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Comments
If anyone has had this problem, and how to fix, it would be greatly appreciated
It's pretty straightforward. Just pop the housing cover off (pry it up gently with a flat-bladed screwdriver), then twist the little bulb assembly out of the lens counter-clockwise. The bulb, if I remember correctly, is a press-in/pull-out type.
Meade
Good Lord!
Good Lord!
Good Lord!
Good Lord!
:sick:
Ya only gotta hit "post my message" once!
Anyway ... yes, it does have something to do with your air conditioning. The drain line from inside the car, which exits through the firewall to "drip" outside, has gotten clogged. Get under your dash on the passenger side, find the little tube, find where it connects up under the dash, pull it off and blow it out. Good as new.
Meade
Thanks, Greg
Meade
p.s. how's Ophelia affecting your neck of the woods?
My younger brother lives down in Chesapeake -- about five miles from the ocean -- and he's been battered by on-again off-again rain, wind and just basically miserable weather the past few days. But the storm hasn't come very close to Virginia -- mainly the Outer Banks of NC. She's pretty small and weak for a hurricane/tropical storm too -- it's her slow pace that's made her a mess because of all the rain she's dumped on NC.
What I don't want to see is another Isabel like in September '03. That monster was twice the size of Ophelia and came grinding ashore as a Cat 3, and took a track right across Central VA -- in fact the remains of the eyewall came right over my neighborhood. We were lucky; we were the only house on our block that didn't have at least one tree fall on it that night. We lost power for more than a week, and for the first time in my memory we also lost telephone and water service. Richmond was a mess. Despite the lack of tree damage, I will never forget the sound of the wind as Isabel moved through that night. We had gusts upward of 80 mph that shook the house and roared outside -- it made you feel really, really small and insignificant in the world, lemme tell ya! I've lived here basically all my life, and Isabel was the first hurricane in my 40-year memory that was still a hurricane that far inland.
To give this post some semblance of Protege-ness, I will say that I moved both of our Mazdas (at that time my Protege ES and my wife's Protege5) out into the street, away from potential limb damage, etc., during Isabel. It was interesting looking out the front windows at them during the height of the storm. The rain was pelting them sideways, and my car looked just like a test car in a wind tunnel -- I could see the rain going up the hood and windshield and swooping over the roof and down behind the car. And I've never seen bugs cleaned off a bumper so well without any scrubbing! If we have another Isabel, remind me to soap the car up before the rain starts.
:P
Meade
We can always count on you to find an angle. Good to hear you and yours are safe and sound.
p.s. believe it or not, some of that hot humid weather has crept all the way north into Canada; it's like an extended summer some days; that'll teach me to pack up the shorts too soon.
Thank you, my liege!
I was a newspaper reporter, you know. :shades:
Meade
too bad.....so what's $700---labor to install used engine or $700 for head gasket repair? $700 isn't going to buy you a new or used engine.
Did you consider getting a second opinion from other than the internet?
Just lately when I start my car i here a whistling sound and when I step on
the gas i hear like a purring sound. Also there is some kinda smell. Just
totally baffled.
pro2000
hmmmmmm....
Sure, an alternator can last 7 years. They also can last 7 days. These are electromechanical parts. I've had them go more than 100,000 miles (in my Mazda pickup), and I've been through three in 100,000 miles (in my Hyundai Excel). Like an old chicken commercial used to say, Parts is Parts!
Meade
At speeds of 70 mph+, the steering wheel starts to shimmy a little bit. Maybe there is a tire out of balance? The car tracks straight on the highway though.
When the car is stopped and in either R or D, I hear a squealing noise (it shakes too) coming from the front of the car.
Any ideas as to what is going on?
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2022 Wrangler Sahara 4Xe, 2023 Toyota Tacoma SR 4WD
Are your tires properly inflated? Any strange wear patterns on them?
When the car is stopped and in either R or D, I hear a squealing noise (it shakes too) coming from the front of the car.
If the squeal happens while you're in Park or Neutral then I suspect its something other than your wheels.
The squeal happens when the car is in D or R. I don't think it has anything to do with the wheels either.
Thanks.
I'm going to take it in sometime this week.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2022 Wrangler Sahara 4Xe, 2023 Toyota Tacoma SR 4WD
I was going to suggest plug wires until I read that the previous mechanic covered that -- just make sure he really did change them, OK? That's what it sounds like to me.
Have you tried taking the car to a Mazda dealership's service department? If anyone knows the car, Mazda should!
Meade
About the only thing I know of which will cause that is the auto trans slipping.
Mass Airflow Sensor, O2 sensors. Either system going out could adversely affect your fuel/air mixture, which probably accounts for your really bad mileage. That's assuming your fuel gauge is working properly. Fill up your tank again to confirm actual fuel consumption.
A stuck EGR valve can also cause poor fuel economy. So can worn rings or cracked cylinders. Do you detect increased consumption of motor oil?
Usually in the service manual, there is a troubleshooting chart, based upon symptoms.
The musty AC is more permanently fixed by removing the condensing chamber behind the dash and thoroughly cleaning it out. Check to make sure the drain line is open.
Bigger, heavier wheels are more sensitive to out-of-balance conditions. On some cars, the lugs are used to center the wheels. On Proteges, centering rings (usually plastic on alloy wheels, so they wear) are used. You might want to check the centering rings for wear (if they're even there). The mating surfaces on your hubs may be damaged, so inspect them too.
