HELP! Loss of Power!!!

MGriff013

Member
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Mazda Protege5
Alright guys I need your help! This is my first Protege 5, my background is in Jeeps. This past weekend I replaced 1 ignition coil(cracked and broken when pulled out for plugs) and all spark plugs. Now the issue I am having is when I floor my car(5 speed) it jerks like it is losing fuel or something and I lose ALL power. When I say power I mean the car has no pull to it, it struggles so badly trying to accelerate( who am I kidding it doesn't accelerate). I also noticed that I decelerate a bunch when going up any kind of hill, I could be going 70 coming up to a small hill and my car will lose all acceleration and drop to 50 mph or below. I have no check engine light on or anything... any ideas what could be causing my extreme loss in power???? Any and all help is appreciated!
 
How did the old plugs look when you removed them? And was it doing this before you did the work over the weekend? Or did it start after you did the coil and plugs? What plugs did you use? Gap?

Right off hand, i would suspect either ignition coil. They've been known to be problematic in these cars, even bad right out of the box. I would also check the timing belt for wear. When they get stretched to a certain point they will still run but have no balls at all (not that the car has a lot of balls to begin with). Check for a plugged cat. Possibly MAF sensor is dirty as well. And may want to do a compression test just to rule that out, especially if you just bought the car and have absolutely no idea of the maintenance history.
 
How did the old plugs look when you removed them? And was it doing this before you did the work over the weekend? Or did it start after you did the coil and plugs? What plugs did you use? Gap?

Right off hand, i would suspect either ignition coil. They've been known to be problematic in these cars, even bad right out of the box. I would also check the timing belt for wear. When they get stretched to a certain point they will still run but have no balls at all (not that the car has a lot of balls to begin with). Check for a plugged cat. Possibly MAF sensor is dirty as well. And may want to do a compression test just to rule that out, especially if you just bought the car and have absolutely no idea of the maintenance history.


Thank you for the reply! The old plugs were horrible, almost like they had never been changed. I put in some copper plugs, can't remember the brand now. As far as the symptoms being there before changing plugs, yes it was starting to do it which is what led me to look at the plugs to begin with but it was no where near as bad as it is now. The gap I used for the plugs was .044

As far as checking the cat to see if it is plugged how would I go about that? I have never had a cat get plugged or start going bad before.

Again thank you for the help I will check these items out and see if that helps any
 
I'm with pb4ugotobed,.. I'd start with coils... They are a fussy PITA for our car.


Here's the big list of things to consider for a lack of power.

It mentions the timing belt skipping a tooth which I've heard of before to cause a rough running engine. (much the same as a stretched belt like pb4ugotobed mentioned)

Your T-belt may still be original. A lot of people neglect to replace it.

 
As far as checking the cat to see if it is plugged how would I go about that? I have never had a cat get plugged or start going bad before.

Look For This !!!

If your cat is being bad it may be plugging your exhaust !!
lol

 
sounds like a defective ignition coil to me. I had the exact same situation with my BMW (misfire, loss of acceleration at high RPM)

and it was a faulty ignition coil.
 
Thank you all for the responses. I took the car out this morning before work to see if it was still having issues after sitting for a day or so, and I got a flashing check engine light. I took a scanner tool to it and of course for got to write the codes down but had two codes for a misfire in cylinders 2 and 3... also had a code for bank 1 running rich

This is sounding like a coil issue from everything I have been able to find, does that seem right to you guys?
 
Yea,.. That's coils...

An engine misfire (Code P0300-P0304) is the only code that flashes the cell on our car. Once the ECU gets the misfiring under control (by going into stupid mode (limp mode)), the light stops flashing.

The checklist above mentions sparkplug leakage,... The coils like to leak their spark directly to the valve cover... They are more inclined to arc under heavy load.
 
... but had two codes for a misfire in cylinders 2 and 3...

Cylinders 2 and 3 are run off the same coil...

Your codes (P0302 & P0303) point directly at that coil.

