Hello, This is my first post so I'm not sure if I have the right forum. My wife drives a 2003 Protege5. She tells me that it is a modle that was made for only 1 or 2 years.

Here is the thing. We have 45K and it has been running great until now. It has started to idle funny. Mostly a very low idle when stopped at red lights.

We went to a dealer and 100 bucks later we had an oil change, 4 new spark plugs, and they read the ECU codes. They say the ECU recorded a misfire and the plug change took care of it.

They didn't fix the problem though, and now say we should bring in the car and a Fuel Injection Service ($118.88), Basically just a cleaning, and an EGR Cleaning ($250.00). After tax and other miss. charges this is a $450 service and it may or maynot fix the idle problem.

Anyone run into this same problem?

 

I know exactly what you are experiencing. $250 to clean the EGR? Forget it! Do it yourself! Go get some PB Blaster, a 3/8 drive ratchet with a long handle, a good phillips screw driver, and an afternoon. You will be set. And $100 to change plugs? You can do it in 15 minutes with a spark plug sucket, 6 inch extension, a ratchet, and a 10 mm cocket to take off the coils. Easy to do!

Instructions are not mine, but I copied them from here when I did it myself. There are pics in the article.


A lot of people have complained about the eratic idle the Protege sometimes gets when the clutch is pushed in and rpms are allowed to fall quickly. The idle will jump anywhere from around 200-1100. This problem seems to get worse when the car warms up. My car started stalling everytime I pushed in the clutch or allowed it to idle. I had to feather it at stops like I was driving one of my old Vegas. Often people would think I was trying to race them because of the revving at the light. So I decided to do something about it.

"1. The EGR is located directly below the throttlebody on the 2.0 engine. First remove the upper intake pipe (from IC on MSPs) and you will see it, it has a black circular cap and a grey six pin plug going into it.

2. The EGR is held on by two 12mm bolts that point up towards the throttlebody. Unplug the EGR and then remove these two bolts. The EGR will come right out. There is a thin metal gasket that may come out with the valve, or it may stay stuck to the mounting pad.

3. This is the valve out of the car. It consists of an electric solenoid attatched to a bypass valve.(pic on the other forum)

4. Remove the four phillips head screws holding the electric solenoid from the valve body. This will come apart easily. *be sure you have the right phillips head tip, and that you spray it with PB Blaster and let it soak for a bit, too. The heads are soft, and strip out.

5. Clean the inside of the valve assembly completely with a carbon killer of your choice. * Brake Kleen is one option. I like PB Blaster, it rocks.

6. Lube the shaft inside with a drop or two of oil and also lube the outside beneath the spring.

7. Reassembly is the reverse of removal. I suggest resetting the PCM while doing this, so the EGR can readjust after you start it.

8. You may want to follow the Manual's suggestion of measuring the resistance of the pins, but my car runs ten times better now, and I have no stalling issues anymore.

9. Time to complete, 30 minutes at most. Good luck."

OK, here is the deal. The 2-12mm bolts on the bottom of the EGR valve will fight you to the death to pop them loose. Bad angle, and are held on pretty well. Took 30 minutes to get them off. Other than that, pretty easy.

Let me know if you need any help.