97 Mazda Protege Vibrates on idle

[zachh]

Hi, I have a 97 Protege 1.5L a/t. Lately it has been vibrating when it idles. Mostly in Drive or Reverse. It now is to the point where it always sounds like it is struggling to run. Also it is being very hard on gas. About 350kms to a full tank. The belt squeels when I first drive off in the morning and it sounds like its going to stall sometimes when im taking off from the second stop. Any suggestions?

[mazdatech177]

sounds like a vacuum leak to me. check your intake ait tube coming of your throttle body

[growe58]

This is a common problem for this motor. Some of the usual culprits:

Dirty throttle plate on throttle body.
Egr malfunction
Dirty PCV
Poor compression in one or more cylinders.

The first three can be fixed for a $1.89 worth of carb cleaner and 1 hour of your time. Let's hope it's not the fourth...

[zachh]

Vibrating has stopped. I took it to the garage and it turned out it needed an air flow sensor. Runs much better and it no longer vibrates. But still.. the car is extremely hard on gas. I got 250kms to the last tank of gas, thats about 150miles. This is ridiculous the car only has a 1.5. The air filter is also brand new. What could be causing this?