Another P5 on a College Budget....Meet Ozzie

[31N007]

Good job on the horns, though that stinks that only a few work. I'd love to hear them though. Probably funny considering how weak the stock horn is!

I heard these things eat up headlight bulbs. I didn't stick around to find out- got HIDs in a few months after I bought the car and prior to that, I was rebuilding the engine. I'm going to go back to stock this summer so I'll see how hungry it gets.

On the alternator, if you know it's a belt, there's a tensioner bolt that you could play with- it's an easy thing to get to.

Your best bet to ask about the LED lights is hidplanet. They should know a lot. I PMed 94goldcorolla (or thereabouts, his avatar is mew) and asked in private about whether my setup was okay. I would like to hear about what they have to say. I know there's a lot less power draw using LEDs than HIDs but the optics could be off. If 94goldcorolla can't help, give retrofitsource a call and see what they have to say.

I'll say this much though- I got, and you can too, a full retrofit kit for $270 for xmas last year. Those bulbs cost $120. If you plan on keeping the car, I'd spring for the Mini H1 and call it a day. You should be able to get away with slotting the projector through the existing hole for your low beam. Then, splitter on the high beam wires and you can use the HID high beam relay and the existing halogen high beam in bad weather. (also it'll give you a reason to keep the factory high beam bulb in it's place)

That way, if you get another car, no cutting means you can go back to stock and then you can use the projectors on another car. That's what I plan to do this summer- going to retrofit my mom's jeep

(I talk about lights too much. I wish I could talk about fast more)

 

[mp5la]

I did a full retrofit with D2S bulbs a little while ago. If you're wanting the best, go for a full D2s. If you're just wanting decent HIDs, then stick with the H1. The amount of work to get the bigger projectors in can be a killer, and lining it up perfectly is even harder.

I'd also be willing to bet that LEDs wouldn't be a good match for an HID projector. I may be wrong, but the LED bulbs may not work with the focal points of a projector housing. Not to mention I have no idea if they'd fit.

 

[esnave09]

I tinkered around with the horns a little bit yesterday and had my roommate listen to it, and he said it sounds no different than when we installed the horns, so I might've been imagining things. Or maybe the cold is messing with the horns. I'm pretty sure it dipped below zero over the weekend, so that might be it. Also, I took Ozzie to Tires Plus to have the belt looked at, and they said both belts had pieces missing and had a little oil on them (wtf?!). I wish I could say it was from the oil change I got last week (7k miles later, oops) but I doubt it. And they did say my oil level was a little bit low. I'm gonna be watching that more closely in the coming weeks.
Anyways! They replaced both belts, with the labor for both and the cost of the alternator belt covered by warranty. So I only paid some $30 for both belts. I can hear the power steering belt a little bit now, but somehow my car seems a lot smoother now. Also, there was a clunking in my front driver's side corner that sounded like a loose endlink or something, and now that noise is completely gone since I got back from the shop. Weird........

I have heard about Proteges eating headlights, so it wasn't a huge surprise, but I did find it annoying (especially with the wretched bulb-securing spring thing) having to change the bulbs in the bitter, windy cold. At night. That's why I wanna get some sort of upgrade to my headlights. However, I need some new lenses for my headlights, cuz the insides have some sort of weather-cracking or scratching that literally looks like someone took their cat and scratched at the headlights like a scratching post. I'll try and get some pics, but needless to say they look terrible. Plus, it'll give me a set of headlights to work on inside over the winter and swap them out once I'm ready to install everything, no downtime necessary. I wanna black out the housings, get HID projectors or an LED kit, and I already have HIDs on my Christmas list (we'll see if I get them). If I don't get the HIDs, I'll probably get the LEDs depending on how the research goes. KingofSpades, maybe you should just roadtrip here and work on them with me! haha

I'm really not sure about which projector I'd want if I did get them. I honestly think it's going to come down to price when I get them, cuz I still gotta pay for school. And I also have to pick up summer rims too (hoping to get the stock rims off my cousins RX-8 this weekend!). I have a lot of money going out, but not quite as much coming in, although it's more than most college kids.

I just posted to hidplanet too, so I'm hoping to get feedback from there soon too. Also, I'll see if I can grab my Dad's camera this weekend to get a vid of my horn, since my phone sucks.

