What have you done to your P5 today?

[Diamond_Dave]

Dang that doesn't sound good. What came of it (since your post was from mid-march and it's May now)?

It does sound like bottom end to me, but seems weird that it would start just after doing plugs and wires. And as far as I can remember, it seems like a knock would be a little more irregular.

Yes, others have said the same - bottom end or bent rod. I just got done verifying the timing belt idler pulleys and spring and everything is tight. No sounds from the water pump either. I need to drain the oil and maybe a flush to be certain, but the car drives great and has great power with zero issues beyond this ticking noise. I need to drain the oil and inspect for shavings; maybe a flush to be certain, but the car drives great with zero issues beyond this ticking noise, so will probably just keep it going until there is a reason not to.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

What other Mazda 6 bits can cross over?

none

 

[Bruisermac]

Ripped off the tail lights last night. Need to epoxy the cracks and then cover in clear
Vinyl today. I restored the front lights with the 3m kit yesterday.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

What other Mazda 6 bits can cross over?

Mazda 6 wagon rear wiper.............

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Changed out the passenger motor mount on my daughter’s MSP. It’s the 3rd Protege I’ve done this job on. Took about 15mins while taking pictures and cleaning as I went. The passenger mount alone was $42 and a full kit was $51 on Amazon. Make sure you get the kit where the passenger mount already had the “dog bone” pressed in.

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART:
This car has a really good transaxle; no grinds and quiet. I noticed that sometimes there is a very mild “hitch” where it doesn’t want to move cleanly into 2nd on the 1-2 shift. Like if you are lazy and don’t pay attention, you will grind the syncro. BUT, after replacing this mount and also having front /rear AWR mounts, the engagement is much more positive and clean. I surmise that a large reason the trans in our cars have problems is less the trans and more the movement of the

I have a set of FSDE pistons/rods.................

 

[BenjiHoggi]

Mazda 6 wagon rear wiper.............
View attachment 327994

Yes, I have this mod. Looks nice but I haven't been able to find a blade for it that doesn't hit the top and gets full contact the glass for the whole wipe.

 

[Bruisermac]

today finally got the AT light to go out... replaced the Shift Pressure Solenoid as it was reading "open" and the unit was running in failsafe mode = full line pressure.
So now a new solenoid and its shifting a little hard but not too bad. in Canada we have a company called Mr. Transmission... they are a large outfit - just OK service. They use a generic ATF that covers almost every transmission out there... my question is this

Do you run and Mazda M-V or Dextrin III in your P5?

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

I ran AMSOIL atf....pricey but good for 60k...never an issue...............Also ran Hayden stacked plate atf cooler too . 33% more efficient than tube and fin coolers.

 

[Bruisermac]

I ran AMSOIL atf....pricey but good for 60k...never an issue...............Also ran Hayden stacked plate atf cooler too . 33% more efficient than tube and fin coolers.

how many miles on yours? this is my sons first car so I need to stay in the budget realm of " caring dad trying to help his kid" and not the "country club" budget haha

 

[LankyKiwi]

No road trip is complete without the obligatory roadside photo ops

That's the same mountain but from different sides

 

[TX_SilverP5]

I ran AMSOIL atf....pricey but good for 60k...never an issue...............Also ran Hayden stacked plate atf cooler too . 33% more efficient than tube and fin coolers.

I didn't even know about this! Thanks. This seems like a no brainer to add to the mix.


And @Bruisermac: I'm in the same exact boat. Kid's first car, trying to make it both reliable and fun and I really don't want to buy a new transmission for it. 2002 P5 with 140K.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

how many miles on yours? this is my sons first car so I need to stay in the budget realm of " caring dad trying to help his kid" and not the "country club" budget haha

I did it at 20k and 70k and car is at 104k now so need to give the new owner of it the 5qts I have in the garage. Thanks for reminding me.......

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

No road trip is complete without the obligatory roadside photo ops
View attachment 328177View attachment 328178
That's the same mountain but from different sides

dig that groovy wing there cat daddy!...........

 

[LankyKiwi]

dig that groovy wing there cat daddy!...........

Thanks! It's a modified Ford Laser XRI wing

 

[Diamond_Dave]

Had a curious sound pop up after doing spark plugs, wires, and boots (not coils). Sounds like the lifter tick from my Miata, but some think it's a rod or bottom end.

