My proteges engine went manic for half a day......lengthy

ZenProtege

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Mazda Protege Titanium 03.5
I don't know what the hell kind of episode my protege had yesterday but it was weird...................I'm clueless on this one

Yesterday I accidently left my lights on for 30-45 minutes before getting back out to the car to leave class. I go to crank the car and it is dead. My stock battery sucks so the car still had power to all the electronics but not enough amps for it to turn over. It's raining hard outside and I'm packed between cars in the lot and constant traffic runs where I back into, so I had a buddy pick me up. I return to the car later in the afternoon and two cars are parked right beside me again, so I can't jump it off.

We decide to roll start the car and it instantly cranks up. I let the car idle a few minutes and decide to take it for a quick trip around campus to charge the battery back up. About a hundred yards into the trip the car starts bucking hard like crazy and the throttle has no effect on rpms. It was like fuel cut + I just blew off a coupling feeling. All of a sudden the car won't idle at all, starts misfiring like crazy, I get a check engine light and have to floor the throttle just to keep it from dying on me. Assuming the battery being low was somehow the problem I throttled an idle for a few minutes just to see if that was the problem.
The car returns to idle fine after a short period of time but as soon as I start driving again, it goes crazy. At this time the car will crank up fine on its own so the battery has recharged enough. I inspect the engine and all the couplers and everthing is as it should be.

I manage to drive the car to the building where I work at on campus and reset the pcm. An hour later, I get back to the car, the pcm is reset ,and the car cranks up and idles perfect. I let the car idle for 10 minutes before hopping in and driving home. 10 minutes into the trip everything is perfect. Thinking all is good again, I get on the throttle a little bit to pass a car and as soon as the car gets a little boost it freaks out once again. It was like the fuel cut and a blown off coupling feeling I had before. The CEL comes on right after it starts bucking, and the car returns to driving like utter s*** again. I manage to get the car home amazingly, and down a few beers to forget about it.

I head to class today and the car cranks up and runs perfectly just as it had before. Once again, On my way to class I hit just a little boost and the car is back to running like s*** again. I manage to get the car to class.

I come back out to the car after class, the car cranks up perfect. I drive for about 5 minutes, the CEL goes off and the car is running fine. I baby the car till it gets fully warmed and decide to hit boost again to see if the problem is still there. The car runs fine, pulls hard, and doesn't stumble during acceleration or do anything that resembles what it was doing before. I drove the car around for 50 miles today and everything has been perferct. The problem just came and went. crazy protege
 
Have you checked every single coupling to make sure none of them are leaking. The only thing i can think of is a leak somewhere. I know what you mean when you describe the feeling of a popped coupler, that sorta sounds like your problem, but the coupling has not fully popped off. can't really help you much, just a little advice you've prob heard 3498237 times.
 
My maf is on the pressure side and the 2 couplers between it and the TB were the first things I checked.........they were rock solid. I thought It was a blown coupler too. I haven't adjusted or tightened anything today and It's all gone away. I've been boosting normal and holding boost fine under every gear/rpm. If it was a loose coupler I doubt it would have leaked severly enough to cripple my car and then sealed itself back again enough to withstand my driving hard for 50 miles.
 
Sounds like a vacuum leak. Check the common vac lines from the wastegate to the T and then from the T to the manifold and BPV.
 
Did you check the fault codes? The Maf sensor is not reading the correct amount of air for some reason.
 
BlkZoomZoom said:
Did you check the fault codes? The Maf sensor is not reading the correct amount of air for some reason.
(stupid)
I'm with this guy....Definately MAF related.
 
I'll get it scanned monday and report back. I had a feeling it was the maf as well because of the fuel cut similarities. I was pulling good vac at the time.

antoine, i don't have a paypal account to donate through
 
why's your user name different?

I'll donate....I can't figure out why you jacked my thread to get on me for that?
I've never seen you make a post to get on sombody for not donating.
Did I do somthing to make you do that?
 
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My MSP does basicly the same thing, especially when i first got it (About a mounth and a half ago) and now it lags through any RPM and i have no clue what to do. I want to stab it!!
 
I needed to donate some money anyways, I've gotte a lot of good info off these forums. It sucks that I got tricked into it.

You need to use fake antione's strategy real antione
 
Or the tank went all the way down to nearly nothing and sucked up some condensation.
 
Check your air filter

hey, you might think its dumb but my car started bogging and hesitating all of a sudden at 3500-4000 rpm and i thought s*** it's a vaccum leak.....then I checked my knn drop in....which was filthy. P.s. I put the original filter for now and the car is brand new again.
 
forgot to mention

This problem of mine came and went as well.....I drove it for a week before I check the filter. I had made an appointement with the dealer which I quickly cancelled. Worth checking....let me know.
 
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