 

[31N007]

Heh, I retroed a friend's Ranger headlamps. Thought it was going to be an easy job but nope. Had to actually cut the bowl and everything. Turned out great though, IMO. I know there are better looking setups, but for a two day job, I'd say it's decent... He has DDM bulbs and ballasts, TRS wiring kit, and TRS "castoff" Mini H1 projectors. I didn't find any issues with them. They were $60 as opposed to $120. The bulbs and ballasts are around $40? and lastly the TRS wiring harness was $30 IIRC. So $130 versus $270. I went all out as I got that as an xmas present. @mp5la, would you mind taking pics and showing what yours look like? I've always wondered what the D2Ses look like. I take it there was some cutting involved with your retrofit?

http://sdrv.ms/1cT1OPZ

If you plan on going for a retro, I did mine in a weekend (as well as my friends at a later date). Bake the lights at 200 degrees for 10 minutes, pop the lense off, be careful not to knick the inside, take out stuff, but new stuff in, line lights up, put into oven, reseal. Away you go. It's easier than I thought. Maybe I should be a mechanic over a mechanical engineer... Lol

Also, I used the TurtleWax restoration kit on my headlights. Didn't expect it to work but it did. Here's a before and after...

http://sdrv.ms/1cT1T6a

http://sdrv.ms/18erh3w

It's got a "clearcoat" thing that you put on at the very end. I overdid it with the wipe and had a lot of leftover film. Wiped a bit of it off. I haven't a clue if I was supposed to do that or not.

I'd love to roadtrip, to be honest. College is starting to stress me out. I can't wait for the next 5 years to be over with. At the credits I'm taking, it may be 6 years. Once I figure out how to better prioritize, I'm sure it'll be a whole lot easier.

 

[esnave09]

That's a pretty sweet lookin retro for a Ranger! I have yet to see one with a retro set, so I have nothing to compare it to. I've been wanting to do a retrofit for a while, and hopefully mine isn't too different from yours. I just gotta figure out if having the dual-bulb setup for high and lows in the P5 lights will make a difference with the projector. Hopefully it doesn't.... I unfortunately won't have a weekend to do it for a while, since that's when I work. Maybe I can do it over winter break, if I get the stuff in time. Do you think sanding down the inside of my headlight lens would get rid of the cracks, or will that make things worse?

However, that project's been put on hold for now. I got a Samsung GS4 on Black Friday, and I gotta pay my parents for the next 6 months of service to stay on their plan (a little over $200, thank God the phone was free!), but after that I have to get a new stereo. I'm so sick of using CDs it's ridiculous. On my trip back from Madison I had to deal with skipping over at least half the bumps I went over, and there was no shortage of them. And since I have my new phone, I'm making my iPod my hard drive for my stereo.

Related to that, the GS4's camera is amazing, so be expecting better pics! Hopefully I can snap a few over the course of the next week, although with finals next week it might be tough. Here's the horn video though! A little on the quiet side, but sounds fairly accurate. Then again.....



And with the engineering, I was so stressed when I was doing auto engineering (not mechanics, although I've learned more in that respect). Now that I'm going for Tech Comm (English), it's a lot easier. I just need to get my major officially switched at this point so that I can get my major classes started. It's pretty tough to get out with an engineering degree in 4 years though. Even my Asian friend is gonna MAYBE get out in 5 years, and he's bustin his tail trying to get it all done. So I know how that goes. Maybe a mechanic degree would be better! ha I've been wondering the same thing.

 

[mp5la]

@kingofspades007- I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow when it's light out. It involved a pretty good amount of cutting. I'd say I probably have a good 10-15 hours of labor in it (it was my first go around). I went with the D2S so that if a bulb went out I could source one locally instead of worrying about finding a re-based bulb.

As far as the dual bulb setup on the Protege, I left it as is. I'm using the projector for low beam and the stock halogen for high beam. The retrofit source sells a kit that lets you use the projector for low beam and run both the halogen and projector for high beam, but I didn't see the point. Most of my driving is in the city so I'm not using the high beams very much. The morimoto projectors are bi-xenons, so they can be used for both low and high if thats what you're after.

 

[31N007]

DON'T SAND THE INSIDE DOWN. Only the outside. The bit that gets exposed to all the road debris and crap. The inside should be spotless if the lights haven't been opened before. If you want to try and fix teh hazing on the lights in the meantime, go pick this up http://www.turtlewax.com/shop/products/turtle-wax-headlight-lens-restorer
You can find it at pretty much any store. It's easy as pie to use. They have a sanding pad and spray if there are micro cracks, which you mention you have.