Can you drive with the engine knocking?
What symptoms happen while driving with a bent rod?
Does the sound change or stay linear?
View attachment 326684

So after many weeks of diagnosing, testing, and research, I can finally be fine with my MSP engine just being noisy and not having rod knock. I ran across so much disinformation about rod knock and our engines - even our own people just jumping to the "it's rod knock" conclusion when you post a video. This car has loud lifters or valvetrain noise that isn't catastrophic.

Check out the post and let me know your thoughts or if I missed something. If you learned something, let me know as well.

The 2024 Protege FSDE "is this rod knock?" thread

 

[BenjiHoggi]

Installed the Harnessed Performance AC Resistor Fix harness

AC Resistor Fix Harness

The Harnessed Performance AC resistor fix harness for the Mazda Protege solves the issue of having no AC on fan speeds 2 and 3.

harnessedperformance.com

I've tried to do this fix like 3 times before and it never worked. Finally decided to bite the bullet and buy the harness. I was sure it wasn't going to work since i had already tried what I thought was the same fix. Apparently not, because I was ecstatically surprised to find that it worked perfectly with the harness installed! All fan speeds work perfectly now, no flickering.

Can't recommend highly enough. SO well worth my $40.

 

[Mistymomo]

Just bought a fog light. I plan to sand repolish and clear my headlights and fog lights to attempt to clear them nice. I want a fresh top and bottom grill soon but the auto transmission is taking a year to find drive if it's cold. I plan to try fresh solnoids, filters clean the magnet and fill her up. Around 110 dollars for the hope i didnt buy a transmission that was on its way. It doesn’t seem jerky but it can take a minute when its cold literally to get into drive and it doesn’t seem like it's a physical thing. Wish me luck!

 

[BenjiHoggi]

Just bought a fog light. I plan to sand repolish and clear my headlights and fog lights to attempt to clear them nice. I want a fresh top and bottom grill soon but the auto transmission is taking a year to find drive if it's cold. I plan to try fresh solnoids, filters clean the magnet and fill her up. Around 110 dollars for the hope i didnt buy a transmission that was on its way. It doesn’t seem jerky but it can take a minute when its cold literally to get into drive and it doesn’t seem like it's a physical thing. Wish me luck!

View attachment 329411

If you can, buy some paint protection film (like the 3M scotchgaurd stuff) to put onto those headlights and foglights after you sand them so they don't immediately fog over. Did that on my headlights and though the PPF wasn't the cheapest and was a little challenging to apply, I think it'll be worth it in the long run to keep the headlights clean and clear!

 

[BenjiHoggi]

Found a really nice clean Yellow MSP at my local yard. Not wrecked and tags said 2020 so I would guess the engine blew and it sat. The owner definitely took care of it. There was a pile of receipts for Mazda dealership work as well as quite a few modifications.

Few parts I saw that looked good (I have pictures of most of them)

• Vibrant muffler with what looked like a full exhaust
• MSP stock short shifter and boot (knob is gone)
• Front and rear MSP swaybars
• MSP seats in phenomenal condition
• Big front mount intercooler
• Big aluminum radiator
• Stock (blue struts, red springs) MSP strut assemblies all around, didn't look too closely but they look good
• I believe the yard still has a full set of MSP racingharts, but they weren't on the car.
• Engine was gone, as were the turbo bits. These yards usually pull engines immediately so I bet they have them in the shop. ECU and cluster were also gone, don't know they have those but they will be inventoried online.

I grabbed the rear calipers, MSP floor mats and door sills, and an MSP engine cover which doesn't appear to fit even remotely onto my FS-DE, so going to have to figure that out.

If you're local and clever with car-part, you shouldn't have a problem finding which lot this thing is in. It's only been there 5ish weeks so it'll probably be a bit until they crush it.

I am probably going to go back to grab some other stuff. I got quotes for a lot of the good stuff and the prices were pretty cheap. Not saying I'll pull things for people, but I could be convinced.

 

[Coredawg]

What did I do to it today? I sat in it after driving home from the store, wondering why I am getting a P0421, Low Cat Efficiency code even though the Cat is less than a year old, both O2 sensors are new, new plugs, wires, air cleaner, intake tube, and several other tune up parts, and no other codes at all. Car seems to run just fine and gets very good MPG. 03 with barely over 150k miles. I clear it and go several weeks, checking constantly with my Bluedriver OBD connection and a lot of times have the code pending, but other times not. It will actually set every several weeks or so and I clear it. Started about 6 months after Cat install. Any suggestions?