2003 Mazda protege with 105,000 miles. Have had an intermittent clunking sound from rear for years. Mechanic says rear sway bar is bent. Already replaced bushings because they were bad. Do I need to spend $289 plus labor to replace the sway bar?
View 4 RepliesI recently got an MK7, coming from a MK5, and I installed the VWR springs 8 days ago. Since then I've noticed an intermittent clunking sound coming from the rear suspension. I installed springs on my MKV without any issues and again on several other cars, soIi'm familiar with the process. Everything was torqued to spec after the install.
My best description of the sound would be a clunk, not any rattling, clicking, or squealing. The sound is greater in the passenger side rear than the drivers side rear. No issues with anything up front. Sometimes it occurs when I'm turning the steering wheel while backing out of parking spots and driving slowly, other times when I hit bumps in the road, but it is not constant nor does it seem dependent on the size of the bump/pot holes in the road.
What may be causing this? My plan was to give it a week for everything to settle before I tore everything apart to look for any culprit.
1996 Mazda Protégé, 130,000 miles, squeaky sound coming from under the hood. Happens any time, whether I am moving or not. Should I be worried? Been going on for about 2 months.
View 4 RepliesI bought a 99 Mazda Protege ES two years ago. About eight months ago, i noticed that my rear passenger tire seemed very low. Not flat, but very very low. I filled it back up to 32psi, as recommended in the owner's manual. Then in June, it seemed low again. I bought a pressure gauge, checked all my tires and filled up the one that was low (14psi). Throughout the summer and early fall, I would check my tires once a month and the rear passenger tire would always need air. Now it is the end of October and I've had to fill the tire up three times in the past month.
Obviously, I need a new tire. My question is: is there a viable way to fix a slow-leaking tire? Or do a need to buy a new one? Also, can I just buy one tire?
I have a 2003 Mazda Protege. I had the check engine light come on and took it to my local repair shop. They diagnosed it as a bad oxygen sensor. They replaced it, but a week later, the light came back on. So, I decided to take it to the dreaded dealership and pay for their "expertise". They informed me that the light was a result of a intake hose with a hole in it. They also told me that the vehicle's oil pan was rusty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle did not leak oil. After a week of driving, I noticed spots of oil on my driveway. I checked the oil and it was low, so I decided to have it towed back to the dealership to have it checked out. I assumed it was the oil pan that had not been installed properly.
Today, the service tech informed me that my engine was blown and needed to be replaced. He told me that this cam warped and didn't leak before because the pressure was being release through the rusty oil pan. This sounds absurd to me. It seems to me that what has happened is their responsibility. What could have caused this? A co-worker suggested that more than likely the mechanic could have made a mistake and started the engine without motor oil either after the oil pan was replaced or after the vehicle sat overnight and the oil drained out. Does this seem more logical? If the dealership is at fault, but will not fix it, what can I do?
I have a 2003 Mazdaspeed Protege that is having a stalling problem. The motor has about 30k miles on the block with around 3k miles on the internal components (rods, pistons, cams, etc.). Cylinders were bored 20 over and head was machined.
This stalling, or almost stalling, problem occurs when I start the car after it's been warm for awhile. For example, if I were to drive for an hour, park it for 45 minutes, and then come back out to start it up. It'll fire up, drop to idle, and then the idle will dip, stalling 50% of the time. The rough idle lasts anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds, and then usually fixes itself.
Giving it some gas does nothing to alleviate the problem; sometimes making it worse. Cleaning the idle air control valve solved this for a few days, and then it was back to its old ways. These symptoms do not occur on cold starts or if I restart the car after 5 or 10 minutes of it sitting. We couldn't find any vacuum leaks and there are no codes being displayed.
Where the camshaft position sensor is on a Mazda Protege5 2003. I can't seem to find any information about this particular car.
View 2 RepliesThis issue with my 2003 Mazda Protege 5, manual transmission, has been going on for years. I'd like to sell the car, so I'd like to fix it.