I think you might be able to find a converter kit for the factory stereo to add a line-in (aux) input, but you're probably better off going and getting a new stereo with an ipod input/ aux input. My old Pioneer DEH-P5900IB has that in the rear so iPod in the glovebox FTW. (though I dropped it on the ground- it's the 160 GB classic and the hard drive has kicked the bucket)

Back to the retro as it makes me feel somewhat smarterer talking about that, you can keep the factory highs and then have bixenon highs (in short, it won't make a difference at all). But that can wait 'till you get them

I've still got my old HTC Trophy and I upgraded to the HTC 8X and hated it. Verizon took away some really simple features and so I returned it. I have a Nexus7 (2012) and use that for the apps and freedom. Lookup Torque Pro. It's $5 and then you can buy a $20 OBDII dongle and monitor simple things on the car. Really for me it's the coolant temp, any codes I throw, and the rather inaccurate gas mileage. I'm a nerd so I wanted it. And I kept throwing the P0421 code for my cat so I wanted to be able to clear it and check all the other things that could go wrong.

That horn is pretty scary coming from a car that I know as small and puny! Pretty nice mod though. People will be wondering where the sound came from instead of not even hearing the stock horn!

I have already come to terms that I won't be done in 4 years. The "4 year plan" involves going to school over the summer. I plan on interning and so I'll probably take 6 years to get done. Ohwell, a lighter course load I suppose. As long as I'm full-time when I do go to college, all is well.

@mp5la; well,, that's the only reason I'd go w/ the Mini H1- no cutting. Though I'm more than sure the D2S had a bit better output. It seems easy to me to be able to keep dual high beam functionality, but it is what it is. Modern cars with HIDs have halogen highs so it doesn't really matter. Like you said, city driving doesn't necessitate high beams. I use mine late at night when I drive down roads and there's no traffic. I like the way the lights hit signs and stuff. I'm a dork, I know

 

[esnave09]

I'll probably just leave the high beams as they are, but if I happen to get bored over the summer I might take the time to work on getting the projector and halogen highs at the same time. I'll probs have to have someone either there or skyped in tho.... At least I'll be able to leave it as it is and be fine. Most of my driving is in the city too, and at this point I'll only be doing delivery through next semester so it's not a huge deal to me. Plus what night driving I do out of town is multi-lanes that limit my high-beam use (so I don't blind people) right now, so I'll see what happens this summer as far as internship and possible jobs. As a sidenote, I do use my highs a bit now since there are some streets in town that I take a lot that have absolutely no street lighting, plus they're through wooded areas so there's deer, skunks, etc. from time to time. And drunks.

And I won't sand the insides. I know I've said it before, but I'll try and get a pic of the scratches. It looks pretty bad. I'm sure my phone will pick up on it, so it'll be pretty clear and someone can finally tell me what caused it! I did the outsides of the headlights this summer and they are nice and smooth, but I think I might be getting to the point of having to redo them after winter. This time I'll try using toothpaste like someone here suggested and see how well that works.

I'm trying to decide about apps I wanna get still, so I'll defs look that Torque Pro up. I wanna make sure that I get a double DIN stereo though, and I found a good used one for cheap, it's just a matter of getting up to the Twin Cities to get it. I already drove over 700 miles this week, so I wanna take a little time away from driving. I only have one delivery shift this week and while that means less money, I guess I'm okay with it. But with the stereo, I'm hoping to do the same thing and leave my iPod in the glovebox. It's a 32 gb 3rd gen touch with a broken screen, so I won't have a ton of room but it's enough for now.

I have to say I love my horn. It does surprise people and I'm waiting for dancing mascots to start popping up on sidewalks. I already have a lot of fun with stumbling drunks while I'm delivering, so hopefully that doesn't stop.

I feel ya on the summer classes. Summer is a time for work and relaxing away from school. If it's the difference of graduating a whole semester early, I'll take it. But if it's gonna take the same amount of time to graduate it's an automatic no. I'm only taking 14 credits this semester, but they're all gen eds and I'm working full time too, so I'm still busy. That's gonna change next semester though.....

 

[mp5la]

I think I know the cracks you're talking about. Really fine cracks that spiderweb from the inside. They're probably stress cracks that happen over time, and they probably won't sand out.

 

[esnave09]

They're mostly going up and down inside the housing. I can remember if they're sideways other than curving with the lens surface, but they might be. I could see them being stress cracks though. Not good to look at.

 

[31N007]

Oh. I looked at the diameter of the mounting holes for the two projectors. The D2S would fit theoretically into the sedan headlight without any cutting. They're a great deal cheaper than the P5 lights, so if what mp5la says is true, that could be a good path to go down. Then you won't have a redundant high beam bulb. Also, you could retro while the P5 lights are still on the car.

Just throwing an option out there.

