Today, my engine light came on right after I felt my 2004 Mazda MPV start to shake a bit while at a stop light. I took the minivan to an AutoStop and had the problem diagnosed as a "Cylinder 5 misfire."

Three days ago, I had my oil changed, some sort of fuel injector service done and afilter (that resided behind my glove compartment) replaced at a LubeExpress. Could any of these things have brought upon the problem? And is there anything I could check under the hood myself?

Also, I am now stuck at my sister's house in Massachusetts waiting till Monday to take it to a Mazda service center. I live in New Jersey. Would it be too risky to just drive home to NJ (and get it fixed near me), with this problem still persisting? When the problem started happening, I didn't feel like the minivan could make it and it felt weak in the acceleration department and tried not to drive over 40 MPH.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

- Sean

 

A quick follow-up to my post:

The next morning, it was recommended to me to reset my MPV's electrical system by unconnecting the wires to my battery (negative first; then positive), then holding them together for a minute and putting them back on (positive first; then negative). Voila! The engine light went off and the sputtering and shaking problem was no longer happening. Go figure.