03 protege idle problem
 

I have a 2003 protege 5 that has been sitting for a couple months as I have been trying to sell it and am out of town for college. My dad started it to take it for a drive and now revs up and down 100-200 rpm constantly and once it i warmed up it stalls if you let it idle. What is wrong here?

any CEL's ? Check air intake hose carefully. Does having A/C on eliminate the stalling at warmed up idle? Auto parts store can decifer your Check Engine Light codes. But , be warned , they WILL try to sell you the cure to your car's woes . Get back to us w/ more information.

Hi everyone. Sorry for not replying sooner. I was finally able to have a look at my car. I have a code reader that is saying that multiple cylinders are misfiring because "exhaust gas recirculation flow insufficient detected."

Is there an exhaust flow sensor or something that could be causing this? A quick response would be greatly appreciated as I am leaving again in a few days. Thank you.

P.S. when I went to check the spark plugs there was oil around one as someone had installed the rocker cover gasket wrong. So i fixed that and put new plugs in it thinking that was causing the misfire but no luck.

Do the obvious first. Clean the MAF sensor, replace the PCV valve. Then check your air inlet tube, make sure it isn't cracked. Likewise check every hose in the entire engine. You would be amazed how many problems are caused by broken or cracked hoses. Some hoses also become pliable when hot and will collapse. If the car gets worse as it heats up it could be an oxygen sensor. An OBD2 scanner would be able to tell you which one it is. The Oxygen sensors give out a reading to the cars cpu based on the temp of the exhaust. The car uses this reading to constantly adjust the ration of Air to fuel in order to maintain the perfect balance of 14.7 parts air to 1 part fuel. When the car is cold (under 600degrees Fahrenheit) it runs on a factory set loop, once the car reaches that temp the Oxygen sensor kicks in and if it is faulty the car should revert back to the loop. This could be why it is running bad.

I own a 2000 protege and have fixed similar idle problems

It definately gets worse once it warms up. It will be able to idle without quitting until it heats up and then you have to keep giving it gas or it will stall.

I just checked the MAF sensor and it looks fine. I just don't get why the oxygen sensor would cause the car to constantly cycle like it is though unless it measures ehxaust gas flow as well as oxygen levels.

The code mentioned "recirculation flow insufficient". Does the 2.0 recirculate fumes to be burnt again and could there be a problem with that?

What are the codes? they are in a" Pxxx" format

exhaust gas recirculation, or EGR, valve is clogged. if it tends to still idle odd after it gets cleaned, you might have a MAP problem.

The codes are P0300 and P0401.

How do I go about cleaning the EGR? And where is it?

to find the egr, start on the exhaust manifold. there should be a little tube coming off of the driver's side of the exhaust manifold and follow it around the back of the motor to the egr. when you pull the egr off, pull the tube off also. clean the egr with a toothbrush and some brake fluid. spray brake fluid down the tubing until the fluid runs clear. if you can't get fluid to flow through it, you need to clean it with something stiff that you can push through the tubing. when you put it back together, if you haven't already, disconnect the battery for a few minutes to reset the ecu. pumping the brake pedal will help discharge the internal battery of the ecu. hook it all back up and start it up to see if you have any difference in the idle from there.

Thanks alot. I've read up a little bit and that sounds like the answer to my problem.

Although I've read that once you clean your EGR, you need to clean it more and more often.

Would it save me any grief to just put a new one on seeing as it's a bit of a pain to get the thing off?