I'm lucky enough not to have to work. So long as I keep my grades up, I have an internship lined up this summer where I was last summer. I got in the summer prior to that on a good word from my dad as he works there, but last summer I got in because I did a good enough job the prior year. I like the company and as I'm only interning, the workload isn't crazy. The older folks there say that I should look elsewhere. It's a somewhat specialized industry (paintshops) and so there's little marketable skills if I wanted to go elsewhere.

 

[esnave09]

I've thought about the sedan headlights, but I like the separate bulb for the high beam. From what I've experienced in general they tend to have brighter high beams than single bulb setups. Plus I don't like the marker lights on the sedan headlights, but I'm sure I could color over them. I did find a set of retroed (retrod?) sedan lights that I thought about getting cuz they're so cheap (plus I could probably pick them up and get them cheaper; the place I work for has meetings in LaCrosse every couple weeks, and the lights don't seem to be going anywhere lol). It's something I could tinker with in my free time until I get it all together. Do you guys think this would be a legit option?

And I'm lucky that my parents don't watch my grades as much. I should probably be working on getting my grades up so I can get an internship. Right now a couple of my classes are struggles, but overall since it's gen eds it's not as big of a deal as it will be with classes for my major. Sadly I can't get into any of those, so I probably will have another semester of gen eds. :/ If you're going into engineering and you're interning at somewhere that doesn't necessarily fit, as long as you can secure a job after graduation, but otherwise get out and find something else! ha Do they have internship fairs on campus? I know they have them here, but I'm never awake for them, which I should probably work on....

 

[31N007]

They look okay. You'll need a few small parts and I couldn't tell you why the pass. bulb flickers- probably a loose projector as it happened to me. You'll need to heat them open to put the shroud back on so if you wanted to paint the reflector bowl a different color, you could (no offence to anyone who likes the white- I'm partial to black myself). On my P5, I left the bulb for the side markers in the sedan headlamps unplugged. We have the side markers on our bumper so that's why there's a difference in the lights I think. I did at one point have it setup to where the bulb lit up only when I had the blinker on but the lights aren't all the same color orange so it looked funky.

We probably have fairs on campus. I know that the SAE team sets things up with the Big 3 and so they have meetings if we're that way inclined. If it's the difference between walking into a job or not, I'd go to them. I know that, so long as I keep my grades up, the company my dad works for would be willing to take me. They know I'm knowledgeable about how they set projects up, so that's a reason to hire me. Keep some knowledge in your back pocket, ya know?

 

[esnave09]

I probably would do black bowls. I'd probably do a test fit just to make sure that's what I wanted to do. It almost looks like more of a silver, so it wouldn't be as bad. Plus my P5 is black, so it might not look as good having all that black. I would probably just leave the bulbs unplugged if I got them. I might put in something eventually if it looks weird but probably not. And I know that's why we have no side markers in our lights. That's why I want an MSP bumper, is cuz I think those side marker lights look so dumb. Especially with the orange tab or whatever you think it looks like. haha With having the light on when the blinker's on, how'd you do that? I might try to get cornering lights setup (like in Buicks) if I can find one bright enough.

BTW, I finally followed through on those light cracks. I couldn't get the greatest pics cuz I couldn't find a point to tell my camera where to focus, but this was probably the best one. If you need more pics, click and it'll take you to the album.



And you definitely have a good hookup with SAE. I almost started going to those, and my roommate does, but I have yet to go. He got offered a job at Ford through them starting in the summer. But if your dad's company has you hooked and wanna keep ya, go for it!

 

[31N007]

http://sdrv.ms/1cPnCvX

Here's a rough write up of how the lights worked. The light further back on the fender lights up too. I took this photo of a different "setup" I had where the lights worked all the time. It's odd. Technically I would have had 3 indicators IIRC. (There's so many lights. If you wanted, bondo the fender lights and paint them. Then use the light the sedan has but P5 doesn't as a constantly on light. If that makes sense? But I don't know whether you want to do bodywork. Probably best to unplug the light on the front bumper and treat it as a "reflector".

Those scratches don't look too nice. I couldn't tell ya what they are from though. mp5la might unfortunately be right...

 

[esnave09]

I think I would like that setup. If nothing else, it'll be something I can add or get rid of. But honestly, I might just get rid of side marker lights all together (just headlights and turn signals). I like the way that P5s without side markers look at night, and it's something I wanna try. I'm thinking about replacing my bumper, but if I don't I'll just bondo them and take out the side markers. And if I get pulled over for it being illegal (doubtful), I'll punch out the holes and replace the holes with orange glass and put the bulb behind it. I hate the way our reflectors are on top of the bumper, instead of integrated. Looks dumb. Especially cuz one of mine is only 2/3 there.

