbon built-up in engine as a result of not completing burning gas (i have only 22k on it, they suggested that is because i didn't drive much.) Believing what they said, i went ahead to have them do the cleaning for a whopping $200. Got the car back yesterday, found out the 2 problems are the same: 1. brake still makes that noise; 2. the engine vibrating noise is even louder and more evident. I will bring back the car to the shop to argue with them. Can some one give me more suggestions on this case? FYI: it is a 97' protege, 1.5 liter engine, for the first 2 years i only drove it a few miles everyday (to the metro station) on weekdays, thus only 22k miles on it. Regularly maintained/oil change, etc.
#8 of 3600 Carbon deposits by kmh3 Jun 21, 2000 (4:50 pm)
No it wasn't carbon deposits. Carbon deposits cause an engine to ping or knock under load, note this does not affect idle at all. Modern anti-knock sensors retard the engine timing so no knocking is heard, you lose power and gas mileage instead. Carbon deposits reach a steady state at about 10-20k miles. The trick is for that steady state to be below the ping threshold. Causes of excessive carbon deposit buildup are putting supreme gas into a regular engine, driving a lot of short trips where the engine doesn't have a chance to warm up, and an engine that burns oil can have excessive carbon deposit buildup too. Running rough at idle which is what you are describing can be a binding automatic clutch, or maybe just the idle speed is set too low. You could also have air intake adjustment problems, the air intake is computer controlled and something in there could be binding up too. Ultimately though, all of these add up to an idle speed that is too low, although the cause is different. I would start with the idle adjust. If you have a manual then the problem is not in an automatic clutch because you don't have one. The problem is more likely idle speed too low, clogged fuel injectors, or something messed up in the air intake path. If you have a tach you can easily test and verify the idle speed, I don't know what the recommended spec is but mine reads about 650 RPM. If you have a manual then this is an easy test try gently pressing on the gas and get the idle up to 700 RPM, if the shuddering noise goes away then the problem is identified. If you have an automatic then try shifting into neutral and back. If the idle isn't up to near 700 RPM in both cases then an adjustment may be needed, if the problem goes away in neutral and the idle speed goes up, that confirms a low idle also. If shifting into drive causes a huge decrease in idle speed and idle adjust does not fix it (meaning the idle speed is hard to raise up but in neutral it goes way up easily) then you have an automatic clutch problem (these are rare so not too likely here). hope this helps, kmh3
#9 of 3600 Mazda 626 by wbaker1 Jun 22, 2000 (10:12 pm)
Some people have asked how long a Mazda will last. I've had my 91 626 since 9/93 when I bought it with 16,000 miles on it. I now have 350,000 miles and still with the original 5 speed manual transmission. I replaced the engine 266,000 due to excessive oil consumption. I bought a used engine with 40,000 miles on it supposedly (you really never know about the true mileage) & have been very happy with it. The only problems I have had are the air conditioner ( which I have had worked on many times) & the excessive road noise due to design I suspect. Other than that I've been very happy with it. It has been extremely dependable.
#10 of 3600 ROUGH IDLE AND BRAKE NOISE by kdanka Jun 27, 2000 (3:25 am)
I HAVE A 96 PROTEGE LX THAT IDLES ROUGH OR WHEN POWER WINDOWS ARE USED AT IDLE. I ALSO HAVE A HIGH END STEREO SYTEM CURRENTLY USING THREE AMPLIFIERS BUT IT IDLED ROUGH BEFORE I HAD THE SYSTEM. RUBBING NOISE ALSO WHEN I SLOW DOWN TO BRAKE FOR A LIGHT OR STOP SIGN. MECHANIC SAYS THAT MY CALLIPER ON THE RIGHT SIDE IS STICKING. IS THIS TRUE? I JUST HAD THE PADS REPLACED AND ROTORS TURNED ABOUT 1000 MILES AGO AND NOTICED THIS NOISE AFTER THAT.
