bought a used 2002 mazda protege 5 with 94xxx miles. got it from a mazda dealer, car fax came up clean, they worked with me well. really good experience...

first problem I encountered was driving home from work, the CEL starts flashing and then remains solid. car looses power and feels like its runnig on 2 cylinders. i get to the top of the hill barelly that I was on and pull off. check engine bay everything looks fine, no oil, no coolant, no smoke.. ok...?? turn car off. let it sit, power it back on and everything is fine... but the CEL remains solid..

Bring it back in, they repalce plugs and wires clear the codes and it rungs great....

It happens again now, on two other occassions. so i bring the car to autozone to have them pull the codes. coming up with a precat sensor defficiancy (o2 sensor)
bring it to the dealer, they order the part and then replace it for me..

ok car runs fine again for a few days and again the car acts up, have to pull over, shut off car, and then power back on and its fine...
bring to dealer again.. they repalce both ignition coil packs... hopefully this will fix it this time..
drive the car home again, no probelsm
on the way to work today i get a solid CEL, no power issues just a cel

Service manager said that it seems that CATS are on their way out, so ok big deal maybe there is some type of antifouler mod i can do to clear the CEL from popping up...

I am going to autozone today to get the codes checked again to see waht it is reporting
typically it jsut reports random misfire on all cylinders, no sensor specific issues. i had them specifically check the EGR valve and they said it checked out ok..

anyone else have similar problems?
I understand that mazdas have a very sensitive vaccumm system which I fear might be a cause to one of these issues..

any all help are greatly appreciated.

the dealership so far has covered all maintenace, parts, labor, and diagnositc charges so I am not complaing, i just want a reliable daily driver car... grr

other then that this is a great little car, glad I purchased it and hope for the best..

josh

 

A clean carfax only means there weren't any REPORTED repairs done on the vehicle. It doesn't necessarily mean the car hasn't been flooded or something else where the person just rebuilt everything to get it running.

 

very ture, but i am somewhat mechanically inclined and a major gear head so i took a relaly good look at this car.. it has an extensive list of what was repaired on it and when.. nothing electrical or mechanical besides normal maintenance.. i also live in Kansas city, very rare to find a flood car around here.. especially going into winter..

josh

 

Ok, first get the codes read, but do not clear them. then you can look them up in section 01-02a or b, depends on what engine you have. That start giving you some idea where to start looking. http://protege5.ugly.net/#ac

 

The flood cars usually aren't from that area...they are imported from Gulf Coast states (think Hurricane Katrina.) I know I saw some of those the last time I was looking at used cars. I recently bought a 2000 Taurus, and I reviewed plenty of cars with a "clean carfax" that when I looked closer, I found problems with (bent suspension pieces, repaired accordions @ front/rear indicating a previous accident, rust/mud in the trunk under the spare tire, etc.)

 

my dad has worked for geico for many years and that has brushed off on my a lot. i check body lines, trunk, deck lid, door jams, engine bay, rocker panels.. all looked A OK...

I will pull those codes today and will check that database. thanks for the info thus far, i am jsut hoping to have asolid reliable car and i think mazda can definitely make this happen

 

the code that was pulled is not in that reference sheet...

P0421
something about a precatalytic warmth below threshold....??? the guy at advanced auto had never seen that before.. going to do a google search on it now
thanks
josh

 

Section 01-02a, page 71. Could be loose O2 sensors, bad front O2 sensor, exhaust leak, or a bad CAT.

If you think it may be a flood car, lift the rugs and look for water evidence, look where the spare tire is, and look under the seats. That's usually the area's where guys are too lazy to cover their tracks.