Help with Pinging?

delavp5

Member
Hi All,

My Mazda Protege5 is my commuter car, and is a stock, high-mileaged and well serviced car. It's got 148,000 miles on it, has seen regular oil changes at 3000 miles and plugs at every 30k.

I've noticed intermittent pinging at low RPMs, especially at the 1-2 shift around 20 mph. I'm using 87 octane gas from shell/chevron, and the pinging isn't quite as bad with 89 or 92, but I can't help but think that something needs to be checked here.

Anyone on the board have low-rpm pinging in their p5? Power seems adequate given the lackluster base output of the car, but perhaps I'm gradually losing a bit due to a cat or other?

Thanks in advance!
 
A little bit of ping is no problem.

Try a seafoam cleaning of the combustion chambers and the fuel system.
 
I would also try cleaning your EGR valve. I haven't heard about this happening too often on our cars, but if the EGR valve is not venting exhaust gases back to the intake properly, the temperatures inside your cylinders can get too hot and cause pinging.

But +1 on the seafoam through the brake booster line as well.
 
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