#11 of 3600 The tapping noise by quad143 Jun 28, 2000 (10:55 am)
I have a '97 Mazda Protege LX, I got it new so I have had it for almost 3 years. I have about 41,000 miles on it. I love my car, it is so dependable. I recently had thought that I needed to change the brake pads and I also heard a tapping like you said, j70005t. I found out that the tapping was the heat cover (?), I have no idea what that was but they just removed it-guess you don't need it. It is fine now. They checked the brakes and said they were fine. No noises now. I have not had anything wrong with it, I have taken it for regular oil changes and just had the brake pads replaced (driving in downtown Boston, MA during rush hour kills my brakes). I love the way it handles too, it is so easy to steer and I love the pick up on it. So j70005t, have the mechanic check the heat cover to see if that is what is causing the noise.
#12 of 3600 The tapping noise -- "fixed" by j70005t Jun 30, 2000 (9:57 pm)
Thanks for all your comments/tips on my original post about a protege (auto/dx/97). I took the car back last week to the dealer again, and a technician took a ride with me in the car, he then listened to the noise, open the hood, and adjusted 2 screws, and the hood is no-longer in contact with the noise source and the it is "fixed". Although, i can still feel the idle is still a little rough. As kmh3 said, it might just be a low idle (when i changed to "N", it seems reduces the small vibration i can feel). Anyway, the dealer has cleaned the carbon built-up and air in-take in "an effort" to fix the idle problem. (The technician told me the computer will do most of the work, so they just did the cleaning.) In the past 3 years, i drove mostly short trips. Anyway, felt much better now. Agree with quad143, this is a nice car. Loved it. Thanks again! jt
#13 of 3600 Dashboard Light/Tripometer by fas3 Jul 03, 2000 (5:21 pm)
My '98 Mazda Protege LX (automatic) has 25,000 miles on it. Just recently, the dashboard light behind the speedometer and tachometer went out for good. Also, the tripometer continually resets itself without me pushing in the knob to reset it. I just recently bought the car from a dealer and it is still under warranty. When I bought the car, the odometer had been replaced 5,000 miles ago. Could these two problems be related to having a bad clip or dashboard unit? Any suggestions? Is the dashboard light hard to replace? Will this be covered under Mazda's warranty? Thanks for any input.
#14 of 3600 dash lights by quad143 Jul 19, 2000 (7:16 pm)
I recently said that I have had no problems with my '97 Protege LX, I guess I should have knocked on wood. The problem isn't bad though, I noticed that all the lights on the dash are on except the heat/AC control. I noticed the strip where you control what is on was not lit up and then once I moved it back and forth a few times, it came back on. I will take it in and have it fixed because my warranty is up soon, I think. No problems with any other lights or anything else (now I am knocking on wood). I'll let you know what the dealer tells me.
#15 of 3600 C'mon! That ain't a big problem ... by mdaffron Jul 20, 2000 (12:15 pm)
... for a 3-year-old car. You've probably got nothing more than a light bulb that's loose in its socket. MD
#16 of 3600 Loss of power by wjm1 Jul 27, 2000 (7:26 am)
Two days ago my '00 Protege ES just lost power. The car became much clumsy and acceleration became so bad. Before I wasn't able to floor the gas pedal at all - the car would take of! Now I am pressing it all the way down, trying to get responce...which comes years later and it is much weaker, compared to what it was before. Today I took it to the dealer. They said - "no problems found". Damn! Tech roadtested the vehicle for 2 miles - felt ok according to the tech. "checked computer for codes. no codes found" - I do not even know what that means. I have no idea what to do... A person from the TownHall suggested check/change the air filter. (I'll do it tomorrow, but the car has less than 4000 miles on it) Is it possible the air filter to affect the power that much? By the way - the gas pedal itself feels sort of "lighter" - seems like now it is easier to press it... Any ideas/suggestions?

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