Guys I need help.
I have a 2003 Protégé 5 with only 5,000 mil. My car almost stalled out on me (about 10 times now). This only happens when the car sits over night or when I get back to the car after work. This problem is intermittent. Yes I took it to the dealer but they couldn’t reproduce the problem.

 

Might be premature, but how is the air filter. Maybe you drive in dusty/dirty areas. I just took out my filter and had a second cone filter lying around. I only had 11,000 miles on my car, but the filter was dirty. I was having the same problem you are describing, maybe not as bad though. The new filter fixed my problem......i bet you have looked at the filter though. This is my first thought.....


-R

 

Is this new? Or has it happened ever since you've had the car?

Could be that the idle needs to be adjusted to a higher RPM. In fact, I am surprised they didn't do that at the dealership just so that they could say they tried something.

Since your problem seems worst when it sits overnight, you might try dropping it off at the dealership the night before, if you haven't tried that already. That might help them reproduce it.

Perhaps it is lousy gas. Try switching to a different brand.

...just some thoughts

 

yah, try a different filter, that might do it.

the car runs very rich so it could be the gas too. try some 91 octane next time and see if it makes a difference.

 

i don't know about the P5 but the sedans had a recall on the MAF (mass air-flow sensor). It was causing stalls, rough idling and hesitation.

If that's not it then your idle prolly does need to be brought up alittle. Pretty easy job you can do in 5 mins yourself or bring it in to the dealer and they will do it for ya.

 

I don’t believe it’s the air filter because I notice this problem at about 1,000-mil. The airflow sensor sounds like it might be the cause. But this problem doesn’t happen everyday so it’s hard to diagnose. As far as the dealer I’m very disappointed that they didn’t try anything not even hooking it up to a computer to run diags.
Thank Guys.

 

Get it back to the dealer and have them check it out when the car has not been driven for some time, or cold out. I am sure it is a small adjustment with the idle or other related problems. Let us know when you get it fixed.

-R

 

Welcome to the club art, there are quite a few of us who are experienceing what you are!! After awhile of almost stalling my car now does stall COMPLETLY. It's been to three different dealers for a total of 12 times and the best excuse they can come up now with it is that I should use better gas..total bullshit!!! They did all the test, checked everything, and took everything apart and can't find out what going on.
I've given them every chance in the world to fix the car and I really want them to fix it...I really love the car. But I've totally exhausted every option that I can think of and I just want it fixed. I'm not about to just "live with it" and let my wife drive downtown DC in rush hour with a car that just stops running when it wants to!
I'm an investigator with the fed government and I've got two of my friends from the attorneys office acting on my behalf. We've been going back and forth with mazda for quite a while now and they won't budge with doing anything to the car. My court date is in December so I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Do you get a check engine code?
I would have them remove the EGR valve and check for carbon build up. Don't know if it could be an 02 sensor or coil?
Good luck

 

hey customs, are you trying to invoke the lemon law for your car? If not you should really look into it. There is no reason that car should just stall all the time. Also there is no reason for them to tell you to buy premium gas when the thing is designed for regular.

 

well sometimes our protege sounds like its dying like the engine slows down way slower when idling but it doesnt stall. does it start vibrating wildly or something?

 

I'm tired of my car, first of it has that famous pop sound when you start it and it wont move until the pop comes in and then the car goes back to normal and also I have the problem if I have the ac on and the car sits there it takes one minute before it stalls but during that minute the car idles say at 700rpm and then it drops to like 100rpm and it keeps doing that till it stalls and I'm pissed about this, I feel like giving my car away and picking up the SRT4. And by the way our cars run rich from the start and once I put the exhaust on and started putting 93 octane it was running really rich and the check engine light eventually came on and it was funny because when I started the car the inside of the exhaust was wet blackish color and that is when I went down to 89 octane and it still runs rich but no problem with the check engine light on.

 

Hey guys, I have a MP5 2002.5 but the same **** is happening to me but mines happens when I'm at the stop light. I called the dealer they told me to change my air filter so I did so. But that still hasn't corrected the problem. This happened to me with my Civic SI and Honda changed my Alternator and that did the trick so i'm actually thinking it's the same **** with this car. Well maybe i'll take it to the dealer...Oh yeah they also told me that if i'm running my Defrost to turn it off. Didn't do **** for me!!!

kre8

 

Holly crap!!! I thought I was the only one. Theres definitely no reason for this. There must be a fix for this. Someone on this post must know something.
12 times to the dealer? Did you call Mazda direct? They should be able to help. My feeling on this is if they can’t find this problem they need to start replacing parts one by one. Oh by the way my also almost stalls at stop light.

 

it's incredible how many people are having this problem. Curious, what cars do you guys have, post like below so we can get an idea of who's affected.

Year:
Type: sedan/P5
Trim: DX/LX/ES/MSP
Engine: 1.6L/1.8L/2.0L
Tranny: Manual/auto
mods: anything engine related. No cosmetic mods here.