Hello all,

First off, i'm new to mazda forum. I am inquiring about a friends car. Long story short, a friend of ours, a struggling single mom, was gifted a 2000 Protege with 108,000 mi. It seems to be pretty sound. It sat for almost a year. The first thing that went wrong was the belts squeeled like mad. Before I got a chance to replace them, she shredded & threw the alt/H2O belt. Unknowningly of the consiquences, she drove it a short ways to work. Maybe 2 miles in 38d - 40d weather. After work, she drove to Autozone (approx. 3/4 mi) to see about getting a belt. Luckily they stopped her from driving it anymore.

I am in the process of replacing both belts, but i'm wondering how much damage has already been done? She said the temp guage never made it fully pegged to hot, but was very close. It's also thrown a code (haven't checked it yet) & when I started it to drive it up my driveway & into my garage, it's revving at like 2,000rpm. I have never dealt with a vehicle that suffered overheating problems. I've only repaired the aftermath of full blown signs of a blown headgasket; on a '03 Nissan Sentra (very similar) & also a '85 Toyota 22R. Any thoughts out there? Do you think the head is warped or gasket was compromised? Should I have a leakdown done on it to find out?

Also, I broke the damn plastic oil dipstick off in the tube, ironically, pulling it out so I wouldn't damage it. Any ideas where to pick one up cheap? No luck at local wreckers, ebay or Google. Dealer wants $30

Thanks for the help & advice.

 

k well there will be no heat damage because these newer cars are made with safety percasions that if the car thinks that it is in trouble it will go into a safe mode where it will cut down the power and give you enough just to get home but from the sounds of it, it never went into this mode. and if it was intense overheating the car would have shut off but it never did that either from what i understand so it should be fine. since you know how to pull the head off you can do that and take a true straight edge/ruler whichever and put it against the bottom of the head that makes contact with the head gasket that sites on the block if there is a space inbetween the two then yes it is warped and you just have to get it machined down. and for the dipstick thing you are most likely going to have to get one from the dealer you pretty much checked everywhere i would. cause you are going to need that the car cannot be driven without it you will have oil everywhere lol and for the 2000rpm reving was that when the car was cold? cause it could have just kicked up the idle to warm the motor up the car will automactly do that.

 

DARKSTAR4100: Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately it did not help me much. I have only heard of such a thing as "safe mode" on higher end cars (jags, BMW's, etc..). Its a car, not Windows XP. I think the safe mode would be the temp gauge. It's there to let the owner know what a safe operating temp is & when it's getting too hot.
I think the distance she drove was short enough that it didn't do any damage. Overheating an aluminum head can generate hot spots & cause a gasket to fail, which is what i was afraid of. Now with everything put back together, it runs great.
I did track down a vacuum connection after the mass airflow sensor, that was cracked & had a hole in it. That might have been why it was revving high. It still revs high at initial start up, when cold, but calms down after a minute or so.
All in all I ended up changing both drive belts, PCV, cracked fitting, burnt headlight & broken retaining clip that holds the headlight bulb. As for the dip stick, i've yet to find a replacement. I found a snug fitting plastic bolt end cap to cap off the dip stick tube until I can find a new one. Also noticed the radiator cap was leaking, not fluid, but steam. I purchased a new one but it doesnt fit, so I'm searching for another.

Thanks for the input.

 

hmm i figured maybe the mazda had that safe mode to cause my sisters 1994 ford tarus had it thats the only reason why i know about it , but if everything is working out thats good.