steve_a
10-08-2009, 12:20 AM
I am so sorry in advance for this novel.
I own a 1992 protege dx. It's always been somewhat of a headache, so I'll start from the beginning of what I think are related problems.
It has 180000 miles on it, for starters.
I bought it with about 167000. I got a feel for the car, and when I felt confident enough with it, I drove it 800 miles from California to Utah. I made it there with no problems. The car was underpowered when crossing the mountains, but that was not a big deal. Upon arrival, the starter became very very sluggish. I opted to replace the battery, but that didn't help it too much. It didn't seem like a big deal, though, because it would usually start even if it didn't turn over right away.
I enjoyed my stay in Utah very much. When it was time to leave for home, I stopped by a friend's place of work to say goodbye, and the car would not start. I tried for about ten minutes to no avail, the starter was dead.
I should take a second to note at this time, there had been repairs done to the car in the ignition department, and the key was no longer used to actuate the starter motor. Someone had installed a push button on the dash that would activate the starter.
I had the car towed to a mechanic. They replaced the starter, all was well. Actually, they installed it a little off and initially the nose of the starter was contacting the flywheel under load and I could hear contact being made. They ameliorated that quickly, but they also fixed the key ignition switch and disabled the button.
I didn't ask them to do this, but I think that this may have had consequences far beyond anyone's intentions.
Now, I arrive home in lovely California, but decide that I want to experience more of the Mormon love in Utah. So I planned a trip back.
The car functioned admirably. Fast forward to my triumphant return home to California, once and for all.
I'm tearing it up, loving the thick air near the coast. My car loves it too. I'm on a gravel road, got about a quarter of a tank, and I'm yoking it a little bit. A little too much throttle, swanging the back end out a little. (It doesn't have enough power to do anything more than a little) I hear a loud thump, and suddenly, the car has even less power than it did before. I can barely get the car to limp up that hill.
On the freeway on the way home, it seems to run out of gas, which doesn't make sense. At this point, I feel like I should know when the car is about to run out of gas. It's acting weird, like the fuel gauge is reporting about a quarter tank still but the fuel light is on. I manage to get off the freeway without getting shot for going 40 mph, and put some gas in the tank. I was dead broke, so I only put about ten bucks in the tank.
I made it home. The next day, I tried to take it to the Berkeley, about a 60 mile drive. When I'm accelerating onto the freeway, the car has to rev really high to get up to speed. And then, it just stops giving power and starts slowing down. There's nothing I can do about it. I pull off, walk home. Later that day, I drive it about halfway back before it stops being able to accelerate. And I'm talking surface street speeds. This thing wont even pull away from a stop light in less than thirty seconds to get up to speed.
I wait until nightfall, and the car seems ... better. The air is cool, and I'm able to drive it all the way home.
I talk to some people about it, and we decide that an easy way to try and fix this problem would be to replace the mass airflow sensor. We came to this conclusion because the car will rev without any problems when its in neutral, but it would get stuck at around 1500 rpms and just couldn't get out of that range. If I got it up to 25 mph and then shifted to low with overdrive off, it would jerk the rpms up to about 3000 and then I could accelerate normally.
Well, needless to say, the mass airflow sensor did not do the trick. I tried cleaning the throttle position sensor. It had been replaced before, but nothing was wrong with it.
I learned that it liked a full fuel tank and cold weather to drive in, so I tried to keep it full and only drove it in the early morning and at night. For the first time, I actually looked forward to the coming of winter, because I was going to be able to drive my car all the time.
Then we thought, maybe the timing is off.
Another note: The car overheated once before my first trip to Utah. I had a plan to go, so I replaced the water pump. It seemed to fix the overheating problem just fine. However, I had to remove the timing belt tensioner.
We removed the timing belt cover, and the belt itself was pretty loose. After some blind adjustments, it became easier to drive. It was idling at about 1500 rpms, but would usually accelerate reasonably. It still didn't have any power, and I had to rev it to 4 or 5 thousand revs before it would reach cruising speed.
Then we got the book and timed the car correctly. WAY worse. The car had half the power it had before.
I took it to another mechanic. He told me he wanted to check the valves and the ignition timing. I wasted my money there, is all I'm going to say about it, but I am confident that the car is timed perfectly.
Yesterday, I bring it into the garage for another look. I haven't even been driving this thing for the past two weeks, and I want another crack at it before it starts raining.
I turn the car on, without starting it, and listen. The fuel pump isn't making any noise. With a solid thwack to the bottom of the gas tank, I hear it begin to whine and the car starts up, quite zestily, if I might add.
It's a neat trick, but it only works once. Thinking I was on the home stretch, I ran out and bought a new fuel pump. I got the old assembly out of the car, and upon inspection, it had been changed in the past. And poorly. Very poorly. Fuel lines were not clamped, it was a nightmare. Then we checked the voltage on the connector, and couldn't even get it to say that we were getting power to the pump.
Well, I reassembled everything, correctly this time, and returned the fuel pump. Got my 150 bucks back, thank you very much.
Since all the wiring in the car is apparently a mess now, what does Mazda forums think of this behemoth problem? Would it be feasible to run a wire directly from the battery to the old pump with a switch on the dash to ensure that it receives power?
tl;dr: the car sucks and I should probably get rid of it. Except that I painted a mural of Abraham Lincoln on the roof and it's too awesome to give to pick and pull.
