97 Protege missing under load

[ctc]

My '97 Mazda Protege 1.5L w/ 175K miles on the clock is missing under load below 2000 rpm. Idle is very rough as well. When cruising all is fine.

Replaced spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor but the issue persists.

My bro-in-law is a mechanic and he said I should cut my losses and it is not worth investigating. (I only paid $600 for the car).

Opinions? Suggestions?

 

[beast3300]

It is most likely the distributor. I ran into this with my GF's 98 Protege 1.5L. Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY A REMAN FROM A1 Cardone. It failed repeatly!!!!!!!!!!!, until A1 Cardone sent me a NEW unit.

 

[PRND3L]

Originally Posted By: beast3300
Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY A REMAN FROM A1 Cardone. It failed repeatly!!!!!!!!!!!


Not to threadjack, but I just found this out the hard way with a reman A1 Cardone power brake booster for the Saab. It worked for almost 1 whole day.

 

[ctc]

Originally Posted By: beast3300
It is most likely the distributor. I ran into this with my GF's 98 Protege 1.5L. Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY A REMAN FROM A1 Cardone. It failed repeatly!!!!!!!!!!!, until A1 Cardone sent me a NEW unit.


How can I test the current distributor?

 

[ctc]

Dang, I forgot a vital vital piece of info. One cylinder has low compression...

So I believe that would rule out the distributor.

 

[beast3300]

Does it run worse warmed up? Is there misfire code/and or check engine light flashing?

 

[ctc]

The idle does seem to get worse when it warms up.

There is a misfire code/cil.

 

[ALL_OUT_LS1]

head gasket, cracked head, burnt valve, bad injector, could be any of these.....

 

[beast3300]

Distributor is bad.

 

[ctc]

Originally Posted By: ALL_OUT_LS1
head gasket, cracked head, burnt valve, bad injector, could be any of these.....


Yeah this is what my bro-in-law said...

 

[ThirdeYe]

If it is a distributor, I ordered one on eBay a few years ago and it works great. It's not remanufactured, which probably helps. It also supposedly has a higher temperature tolerance for the coil design. I'd post a link to it here but since they're not a site sponsor, I'm probably not supposed to.

 

[dime]

what were the compression readings? dry and wet

 

[Texan4Life]

Quote:
My bro-in-law is a mechanic and he said I should cut my losses and it is not worth investigating.


Not worth it if your paying someone $75/hr to puzzle over it.

But in your case labor is free. You should totally investigate.

I'm not familiar with his car. but when you changed the spark plugs, what did they look like? and were any of them different than the others?

The reason I ask is because my bro's 95 grand am had two fouled spark plugs #1 and #4. turns out 1 and 4 share an ignition coil and a new coil fixed it right up. It never set a misfire code (or any code for that matter). So it took awhile to figure this out.

 

[mechtech2]

At first guess, it sounded like vacuum leaks.
But you have determined that it is a bad cylinder - sorry.