On occasion I am unable to shift into first gear from a stopped position. This never happens in the late fall, winter, or early spring - it all seems to depend on how warm it is outside. It is always fine at the start of the trip, but becomes a problem in what seems like a period of time proportional to how warm it is outside. Again, when its cool outside, it pretty much doesn't happen. But once we pass 25C / 77F it is common, and will almost certainly happen on any trip of over a 10 minutes. The hotter the weather, the faster it shows up as a problem.
If I leave the car and come back after it cools down, first gear works fine again. And I can downshift into first gear as I come to a stop with no issues - I just hate riding the clutch like that, so I've been starting in second gear instead.
We have a mystery: there's a clunking sound from our right front wheel when we turn, but our mechanic can't figure out why - he says the axle, struts and ball joint there all look fine. What else could be causing the sound - is he missing something important? This sound happens about 50% of the time on turns. Note that we recently (about 10 days ago) had the ball joint and struts replaced on the LEFT front wheel - could that have done something to the balance of the axle, etc. that is making this sound happen on the right front wheel? This is an old car (a 1996 Mazda Protege with 115,000 miles on it) but it's been well-maintained and is otherwise running well.
View 16 RepliesSo over the past few weeks my R has developed an intermittent clunking from the rear. It only happens at the beginning of a drive and very seldom does it do it after lets say 5-10 minutes of driving. At first I thought there might be something rolling around in the hatch, I ruled that out fast as I took everything out and it was still there. Then I thought since there was snow up here and I was playing in it I might have unbalanced a wheel but alas the weights are still stuck on and they haven't lost any weights so that is no go. I was able to get under it tonight and I checked all the bolts I could get to and they are all tight and there is no signs of scraping or stuff jiggling around, all the boots are good to go also no tears or holes in them.
The only thing that looked somewhat out of place was the bushing on the right rear swaybar endlink is mushroomed a bit but it doesn't seem like that would cause a clunking. I noticed my e-brake was sticking a little bit due to the cold but as soon as I press firmly on the brakes it goes away and I doesn't seem like that would make a clunking sound either.
I am doing a haldex fluid service as soon as the stuff gets here in the mail but I doubt that would cause clunking from the right outsides. The car has 98k miles and is on stock suspension, It doesn't seem to me that they could be bad already, and It doesn't always do it over bumps in the road.
Have 2002 mazda protege 5 . During acceleration at 3000 rpm the engine hesitates. Computer said o2 sensor, replaced it but that wasn't it. Drilled out both catalytic, that wasn't it. Found hole in mass air flow tube, figured that is it. I haven't replaced that yet, however I used gorilla tape thinking it would be a temporary fix but that didn't work. I know I need to replace that tube, but think that it may now be a fuel pump issue??
View 5 RepliesI have a 1999 Mazda Protege. As of last summer it started giving me problems with not wanting to start after I had driven it around town for a little while. (IE: to the grocery store, to the bank and then to my sister's house. It wouldn't give me the same problem if I just went to the grocery store and back home. It would start up fine and I'd be on my way. Only when I went somewhere and shut it off then repeated that a couple more times.) I took it to a mechanic who wholeheartedly believed it was the coil packs not allowing my car to function properly.
So we replaced those and everything seemed on the up and up. (Keep in mind that this was towards the end of summer and the temperature was dropping.) The car was perfect all throughout the fall and winter, but now that the temperature outside is starting to rise again it's beginning to do the same thing it did last summer. I don't want to take it to another mechanic that's going to have me dish out an extravagant amount of money again only for the problem to persist.
2000 Mazda Protege ES 1.8L
What's a good way to find whats the cause of all the rattling and knocking in the front end of my car when going over uneven terrain? It seems that noise appears only if one of the wheels is lifted up a little bit. I am attaching a picture describing the "motion" here:
Steering wheel doesn't shake when driving at high speeds and is fairly stiff, but it does pull to the right a bit, maybe because I didn't perform a front end alignment (I know this is not good) after I had most of the stuff in the suspension of the replaced; all 4 struts + boots + mounting blocks, ball joints, control arms...
