Protege 5 cut out on road

[DarkMesa8]

My friend owns a 2003 Protege 5 hatch with Sport Shifter. She was sitting at a stop light, when it turned green she went to go and the car shut off as if the key were turned off. No sputtering, etc.

The car has 5,500 miles.

I told her not to worry about it, that maybe it was sipping through some bad gas or water at the time and couldn't handle the sudden load. But I told her I'd pursue it elsewhere to see if it could be a bigger problem.

Is it a larger problem?

 

[Lord_Zath]

Same thing's happening to me and a couple other guys who have 2003's w/sport shifters. The earlier autos (non-sport shifter) from what I've seen have not had this problem. My Mazda dealer has no clue about this. A couple friends who are good w/engines think it's either a bad EGR valve or vacuum leak. But no one's sure. It's scary as hell, isn't it?

LZ
Z

 

[DarkMesa8]

OK, it just became scary as hell. She's not going to like hearing this.

So this is a known problem with this car and the certain specs? Has it ever happened while driving?

I can't picture an EGR valve or vacuum leak causing this. The EGR would cause detonation if not opening properly, that's only at part throttle. Vacuum leak would cause a lean, for a crappy idle or worse, detonation. Neither of them killing a car that was just sitting there at a light.

Any electrical theories?

 

[GordonJ]

I have an 03 with a Sport Shifter and just under 8,000 miles on it, and have never heard of anything like this.

Just curious, but was she in auto or "manual" when this happened? And does it happen when using both auto and manual?

I mainly just drive in auto, but lately I've been playing around with manual too. Never heard of this happening though....now I'm a little worried...

 

[Micah]

02.5 here - same tranny - never had that happen

 

[DarkMesa8]

I have an 03 with a Sport Shifter and just under 8,000 miles on it, and have never heard of anything like this.

Just curious, but was she in auto or "manual" when this happened? And does it happen when using both auto and manual?

I mainly just drive in auto, but lately I've been playing around with manual too. Never heard of this happening though....now I'm a little worried...

She was in auto, she rarely uses the sport shifter.

 

[DeanSweet]

2003.5, sport shifter, ~28k miles, in normal Auto mode. This has happened to me a couple times but each time it is about in the same place. Start car to leave work, 2 lights later(~.25 miles away) never getting over 30mph. I sit at the 2nd light to get on the freeway and the car suddenly just dies. Starts right back up and goes as normal? I complained about it to the Mazda Dealer and they said there was nothing they could do w/o error code and until it happens on a regular basis just keep them updated? Hasn't happened in a few months though? shrugg...

 

[Lil Freek]

I have a regular ATx, never happened to me.
but if the EGR valve was faulty, the car would sputter pretty badly. Mine crapped out a while ago and the car would buck like I was learning how to drive Mtx again. But it never flat out killed the ignition, just VERY close to stalling

 

[DeanSweet]

guess I am one of the few lucky ones with the 'stalls every once in a while SS Auto Mazda Protege'? I can tell you this it is a major loss of power. It isn't like it sputters and stalls.. It just dies. I think it is electrical in nature, either the coils or the ignition system.
You need to completely turn the key to off, and it restarts immediately. No flooding, no hesitation... Trouble I have is; what if this happens half way into the intersection or you are steering a little left. To turn the key completely off, you lock the steering wheel. It is an uncomfortable feeling that is for sure.

 

[Lord_Zath]

It's only happened to me shortly after the engine's been running (bout 5 minutes), and when I'm coming from a full stop to move. And it will happen in the interim between having the right foot on the brake and then moving it to the gas. I don't creep anymore - I either gas or brake. Happened twice so far, about a month or two apart. Was in auto mode.

I, too, am skeptical about both EGR and vacuum. I was thinking maybe the idle is set too low for the ss tranny. Perhaps the ss tranny weighs a little more than the older tranny? So there's a little more load than expected, and idle is too low to deal with the sudden load?

LZ
Z

 

[Zigy-oy]

I have a 2003 Protege 5 with Sport Shift (about 7000 miles on it). I had the same thing happen to me about a month ago. I was at a stop light in "Auto" mode, the light turned green, I took my foot off the brake, and the car died just as I stepped on the gas. I put the transmission in "Park", started the car up with no problem, and drove off. It has been fine since then, until today. On my way home from work today I experienced other electrical problems. I was traveling down the street at 25mph with the lights and radio on, the interior lights (instrument panel, etc.) then turned off for a split second along with the radio. The interior lights turned on right away and there was static coming from the radio for about 3-4 seconds before it also resumed normal operation. I couldn't tell if my exterior lights also flickered off for a split second but the car didn't die and I just kept on driving. This happened three times on my half hour drive home from work. I am taking my car to the dealership on Thursday to have the "experts" look at it and will let you know what they have to say.

