What have you done to your P5 today?

I dunno dudes..???

He might have that car totaled within a week.

I was 18 once too.
That's what I did. Lol
 
I dunno dudes..???

He might have that car totaled within a week.

I was 18 once too.
That's what I did. Lol
18yr old driver here, haven't totaled my P5 yet, even though I've had my fair share of close calls (the most recent one being taking an on ramp at 80mph and slowly sliding towards the guardrail until the tail of the car kicked out and I caught it. Needless to say, that was one of those moments where your pants just magically turn brown 😂).
 
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18yr old driver here, haven't totaled my P5 yet, even though I've had my fair share of close calls (the most recent one being taking an on ramp at 80mph and slowly sliding towards the guardrail until the tail of the car kicked out and I caught it. Needless to say, that was one of those moments where your pants just magically turn brown 😂).
-This is embarrassing...oh well what the hell.
Not a P5 story. They hadn't invented them yet.

-A little older than 18 maybe 21-22ish, bought my 1st (and last) brand new car with my AF re-enlistment bonus - a 2.3l 1976 Mercury Capri2 marketed as "The Sexy European" - (after that my sister called me her "Sexy Pollack little brother"...she still does).

-The evening I bought it, I decided to test it out to see how it handled on a deserted snowed-up bridge in New Hampshire where I was stationed and bought the car. 🌨️

-Anyway, I took my brand-new, less than a day-old Capri2 and jerked the wheel to see how it would react to the snow (and icy) bridge. I found out quick the rear end was a lot lighter than I was used to and it broke into a slow spiraling spin and no amount of steering/counter-steering didn't do a damn thing to correct it on that icy bridge.

-Like you, it slowly spun and the back end got into the guard-rail and whacked the tail, broke a tail light and put a scar into the rubberized bumper.

-The good things about it were, no other vehicles were involved-no tickets and I could drive away from it with the only thing bruised was my ego.
Insurance covered the repairs and I used the bumper money and bought an AM-FM radio with it in place of the AM only radio.

No brown pants - but it did leave a mark...⚡
 
tj4fa2003P5 sent me a question, and I thought I would post it here.


Hi PCB,
I saw one of your threads (linked below) and I've been researching the internet and here trying to fix those CEL codes and they've both seem to come on in tandem (sometimes with others now and then) since I swapped cars with my son's P5.


I pulled the power input connectors or the VTCS, VICS, and the Purge Solenoid (brown connector) and all three get battery voltage when I turn the ignition on.
I don't get "clicks" from any of them when I connect the solenoid contacts to battery voltage. Should they all at least click when hot-wired?

I clear them but then they just keep coming back.

I did look at their vacuum lines for cracks (but don't have a vacuum tool) and manually operated and shot some lithium grease on that vacuum operated intake runner rod and that seemed to make the car accelerate smoother.

I may go out and buy a fuel pressure regulator valve for the P5 "just because" and I'm now more confident that's still a problem on my wife's Civic as you said in the other link or somewhere else (paraphrased) that a bad PRV will make a car stall because it "needs more fuel when its warmed up".
On both cars I still need to do fuel pressure test before wrestling with fuel pumps...

This was my answer.

Yes they should click, at least mine did.
You can also put a finger on it to see if you feel anything.

One final test is to put a piece of vacuum tube to it and blow through it to see if the flow turns on and off.

Here's the tests for all the solenoids...

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They are all the same solenoids...

The first diagram is wrong, and shows the electrical connector being perpendicular to the solenoid, but it's not.

They are listed all kinda confusing at Rockauto.
This is all you need...


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There are others available but they are way more expensive.

The only difference between them, that I know of, is that the one vacuum connection is metal, and they may be a better quality solenoid.
The cheaper one has all the connections made of plastic.

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The only thing that I'm not positive about is if the electrical plugs are all the same. (I know that the VICS and VTCS are exactly the same.)

If that is a problem, you can remove the metal connectors from the plastic plug then plug the wires directly onto the new solenoid.

This is one of the solenoids from my parts car. (I don't know which one. Lol)

There is a little plastic air filter that you can remove and plug back onto the appropriate outlet.


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You use a dental pick to push a tab to release the metal connector from the plug.


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The purge control solenoid valve is different, and it's expensive.

It has gas vapor running through it so it needs to be built safer.


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" I may go out and buy a fuel pressure regulator valve for the P5 "just because"
You should throw a new solenoid valve on it first. They are 20 years old and eventually crap out.

You may be able to fix the problem without having to do a fuel pressure test.

Almost all of us have had to replace one or more of those valves.
 
My pictures didn't load into the post, so I'm reposting them.

I may have the order mixed up.

