Hello, first time here, but not new to forums in general and I have an issue with my 2003 Mazda Protege 5 that I bought second hand in 2012 and it's been largely reliable so far, except recently when what I thought was a timing belt snapping but ended up being the tensionor spring instead but replaced the belt anyway as it was likely due since I had NO idea when the original one was replaced, guessing sometime between 85K 95K, 100K at latest as I bought the car with 110,680 miles on it and now has 187+K on it.
Some back history; the car had been running great until the pas 3 years when every so often, very sporadically, like 3 times it's stalled while coming to a stop but a quick flick of the key after putting the automatic into neutral and it'll restart right back up. No codes present (no money light on) and not do it for months, then it may do it once and not do it again for a long while.
Then on the 4th of July a few weeks ago, I drove an hour and a half up the Washington state peninsula to Bainbridge Island for the day as I have a sister that lives on the island with her husband and the car kept sporadically sputtering, 2 shakes and keep going, no light, it was very random but did it every so often going up and coming back but the money light never turned on, if a code was present, it was pending.
Then that weekend the 6th, decided to replace the spark plug wires, the plugs looked good, were replaced a couple of years ago, tan with the little black around the end of the threads but dry and non oily, all 4 were even in that regard. On the 12th, went to retrieve a friend's dog that I was taking care of while they were in Europe who'd escaped from my backyard earlier that day and a friend had retrieved from the pound and dropped off at his family's home to be picked up by me and as I headed over to get him, cresting a hill about maybe 2 blocks from their street, the motor shuts down, all idiot lights come on, so hit neutral and tried to start while the car coasted along, it cranked, but not start so coasted into their street and to the side of the road overnight and borrowed my friend's car and got home, with dog. A mutual friend came over the next day and we got it into my friend's driveway to begin replacing the timing belt that I purchased that morning.
By Monday evening, I had the car running and back on the road, seemed to run fine, no money light (so I thought) but that changed by the next day, the money light was on and the car as it warmed up began to misfire once at hot idle. Acceleration has been strong and runs fine once I got above 2000rpms but once at idle, sputtering and missing.
Things I've done since. New air filter as the old one was dirty (in case it was an issue and was due anyway, helped a little) but by the next day, the idle/performance got much worse to the point that the money light would flash, then go back to steady and then stay flashing for much of a day before returning to solid on as things improved a bit, checked plugs again, wires coils seem OK as I unplug one coil and the car's performance got worse with both coils performing similarly, tried to suss out if a vacuum leak, so far not finding anything there. A sensor on the top of the intake hose between filter box and the throttle body does not change anything when I unplug it (what is it anyway? has 2 hoses running from it), the idle air control seems OK as I unplug and the car immediately dies and tried to get that off but the screws are so tight that I may have stripped the phillips head on one of the screws to make sure it's clean. The butterfly in the throttle body is very clean, BTW. Had to replace the hose to throttle body and air filter housing as I broke the little plastic tube mount for a hose going to the valve cover and prior unit had been replaced a few years back as the original one had split. No change.
Went to Autozone (in the US) and got a P0300, generic random misfire one day after I got the car back on the road from the initial belt change. No other codes present according to their scanner. Now, I'm running blind here as when I did the belt replacement, I ensured the marks were set right on both cams and the crank, however, I got the I and E marks facing each other, the intake is more or less level, the exhaust is a tad lower but they face each other with the intake at 7:00, the E at 5:00 on opposite cams, will that make a difference? I know the crank is dead on with the notch in the crank case but have NO way to tell without a scope, much less an OBDII reader with graphing ability (NE, the Launch Creader V+) but have time and patience but a lack of funds to do this and am trying to avoid having to tear into the motor, just to make an adjustment of the belt itself if not necessary.
I made the mistake of asking Autozone what the code meant, and they looked up on their site and said the most likely is the EGR valve, but at $141, um, no thank you. A quick question at another shop said that it's not likely for it to suddenly not work once the belt was replaced if it appeared to be working before.
The gal I asked at Advanced Auto said it's looking like either spark or an air issue, and I'm beginning to suspect that to a degree, but without a scan for timing I have no real way to know for certain.
Any suggestions? BTW, Napa says my car is interference, FS/DE 2.0L 4, Virtually all other sources say non interfence, I do have a clattering lifter (seems to be at one cylinder) but that would not cause this issue, would it?
Thanks! Sorry for the long post, but needed to give the backstory as it may provide a clue(s).