Which one did you replace ??

Your running rich code should clear after stopping the misfire issue.

 
Cylinders 2 and 3 are run off the same coil...

Your codes (P0302 & P0303) point directly at that coil.

Which one did you replace ??

Your running rich code should clear after stopping the misfire issue.


I replaced the coil that connects to cylinders 2 & 3... looks like I need to replace it again
 
Don't forget to check your cat !!

It could still be a cat behaving badly !!
lol



I had a dirty cat once,... It was pretty fouled !!!

It cleaned up pretty nice in the sink though...
It's been working fine ever since !!


lol
 
I replaced the coil that connects to cylinders 2 & 3... looks like I need to replace it again

It only takes a couple of minutes of misfiring to burnout your pre-cat...

You might want to go somewhere else for your coils... Or at least try a different brand if you can get a refund.

Apparently Polish coils are good quality but the OEM ones are a lot of money.

An original OEM supplier would be smart (but I don't know who they are)
 
You should really consider replacing both coils...

I didn't wait for my coils to fail before I replaced them.
After hearing about all the problems they can cause I just got new ones... I went with Beck-Arnley from RockAuto and they've been good for over five years now.

 
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Thoughts on these? I'm looking to replace my coils as well.
 
I hate cats. I used to like them then that wore off... I'll stick with my Pyrenees :)

If I had to guess the OEM coils are PROBABLY nippon-Denso. Most jap cars use denso for most of the important electronics... Look closely at the OEM ignition coil. It should say nissin or denso or hitachi or something on there. that's the OEM supplier that makes it. Mazda doesn't make ignition coils they buy them from someone else. When it comes to a lot of things... belts, bearings, motor mounts, etc. I live by the "cheapest I can get" philosophy. It may wear faster but if I can buy 3 or 4 aftermarket motor mounts for the price of 1 OEM one, and they only take 20 minutes to change, no big deal when they tear. However, when it comes to electronics like ignition coils, sensors, and engine controls stuff I will only buy OEM parts. Most jap cars don't play nicely with aftermarket sensors and coils. Lessons learned over the years of working at a dealership. A cheap part can have you chasing your tail with driveability problems especially if you replace a bunch of stuff at the same time.


Also I would highly recommend some iridium plugs, they just work better in these cars. And personally the only spark plugs I will ever buy are NGK but Denso are good too. The copper plugs (even new) are probably not helping your misfire issue, and will wear out a lot faster.

And definitely check your timing belt anyways before it leaves you stranded. Most people never look at them because you have to pull the valve cover off to see it. Mine broke for the 2nd time on Tuesday. First time was about 2 years ago; around 190k miles on what i presume to be the original belt. stripped the cogs off around the crank pulley. this time the tensioner spring was completely stretched out, twisted and "sprung". I'd imagine the belt skipped and snapped because of it. I used a Gates belt the first time, lasted 2 years and about 65k miles. Trying a Dayco this time see how that goes.
 
Also I would highly recommend some iridium plugs, they just work better in these cars. And personally the only spark plugs I will ever buy are NGK but Denso are good too. The copper plugs (even new) are probably not helping your misfire issue, and will wear out a lot faster.

I'm gonna disagree with that...
Apparently, the best plugs to use on our car is NGK V-power copper sparkplugs.
They give the strongest most reliable spark.
The only drawback is that they do wear out faster and need to be gapped but at a Buck or two a piece you can just replace them.

 
I can agree copper does give stronger spark, but i've had iridium at 70k miles now and zero issues. They're due to be replaced at this point but i'll get around to it eventually lol. I don't particularly "enjoy" working on my car, i just want to get in it and drive. The less maintenance i have to remember the better!

pretty much anything NGK you can't go wrong with :)
 
I wont get a chance to work on the car until tomorrow it looks like but I will check back in with what I find.. hopefully just getting new ignition coils solves the issue and I can get back to driving and enjoying my protege5
 
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