My Mazda 2000 Protege has no electric power whatsoever, nothing lights up, no lights, no horn, no ignition, nada, zero. It is a 1.6 manual tranny. What could it be?

Asked by Ismael Jan 05, 2014 at 07:23 PM about the 2000 Mazda Protege LX

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I took the alternator to the auto parts, they check it for me and is fine, everything
happened after it dies at a red light, the smell of rubber burning was coming from the
engine bay, after moving the car out of the way, I checked and one of the two cables
from the positive was completely burned out, no plastic on it, I checked every single
fuse, went to the pick and pull parts place, bought a new harness, not the same, because
my car is manual, but almost everything else is identical, anyways, after replacing the
burnt cable, still no power, the funny things is when I put a battery on it, and check with
voltmeter, the battery seems fine, but when I connected the cables, the voltage in the
battery seems to disappear, I'm assuming that it is a ground problem but I do not know
where to start. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

3 Answers

44,635

It more than likely shorted the battery out. Take it and have them load test it. I have seen them show 12v and soon as they are hooked up drop to 6v. It may have trashed the ECM/computer too. Check your main ground wire on both ends coming from the battery too.

Sorry for a late reply, well the battery was replaced and still no power, if as you said is the computer, then where is located? Can I use a automatic computer in a manual transmission car? Do I need to reset or remap the computer in order to use it? Thanks

44,635

Your ECU is located in the center console just ahead of the shifter under all that plastic. You have to take out the center arm rest/junk box first, then the plastic bezel that surrounds the shifter.Some were placed under passenger carpet . These are the locations. Hoped this helped. If you get a used one with the same part # you won't have to reprogram it. Make sure all your mega fuses are good too. The big and small fuses.

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