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18yr old driver here, haven't totaled my P5 yet, even though I've had my fair share of close calls (the most recent one being taking an on ramp at 80mph and slowly sliding towards the guardrail until the tail of the car kicked out and I caught it. Needless to say, that was one of those moments where your pants just magically turn brown 😂).
Since we're on this topic.... 😂😂
I recently came too close for comfort and learned what brake-induced oversteer is. All the track-rats and real drivers will scoff at this, but it scared the heck out of my young and inexperienced self.

I was ripping through a remote forested backroad. Lots of dips and hills with trees, no shoulder, no ditch, and no line of sight. Came over a hill going about 60 and got hard on the brakes for a gradual right turn which quickly sharpened.

What I expected to feel was front end grip and some understeer. What I actually felt was weight transfer and the rear of the car coming around. Thankfully I caught it and got on the gas enough to straighten it out and not hit a tree, but It was wayyy too close for comfort.

Lesson learned. Feel out the limits before you blow pass them, and buy a FWD car if you don't want to die. Definitely makes me think twice about upgrading to a bigger rear swaybar. If this is stock, what's going to happen with that installed?!?
 
added 3rd brake light flasher.....4 blinks then solid
I've considered doing this but I want to make it pressure sensitive somehow. The idea is, if you press the brake lightly in a turn, it won't flash, but if you press the brake hard it'll flash. I hate the idea of the thing just constantly flashing for any braking. I'm just not sure how to accomplish that.
 
I don't use brakes often enough to care about that, lol. Don't do stop n go rush hr driving where you might cause the person behind you to have road rage or seizure from all the flashing either so I'm not really concerned about it working differently. The point of it is to get people's attention off their fonz and stopping so the more noticeable it is the better IMO. I have one on my xB and Tacoma too.
 
tj4fa2003P5 sent me a question, and I thought I would post it here.
Oh god... It's a sign that I've had this car too long that I don't even remember when I replaced two or maybe all three of those solenoids.
added 3rd brake light flasher.....4 blinks then solid
I put one of those brake light flashers on my Miata. There's nothing quite like driving a tiny car that's the color of asphalt when you're surrounded by SUVs. I've already been side-swiped in my P5 by someone who didn't see me. What chance do I have in a Miata?

I bought some of those famous Kia bushings (and a not-so-famous Kia nut and bolt) and installed them today. Holy crap, the shift is good now. The orange, non-serviceable bushings were completely gone and the slop was real. Had to use a hacksaw and a drill as shown in the YouTube video.

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I bought some of those famous Kia bushings (and a not-so-famous Kia nut and bolt) and installed them today. Holy crap, the shift is good now. The orange, non-serviceable bushings were completely gone and the slop was real. Had to use a hacksaw and a drill as shown in the YouTube video.
2nd thing I replaced on my son's recent used P5 purchase.
Finding the gears with worn and missing shift linkage bushings was like circum-navigating the globe and hitting wrong gears sucked.
Looks good and easier to do if you have to do it again down the road a hundred-thousand miles from now.

I opted and installed new (Exile) metal bushings at the three locations. I lubed the bolt shafts and packed the linkage end bolt "tubes" with some of that (Lucas)red and tacky #2 anti-size grease I had on the shelf for years to help prevent wear.
 
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Replaced the Brass Metal Bushings below my shifter for OEM Plastic Bushings Part Number GA5R-46-062 to try to get rid of slight but annoying shifter harmonic vibration at 50-60MPH.

Other stuff to correct the vibration was posted about it on another thread.

Maybe should have looked into the KIA bushings as the OEM ones including shipping were... well...a LOT :eek: (and I'm cheap). :)
 
Also with the help of PCB (y)(y), I previously replaced all three of those VCTS, VICS, and PRC solenoid valves (all the same part number, pin VCTS, VICS and only PRC differing with filter location) and my P2009 and P0090 codes went away (P2009 and 0090 not technically Mazda Codes - I have an old OBD2 scanner that shows them that way) but they have another correlating Mazda number I don't remember right now offhand.

The only code I've been popping recently is an P0421 Catalytic Converter Code but probably from me spray painting everything on the underside of the body (including the outside of the Catalytic Converter - that one with high temp paint). :oops:
 
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The only code I've been popping recently is an P0421 Catalytic Converter Code but probably from me spray painting everything on the underside of the body (including the outside of the Catalytic Converter - that one with high temp paint). :oops:

The P0421 code is for the downstream O2 sensor and it monitors the condition of the pre-cat.
I don't know if you painted your pre-cat, but there's a pretty good chance that your pre-cat is fried.

One of these will get rid of that code.


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Everybody with a header needs one because headers don't have a pre-cat.
 
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