PS: Tried to upload a photo I took of the cams after I got the new belt on, but the forum kept throwing an error during downloading from my phone (it's a Jpg photo). Anyway, the Intake cam is level, the Exhaust is a tad lower than the intake cam, any issues there?
Thanks again!
Some back history; the car had been running great until the pas 3 years when every so often, very sporadically, like 3 times it's stalled while coming to a stop but a quick flick of the key after putting the automatic into neutral and it'll restart right back up. No codes present (no money light on) and not do it for months, then it may do it once and not do it again for a long while.
Then on the 4th of July a few weeks ago, I drove an hour and a half up the Washington state peninsula to Bainbridge Island for the day as I have a sister that lives on the island with her husband and the car kept sporadically sputtering, 2 shakes and keep going, no light, it was very random but did it every so often going up and coming back but the money light never turned on, if a code was present, it was pending.
Then that weekend the 6th, decided to replace the spark plug wires, the plugs looked good, were replaced a couple of years ago, tan with the little black around the end of the threads but dry and non oily, all 4 were even in that regard. On the 12th, went to retrieve a friend's dog that I was taking care of while they were in Europe who'd escaped from my backyard earlier that day and a friend had retrieved from the pound and dropped off at his family's home to be picked up by me and as I headed over to get him, cresting a hill about maybe 2 blocks from their street, the motor shuts down, all idiot lights come on, so hit neutral and tried to start while the car coasted along, it cranked, but not start so coasted into their street and to the side of the road overnight and borrowed my friend's car and got home, with dog. A mutual friend came over the next day and we got it into my friend's driveway to begin replacing the timing belt that I purchased that morning.
By Monday evening, I had the car running and back on the road, seemed to run fine, no money light (so I thought) but that changed by the next day, the money light was on and the car as it warmed up began to misfire once at hot idle. Acceleration has been strong and runs fine once I got above 2000rpms but once at idle, sputtering and missing.
Things I've done since. New air filter as the old one was dirty (in case it was an issue and was due anyway, helped a little) but by the next day, the idle/performance got much worse to the point that the money light would flash, then go back to steady and then stay flashing for much of a day before returning to solid on as things improved a bit, checked plugs again, wires coils seem OK as I unplug one coil and the car's performance got worse with both coils performing similarly, tried to suss out if a vacuum leak, so far not finding anything there. A sensor on the top of the intake hose between filter box and the throttle body does not change anything when I unplug it (what is it anyway? has 2 hoses running from it), the idle air control seems OK as I unplug and the car immediately dies and tried to get that off but the screws are so tight that I may have stripped the phillips head on one of the screws to make sure it's clean. The butterfly in the throttle body is very clean, BTW. Had to replace the hose to throttle body and air filter housing as I broke the little plastic tube mount for a hose going to the valve cover and prior unit had been replaced a few years back as the original one had split. No change.
Went to Autozone (in the US) and got a P0300, generic random misfire one day after I got the car back on the road from the initial belt change. No other codes present according to their scanner. Now, I'm running blind here as when I did the belt replacement, I ensured the marks were set right on both cams and the crank, however, I got the I and E marks facing each other, the intake is more or less level, the exhaust is a tad lower but they face each other with the intake at 7:00, the E at 5:00 on opposite cams, will that make a difference? I know the crank is dead on with the notch in the crank case but have NO way to tell without a scope, much less an OBDII reader with graphing ability (NE, the Launch Creader V+) but have time and patience but a lack of funds to do this and am trying to avoid having to tear into the motor, just to make an adjustment of the belt itself if not necessary.
I made the mistake of asking Autozone what the code meant, and they looked up on their site and said the most likely is the EGR valve, but at $141, um, no thank you. A quick question at another shop said that it's not likely for it to suddenly not work once the belt was replaced if it appeared to be working before.
The gal I asked at Advanced Auto said it's looking like either spark or an air issue, and I'm beginning to suspect that to a degree, but without a scan for timing I have no real way to know for certain.
Any suggestions? BTW, Napa says my car is interference, FS/DE 2.0L 4, Virtually all other sources say non interfence, I do have a clattering lifter (seems to be at one cylinder) but that would not cause this issue, would it?
Thanks! Sorry for the long post, but needed to give the backstory as it may provide a clue(s).
PS: Tried to upload a photo I took of the cams after I got the new belt on, but the forum kept throwing an error during downloading from my phone (it's a Jpg photo). Anyway, the Intake cam is level, the Exhaust is a tad lower than the intake cam, any issues there?
Thanks again!
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