Mazdaspeed Protege Engine Stall

This message is for fellow Mazdaspeed owners, and not a debate of whether the MSP sucks or not. This is my first forum post!! :tongue:

I was wondering if fellow MSP owners have experienced the same minor problem as I have had. When I'm accelerating and get the revs up to around 3000, stop accelerating and put the car in neutral, the revs quickly drop and causes the engine to stall when the revs reach about engine idle speed. I think what's happening is the computer is not compensating for the high rate of deceleration. I took it to the dealer and had them take a look at it. They ended up calling the factory and were told to increase the idle speed. Haven't experienced the problem since. This was covered under the vehicles warranty.

Just curious and wondering if any one had similar problems with the MSP. Also, if you have experienced this, I wanted to let fellow owners know what the fix is. Pretty minor problem but surprised me when it happened. Other than that, the MSP is a great car and a good bang for the buck.

Happy driving!!! :evillol:

This is an addendum to my last post. Turns out other Mazdaspeed owners have had similar problems with the engine stalling while the car is coasting in neutral. The increase in idle speed, which was the fix I had posted before, did help reduce the stall. However, it was still a problem when I accelerated the car hard. I recently had my Engine Control Unit flashed with new software from the Mazda dealership, which provided a new fuel map. Haven't tried inducing the eninge stall yet but this seems to be the fix for the problem. The flash is free and still worth getting to update your cars software.

In one of the Mazdaspeed forums, a guy in Canada reportedly got a new larger diameter air intake tube to fix the problem. I'm a little skeptical of the fix since he's the only one in all of North America to get the new tube and has yet to provide a part number.

Anyways, other than this minor nuisance, the car is still running well. Happy driving!!! :evillol:

I've had the exact same problem. It's been into the shop once before and is in a second time now. It's been flashed atleast 3 times (because of many other problems) and I'm still having trouble. The dealer seems unaware of this or any of the 9-10 other problems I've been having with the car. This is a nightmare come true for me, I wanted the car so bad and I've had nothing but problems with it. This problem in particular almost got me killed an the service department seemed unconcerned at all. I was coming onto route 95 (which is a major highway on the east coast) at about 40-50 mph on an on-ramp when I needed to slow down a bit and the car stalled. The powerstearing went out and I nearly lost control of the car before I could get it started again. It may just be the dealership I'm working with but I'm about ready to seek lemon law reimbursement for the whole thing.

Even after the flash, the car runs too rich. It could be that, or you could have a vacuum leak or intake/IC leak. Do either one of you guys have a boost gauge in the car??? You could use that to see if it was either one of those, if your boost gauge also reads vacuum.

articus- A larger diameter intake will not fix this.

Gekitsuu- what other problems have you had??? Sorry you feel that you got a lemon, it is possible with any make and model. I love my car, and it runs great.

Thanks for the reply 505zoom I'll take those ideas with me when I start working with Mazda on the car. I dont' really blame the car, I'm just frustrated with the whole situation. I haven't put a boost gauge or turbo timer on it for the simple fear of what it might do to the warrenty I've used quite a bit. I have limited knowledge of cars but I had a couple ideas of what might be happening and maybe you could let me know if I'm crazy. It seems the problem is worse if I'm real heavy on the gas making me think I might be flooding the engine? The other thought I had was that it seems alot of the common problems with the car are electrically related. Sterea dying, sub woofer blowing, the stalling problem is worse when I have alot of electronics on. I've heard about people having other electronic problems with thier MSP's too, like blown fuses and dead batteries.

dude that sux. i hear ppl haveing problems like u too, but i have experienced none. i love the car and i would never down it, but in your case your probly better off gettin rid of it. good luck with what ever u do.

Thanks for the reply 505zoom I'll take those ideas with me when I start working with Mazda on the car. I dont' really blame the car, I'm just frustrated with the whole situation. I haven't put a boost gauge or turbo timer on it for the simple fear of what it might do to the warrenty I've used quite a bit. I have limited knowledge of cars but I had a couple ideas of what might be happening and maybe you could let me know if I'm crazy. It seems the problem is worse if I'm real heavy on the gas making me think I might be flooding the engine? The other thought I had was that it seems alot of the common problems with the car are electrically related. Sterea dying, sub woofer blowing, the stalling problem is worse when I have alot of electronics on. I've heard about people having other electronic problems with thier MSP's too, like blown fuses and dead batteries.

