When I first bought my car, it had a nice kick, but now it struggles, especially in the lower gears. When I start off at a light even if I'm not on a hill, it feels like I have a full car load. I just had it in the shop for inspection and I hoped that would've covered any problems, but it still feels like I'm pulling a load. I drive a 99' Protege Lx with the 1.6L. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

My protege was on lugging like that and it turned out that only 3 cylinders were firing. Check the spark plugs and spark plug wires and hope that is the problem. That is cheap.

 

About a year ago, I replaced my plugs so they should be ok, as long as I did it properly, but as far as the wires, i never even touched them

 

I assume no check engine light is on since it was not mentioned. Have seen a lot of problems with the Mass air flow sensor on top of the air cleaner box. The sensor sends a signal to the engine computer based on the amount of airflow going into the engine. The sensor gets carbonned up inside and send an incorrect signal to the computer resulting in poor mileage, loss of power, and in worse case check engine light on and/or will not even run off idle. There is a warranty extension on this part for 7 years or 70,000 miles from start of original warranty, as long as it in not california emissions. If this is the problem and you fall within this range the dealer can replace part free of charge to you. Forgot to say also that this only applies to the 1.6l engine and not the 1.8l.

 

When I bought my car, it had a bad O2 sensor so the dealership said bring back in a week and we'll fix it. Well they "fixed" it, but not for good, the engine light came back on. I brought it back and they sent it to a Mazda delaership who did the same thing, spliced in a universal sensor using electrical tape. That one went bad also in about a week. Well I got frustrated and gave up until a year later at inspection, I was charged for a whole new one. Now it works fine so far. I just found out there's a recall on the part and I hope I can get compensated. The only other problem I can see with the sensor is any build up on it. So I guess I'll have to check that out. Thanks for ya help.

 

PPA, wondering how this worked out for you?

I took my car to Pepboys due to an Engine Check light. They couldn't figure out the problem. So I went to a dealer who said it was the EGR valve that needed replacing at $850. It's an '00 with 84K miles so I balked. They did clean it though, and the engine light went off for about 2 weeks before reappearing. I took my own sweet time ordering the part from a wholesaler and finally had pepboys install it for much cheaper - altogether part and pepboys labor was just over $300. However, recently the car (1.6 '00 automatic) has been hesitating at stoplights. Pumping the gas seems to wake it, but it still accelerates very slowly from a stop. Putting it in Low 1 or Low 2 helps a bit. I thought this might be cured when the EGR valve got installed, but it didn't help. So now my engine light is still on and the car is very hesitant from a stop. Did the 02 sensor totally take care of this problem for you?

 

If CEL is on again, what kind of code are you getting dkellm?? Assuming it is not still a P0401 or P0402 EGR flow malfunction since you replaced the EGR already?