I own a 1992 protege dx. It's always been somewhat of a headache, so I'll start from the beginning of what I think are related problems.
It has 180000 miles on it, for starters.
I bought it with about 167000. I got a feel for the car, and when I felt confident enough with it, I drove it 800 miles from California to Utah. I made it there with no problems. The car was underpowered when crossing the mountains, but that was not a big deal. Upon arrival, the starter became very very sluggish. I opted to replace the battery, but that didn't help it too much. It didn't seem like a big deal, though, because it would usually start even if it didn't turn over right away.
I enjoyed my stay in Utah very much. When it was time to leave for home, I stopped by a friend's place of work to say goodbye, and the car would not start. I tried for about ten minutes to no avail, the starter was dead.
I should take a second to note at this time, there had been repairs done to the car in the ignition department, and the key was no longer used to actuate the starter motor. Someone had installed a push button on the dash that would activate the starter.
I had the car towed to a mechanic. They replaced the starter, all was well. Actually, they installed it a little off and initially the nose of the starter was contacting the flywheel under load and I could hear contact being made. They ameliorated that quickly, but they also fixed the key ignition switch and disabled the button.
I didn't ask them to do this, but I think that this may have had consequences far beyond anyone's intentions.
Now, I arrive home in lovely California, but decide that I want to experience more of the Mormon love in Utah. So I planned a trip back.
The car functioned admirably. Fast forward to my triumphant return home to California, once and for all.
I'm tearing it up, loving the thick air near the coast. My car loves it too. I'm on a gravel road, got about a quarter of a tank, and I'm yoking it a little bit. A little too much throttle, swanging the back end out a little. (It doesn't have enough power to do anything more than a little) I hear a loud thump, and suddenly, the car has even less power than it did before. I can barely get the car to limp up that hill.
On the freeway on the way home, it seems to run out of gas, which doesn't make sense. At this point, I feel like I should know when the car is about to run out of gas. It's acting weird, like the fuel gauge is reporting about a quarter tank still but the fuel light is on. I manage to get off the freeway without getting shot for going 40 mph, and put some gas in the tank. I was dead broke, so I only put about ten bucks in the tank.
I made it home. The next day, I tried to take it to the Berkeley, about a 60 mile drive. When I'm accelerating onto the freeway, the car has to rev really high to get up to speed. And then, it just stops giving power and starts slowing down. There's nothing I can do about it. I pull off, walk home. Later that day, I drive it about halfway back before it stops being able to accelerate. And I'm talking surface street speeds. This thing wont even pull away from a stop light in less than thirty seconds to get up to speed.
I wait until nightfall, and the car seems ... better. The air is cool, and I'm able to drive it all the way home.
I talk to some people about it, and we decide that an easy way to try and fix this problem would be to replace the mass airflow sensor. We came to this conclusion because the car will rev without any problems when its in neutral, but it would get stuck at around 1500 rpms and just couldn't get out of that range. If I got it up to 25 mph and then shifted to low with overdrive off, it would jerk the rpms up to about 3000 and then I could accelerate normally.
Well, needless to say, the mass airflow sensor did not do the trick. I tried cleaning the throttle position sensor. It had been replaced before, but nothing was wrong with it.
I learned that it liked a full fuel tank and cold weather to drive in, so I tried to keep it full and only drove it in the early morning and at night. For the first time, I actually looked forward to the coming of winter, because I was going to be able to drive my car all the time.
Then we thought, maybe the timing is off.
Another note: The car overheated once before my first trip to Utah. I had a plan to go, so I replaced the water pump. It seemed to fix the overheating problem just fine. However, I had to remove the timing belt tensioner.
We removed the timing belt cover, and the belt itself was pretty loose. After some blind adjustments, it became easier to drive. It was idling at about 1500 rpms, but would usually accelerate reasonably. It still didn't have any power, and I had to rev it to 4 or 5 thousand revs before it would reach cruising speed.
Then we got the book and timed the car correctly. WAY worse. The car had half the power it had before.
I took it to another mechanic. He told me he wanted to check the valves and the ignition timing. I wasted my money there, is all I'm going to say about it, but I am confident that the car is timed perfectly.
Yesterday, I bring it into the garage for another look. I haven't even been driving this thing for the past two weeks, and I want another crack at it before it starts raining.
I turn the car on, without starting it, and listen. The fuel pump isn't making any noise. With a solid thwack to the bottom of the gas tank, I hear it begin to whine and the car starts up, quite zestily, if I might add.
It's a neat trick, but it only works once. Thinking I was on the home stretch, I ran out and bought a new fuel pump. I got the old assembly out of the car, and upon inspection, it had been changed in the past. And poorly. Very poorly. Fuel lines were not clamped, it was a nightmare. Then we checked the voltage on the connector, and couldn't even get it to say that we were getting power to the pump.
Well, I reassembled everything, correctly this time, and returned the fuel pump. Got my 150 bucks back, thank you very much.
Since all the wiring in the car is apparently a mess now, what does Mazda forums think of this behemoth problem? Would it be feasible to run a wire directly from the battery to the old pump with a switch on the dash to ensure that it receives power?
tl;dr: the car sucks and I should probably get rid of it. Except that I painted a mural of Abraham Lincoln on the roof and it's too awesome to give to pick and pull.