2002 Mazda Protege 5 fuel issue

Do you have any codes especially o2 sensor codes?

According to my local shop the only codes were in regards to the injectors. They did say that the excess fuel may create problems with the O2 sensors but that would have to be determined after replacing the injectors. I'm a little worried, everything I read says white smoke is water. When I start the car it seems normal but after a minute at idle, more and more smoke billows then it starts to run poorly and die.

I might add that what it is doing now is exactly what it was doing before I changed the injectors. I'm afraid it wasn't even an injector issue at all even though that is what my local shop determined. Those things were ridiculously expensive.

White smoke ? .white smoke is caused by water /coolant .,black smoke would be fuel , bluish gray is caused by oil ...so n if you have billowy whore smoke I'd have it checked as a possible blown .head gasket as far as the 02 sensors they will set code due to burning coolant amd getting coated with residue . If day your local shop has no clue what they theyvare doing aND take it to someone else . I'd also check to make sure they actually changed the injectors . Seems like an awful bad diagnosis amd apparently a pricey one at that .if it were me I'd bring it to Mazda verify the injectors were changed .if not I'd go back to the shop you paid amd demand a refund or they will be in court . You shiuld never be taken advantage of aND as a side note. 95% of real techs /mechanics know white smoke is water /coolant ..so I'm calling BS. On them ..

Thanks for your answer. My local shop did diagnose it as the injectors. That is what they said anyway. They wanted $1600 to replace them. I found genuine Mazda injectors on Amazon and changed them myself. The parts were $600 (ouch) on Amazon, $900 if I were to purchase them from my local parts store. It took me about 45 minutes to change them. I guess I need to find a more honest repair shop. Again, thanks for your help!

One last thing, it did certainly smell like fuel at the exhaust pipe. Maybe I have multiple issues.

Try this ,start cat let it warm up .go to exhaust is b the exhaust have a sweet smell ? Then go turn on heat ,confirm you have good heat coking from vents ,then accelerate to about 2500 rpms..does heat seem to drop off .is the exhaust become a thicker billowy white smoke ? If both of those things along with the sweet smell happen it's a blown head gasket amd it will cause the 02s to give false info to the Ecm which can call for.more fuel . (Hence a rich fuel odor .) . If you could go to Autzone or Advance auto parts and ask abiut borrowing a coolant system pressure tester . You can confirm or discount this by attaching the coolant tester aND slowly pressure up to 8 lbs psi to start watch and wait about the 60 seconds .if you see no drop in pressure ..pressure it up to 12 lbs and again wstch Guage if it drops quickly ,look for external leaks especially around intake ,hoses amd cyl head. If it drops slowly wait till it gets down to around 8lbs and start vehicle if smoke is plumbing billowy white and looks worse you know it's leaking water/coolant into the engine /exhaust .if it starts to skip it's leaking into one or more of the cylinders if it just blows more smoke amd runs normal it's blown on exhaust side . . ...other option ....pressure cooling system to 12/13 lbs. Let sit for 10 minutes engine cold . If after 10 minutes Guage is low or at 0 first look at exhaust see of you have coolant dripping from it ...if not pull spark plugs .disable fuel pump (remove relay ) spin engine over (try to start ) if you have coolant from any of the cylinders head gasket is blown on intake side ..by chance you lose no pressure at Guage thru this or very slowly start engine while pressure Guage is still attached and see if engine runs badly or smoke worsened . If you have any questions I'll be watching t h is thread aND d0nt mind helping if I can .good luck (btw they will probably want a deposit for the loaner tool ) just so you know ahead of time

Thanks for all this information. I appreciate you taking the time to help me. I'll check these things out this week and keep you posted.