Now the only part, I didn't replace was the sway bar link on the passenger side and it's being knocking for 3 years. The one on the driver side was replaced at the time the struts were replaced but I didn't have enough money to pay for the other one.
Another mechanic told me when I was quoting that sway bar links aren't really necessary as a safety feature, and a google search showed me that there are people that just take the sway bar off the car, so I left it there and just tried to live with the noise. now I am noticing the driver side is knocking as well, and I am wondering if it has to do with because I didn't replace the one in the passenger side?
I just want to rule out the possibility of another component being the cause of the noise because I am prioritizing safety over ride comfort in my attempts to save some money.
it was over 100 degrees today in Lawrence, Kansas and on the way home from work, the air conditioner stopped making cool air. Hot air now comes out. This is a different problem that the poster before me seems to have. Mazda Protégé, 1996, 128,000 plus miles on it.
A reconditioned one was installed in 2006, compressor replaced in July, 2012.
I read here that some tire noise can be caused by bad belts. How do you know if the tire belt is bad? My tires get loud between 20 and 40 mph. Mechanic says the tires are OK but to replace them to get rid of the noise.
View 7 RepliesBasically, my car (2002 Mazda Protege) has been acting like my brakes are engaged. Not all the time, though - The first time I get out and drive it, it drives smooth as silk like always. But then after I put it in park and then get back in and head out (I'm a delivery driver, so this is constant), sometimes it feels like the brakes are constantly being pressed. No, the emergency brake is not on. Most of the time it's almost not even noticeable so, like an idiot, I put it off for the past week. But today, it was very, very, very bad. I was having to press the gas to the floor to get up to speed, and then it was constantly trying to slow down. My brakes were definitely getting burned up while it was doing this, but luckily it stopped.
It may be unrelated - I know I have an oil leak, but today I saw a very unusual spot where something leaked out in my driveway. I checked my oil, and it was where I expected it to be, but this was a relatively large stain which would be very unlike my current leak.
Started my car yesterday and as I was accelerating, it made a very loud noise. It sounds like normal engine acceleration noise, only ten times louder. It was present whenever I accelerated, but not when I was coasting or idling, and not when the car was in neutral. (It's a stick shift.) During acceleration, there was a little hesitation and a little jerkiness, but not horrible. The problem came on suddenly - no problems with the car before yesterday.
View 4 RepliesMy Mazda 1996 Protege appears to have no alternator, but there is something called a generator. Are they the same thing?
View 19 RepliesHere's a quandary for those who know more than I do:
I have a 2000 Mazda Protege with 182,000 miles on it. On occasion my dashboard lights (and radio, for that matter) cut out, going completely dark. Now here's the kicker: If I give the dashboard a little tap with my hand, everything comes back all glowing and lit.
My fear had been the alternator was going bad (Again!), but since it seems to be coming back with a bop on the dashboard...is this just a loose ground? What should I be looking for? Is this something a novice like myself could be taking care of, or where should I be directing my mechanic?
I was driving my car on the highway, stopped to get gas and it started stalling but would never loose all the power. The check engine light did not go on. They have replaced spark plugs, hoses and it keeps doing the same, they told me there could be water in the fuel i pumped so i burned through the gas, drove 5 hours back home and when going uphill i would give it gas the rpms would go but no speed.
I took it to the ford/mazda dealership in town and said that the codes it was giving em they could not decipher, their best guess was a timing belt issue, they suggested i took it to an exclusive mazda dealership...but the closest one is 3 hrs away. They said it wasn't my transmission. There is no set speed when it stalls..it does it often maybe every 20 seconds or so...the car is a mazda protege 2000 with about 140000 miles...
I have sel code of P0421. What are the odds of the downstream sensor being bad vs a bad catalyst converter? The car runs great and I get 19+ mpg in town driving. It is a 2001 Mazda Protege, 2.0L V4 .....
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