Another Protege5 thread

[jadycr]

Thought i’d document progress on my p5 and start some activity on my account so i have somewhere to ask questions and get help from people that know their stuff better than i do

I got my protege a couple months ago from my neighbor who had passed about a year ago. She didn’t have any kids of her own and she spoiled me and my sister and treated us as if we were her grandkids. Since i got my license i wanted my own car that i could screw around with and my parents brought the protege up as a potential option and i had always drove past it sitting in her driveway and it always caught my eye. It has about 90,000 miles and I finally bought it for $2800 and my parents paid for half. since then i’ve fixed issues like ac not working and i’ve put a new sound system in and fixed some cosmetic damage since my neighbor had put quite the damage on the exterior before she passed. her neice told me she has horrible vision and that they should’ve taken her keys but never did.

It’s starting to come together since ive put a new bumper on and attempted to paint some stuff. I haven’t touched the engine yet and i don’t even know where to start but i would love to make this car a little faster and i’ve been trying to find a turbo to throw onto it for a while but i can’t figure anything out and it would be especially difficult since it’s an automatic. I’ll throw some pictures in of the bumper and trunk that i recently pulled from a nearby junk car and some wheels i bought since the old ones were so bent from my neighbors driving that the shop wouldn’t align my car until i got new ones.

I was working on pulling a dent and removing the rear wiper when the back glass shattered and left a huge mess on my driveway. i felt pretty stupid and i’m still finding glass everywhere. i bought a trunk with an intact window and thought it would be easy to repaint. it was not. i did some bondo work on the new one and primed it and realized i didn’t have enough paint for a full coat. i waited for the paint to cure and got two more spray cans. it was still not enough. it looks good from 20 feet but the primer is showing green from under the paint. body shops have told me to get more paint.












I like the bumper and i think i’ll keep it silver, my friends said it looks like a blue/silver impreza with the two tone.

The wheels rub when i have a full car since they stick out more than the stock ones. I’m going to roll the fenders and see if that can fix it.

Painted valve cover purple, turned out great. Also tinted the taillights, thinking about taking the red lens off and making them clear


If anyone wants anything to do with this post i’ll post some more pics, so far it’s turning out but i just wish it was faster, especially after being used to driving big SUVs with lots of power.

If anyone has any advice on little improvements i could do that slipped under my radar then let me know i love working on it and it has kept me so happy since i bought it. I have a job and want to make this little car perfect.

Thanks for reading and expect a couple updates.

 

[jadycr]

another thing, does anyone have any experience painting yellow with spray cans? how did it turn out? is there anything i should know?

 

[pcb]

another thing, does anyone have any experience painting yellow with spray cans? how did it turn out? is there anything i should know?

One thing I remember is that the yellow Protégé 5 was not clear coated.
All other colors were clear coated.

 

[jadycr]

One thing I remember is that the yellow Protégé 5 was not clear coated.
All other colors were clear coated.

good to know, that explains why the yellow shows up on rags when i clean it.

 

[LankyKiwi]

New build thread woohoo!
Nice looking pro5, have always liked the yellow on these

There was a factory two-tone Familia called the Field Break;

Yellow is a notoriously difficult colour to spray, use a white primer instead of grey and lots of light coats (go for a few more than a darker colour) it's all in the prep and with a bit of practise you'll be painting like the pros

 

[jadycr]

New build thread woohoo!
Nice looking pro5, have always liked the yellow on these

Thanks! Your sport20 is pretty damn sweet too, i wish i had the knowledge to pull stuff like that off.

 

[jadycr]

There was a factory two-tone Familia called the Field Break;
View attachment 321516
Yellow is a notoriously difficult colour to spray, use a white primer instead of grey and lots of light coats (go for a few more than a darker colour) it's all in the prep and with a bit of practise you'll be painting like the pros

It’s pretty cool how many variations there are of these cars, I still haven’t seen another pro5 outside of my junkyard.
Thanks for the tips on spraying the yellow, I suspected the primer might’ve been the reason for the greenish color. i’m going to go get some paint soon, i’m going to be out of time though now that I have school starting tomorrow.

 

[jadycr]

Here are some more pictures showing the trunk after my attempted paint job.

My friend with some amount of magic involved came across a yellow protege5 with no body damage at the junkyard.

I’m regretting spending so much money on paint supplies, and when I go to check it out today I’ll decide if I want to just buy it and know that it’s going to be perfect or keep going on mine and have the experience of painting it correctly. Although I’m definitely going to grab a mirror cover and rear bumper cover depending on the condition.

I got in contact with someone selling a turbo kit, and while I wait on their response, could anyone tell me what issues would arise with the automatic ecu? I remember reading another forum here about it handling 6psi of boost (which is as much as I could want for now) and I would need a transmission cooler and some other things to make it happen. I could get a 626 intake manifold and coils while I’m at the junkyard, I know it’s mostly beneficial with the turbo and if it’s worth it I might just grab it while I’m there. Would it be worth buying the turbo? I have money but I don’t have a lot and I know it’s going to be more expensive since I would have to buy more little bits and pieces. I’ve tried looking for info about it and I’ve gone through all I can find.