 

[BeNegative]

I have a 2002. It's @ about 5k miles. I use the tip-tronic in auto and manual (depending on mood or who's driving). haven't had a prob. noticing it's a 2003 prob. is there any 1 else experiencing this? i left another post on this but i'm not getting 2 much response. i just wanted 2 know if this is gonna b a big prob or not. like i've noted from other posts, I've noticed the engine kills or when in 4th gear, the transmission slips. any other feedback?

 

[Mazda P5 driver]

I have an 03 with a Sport Shifter and just under 8,000 miles on it, and have never heard of anything like this.

Just curious, but was she in auto or "manual" when this happened? And does it happen when using both auto and manual?

I mainly just drive in auto, but lately I've been playing around with manual too. Never heard of this happening though....now I'm a little worried...

I have an 03.5 sport auto and it has happened several times. Dealer looked at it twice now. I'm finally hitting 20k miles and it happened 1500 miles ago and this is AFTER the dealership cleaned the EGR and re did the ECU. Not sure when or if lemon comes in.

Every time the same. At a light, release brake, go to gas, slight hesitation aka slight buck, then dies. At next oil change it is getting looked at for the third time.

 

[Mazda P5 driver]

It's only happened to me shortly after the engine's been running (bout 5 minutes), and when I'm coming from a full stop to move. And it will happen in the interim between having the right foot on the brake and then moving it to the gas. I don't creep anymore - I either gas or brake. Happened twice so far, about a month or two apart. Was in auto mode.

I, too, am skeptical about both EGR and vacuum. I was thinking maybe the idle is set too low for the ss tranny. Perhaps the ss tranny weighs a little more than the older tranny? So there's a little more load than expected, and idle is too low to deal with the sudden load?

LZ
Z

bzzt..they upped my idle to 750 and it still kicked out on me. BTW, I have ALL the copies of the stuff they wrote from the last service.

 

[Mazda P5 driver]

I have a regular ATx, never happened to me.
but if the EGR valve was faulty, the car would sputter pretty badly. Mine crapped out a while ago and the car would buck like I was learning how to drive Mtx again. But it never flat out killed the ignition, just VERY close to stalling

just sitting in a parking lot in park the car then dropped idle on me 2 times in one minute and had almost stalled.

 

[Mazda P5 driver]

2003.5, sport shifter, ~28k miles, in normal Auto mode. This has happened to me a couple times but each time it is about in the same place. Start car to leave work, 2 lights later(~.25 miles away) never getting over 30mph. I sit at the 2nd light to get on the freeway and the car suddenly just dies. Starts right back up and goes as normal? I complained about it to the Mazda Dealer and they said there was nothing they could do w/o error code and until it happens on a regular basis just keep them updated? Hasn't happened in a few months though? shrugg...

Mine have been done when fully warmed up. Albeit within 6 miles of travel.

 

[Lord_Zath]

That's when mine does it, too. Maybe it has to deal with the cats not being warmed up enough to allow proper airflow. So when there's a sudden load on the car, there's also a massive bout of backpressure? Or a sudden loss of backpressure?

LZ
Z

 

[DarkMesa8]

So nobody on this planet has a clue on what it is, or the solution?

 

[BeNegative]

sell the car? jj other than keep bitching at mazda constantly nagging them 2 death and making sure u make them sound stupid? not 2 sure. wonder if u tell them u gonna go BBB, if that'll do anything. doubt it, tho.

 

[Lord_Zath]

I think this is something that Mazda doesn't even know about. They might've heard a few scattered reports, but not enough to thoroughly research and figure out. My dealership I know tries as hard as they can to fix any problem. So I doubt they're blowing me off.

What I'd suggest you do is point the dealership to this thread. Maybe print this thread out as well as a thread titled "engine died... again" - which is a thread I started for the exact same reason.

This way, Mazda realizes that there are others out there with our problems. Who knows? Maybe the various posts on these two threads will help narrow down the problem.

LZ
Z