Hello all, first post! And a challenging one too...
2003 Protege5, 107k
Here's what's happening: most of the time car runs ok although the check engine light is almost always on. On ocassion, and more frequently, when completely stopped, the revs will go down to almost zero (but it has NEVER turned off on me), the motors shakes and vibrates pretty badly making the whole front half of the car "jiggly", and the check engine light blinks.
When I hit the gas to move again it hardly accelerates. Little by little I get to about 45 or 50 tops. I can hear the transmission changing gears just fine but the car doesn't seem to move along with it.
Here's what my mechanic has done so far (a friend with his own shop and business): the diagnostic tool just says "multiple misfire" but doesn't zero in on the problem. He replaced spark plugs and wires, still the same. Checked fuel pressure, good. Cylinders working fine individually (I'm not good at this stuff, I don't know what that means). Valve cover gasket leaking a little bit, but he says that's got nothing to do with. Says it's gonna be an electronic issue or maybe the fuel pump but he's hesitant to work on it because he doesn't know how much it'll cost - and that scares me too.
So I take it to the dealer, pay $50 bucks right off the bat and they tell me the exact same thing (shoulda listened to my mechanic). They wanna dig in deeper but it'll cost me another $50 and of course, no promises that they'll find out what it is.
Anyone ever have this issue?
I will try to answer any questions as best as possible.
HELP!
2003 Protege5, 107k
Here's what's happening: most of the time car runs ok although the check engine light is almost always on. On ocassion, and more frequently, when completely stopped, the revs will go down to almost zero (but it has NEVER turned off on me), the motors shakes and vibrates pretty badly making the whole front half of the car "jiggly", and the check engine light blinks.
When I hit the gas to move again it hardly accelerates. Little by little I get to about 45 or 50 tops. I can hear the transmission changing gears just fine but the car doesn't seem to move along with it.
Here's what my mechanic has done so far (a friend with his own shop and business): the diagnostic tool just says "multiple misfire" but doesn't zero in on the problem. He replaced spark plugs and wires, still the same. Checked fuel pressure, good. Cylinders working fine individually (I'm not good at this stuff, I don't know what that means). Valve cover gasket leaking a little bit, but he says that's got nothing to do with. Says it's gonna be an electronic issue or maybe the fuel pump but he's hesitant to work on it because he doesn't know how much it'll cost - and that scares me too.
So I take it to the dealer, pay $50 bucks right off the bat and they tell me the exact same thing (shoulda listened to my mechanic). They wanna dig in deeper but it'll cost me another $50 and of course, no promises that they'll find out what it is.
Anyone ever have this issue?
I will try to answer any questions as best as possible.
HELP!
) which is what the spark plug wires plug into.
