My Mazda millenia 2002 model automatic transmission has two problems and the two problems started when i did steam washing on the engine.

The first problem is vibration, the vibration is so much noticable that you see the steering, dash board, and even the side mirror shaking seriously when on park or in traffic (hold up).
The car is a V6 engine and can't say if its consuming fuel or not being my first car and considering the the situation in Lagos where you hardly move at top speed. I think the fuel consumption is okay.

The second issue is that the car jerk forward whenever i try to accellerate. The higher i press the accellerator the more noticeable the jerking is. It get to be more obvious when i try to accellerate from a very low speed to higher speed (for example: trying to accellerate very fast after being release from traffic).

Note: it doesn't jerk or may be its not noticable at a very low speed.

I will appreciate response from auto gurus in the house and also from members that have had such previous experience. i will also appreciate it if anyone can direct me to a competent auto mechanic that can deal with the issue.

Very simply tou may have misfire,probably on multiple cylinders.

You check engine light is on, you can go scan it or do a diagnosis yourself using Ikenna method.
Look inside enginebay for a disconnected/loose wire and make sure everthing it proper.Pul your spark plug wires, make sure the boot(rubber part of wire that goes over sparkplugs) is clean and dry reattach.

THen start the engine listen to how it runs, then pull spark plug wire one at a time.If it makes no different when you pull the plug out, that cylinder/section has a problem.

There are 6 cylinders in a V6, when you remove a sparkplug wire while its running you'll feel s slight change in engine rhythm because now its working on five cylinders.You feel your car shake now because you have more than one cylinder not working.easiest way will be to scan the car and from the codes it give you know what is wrong with it.

sultaan: Very simply tou may have misfire,probably on multiple cylinders.

You check engine light is on, you can go scan it or do a diagnosis yourself using Ikeana method.
Look inside enginebay for a disconnected/loose wire and make sure everthing it proper.Pul your spark plug wires, make sure the boot(rubber part of wire that goes over sparkplugs) is clean and dry reattach.

THen start the engine listen to how it runs, then pull spark plug wire one at a time.If it makes no different when you pull the plug out, that cylinder/section has a problem.

There are 6 cylinders in a V6, when you remove a sparkplug wire while its running you'll feel s slight change in engine rhythm because now its working on five cylinders.You feel your car shake now because you have more than one cylinder not working.easiest way will be to scan the car and from the codes it give you know what is wrong with it.

Thanks sultaan but i will like to know what is "Ikenna Method"

Just kidding there, Mod Ikenna351 metioned pulling out plug wires one at a time to see when it had no effect on engine, I'm used to scanning my car.


A cousin of mine has some cheap scanners (4) she wants to sell, it always a good thing to have one.

can i get your cousin's contact. you can drop it on the forum or send it to pmmgv@yahoo.com
Thanks

I'm interested in d car scanner

Lol @ "Ikenna method"

To add to what Sultaan had suggested. Is the engine rough idling, aside the vibration? That is, does the engine run roughly or not smoothly when you rev the car at stationary and in motion? Yes, vibration is a sign of rough idling, but we still need to be sure of the issue.

Sultaan has explained how to manually test the working of the spark plugs to you. But you may need to test the spark plug leads, which would give the same symptom of failed spark plug, if any of the spark plug leads fails.

There are two methods of testing the spark plug leads i know of: Digital Multimeter & leak test. DMM test is easy if you have one. Its not expensive. N200 or N500 can get you one. All you need to do is to check the resistance value of the lead. If it fails below factory value, then you have seen your culprit.

As for the leak test, we have two methods as well: test for electric shocks & test for sparks. The electric shock method is not for the faint hearted. How do i mean? If any of the leads is leaking, it will shock you as soon as any part of your body touches the spot of the leak. Rub your hand on all the leads, from one end to the other. If any is leaking you will get electric shock. Any lead that shocks you will be the culprit. The leakage prevents the complete high voltage from distributor or coil packs from reaching the spark plugs, hence, loss of sparks or insufficient sparks by the spark plugs in the combustion chambers.

The second method of testing spark plug leads is simple and more acceptable, since no one wants to get any electric shock. Hehe! Anyway, you will need a spray container for this method. Fill it with water and spray mist of water on all the leads, while engine is running or idling. You will see spark of light if the mist of water touches any spot of leakage on the leads.

If you find any spark plug leads leaking sparks, replace it new one, not used. If you cant afford it or cant find a good new one at the time, you can tape the lead, especially, at the spot it shocked you or was leaking sparks. Taping it will make it work well, pending when you can replace it. Use the black pvc/electric tape.

If your engine has distributor, you will need to check the cap for cracks. If the cap cracks, a spark plug or two maynot be getting volts from the distributor. In fact, i would advice you start the test with the distributor cap. Use the same electric shock and water mist spray method i have explained above. If you get electric shock when you run hand on the distributor cap, then the cap has cracked and will need to be replaced.

If your engine is distributorless, that is, it has coil packs instead, start with the spark plug test Sultaan explained above. If you noticed that the engine does not idle differently or show any change when you pullout any of the spark plug leads, swap the coil pack of the cylinder not working with one that works (one that you notice a difference in the engine idling when you pullout the lead). What you will findout after the swap job will tell you if the culprit is the coil pack, lead or the spark plug.

Please, all the test explained above must be carried out with the engine running or idling.

But if you dont want to go through the manual diagnosis i explained above, you will have to scan the car. Better get your own scanner, like Sultaan advised. But sometimes, you may have to go beyond scanner to properly deal with an issue, since scanner will only narrow it down for you. Am not sure if scanner will tell you if the spark plug lead is the culprit or not. But a personal OBD II scanner is a must for every '96 & above EFI engine user

Good luck!

Ikenna

Here is how I got to fix a DTC problem on my car recently.

My car was showing fuel door open after I put gas in the car then it will go off.Happened for a couple of months before check engine light came on.
Bought a cheap scanner, got P0455 and found this by searching "2010 ford fusion p0455" http://www.fordfusionforum.com/index.php?/topic/7710-p0455-cel-large-leak-detected/

Everything on there matched my problem, so I bought the part ~$35 shipping included as in post#8.

Now from the post I still had no idea what it was/looked like I could have tried to clean it out first.So when I got the part I had to go digging for around looking for it in the engine. Found/changed it been good since then.

The trick to fixing cars is to get the code(s) and searching for the code with year and model of the car.

No single problem is unique to and individual car/owner 100s of thousands of components/parts are made for cars and there are bound to be failures giving the same problems and there will be solutions on model specific forums, so get familiar with yours(better than having a mechanic). If you do that first you can narrow it down to a component.When your roadside mechanic starts jumping wires, replacing ECU with wrong type, adding wrong fluid, changing transmission/engine then the owner comes to nairaland to seek advice without stating all that had been done initially its a guess work after then.

Thanks Sultaan but i ask you earlier that how can i reach your cousin, i need to get the scanner to start with. I hope you get back to me this time.

I don't have her contact now I try to get to her tomorrow

Thanks Sultaan, i will be expecting that. I won't mind if you can also suggest another maxi model that might be an improvement to the one you are using but am not talking about scanners just an advance code reader, scanners are way to expensive.