Gekitsuu - I agree, it can be a safety issue. I've trained myself now to to coast around in neutral much and to pretty much drive in gear all the time. You can always put the car back in gear and pull the clutch out and start the engine back up if your car stalls just to get power back. At this time, I've seen several theories to the cause and fix to this problem. I'm not sure I think anyone really has the solution.

505zoom - Why won't a larger diameter intake fix the problem? What is the fix?

Cars running well overall. No other real complaints!

Gekitsuu -

505zoom - Why won't a larger diameter intake fix the problem? What is the fix?



Because the intake is not the problem. The problem lies in the PCM(powertrain control module). Mazda needs to come out with another updated flash and this time they need to adjust the fuel, and not just advance the timing. In a turbo car especially, you do not want the timing to be advanced too much, it can lead to detonation and a blown motor.

You very well could have a vacuum leak somewhere, or you could have a boost leak. There is a common spot that cracks and causes a boost leak. Pop your hood, and look at the large, plastic intake pipe that runs from the turbo into the intercooler. There will be a nipple on that pipe with a 1" hose running to your BPV and then to the intake. Check the spot where the nipple is attatched to the piping for any cracks by GENTLY moving it back and forth. Do not break it, but check to see if it is broken already. How is your car idling???

Have you guys switched out the Stock deck yet? The problem i am always having with mine is that whenever i turn the power off, the face plate recedes back into the dash, without leaving anyway to turn it around. Quite frusterating to have a nice sound system but no sound. i went to the dealer and they said i had to pull the interior light fuse, and then restart the car. i tried this myself and have yet to fix the problem.
Do you guys know what i am possibly doing wrong? maybe in the wrong order or something. im at a loss.

PhYcHoTiC-all you have to do is push the top left corner of the faceplate to turn it back around. Also, make sure you have your key turned to the "on" position.

I had this problem at it took nearly 8 months for Mazda to find and fix the problem. It turned out to be the intake pipe! I know it sounds strange (I was the first to be skeptic about this), but this actually changed the whole intake pipe and it solved the problem. There was probable a turbulence in the other one that caused a bad reading on the MAF sensor. Therefore, I guess that changing the intake by a CAI or SRI would also solve the problem.

Before changing that, they tried a new ECU and a new MAF. They even tried to solve it by increasing the boost to 12psi (imagine.. I almost got a car boostin at 12psi under warranty by Mazda!!!).

I am having the same problem and it resulted in an accident! Last week I was driving my 2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege when it stalled (again) while I was approaching a stop sign. It was an intersection where i had to turn left or right. Straight ahead was an embankment. When I pushed in the clutch, the car died. I pressed on the breaks, nothing. THen I tried to steer, nothing. The check engine light was on. I ran up the embankment tearing up the underside of the car and causing some front end damage. So far it is estimated at $10,000.00. I hope the total the car. I am afraid to drive it now. What if it happens again! HELP

I have heard of the rare cases of "stalling" which seems to be more than just stalling if you are losing steering and brakes. A few people have put it in 3rd and popped the clutch to restart it while moving and had good results...but I would be nervous as hell too if that shit happened to me!!!

If any of the people having this problem wouldn't mind contacting me I'd appreaciate it. My e-mail addy is adam@landoctor.com. I am currently in lemon law proceedings and would love to have other people experienceing the problem talk to my lawyer.

I am having the same problem and it resulted in an accident! Last week I was driving my 2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege when it stalled (again) while I was approaching a stop sign. It was an intersection where i had to turn left or right. Straight ahead was an embankment. When I pushed in the clutch, the car died. I pressed on the breaks, nothing. THen I tried to steer, nothing. The check engine light was on. I ran up the embankment tearing up the underside of the car and causing some front end damage. So far it is estimated at $10,000.00. I hope the total the car. I am afraid to drive it now. What if it happens again! HELP


It happened again 8/22. We are now going to use the lemon law to try to get our money back. This car has stalled while driiving about 9 times. We can't put our son back in it. Mazda has not been very helpful. I will never buy another one.