I have a 2003 Protege5 which i bought with about 30000 miles on it. I've had it about 3 months and twice since I've had it the car has missfired. Each time it indicated the #4 plug. Checking the plug i found it defective. When replaced the cars runs fine. However what bothers me is that the tip of the plug is bent meaning the gap has been reduced to zero. I can only think that means something hit it but there should be plenty of clearance between the piston and plug or valves. It's almost like something inside the cylinder. This has happened twice. It's going in on Monday.

Anyone have an idea??

 

I know what is wrong with your vehicle-this will be a warranty repair

some screws have come loose in the intake and the butterfly valve has bent the sparkplug

I have repaired a couple like this in the last year or so.

 

thanks for the reply i was thinking it was something to do with that. A couple of other questions.

What's the repair precedure?

Does the screw cause any other damage to the cylincer, piston, valves??

Thanks

DP

 

Those brass screws shouldn't of damaged anything.

 

Mazdaservice has seen this a few times, I have seen this issue so many times that I have a cheat sheet for the parts needed to fix the problem. We have a lot of Protege's in our area. The problem is that a number of 03 Protege with the 2.0l engine only have a problem with the IMRC (Intake Manifold Runner Control) system. The problem is that the retaining screws that hold the IMRS butterfly valves in place tend to get loose and fall out and in some rare cases arethen drawn in thru the intake valves and bounce around inside the combustion chamber untill they are either ejected thru the exhaust system or they hit your spark plug tip and close the gap on the spark plug due to impact. At this point you have a rough idle and probably a check engine light on. The repair is to have an updated intake manifold AND fuel rail installed. Do not have the manifold replaced without rail as you will then have a fuel leak to deal with. I have never seen any damage to the rest of the engine due to this but make sure that they also do a compression and cylinder leakage test to confirm this. I have done this repair for at least 20 vehicles in my area and sounds like you are a prime candidate for this same issue. I have been compiling a list of vehicles that I have had with this issue by VIN #. If you will PM me the last 6 digits of your VIN for privacy reasons I would be more that happy to tell you if you are within the VIN range that I have observed.

 

the 2003proteges all have that problem.
I have a bubby that had to have his whole block replaced
because of these butterfly flaps
i would be real carefull if i were you
id have mazda replace th intake manifold.

 

Not all but quite a few. Only Protege with the 2.0l engine and none of the Speed cars as they have a different intake manifold then the others. Mazda released a Recall on what they consider to be the affected vehicles. Recall 3005C applies to 2003 Protege's build from March 3, 2003 through July 31, 2003. Last six digits of VIN between 181114 and 219674. This recall will have the dealer remove the manifold and inspect for any loose screws or plates. If none are found then all of the screws are replaced and retorqued. If any damage to the plates or screws are missing then the manifold is replaced with updated part. Fuel rail no longer needed with the updated manifold by the way and all vehicles get a compression test to ensure all is ok.

 

I know this is an old thread but this has happened 3+ times to ours in the last year and by the looks of it we are not in the serial number range with 160824 as the last 6

we are over 100k miles so will the recal help us or are we stuck?