Hey everyone, this is my first post on this forum so please be patient with me if I inadvertently break any rules. Anyhow, I'm a new driver who just recently bought my first vehicle, a 2003 Protege LX 2.0 and I love it. There's only one thing that's been bugging me. I'm also an overly paranoid person who gets irrationally upset over things not working "perfectly.
The car has an automatic transmission and 150,000 KM (93,000 miles). I am the second owner and the original owner kept up on all maintenance. The car shifts beautifully, I have limited experience but it does seem to shift/accelerate better than the other newer more modern cars I've driven.
The thing that's been bugging me is a slight hesitation I've been worried is a transmission slip. Basically, if I accelerate to 30 km/hr and then decelerate to 5-10 km and coast, when I go to accelerate again the car has no/minimal acceleration as the rpms rise to approximately 2k where it feels like it "grabs" and starts to pull with a slight jerk. Now that I know how, I can easily replicate it and have had it happen once or twice from a complete stop. Under normal driving conditions it's a fairly rare occurance and I doubt the average driver less anal than me would even notice. This all happens in an eye blink.
As I said, 99% of the time the car feels better than anything else I've ever driven. Most people I talk to say it's nothing to worry about.
I've already checked the ATF fluid which was fine, I did top it off with the correct ATF M-V as it was slightly low (not much). I now plan to change the plugs/wires and clean the MAF as those are inexpensive things that should be done anyhow.
Basically I'm looking for opinions, should I be super worried and stop investing in upgrades for the car? Or should I not be overly concerned and continue making this Protege feel unique to me?
Sorry for the long rant.
The car has an automatic transmission and 150,000 KM (93,000 miles). I am the second owner and the original owner kept up on all maintenance. The car shifts beautifully, I have limited experience but it does seem to shift/accelerate better than the other newer more modern cars I've driven.
The thing that's been bugging me is a slight hesitation I've been worried is a transmission slip. Basically, if I accelerate to 30 km/hr and then decelerate to 5-10 km and coast, when I go to accelerate again the car has no/minimal acceleration as the rpms rise to approximately 2k where it feels like it "grabs" and starts to pull with a slight jerk. Now that I know how, I can easily replicate it and have had it happen once or twice from a complete stop. Under normal driving conditions it's a fairly rare occurance and I doubt the average driver less anal than me would even notice. This all happens in an eye blink.
As I said, 99% of the time the car feels better than anything else I've ever driven. Most people I talk to say it's nothing to worry about.
I've already checked the ATF fluid which was fine, I did top it off with the correct ATF M-V as it was slightly low (not much). I now plan to change the plugs/wires and clean the MAF as those are inexpensive things that should be done anyhow.
Basically I'm looking for opinions, should I be super worried and stop investing in upgrades for the car? Or should I not be overly concerned and continue making this Protege feel unique to me?
Sorry for the long rant.
