she has a 95 protege 1.8 automatic
it was having a problem of running down the battery
i changed the battery
it happened again so i changed the alternator
car was per forming the same it will idle forever but when you start driving it with assesories on (rear defrost, heater/defog, lights, and wipers) all the aforementioned seem to bog down and i lost the speedo and tach
i cut the positive terminal off cleaned it up and sweat it back on
on the way to work this morning all was fine untill i reached about ten miles from the house with all assesories on and the bogging down started again, and again losing the speedo and tach
i had to drive home at 6 this morning with everything off and made it by putting the car in neutral at stops because the break lights were bogging it down.
this afternoon i did a ground test for the block and it checked out ok
i also drove 2 miles to the parts store to get a diagnostic check, no dice, they can only test to 96, anyway no problems
so with no assesories on the car seems to function fine however i have'tried a longer distance run
so i hope someone can help me out because i'm about to run this car into a tree

 

I have the exact same problem with a 2001 protege 1.6l and I have also changed the battery and alternator and am still having the problem. Bringing to the mechanic first thing in the am and hopefully will come up with the problem.

 

turn everything off on the car and leave the key out of the ignition. charge the battery up all of the way (if it's not already) and connect it negative first, then positive. if you see a spark when you connect the positive post, there is a short somewhere. if not, the problem could be in the voltage regulator or the wiring to or from it.

 

apparently the voltage regulator is built into the alternator
i've had the new alternator checked and it checks out ok
any more advice?

 

did you check out any of the wiring? loose plugs? i know that you said you cleaned the terminals and checked the ground wire, but there are a couple of harnesses to check as well. if it is not here, you got me. i can answer a lot of questions for you and there are a very very few that involve wiring. i am like a monkey trying to disarm a bomb with some of the electronics issues.

 

i'm a plumber man i feel you
no i didn't check any other wires
i have an uncle that is an electrician that i'm gonna try to hit up this weekend and get this effin thing fixxed