I also have a 98 Mazda protege. Yes the check engine light came on. I had it for over 6 years. I continue to drive it and to this day I have only minor problems.
Apr 11, 2010 Rating
Check Engine Light Keeps coming on by: Dave Di
98 Mazda Protege check engine light Keeps coming on. I bought a 98 Mazda Protege for my daughter so she could go back to school. She has racked up some mileage on the car. The only problem we had was with the engine light coming on.
It appears the the oxygen sensor was setting off the Engine light because the exhaust system was not getting hot enough to burn off all the unburnt gasses. Somewhere there was a change in the sensor, but they are not the same, even thou they say OEM. Exhaust system was not changed. It's all the same size and original OEM pipe. Rather than pay a guy 300 dollars to have them unplug the battery and re-hook it up, so the computer resets it's self, and the light will say off until another time.
I was told/or read some where that the exhaust system does not get hot fast enough and that is the cause of the check engine light coming on. It can't capture the unused gases, and sends a message through the check engine light to have the system checked. Nobody these days will fix a problem like that, you have to live with it and know how to reset it.
Pull off the battery terminal for few min. and re hook it up. Or you can go to Auto zone and have them reset the computer for free. This happens more in the winter months than in the summer, because it's not so cold and the pipe heats faster. Regards David
Feb 09, 2010 Rating
97 Mazda EGR by: Jimmy Nails
Hey Paul I just wanted to mention that I have a 97 Mazda protege that also set a code for an EGR problem. My repair shop was able to fix the problem on the first visit unlike the dealer that you went to. But it was necessary to replace the EGR valve as well as removing the carbon from the passageway. It seemed like from your story that you felt maybe the valve itself was not needed. But it most likely needed to be replaced.
I kept my old part and I could clearly see that the EGR was rusted heavily.My mechanic told me that this was causing a binding situation and may have led to the passageway being clogged with carbon.
So it seems like the fact that you had to go to (2) shops did suck. But it would seem to me anyway that both repairs were necessary. P.S. My 97 Mazda protege has 210,000 miles on the original engine and is still going strong. Zoom zoom!