And no, those headlights don't look good. However, they aren't as bad from a distance. I'm not sure how the projector headlights will show with this, but at least if I get the retroed sedan lights they hopefully won't have those. I think he is right, I just don't quite understand how they got there. I think they were there when I got the car, but I'm not sure.

 

[esnave09]

Well, insomnia has set in just in time for finals, and the last thing I wanna do instead of sleep is study, so I did a lot of brainstorming on things for Ozzie.

First, my audio setup. My roommate (as well as some coworkers) said they'd be willing to help me out, but haven't heard too much beyond wanting a new deck and putting a sub in my hatch. I was thinking about where I was gonna put the amp and came up with this idea, with a back story of course (What else do you expect from me?). Long story short, I accidentally left my cargo cover on top of my car after a bike ride and drove off without it. It was in my parking lot, but of course my dumb ass didn't realize where it was until the next night at work and by that point it was gone.

So my solution is this. I build a custom cover out of wood, layer on sound insulation, wrap it in fabric (maybe get someone to embroider something in there? Mazda logo?), and mount the amp to the bottom side. I would be using the same concept as the factory cover, with the same mounting/hinge point too, so the amp could be mounted in a few ways. 1) Mount it directly under the section closer to the hatch itself, although this would greatly increase the lifted weight of the cover when I open the hatch (just realized that as I typed it out ha). 2) Create some sort of folding bracket and mount it to the smaller section of the cover (closer to the seats) so that the amp itself would be on/parallel with (but not attached to) the rear seat. 3) Create a different mounting bracket that would attach to the bracket things in the back of the rear seat. However, seeing as I still need to have flexible space, the 3rd solution wouldn't be a permanent mounting. I would need a quick-release latch of some sort.

So these are my ideas illustrated with my master paint skills. (thumb)

Hopefully it makes a little bit more sense. No matter what, I'm going to need to put in another new hatch strut, and hopefully it'll be easier this time.

Second big thing. After driving in all the snow and crap, and seeing all the snow buildup behind my wheels (inevitably throwing salt on my car) I thought about getting mudflaps. There's a catch though. I want to get 17s or 18s for the summer, and I think it'll look bad, especially once my rust is removed. Does anyone think that removing the mudflaps every spring would be a viable option? I would do it at the same time as installing the winter tires, but does this seem like a good idea? Or is it just the sleep-deprived side of me not thinking through every aspect of things? I know the drill holes would still be there during the summer, but I honestly don't think that'll be a big visual issue.

Finally, I think once I get access to either a garage or the auto lab I'm going to plastidip my winter rims (the stockers). I'm sick of looking at the scuffs once I get Ozzie washed, which I need to do today. If I were to pick some stuff up at Ace or Lowe's (or whatever hardware stores you guys have) for the dip, is there anything that can make it a glossy finish? I'm not really a fan of the flat black look and don't want to pay $60+ for a kit from dipyourcar.com.

Alright, I think that's everything. Answers in 3, 2, GO!

 

[seventystangfan]

Hatch cover sub install => different, but interesting. The only thing is that you have to do a good job, or it will just look so-so. Mudflaps would be cool, but if you don't like the thought of driving with them in the Summer you might just let it be. IMO they're pretty sweet and even if they aren't stopping snow/salt they stop mud (because their name...) and water. And I'd check out the "flat" black of Plastidip on your winter rims. It might grow on you.

 

[esnave09]

This was more what I was thinkin for the sub. I saw someone else put it into the hatch itself, and while it's cool lookin I don't wanna deal with that much wiring. haha

As for the mud flaps, I probably will leave it then. I'd like to have them, but maybe not. I'll keep it in mind.... I'm just hesitant cuz I'm only lookin for the "outdoorsy" look in the winter. I want a clean look like this or like JDM_Pro5's ride (minus the lip and hood).

But who knows. I guess there's nothing wrong with leaving my rims flat black and seeing how I like it. I'll probably do that when I'm home for Christmas, and then once the auto lab opens up again I'll think about making them glossy.

 

[31N007]

I know Circuit (Chris Bernardo, since you're in the Protege Chill Spot on FB) has his amps and crossovers on the back seat with a shallow mount 10" in the spare tire compartment. Looks really nice. I'll try and find the thread with the pics.

You dork for leaving the cover on the roof! Mine didn't come with one so there's that... $100 can net you one if you want but it's not a necessity I don't think. If you go with the compartment, I think the second option you have might work. If you can find an amp that suits your needs and is small enough, it would be a win-win. Not stuck on the back seats and no extra weight on the hatch cover...

You could also think about maybe fitting the amp under the hatch carpet as well as the sub (if you go shallow mount) Then you won't be taking up any space whatsoever