Need some advice. My '03 Protege5 (61k miles) had a slight valve tap few weeks ago. It sounded like tap was comming from 1 cylinder only. I've fueled up w/ mid-grade gas, and took off for a 600 mile highway drive (round trip). By the time I got home, the tapping was gone. I was so thrilled! figured maybe it was a hung up lifter or something. Engine has been purring since, until...

2 weeks later, I am driving to work (~65mph), and engine light goes on. I pull over, and engine's making strange noises, not sure what to make of it so I shut it off. When I try to restart it, same noise, but also what sounds like sompression blasts are coming out.

Car gets towed to a close-by dealer, and now I find the cylinder head needs replacement; it blew out the spark plug. Cost: $2800

My question:
-Has this hapen to anyone? What milage?
-What could have caused it? I'm not an A+ mechanic, but tune-ups are no rocket science, been doing it for 10yrs on my cars.
-Would it be cost effective to replace the engine? How much $$?
-Does anyone have a Mazda contact to whom I can write, cry and bitch about my issue? I'm pretty PO about this happening 1k over my powertrain warranty.

I really liked the Mazda Protege5, but now regret not buying another Ford. My previous (bought in '94) lasted 180k before I sold it. Not many believe, but even the battery was original, and still started after 2-3 cranks in winter.

Anyway, any thoughts, ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My GF just got into a car wreck and now since we're both carless, I need to rent. It's getting expensive.

 

I have heard of this on my friend's Ford truck with the V-10 engine, it did the same thing with blowing out the spark plug. He found that there was a TSB about this problem through Ford and they recommended cyl head replacement for about the same cost as yours.

This also happens with the air cooled VW's and spark plugs. My step dad has been working on them for many years and encountered this problem. I mainly worked on GM products for a living and fixed a few too. There is a product called Helicoil that has a repair kit for this. It is a threaded insert that is installed into the cyl head. I have used these many times with success, along with my step dad too. I thought I would throw in the idea.

 

thanks bkey
I guess I'm going to bite the bullet on this one. I travel quite a bit and can't afford this to happen while being away.
Still curious how this has happened. The dealer says the plug was probably cross-threaded, but I know thats not it. I've put them in myself.

 

this happened with one of my other cars where the ceramic on the fire tip broke and did some damage to the top of the cylinder and i had to rebuild it. now i buy the expensive spark plugs