This issue doesn't happen all the time but once and a while the car just falls flat on its face!
If I put the pedel to the floor in Drive its dead, but if I put it in N and rev it a couple times it slowly seems to clean itself out, then I am able to put it in Drive and I am able to move again. This issue happens most when going up hill but if I'm going faster than 30mph I almost never have the problem.

Could this be the fuel filter or the catalitic conv.?

any help or advice would be Great!

 

My mom's 1998 ES has what sounds like a similar problem. She recently had the car serviced which included new plugs, airfilter and i believe oil filter as well. Other than that, the garage says it's OK. She does however tell me that now when she accelerates from a stand-still, that the car has difficulty accelerating upto about 20mph and then seems fine after that. Garage turned up the idle-speed, which seems to have overcome the acceleration problem, but that hardly seems to be the correct way to solve this issue, let alone the increase in gas consumption she will experience. Trying to help my mom sort this out from a distance. Trying to teach her as well, from a distance, how to connect an Innova code reader to see if any fault codes show up.

 

Without a proper OBDII scan readout, it's pure guesswork on anyone's part. The fact that the car performs satisfactorily once above 30 mph sort of exonerates ignition, EGR, and fuel pump/ filter. That still leaves lots of things still though, one of which might be the fuel pressure regulator which kicks from low to high pressure at about the point where you see the performance transition. Anyway, forget about "tune up"; it's going to need some diagnostic trouble codes captured to sort it out. Furthermore the autozone and DIY type scanners are of dubious credibility.
This is a case where it's worth it to bite the bullet and get it scanned by Mazda. Be sure to ask for a hard copy printout of the result.
As far as the faults you mentioned, if it were fuel filter, the effects would be most noticeable when fuel demand was high, not when it's at the low end of the spectrum.Also, if the catalytic converter was the culprit, your check engine light ought to be on.

 

Thanks oldeng, the mechanics said to my mom it could be the timing belt, but with only 50k on the odometer it seems like they are fishing for solutions. She did an OBDII scan with an Innova 3100, and no fault codes came up. Check Engine light has been off since she took it in for a tune up about 3-4 weeks ago, when they found that no.4 cylinder was not firing to a faulty plug. Unfortunately she had an $800 bill for the engine service and brakes all around. Really regret not being able to be with her long enough to get her through the first service after we bought her the car.

If we seem to get nowhere over the next weeks, I'll probably consider to spot her some cash so she can go to Mazda and get the OBDII readout.

She hasnt driven in years, and wish she had the courage already to take a blast down the highway. That always seems to solve these types of issues with my old 74 Camaro.

Thanks again for the input.

 

There is an item I posted pertaining to Proteges of this vintage which misbehave, often without showing fault codes, showing them intermittently, or showing codes for things that are tested and found to be not defective.
Here's the reference; I suggest you look at my response and see if there's anything useful.


04-13-2009, 11:30 AM
Adam S
Junior Member
I have a 2000 Mazda Protege, 1.8L with 5 speed manual transmission @ 190,000 kms

Response:
04-13-2009, 11:06 PM
oldeng
Senior Member
This lists a number of checks and easy maintenance items worth dealing with before thinking about anything too exotic or expensive.

Forget the timing belt for now; at 60K it's too soon to be a prime candidate, and in any case would cause a random misfire code plus the CEL would be on.