temporary engine rattle fix
 

try this

http://www.protegeclub.com/forum/sho...9&pagenumber=2

Ahh kick ass. I'm runnin out right now and unpluggin that mutha. Thanks a million dude.

just remember, i am not liable if anybodies engine gets fucked

hopefully its under warrenty like mine :D

did it work for you guys?

I got check engine light within 3 minutes.
Reset the ECU, it was gone. Had to connect plug again.
Alex

how do you reset the ECU? why did you have to put the plug back in?

If check engine light comes on after messing up with emission controls(unplugging solenoid plug), then it's reasonable to assume that this action caused the check engine light.
To reset ECU-disconnect battery for few minutes.
I'd rather drive with almost unnoticeable rattle than with check engine light, because it really degrades the performance, so I hooked up solenoid again.
Alex

ya i just got the check engine light too :mad: , but my starts are less noisy though

honestly how bad is this rattle? I think all of you are just exagerating, since I sometimes have a small rattle too in the mornings if I don't warm up the car, but by the time that I make a right turn 500 metres later it's gone.

So I just disconnected the VTCS sensor and the rattle is gone. Engine light as predicted, but then again, I would have been annoyed if the engine light didn't come on when I had disconnected something :)

Anyway, I for one would much rather have my engine light on then deal with the stupid rattle. I'll reconnect it when Mazda has a proper fix.

Cheers,

Eric

does the check engine light, or unhooking this plug affect performance though? that's what i'd like to know. :dunno:

that check engine ligh bugs me so i had to reconect it

Aaron - I haven't noticed any performance loss, but it's still too soon to be sure. I did this on a full tank, so I'll also be able to see if there's any difference in fuel consumption, but I would be surprised if there was.

Maybe TheMan can tell us his impressions since he's most likely been running disconnected longer than all of us :)

Cheers,

Eric

Hello everyone,

Im new on the list here, been lurking around for a while though.

About the folks who disconnected the solenoid and got a check engine light, did you guys plug the hole back up?

I have the rattle as well, and I disconnected the vacuum hose and plugged up the solenoid (about a month ago), and no check engine light has come on yet.

Just for curiosity, I decided to reconnect the hose the other day to see if I was overreacting to the noise, but nope, the hose came right off again. That noise is pretty annoying.

I figure if something gets messed up, I'll plug it back up and give it to the dealer to take care of. Hopefully if somethings gonna happen, it will happen before 50,000 miles :)

Carlos - can you give a few more details about what you did? Did you disconnect the hose and plug the hose (leaving it disconnected), or did you plug the entry to the solenoid and put the hose back on? What did you use to plug it?

Cheers,

Eric

One more thing - which hose do you plug? The one going up, or the one going towards the back of the car?

Shaderman,

I disconnected the hose at the entry into the solenoid and pluged the solenoid, as this is a direct path into the intake manifold. If you turn the car on and put your finger over the solenoid hole with the hose disconnected, you should feel a suction (if the car is cold). I would imagine if you don't plug the solenoid, the computer may pick up this vacuum leak and could turn on the check engine light (just a guess).

As for the hose itself, I put a little tape on it just so I dont get bugs crawling up it or anything.

BTW I used a little rubber cap that fit the solenoid hole just right to cap it off.

I think MOST people are exagerating about this "rattle". I have a slight rattle, if you want to call it that, in the morning when I start the car. I couldnt tell you if Ive been in a car that didnt do this when you first start it in the morning. It only last about 15 seconds for me. After I start driving, its nothing but fun! :P Remember, even tho the Protege is a great car (best bang for the buck) it is NOT a perfectly built car (you tell me a car that is). It will have slight irregularities. I LOVE my P5, and I dont take these things to serioulsly, unless I see it causing a problem down the line.

