EGR valve is a PITA
 

Why is it everytime something that needs doing on this car becomes a pain?
I've had a check engine light for a stupid EGR valve. Apparently its a common problem on the 98s and not just Proteges. THeres a TSB for a couple different models.
When I found out how much the part was ($320 at the dealership, $290 at Autozone) I decided it wasn't THAT important to get fixed right away. Didn't really effect driveability, idle would flucuate couple 100 RPMS.
I recently had a nice man point out that my inspection was overdue. It won't pass with the CEL so i bit the bullet and got the part.
And talk about the worst location...underneath the intake manifold. It took the better part of three hours to swap a part attached with two bolts and an electrical plug.

Between the cost, the location and the fact that Mazda never fixed the problem(just keep throwing new EGR valves at it), I'm really not liking this car at the moment.

One piece of good news, I did find a Wings West OEM lookalike spoiler in the junkyard for $50.

Davens , there is a vacuum port in the intake manifold for the EGR valve that has a line going to the egr boost sensor , if you keep getting egr insuffient flow then this port could be clogged. If this is the case no need to replace the vavle just clean out the port with a small drill bit or needle and clean the line with some mechanics wire.

Good info...
Given the the existing TSB and the fact that it's bitch to get to, I only want to replace mine once.

I just took my EGR pipe out to make it run cleaner. But the EGR makes the CE light come on. I found that the oxygen sensors where sensing that my exhaust was too nasty and sending a trouble code. I then replaced the O sensors with new ones that werent hooked up. So i let the ones that actually read, read the clean air and the others just plug up the hole. Works great now. Even if my emissions are alittle dirty. I got the hooked ups when it comes to inspection time