Bucking P5

ehirshman

Member
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Mazda, Protege 5, 2002
Any advice would be appreciated. I just put a new battery in my '02 Protege 5. It died at the store, my wife came and I got a jump off of her car, went and bought a new battery, drove it home and swapped it out. The car ran fine the entire drive home, but as soon as I put the new one in, it started bucking or surging. It hesitates when I really step on the accelerator. It's real bad in 1st or 2nd gear, it mellows out in 3rd and on up. Any ideas? If it was the alternator, wouldn't I have noticed that right after the jump on my drive home?

Thanks,

Eddie
 
Anyone?

Surely someone has run into this? If you have even a slight notion of what this could be, please send me your thoughts.
 
Hi, thanks.

It's a stick with just about 100,000. Like I said, it was running great until I put correct new battery in. I bought it at 87,000 last October and gave it a good going over, just because it was new to me. Even did timing belt change just for peace of mind. Thanks for any suggestions. Eddie
 
No check engine light. It had check battery light, which new battery fixed. Starts, revs, and idles like normal. It just bogs and starts to hitch when it's under load, that's why I'm thinking I killed the alternator on that last jump. Had a CRX Si that did kind of the same thing, but that at least gave me some warning. This with P5 changed as soon as new battery was put in.?
 
hmm... run by your local autozone and get it tested. At leat it will give you a peace of mind that its now the alt. Have you checked the battery connections? I have never heard of a battery causign your type of issues.
 
I'll be doing that tomorrow. Can they tell if alt. is bad? I didn't buy battery from them.
 
I'll be doing that tomorrow. Can they tell if alt. is bad? I didn't buy battery from them.

Yes they can test your alt and your battery for free (i kno you just purchased a battery but just saying). Also in the mean time I would make sure your plugs wires are on fully.
 
Wow. You're doing some serious driving to put 170,000 on a 7 year old car. Now it sounds like you have a fleet.
 
Well, now we are thinking it is the throttle positioning sensor. I'll keep anyone who cares posted. Should know more tomorrow.
 
homesc.com


Turns out it was this dry rotted hose. Wasn't even cracked enough to be visible, you had to smoosh it with your hand. Angry and fixed. Thanks.
 
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