ok my friend bought a 2003 protege 5 speed. it apears to have been really messed with.. he doesnt have any gauges but when you drive it about start getting into the throttle about a little more than 1/8 it sounds like the turbo starts spooling real hard and sounds like it might be getting bad part throttle boost (dont know for sure no boost gauge) and starts to buck really hard like its going into over boost and smokes black. should i follow the waste gate line to see if theres anything wrong? its almost not drivable cause you can bearly make it up hill. i have experience with turbo cars because i have an srt-4 but i have no clue about these cars and how they are set up. also there is an injector with what looks like a heatsink and pretty fat line hooked up to it but the wires on the injector are cut off. this car is somewhat of a mess and he doesnt know the first thing about cars so i wanna help him out. please help haha

 

is there a throttle cable on the throttle body or is the throttle done by computer? cause if its done by computer it almost sounds like a computer problem cause on turbo cars you have to remember the turbo is run by the exhaust gas's thats how the turbine inside spin's is the motor reving really hard? cause then it might be an injector problem, you could allways go and get a mechanical boost gauge hook the back of it to the wategate hose and see how much boost its pushing.

 

im not sure its not mine so i havent gotten much time to look at it. i think just the person before him hooked up the line to the wastegate wrong and its just over boosting cause these computers over boost at about 10psi right?

 

update; has boost gauge now and i think its running between 8-10 idk i havent personally experienced it. yet still bucks like hell under heavyy load. also he took one of the battery terminals off to set up his guages and when he put it back on the battery the alarm started going off but wierd like beep beep.........beep......beep and just random beeps and wouldnt crank over and his remote clicker doesnt work so we had to pull the alarm shock sensor and now you have to hold the reset button on the brain of the alarm and turn the key at the same time or else it wont crank. whats going on!?!?

 

wow, where to start.

sounds like more than one issue here. i think that i need pictures of the injector that you are speaking of. could be an injector for alcohol, methanol, or water. sounds like there is a boost leak somewhere that is causing the hesitation. could be this injector area or it could be something completely unrelated. the smoke could be caused by the boost leak or it could be a bad turbo seal. what does the exhaust smell like when it starts belching smoke?

let's start with that and go into the other stuff later.

 

well i havent been able to smell the exhaust and heres a kinda crappy pic of the injector

 

i'm not sure that is the location of a boost leak, but it could be. i would remove that whole pipe and replace it with a universal pipe from ebay. you will need to trace the fuel line back down to the original location and either block it off or remove the tee that splits it. you could also check the top corner of the pipe where it comes near to the brake booster and see if something put a hole in the pipe. that is fairly common with the configuration on our cars.

i'm not 100% on why that injector is there. it is configured in a way that i haven't ever really seen. when using a wet shot of nitrous, most people tap out the intake manifold and put a secondary fuel rail to inject nitrous and fuel into the manifold. it looks like this could have been some kind of cheap imitation of that.

where are you located? i might be able to get someone local to help you out. it seems like you will have your hands full on this one.

 

thanks. its not my car but we are in sussex new jersey and im sure any help would be great for this kid. let me know if you know anyone around and il pm you my phone number or something... thanks so much for the hospitality.. i just feel so bad for the kid he traded in a beautiful truck for this car and was all excited and we leave the dealer with it and the clutch slips the motor mounts are shot the alarm is retarted it bucks like hell even tho he found a way to drive it pretty good with out it doing it. and im into turbo cars but i only know srt-4s and my dad is a mechanic and hes a foreman.. yet only for chrysler products. so idk where to turn for help cause i only know him and other srt owners that know turbo cars

 

if its turbo it could be as simple as new plugs and wires

 

tried new plugs but still is beat. i also noticed when i follow him and he gets on it even mildly you can see black whisps of smoke behind it