This thread, like my Protege5, is starting to feel like it's reaching end-of-life. In an effort to keep both alive in their own ways, here's what's been happening in my garage of Proteges.
P5 hit a fun milestone
Long list of growing todos. As you can see, correct cluster bulbs are on the list. Also replacing my rear strut (broken swaybar mount from the beefy swaybar), removing old tint, fixing broken drivers seat, hood paint peeling, etc. etc. Still daily driving but she's a beater. Smokes on startup now. Front suspension is also sounding awful after installing whiteline poly bushings...something is wrong, or loose. Looked underneath and looks all good, so I'm confused.
My auto ES Sedan was the free backup beater for the daily beater lol. Currently sitting on my Mazda3 wheels with Blizzaks from my P5. Been doing some work on it to clean it up.
It sat for like a month while I tried to replace a siezed axle that was making an obnoxious clicking noise. The axle was stuck in the hub. Ended up getting a used spindle/hub and putting a new axle in. After all of that, still makes the clicking noise. Guessing it's the diff or a trans bearing. Car just hit 230k, runs and drives well. I just ignore the noise now.
Sedan will get sold as soon as I don't have to depend on the P5. Hoping to keep the P5 around as the fun beater project but if the engine goes it may not make sense to keep it alive.
Anyways, these cars are kind of a pain at this point but they don't break down, that's for sure. I just keep putting miles on em.