My question is, does any 2000 and 2001 Protege Sedan owners hae this? Or is it just the 2002 P5 owners?

mnkyboy - I don't think people are exaggerating. I have this rattle, and it really bothers me. It is quite loud and people do turn their heads when they hear it. It also lasts for more than 15 seconds for me. It usually takes about 2-3 minutes for the car to warm up to a level where the rattle goes away. This is not a build irregularity - it is a definite problem which needs to be fixed. When I disconnected the solenoid I became *much* happier with my ride.

Cheers,

Eric

Does your engine light come on? What does the solenoid do for the car? Does it affect performance?

Yes, my light comes on because I simply disconnected the solenoid instead of plugging the hose. I plan to plug the hose soon so that the light will go off, but to be honest the light doesn't really bother me compared to the rattle. Performance wise, there's absolutely no difference from my perspective.

Cheers,

Eric

Yeah its no exaggeration, it sounds like shit. And yes it does last for about 2 minutes. And no it doesn't not have to be freezing outside. It was 67 degrees here yesterday, and I started my car and rattled all the way out of my apartment complex, GHETTO, and didn't stop till I was down the road aways. I did that unplugging the solenoid, and my light came on too. I plugged it back in cause I didn't want the code to do anything else to my computer, but if its no big deal, then yeah screw it. I would much rather roll around with my check engine light than that hideous rattle. I'm still trying to figure what lines that one dude is talking about pluggin up. I'm confused. And when you have whatever hose you're tlaking about plugged up is your solenoid unplugged too. I can't quite fiure out what you're talking about. But I would like to know, so I can stop this. Thanks.

here are some pictures of my engine, can you give us some more detailed instructions on how you did this:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2176.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2177.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2178.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2179.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2180.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2181.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2182.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2183.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2184.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2185.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2186.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2187.JPG

Wouldnt it be stupid to have your engine light on all the time, knowing what is causing the engine light to come on? If you did this, then if something else where to fail, then you might not know until it is to late, since the engine light is always on! :D

Well than it'll be time to call Mazda's punk asses up, plug the solenoid back in, and tell them to fix your shit. AS long its still under warranty, I ain't worried about having the chek engine light on, when I know that I'm causing it.

I'll put up pictures and clear instructions as soon as I do it (hose plugging) to my car. That will most likely be sometime early next week. For now, disconnect the green connector circled above if you don't want the noise ... :)

Cheers,

Eric

I dont think you understood me, if you have the engine light on all the time, and "something" happens to the car that you cant see or hear, but the engine light would come on if this thing were to happen, then if the engine light is already on, you wouldnt know that "something" has happened. Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you didnt think of that. :)

My plan had been to plug the connector back in from time to time to make sure everything was ok. Now that I plan to do the hose thing I'm not so concerned since it will just bypass that part of the diagnostics.

Cheers,

Eric

Nightowl,

A while back Rodslinger helped me out with this.

On the 6th picture down, right above/behind the red strut tower brace you see the 2 solenoids mounted on top of the intake manifold. One has a green connector and one has a white connector. The green one is the only one I worked with.

It seems the people who have the check engine light may have disconnected the actual electrical connector. What I did is left the electrical connector "as is" and disconnected the actual vacuum hose on that solenoid. If you follow the vacuum hose on the green one it will get to a vacuum actuator near the rear of the head. This seems to actuate the plate inside the manifold (which apparently is at least partly to blame for our noise). If you remove the hose from the source of the vaccuum at the solenoid, that vacuum actuator will no longer move the plate inside, and the noise goes away. If you play around with plugging and unplugging the vacuum hose at the solenoid while the engine is on (and cold), you'll see this actuator snap open and closed (like if it were part of the throttle body). Once the car is warm the solenoid seems to switch off not letting any vacuum through (hence our noise goes away when the car warms up).

I have not disconnected the electrical connection. Maybe this, along with plugging the hole where the vacuum hose was attached to, fools the computer into thinking nothing has changed. I would not leave the hole on the solenoid unplugged as it essentially allows unfiltered air strait into the intake manifold(since that is where the vacuum comes from).

