Hatchkitten's Protege5 Thread!

I've tried many things. It just takes the fun out of driving. I hate newer cars being huge and have electronic response. My P5 is plenty comfortable and modern, unlike an 88 CRX or some tiny box car, yet still gives you a good feel of the road. Also, my 5 door wagon is smaller than most current sedans
 
My dads Altima has the electronic thingy, its pretty quick to work but idk. My moms jeep is horrible on the other hand... Bleh. Throttle control :S
 
My two ideas to strike it rich...

1. Make a kit that replaces electronic drive-by-wire with good ole' fashioned wired kits and error code plugs to make the ECU happy

2. A DSLR unit that snaps into the back of your existing film camera making any film body digital and allowing you to use old equipment and lenses
 
Went into a SERIOUS forum hiatus...So here's the update!

Met a boy, he's awesome AND drives a mazda ((2thumbs))

As to my posts in October about my car driving like SHITTTTTTT

-The idles started to get much worse, they were so low on startup, they sunk in stop and go traffic, I was stalling out more often.

-We cleaned out my MAF, EGR (which was replaced this past spring), TB, Intake (which was brand new), & the Intake Filter (which was also brand new)

-Still ran like s***

-Replaced the semi new (American) EGR with the spare (Canadian) EGR I had that was BNIB.

-Ordered new Spark Plugs, Coil Packs, Wires w/ Boots

-Got the stuff on a Thursday

-Friday the car stalled 3 TIMES...3 TIMES IN FIFTEEN MINUTES on the way to my boyfriends house...

-We immediately started to work on the car we replaced the parts listed above, gapped all the plugs to spec, cleaned out everything.... AND THE CAR RAN WORSE

-We troubleshooted an put certain original parts in with new parts to see if we were given a dud part from Rockauto. No such luck.

-Picked up a can of Seafoam and ran it through my Intake. There wasn't as much smoke as we thought there should be coming out of the exhaust for my car sounding like a ******* go-cart on steroids. You could smell fuel coming from my exhaust.

-We threw a fresh tank of gas in the car (as the last gas i had in it was Hurricane Sandy gas). And added in a gallon of E85

-Still. Ran. Like. s***.

-Gave up and took it to a trusted shop that deals with all the cars in our club.

LOW AND BEHOLD....
I HAD A BAD WIRE IN MY HARNESS THAT WAS RUNNING TO MY COIL PACK THAT WAS FOR CYLINDERS 2 & 3.
He said the condition was terrible...and that I was lucky the thing didn't set on fire.

SO:
Anyone who is having the same weird idling and stalling out problem that I was...
Take it to a shop and stop cleaning your MAF, EGR, and TB...
It might be something you can't clean lol


My car was down for a week or so between the initial parts replacement and the shop so I got to use my boyfriends Miata for work and such.
Learned how to drive stick in 3 hours and now I am awesome at it.
I was really sad to say goodbye to the third pedal when I had to give it back to him.
Possible 5speed swap in the spring? Second car with manual transmission? Will most likely be happening this year haha!
 
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My car was down for a week or so between the initial parts replacement and the shop so I got to use my boyfriends Miata for work and such.
Learned how to drive stick in 3 hours and now I am awesome at it.
I was really sad to say goodbye to the third pedal when I had to give it back to him.
Possible 5speed swap in the spring? Second car with manual transmission? Will most likely be happening this year haha!

Better off just getting another car. The swap is a lot of effort.
 
Glad Chester is doing better. Trans is difficult though, a lot of work when you aren't replacing what was there
 
Yay :) another thread to maybe watch!

Im not sure which is worse, your wire issues or my "I put the gasket on wrong so coolant got into my oil" issue...

Im angry but happy cause I get to reassure myself this next time that everythings all 100%
 
Yeah I agree. If you have the proper tools and a whole entire spare car its very doable in a weekend. I do not recomend trying it without a parts car though. I did mine in 2 days and it is my favourite car project I have completed to date. Your lucky as you have a regular auto (not the one with tiptronic) which means there is no fancy wiring to be done. Straight plug and play. I bought my parts car smashed up and parted out the rest plus had a spare motor. If I didn't upgrade to a Fidanza flywheel I would have broken even on it. It is worth every penny! Your car is mint and has such low kms that I say go for it :) If you have any questions PM me!
 
Hey Hatchkitten, You should definitely dip you emblems and make your fog lights yellow! it'd look good, I know because I drive a silver P5 as well and the dipped valence "which I totally stole from you" and the dipped emblems give it a good look. I have the exact same SRI you had before it burnt out or whatever that was.
P.S I love the thread and what you've done to the car! Keep up the good work!
 
@Ubel Knubel - I'm flattered you "stole" my dipped valence lol. But I've always wanted to keep my emblems stock silver. I think I like it simply because the car is silver. I have a spare protege back emblem that I intended on dipping to see if i like it or not but never bothered with it. I've seen too many people mess up their cars by doing s*** to the emblems. So I think I'm hunkey dorey leaving them be haha. Keep a look out with the SRI if you have my old one. It rubbed up against a metal tube for some reservoir at the first bend out of the TB and the constant rubbing caused a hole to erode into my tubing. Also, thanks for stopping in to say hi! haha

What suspension are you running Cameron? or anyone else? looking to do that in the springtime MUAHAHA!

Also:
Discovered I do NOT have ABS in this car the other day while coming home from the city and having to stop short. Slid about 3-4 feet before I gripped...oops.
Backed into a big yellow pole going to a charity event for work I was late to...I seemed to just have acquired some yellow paint on my bumper and nothing more. Should clay right out when it's a bit warmer out lol.
 
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Sorry to hear about the recent pole dancing and sliding around. I'm running Megan Racing Springs on Frankenstein struts (stock struts in front and used Monroe struts in the back)
Megan springs offer the largest drop on Proteges being around 2"
Megan springs also have twice the compression rate as stock springs therefor making it a rougher ride. Honestly, I bought them used from BThai and have driven comfortably on them for a year

Here is what my height looks like on stock wheels

and on my MS3 wheels

I would suggest finding Tein S-techs. They give a 1.8" drop in the rear I believe and are highly praised. Since these are some of the most popular springs for cars, there are many rip-offs so make sure you buy from a trusted source
 
Word. Good job on the mods to your MP5. Looking pretty clean. Nice seeing another chick on here, not to mention another chick that mods her own car as well lol. IMO even if it was a lot of work to convert your car to a stick, I'd say **** it and dive on it and get it done! Lol. Just me tho. Love standard and would never go back to an auto!! :D I haven't done as much to my car as you have, but I have many plans for it. Just have to wait on the weather, and not to mention waiting on the money for some of my other ideas lol. I have a white MP5 and my hubby drives a K20Z3 (for those that might not know, 07 Civic Si), so we always go back and forth bouncing around ideas for our cars hahaha.

Anyways, keep up the good work on your car! I understand the frustrating issues that seem to come up with these cars and have had thoughts of a trade, but once I figure it all out and fix it, I love my car again! LOL. Keep at it and can't wait to see more photos of your mods :)


FYI - On your SRI there is a way to install it to where it isn't touching the metal tubes...pull it away to where it isn't leaning on it and then bolt in and its fixed. No vibrations or anything. It started melting away at my AEM SRI, but luckily I caught it in time and it had just taken off some of the paint and barely removed some metal, so should be a simple ass fix. Good luck with it! :)
 
I was really against getting a silver p5, but i have reconsidered it after seeing some of the pics here. keep up the good work =]
 
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