Your problem with the slow shift from 2nd to 1st may have to do with a bad speed sensor on your AT or a bad torque converter. The sputter might be related to a failing MAS.
What's a gas tank heat shield doing under the engine compartment? Perhaps they meant the catalytic converter heat shield or the exhaust manifold heat shield. Either could shake loose (loose fastener) or crack, either of which will produce a metallic rattling noise. If you could, get your car onto ramps or on a lift and knock on these heat sheilds (and anything else you suspect so long as you don't damage it ) until you find some reasonable suspect(s).
Has anyone else developed this problem? Or have an informed opinion as to whether it's a tranny problem or just a glitch in the warning light?
I'm hoping the problem is with the horn relay, which is cheap and easy to repair. If the problem is with the horn switch, as seems likely since you whacked the horn button to make it stop, don't let them talk you into an expensive repair. There are cheaper ways to deal with this. Check back here with more information.
Before her appointment tomorrow, my mom would like to know, what might those "cheaper ways" to deal with a horn switch problem be, please? I neglected to make note of the URL of the forum where I found that post, so I can't ask the person that posted that statement. So, I'm posting here hoping someone can help.
Thank you.
Meade
Dear Tom and Ray:
The temperature in my Minnesota town at 3 a.m. last night was minus 20 ... which was still not as cold as the letter of rejection I recently received from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. But I digress. At 3 a.m., I, along with others on my block, awoke to the blowing horn on my girlfriend's 1991 Mazda Protege. This is the third instance when the car's horn sounded at an odd hour of the night, and it doesn't stop until the car is warmed up and has been running for 20 minutes. After breaking my pen in a mad attempt to pry random fuses from the fuse box, I discovered that the horn fuse also powers the brake lights. So, removing the fuse is not a good option. What's the deal? -- Dave
Tom: I think it's your girlfriend's father, Dave. He's out there leaning on the horn.
Ray: There are two possibilities, and they both have to do with cold weather. Things shrink when they get cold, Dave. It's possible that during the coldest part of the coldest nights, your horn relay is closing on its own and making the horn blow.
Tom: The horn relay normally gets closed when you push the center pad on your steering wheel -- the relay then activates the horn under normal circumstances. But when relays get old, they can close by themselves. The relay is located under the dashboard, to the left of the steering wheel. So, the next time this happens, reach under there and start pulling out relays until the noise stops. Or, if you'd prefer, you can go buy a new horn relay for about $10 and pop it in there in advance.
Ray: If a new horn relay doesn't fix the problem, then it's probably the horn pad that's shrinking in the cold and completing the circuit. The horn pad on your steering wheel is separated from the contact ring by four little springs. Those springs might have worn out over the years, or it might just be so cold that the plastic horn pad itself is shrinking enough to make the contacts touch.
Tom: You can pop off that horn pad with a screwdriver, and you can probably find replacement parts at a junkyard. Just don't leave the car unattended, though, Dave. They might mistake it for "incoming."
Also, for anyone who needs to do this repair, there are no springs to go bad, but instead a buffer of what looks to be 1/4" foam that simply collapses a bit over time. It's easy to repair; I did it today. It cost me less than a dollar to repair (assuming it is repaired!), and took maybe an hour.
a) Remove the three screws from behind (underneath) the horn pad housing.
b) Pull off the horn pad (triangular-shaped center with logo on it).
c) With the housing then exposed, you'll then see a triangular copper sheet. Remove the smaller screws that hold it in place. Carefully.
d) Lift out gently, just a couple of inches,. DO NOT try to remove it all the way yet.
e) You'll see a wire running from the copper plate to a connection in the base of the metal housing. Pull the pressure clip at the base end of the wire off its connection (take care to leave the connection to the copper plate intact).
At that point the plate and what it's joined to can be removed. You'll see that you have a sandwich made of the thin copper plate that sits directly under the horn pad, a sheet of foam about 1/4" think, and the thicker copper plate underneath that, everything held together with two little plastic rivets.
IF you can locate 1/4" foam, the repair is as simple as can be. The foam is not easy to find at crafts stores and the like. You may have to go to an electronics store and beg for leftover packaging material.
f) Pop out the plastic rivets that hold the sandwich together ( I did this by pushing with a plastic spoon, so as not to break the rivets).
g) Very gently remove the thin copper plate from the foam. They're attached to each other with spray adhesive that's meant to give way; but still... be careful.
h) Use the old foam buffer as a template/stencil for drawing outline of the same same holes in the new foam.
i) Cut out the holes in the new foam, and make sure they match the ones in the old foam. The electrical wire will need its hole, too.
j) Put the sandwich back together, rivets last. It's worth the little extra expense to use spray adhesive for the three parts; don't spray it on thick, and let it dry a couple of minutes before sandwiching everything together (too soon and they're stuck for life; you just need a tacky surface to preclude slipping, not a solid bond).
k) Reattach the electrical wire to the base with its clip.
l) Reassemble.
I had the same problem with my '02 protege. I bought it in July and then noticed the button didn't work. It didn't seem like a big deal, as the car was always in overdrive. However, the car was still under the manufacturer's warranty, so I took it in to be fixed. The dealership said that the overdrive switch was broken, so they replaced it. Light works fine now and I can turn the OD on and off. So, it is more of a glitch than a transmission problem.
i "feel" like my gas mileage has been poorer in recent months as well, but i have no measurement of that being the case and i don't know if it's a related symptom.
I have a similar problem, noise when in R or D, not in P or N.
Did you get any diagnosys from the dealer ?
Thx,
Gabe