Went to the salvage yard today and got a fog light to replace the one which has had a hole in it for ten years. Better late than never, eh? Picked up an extra master power window switch since I'd had one go bad in the past. I went spelunking in several Mazdas for a roadside jack, but they...
Got the new radiator from Amazon installed today. Part is a Denso 221-3506. It's spec'd for an automatic transmission, but I understand that it works in my manual transmission-equipped vehicle. Everything fits great except the radiator cap... Wait, what? I had to go to O'Reilly and buy a...
I received my Denso radiator two days ago and plan to put it in tomorrow. Amazon has the Denso 221-3506 for about $100 right now. Their site says it doesn't fit my Protege5, but eBay and other sites say that it does.
What I recently got for the rear of my car were regular, black Mazda OEM shocks that were made by Tokico. They weren't Tokico Blues, but it did make me happy to see "Tokico" stamped into the steel. :D You might still be able to find some Mazda OEM blue (likely-Tokico) struts that were made...
Just as a data point, I'm in the process of removing the four KYB GR2 struts from my car after only six years - and very little driving during that time due to working from home. When going over small divots in the road, the car shakes/strikes pretty hard and doesn't keep its footing turning...
Will, @Blue Pro5 , anyone.. Do you have any advice for loosening the bolts holding the front sway bar bushings? I've tried everything I can think of, including coming in from the engine bay above. I even bought a lonnng 14/15mm box wrench just for this project, but I can't move those bolts...
When I replaced my rear struts a few months back, I reused my KYB bump stops that were only six years old and in great shape - better shape than the KYB struts I was replacing. Problem was that the KYB bump stops were made to work with the plastic KYB dust boots and not with the original OEM...
Posting for posterity in case other states have similar rules: In Texas, you can't pass emissions if you have an active CEL of course, but you can pass with one *monitor* showing as Not Ready. I had a total of two monitors that were Not Ready (above), and was able to clear one of them with the...
I let the car idle with the air intake off for five minutes and that was enough to clearly see that the radiator itself was leaking near its top, and at a point far from the filler neck/hose. Previously, I would drive home, remove the air intake, and see fluid spread all across the top of the...
Hi everyone, an update and a question: I'm still experiencing coolant loss with no signs of leaks coming from the hose replaced above. The leaked fluid is visible all around the top of the radiator as shown above. Does this definitely point to a leaky radiator? Do these radiators just leak...
I haven't found a deal I like yet on the rear-frontward pair of trailing arms. They're $40+ apiece at Rock Auto, so let me know if you find a good deal. I may replace only the rear-rearward ones that I have lying around and do the other pair later on when I find a deal.
Sounds like I need to...
You've probably already completed your project, but I just posted about replacing my upper radiator hose in the Protege5 thread next door. One possible way to check if radiators are different for different models is to visit Rock Auto and just see if they have different part numbers.
I reused...
Ha... I didn't even think about the hose's rubbing against the air intake as I hadn't yet reinstalled the intake in the pic above. I just went out and checked and yeah, the two are in contact/close proximity.
So far, no signs of leaking, only the system's pulling some coolant from the...
I replaced the upper radiator hose today. It would have been a great time to replace the coolant, but I'm not sure that replacing the hose will fix the leak. Is it normal for the new hose below to NOT have been cut at a 90-degree angle on the end? That seemed pretty bad, so I used my very...