About the only change I have noticed is that at idle when cold, the exhaust doesnt smell perfectly clean, like an ULEV vehicle would. From what I have gathered from this forum, the plate I was refering to above is a big part of what makes our P5's ULEV.

So far so good (after about 3000 miles). But if something bad does happen, oh well... I plug the hose back in and take it to the dealer to take care of.

Sorry for the length, hope this clears this up some.

For those who want the abridged version of my previous post (sorry about the length)

1. Open hood
2. Find the 2 black side by side solenoids on top of the intake manifold (one with a green connector, the other with a white one)
3. On the one with the green connector, simply unplug the vacuum hose on top of the solenoid.
4. Get creative and find something to plug the hole on the solenoid that will give you a good seal and wont get sucked in. (Seems like electrical tape worked for about a week until I found a good plug).
5. Close hood and enjoy normal operating engine sounds :)

PS
6. Dont blame me if something breaks :D

What is the purpose of the solenoid? What does it do?

I know what a solenoid is, its a specially designed electromagnet. I wanted to know what the purpose of this particular solenoid is. I re-read the post, but none of them (that I could see) explains this.

Sorry, I didnt know what VTCS stands for. I did some researching, and I found this. Variable Timing Cam (VTC) Sprockets. This guy sounds like he has the same problem that we have, on a 1992-94 Nissan Maxima. Check this link out, sounds interesting. Hope this helps, sorry TheMAN :)

http://www.geocities.com/bracecraig/maxima/vtc/vtc.html

Here is a quote from the page:
"The 1992-1994 Maxima SE comes standard with the 3.0L V6 VE30DE engine. The problem lies with springs in the Variable Timing Cam (VTC) Sprockets. What happens is the advanced timing does NOT DISengage when the VTC are bad. So it advances timing at low RPM's. It also causes the engine to make a clattering sound that goes away after the engine warms up. Repair involves rebuilding the VTC assembly or replacing the assembly. Supposedly the new VTC assemblies are improved and will not fail, but several people have experienced VTC failure again 20-30k miles after having the assemblies rebuilt. This repair can cost from $1000 to $1400."

Does anyone have a running count of how many people have this problem?

is this the hose i disconect and plug the end

http://www3.sympatico.ca/malcolm.nor...e/IMG_2179.jpg

[Image removed by TheMAN due to excessive file size and resolution, image accessable via link]

TheMAN, so this has nothing to do with what the Protege rattle is? The description sounds EXACTLY alike.

To plug the open vacuum port on the solenoid, just go to any auto parts store and pick up an assortment of vacuum caps. Most places like Autozone, Advance, Crap-boys, Napa, etc have a section with miscellaneous parts in red packs branded "Help" parts. They have everything from oil drain plugs, door hinge bushings, locks, connectors and vacuum connectors. Should be less than a buck. Yank the vacuum line on the green solenoid, plug the vacuum port and rattle is gone.

Yep, yep this fix is the shit. Its made me sooo much more happier about my ride. The only adverse effect I have noticed is when its still cold, the throttle response seems a little laggy, but it picks right back up when you reach normal operating temp. But hey I'll trade the initial throttle lage for that irritating as hell rattle any day of the week. Besides its not like you should be racing your engine when its cold anyway.

Im still clueless on what this does on your car/what it wont be doing on your car if you unplug it. Is this posted somewhere, because I missed it (i dont see it anywhere :) )

Does this rattle exist on all protege models? I was going to buy a 2002 mazda protege es but am now having second thoughts... any unbias opinions out there?

PJStyles

I think the rattle exists on all engines which have the VTCS, which should include all the recent 2.0L engines. It is certainly not a factor for deciding whether to buy the car though. It is a minor problem which occurs only during cold starts, and an easy fix exists until Mazda comes up with an ECU reprogram which will permanently correct the problem.

I think you'll find that all of us who have the rattle are still very happy with our choice in vehicles.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Eric