So the day before yesterda my husband and I noticed that my 1998 Protege was losing some engine power while in 2nd and 3rd gear. It lags behind and won't accellorate for a moment and then is a little jumpy to catch up (I hope that made sense!). Then this morning the check engine light came on. It has just a little over 100K on the engine so it's getting up there.

We perform general maintenance on the car though we've only had it for the last year. It's recently had an oil change, spark plugs replaced (about 8 months ago), air conditioner recharged etc. and hasn't generally given us any problems.

We're getting out of the Army and moving around 4000 miles away in 2 weeks and the military WILL NOT ship the car in this condition. Any ideas what could be wrong with my car? My husband seems to think that it's all because it needs new belts (which hopefully will be changed tomorrow) but I don't think it's that simple. Any ideas?

 

What size engine does the Protege have ScarletMyst and does it have an automatic or manual transmission. Since the check engine light has come on I would strongly recommend seeing what code number has been stored as this may be an excellent source of information as to what is going on. Could have some kind of transmisson problem if is an automatic. The Mass Air Flow sensors on these vehicles were always a source of endless driveability concerns as well. The code that is stored will help to point us in the right direction. Code format should start with the letter P and then have four numerical digits after such as P0171.

p.s Many parts stores will perform a code check inspection for you free of charge in hopes of selling you a part. Just need the code number and not their well intentioned diagnosis if you know what I mean.

 

Sorry! It's a 1.5 with a manual tranny. We have to actually take the car in to get the code# as we only have 2 auto parts stores here...neither of which will check the codes.

 

That is too bad ScarletMyst.
If you do like to work on your own cars or at least like to know what is going on with check engine lights coming on you might just consider purchasing your own. They do no necessarily cost a fortune to get one. You just want to make sure it is OBDII compatible. Have heard that the Auto Xray is a good one. I recently purchased one for $70 from MAC tools that works very well and super fast. My diagnostic computer at the shop takes 5 minutes or so to finally get a code even though is is the latest and greatest from Mazda. The MAC tools one retrieves a code in about 10 seconds so make a great supplement to my capabilities to look at problems. Outside of MAF sensor creating problems I can only think of a couple others off the top of my head. Spark plug wires were fairly common to fail. A good way to diagnose this is to take off from a stop and then instead of shifting into 2nd gear, shift all the way up to 4th or 5th. Accelleration should be very slow but fairly smooth. If you notice a jerking type feel then would suspect an ignition missfire from faulty plug wires or carbon tracks burned down the outside of the spark plugs and inside of spark plug boots. Also check the air intake boot between the air cleaner housing and engine. A tear in this boot or any other leak into the intake air system that is bypassing the air flow sensor will be allowing unmetered air into the engine which can cause loss of power and rough run conditons.