New owner of a 1996 Mazda Protege

[DCU1976]

Hello everyone, I am a new owner of a 1996 4 door Mazda Protege(4th owner by all the repair records), honestly I don't know much about Mazdas other then its a kick ass Japanese car company, I'm not new to imports, I did have 1991 Isuzu impulse 1.6T AWD, I loved that car. Anyways I am not a street tuner, just a guy who loves cars. I know very little about the Proteges, can anyone tell me what generation it is? It has a 1.5L DOHC 5 speed. Runs great I just need to figure out whats going on with the Mas air-flow sensor, can these things be cleaned or do I have to buy another? I know once I either replace the MAF it will be in perfect running condition, I mean WOW (cool) almost 40mpg highway! I'll Post pics later.

 

[labeo]

1996 - this is BA model, 2nd generation. Z5 engine. MAF is very important stuff for injection engines. Clean or buy another - action depends on the current state of your MAF. If it is just dirty - try clean it, if you think that it doesn't work - try to get another one (junkyyard etc) for test. Anyway, your supposition would be true or false

 

[DCU1976]

Thanks!

Cleaned the MAF and it didn't help, bought a used one, replaced it and its running great, I still have a CEL and am in the process of getting OBD2 reader to diagnosis/fix it. Thanks for the info, now to find BA performance parts. BTW, what type of transmission(acronym) for the standard 5 speed transmission

 

[William35453]

hi, i'm only two week mazda protege owner myself but been doing crash coarse on it via Internet. got a 1995 dx 1.5 with only 42K miles on it. it really was owned by grandmother who never drove out of town. after she passed, it set up for 5 yrs with only 2K miles in that 5 yrs. so had some issues when i got it. i also had to replace the MAF sensor and learned that only genuine MAF cleaner must be used, nothing else. also that after fix, must discharge the electrics to reset the ECM. this is done by removing the neg battery terminal and then holding the brake for 15 sec to discharge the computer. then replace the bat terminal and start car. i'm told you must start car around 5 times and drive around 30 miles for ECM to re-set itself. i found this to be true for my car after replacing the MAF with a salvage yard one that I cleaned thoroughly with CRC MAF cleaner. Also, you might want to look at cleaning the injectors. I did with kit from Mr. Injector.com and you would not believe what came out of them. I had already run 2 cans of injector cleaner through the gas tank, but this cleanup did wonders for gas mileage. Mr. Injector will clean and restore them for you if you send to him. Next time i'll take that route. This guy is great-- i called him with a question and he made a personalized video for me to answer and posted it on Internet in about 15 minutes.

 

[irishkev90]

I believe the transmission is the F-series. I think the G-series only came on the '95 ES. As for performance parts for this 1.5L, not going to find much. I have a short intake on mine with a performance air filter, that's about it. It is suggested to go with NGK Iridium spark plugs though.