Bought me another Protege today...

[smokstac]

1998 DX, 119k miles, 5 speed. Seller was selling it cheap because it was "lurching" in first/second gears and popping out of 5th. Good condition overall aside from the lurching.

Hooked up my trusty laptop, scanned for codes. A few popped up, cleared them, the CEL came back on...fuel trim. Hmmm. Major vacuum leak?

Look under the hood. See a big slit in the air hose. roll my eyes, offer the guy $400. He was selling it because his "mechanic" said the transmission was shot. Put two and two together and deduct that the engine movement is causing the tube to open up causing the engine to momentarily die as too much air gets in that isn't metered...as th engine moves back into place the hole closes and the engine can breathe again....seriously we're talking fuel trims around +20 on my software.

Go to Lowe's, get some duct tape. Pay the guy, get the title, drive down the street. Park it, tape up the hole, reset the ECU.

Drives like a dream now. No more codes, exhaust is clean smelling, fuel trims are normal (same as my 97 Pro) and the O2 sensors are reading normal again. Still pops out of 5th but I'm hoping that's due to some obviously broken engine mounts.

[monoxidechild]

nice! have to love other peoples stupidity.

cracked intake tubing has to be a mazda thing. its common across the entire line it seems like.

[irishkev90]

Good deal. My tube wasn't cracked, but the car had less than 90,000 miles when I got it.

Sent from my HTC Incredible using Tapatalk.

[bloodyspirit058]

good deal :D good to see another 2nd gen is in good hands

[smokstac]

Well got around to the tranny today. There was ONLY about a 1/2 quart of gear oil inside. WTF? I see no evidence of leaks. I wonder if some idiot at Jiffy Lube or somewhere else drained it and forgot to refill it?

Anyways filling it up with the proper amount of gear oil did nothing for 5th gear...still pops out under load (doesn't pop out if I let my foot off the gas). The shifter seems sloppy....that's going to be next under the microscope.

[smokstac]

Well, no go on the replacement shifter and bushings. Shifting is tighter than the original shifter. But still kicks out of 5th gear under load (you can here a click and then some grinding as it pops back into neutral).

Oh, well. Looks like I'm going to pull the end cap off the tranny on my next free day and have a look underneath.

All in all if that's all I have to deal with then I can live with it.

[DeeAOne]

nice! have to love other peoples stupidity.

cracked intake tubing has to be a mazda thing. its common across the entire line it seems like.

I was a victim. I rode around like that for quite some time too not knowing what it was. lol

Good to see you got a great deal man.

[Mazda_Powered]

Nice! Easy fix, good score. Glad to hear it worked out!

My dad told me a story of him and his dad, involving an older Jaguar (this was 40yrs ago lol), involving some crossed plug wires my papa noticed...after the $$ and paper work was done, they swapped the two wires, and were off with their 3,000mi Jaguar LOL

[FE3-323]

awesome deal!!!

[smokstac]

Thanks all.

I'm still stunned over the complete lack of gear oil in the transmission.

I only did one more thing to make it run perfectly...I had gathered some spare parts from JYs on the east before moving back here and I noticed one of the injectors on this Protege ticking loudly. Replaced the offending one and it's nearly dead silent now in operation (the 97 I had out east was sort of noisy...I could never determine what was causing it...sounded like bearings on an alternator/water pump going out as the engine warmed up). Odd thing too is the downstream sensor on this one had given the appearance that the primary cat was going out but now it graphs perfectly too...almost a flat line as it should be.

Cleaned the outside and waxed it and the beautiful dark blue now has a shine to it (aside from a few minor dents it's nearly straight too).

Now if I can just figure out why it won't stay in 5th gear. There was evidence of someone apparently hitting a log or large piece of wood as part of the condenser is angled along with the transmission cross member being warped. I replaced that and found the holes on the front/rear to be slightly off. I wonder if the alignment of the engine is slightly off causing the shifter/rod to affect 5th gear? I don't see any frame damage and none of the motor mounts are bad (this was something I had to replace on my 97...several of those were totally shot) but it looks like there is some alignment possibilities with the actual shifter housing inside the car. Anyone loosened those 12mm nuts and repositioned the shifter before in an attempt to get gears to stay in while driving?

[FE3-323]

damn, very clean!!! loosening the 12mm's is worth a go in my opinion. it certainly can't hurt

[smokstac]

Quite literally a car wash and wax added about $800 to the value of it. Car looked like it had been driven constantly in the mountains where sand/dirt is put down for traction in the winter. It was literally coffee brown when I bought it. Should have taken a before/after shot.

I'm gonna give the 12mm adjustment a go. It would seem to me that if the gears/synchros were bad it wouldn't want to go into 5th at all. It acts like some movement of the engine is what's putting it out.

[Ace]

what if you hold it in 5th?

[smokstac]

Well tried adjusting the housing around the shifter...no go.

If I hold it in 5th after about 5-10 seconds you can hear grinding, a pop, and then it wants to get out of 5th (this is under load...under cruise you can put it into 5th and it stays...only under load does it want to get out of 5th in a hurry).

I'm guessing the prior owner drove it enough in 5th with it only having about a cup of oil in the case to cause enough damage where it just won't accept any load on the gears. All other gears are fine...no noise, nothing unusual.

Oh, well, used trannys are cheap enough. Eventually I'll just replace the tranny when it comes time to do the clutch.

[FE3-323]

could be a bent 5th fork..... which is stupidly easy to replace