Three problems related to check engine light on have been reported for the 2003 Mazda Protege. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Mazda Protege based on all problems reported for the 2003 Protege.
Rough idle causing to stall while driving, check engine light on for cylinder misfire, found cylinder 4 with a bent spark plug with the gap closed. Replaced all 4 plugs car ran fine for a few months only to have the same issue cylinder misfire with cylinder 4 with another bent plug gap closed. Possible something loose inside cylinder 4 causing the misfire issues to the plug. Mileage 130,280.
On at least 3-5 occasions this 2. 0l engine has suffered the exact same fate as NHTSA id# 10422484. Check engine light on, misfiring, associated noise sounding like a bolt / screw bouncing around in the engine for maybe 15 seconds, then would return to normal. Each time there has been a different cylinder misfire, upon spark plug removal it was found the gap was closed causing no spark. Each time, a new plug was installed and corrected the immediate problem. After seeing these complaints and a recall regarding this issue I realized I've had the same issue. Don't know if my VIN # is in the effected range or not. Car now has 123105 miles. Would hope that Mazda would cover any vehicle with this problem.
The contact owns a 2003 Mazda protã‰gã‰. The contact stated that the check engine light illuminated. The mechanic checked the codes and stated that the engine misfired. The current mileage was 84,000 and failure mileage was 80,000.