Attached pictures of the purple LEDs I switched into everything if anyone has interest in that. The cluster leds don’t show up any different on camera because there is a red film behind the numbers on the cluster and it just looks stock on camera. It does have a nice purple tint to it at night.

 

[jadycr]

Havent had time to post with school and work, but got lots of stuff done on the protege! I need to get some sleep tonight, but i’ll post some updates and pics tomorrow afternoon.

 

[jadycr]

Getting around to posting again.

So I went to the junkyard and checked out that yellow protege. It was in perfect condition, with no indication of a crash or anything. I decided to take the trunk off of it, and I found some other goodies as well.

The trunk was in perfect shape and I wish I had just waited for it to show up before I spend $200 on paint. Learned my lesson I guess.


I got some fancy leather seat covers, I had to tear apart the seats at the junkyard to get them, and sliced my finger open on that nasty sheet metal. The seat covers looked like they were from the factory, and I haven’t found any info on what they are or where they’re from, but after taking my old seats apart and sliding these covers on everything fit snugly so I assume they came from some type of protege or Mazda with the same seats. If anyone has tips on what these covers are from and how to zip the front seat zipper, let me know.

I removed my roof rack, I haven’t done the headliner thing, but I wanted to see how it looks... it is much quieter on the highway and it looks better. I’ll be taking the headliner out to remove it fully.

The tint on the new trunk looks almost like privacy glass and I can’t see anything through it. I’m going to take it to a tint shop to have it removed and I think I’ll get the whole car tinted as dark as I can go. If anyone has any suggestions for how I should tint it darkness wise and if I should do the same tint all around or darker on the back I’d like to see some advice.


Took cruise control out. It worked fine but I’m trying to make my engine bay look nicer and it’s a step in the right direction. If anyone knows how to remove the steering wheel buttons I’d love to rip those out too.

Almost got scammed trying to buy a turbo off of someone on here and I realized within the first two messages that it was a scam. Still shouldn’t trust anyone as much as I’d like to.

I really want to boost my car and my automotive teacher said we can make it happen if I have the money. My school has a very capable shop and I could fab a lot of parts. has anyone done this? I’m leaning towards just buying the full kit online, but if I could put a couple of parts together and save some serious $$$ then that’ll be the way to go. It is also an automatic.

pic of my car as it stands today

 

[LankyKiwi]

Those seats look sweet! Good score, most likely aftermarket but look pretty good quality

Plenty of info on turbo swaps on here, have a good deep dive and see what's involved

 

[jadycr]

Those seats look sweet! Good score, most likely aftermarket but look pretty good quality

Plenty of info on turbo swaps on here, have a good deep dive and see what's involved

Thanks! They need some sewing and restoration for the fronts but they got rid of the cigarette smell. The back seats look brand new though.

I’ve skimmed over everything I can find about boosting, I think I’m going to get some other stuff done first but I’m going to compile everything I can about turbo swaps since I have too many questions that I can answer with some research.

 

[AzteCypher]

For your cruise control buttons, I'm assuming you have the three spoke steering wheel with the three buttons on the right hand side.

If so, you'll need to remove the air bag and then you should be able to get to the switch and remove it. The bolts for the airbag are behind the steering wheel. I suggest you unplug your battery during this process just to be safe.

 

[jadycr]

Thanks! I’ll be doing that tomorrow, along with reinstalling the headliner and half the interior trim.. Also scraping old tint off with a razor blade since I’m getting new tint on Friday. Gonna be a long day.

 

[jadycr]

Roof rack removed! Headliner had some leaks when it rained today, still unsure of where it’s from but it looks like it’s either the windshield seal or the sunroof drip pan. It’s from the drivers side corner right where the visor hinge mounts to the headliner but it got so wet I couldn’t tell.

I didn’t buy the roof rack filler strips, I used a garage door weather stripping / seal and it looks like poop from close up but it does the job from afar. I used caulk on some thin plastic sheets to seal it.

I’ll be keeping the headliner out to maybe reupholster it and in case it leaks I won’t have to remove it again. It looks much nicer, especially from the back.

 

[Blue Pro5]

Getting around to posting again.

So I went to the junkyard and checked out that yellow protege. It was in perfect condition, with no indication of a crash or anything. I decided to take the trunk off of it, and I found some other goodies as well.

The trunk was in perfect shape and I wish I had just waited for it to show up before I spend $200 on paint. Learned my lesson I guess.
View attachment 321715View attachment 321720

I got some fancy leather seat covers, I had to tear apart the seats at the junkyard to get them, and sliced my finger open on that nasty sheet metal. The seat covers looked like they were from the factory, and I haven’t found any info on what they are or where they’re from, but after taking my old seats apart and sliding these covers on everything fit snugly so I assume they came from some type of protege or Mazda with the same seats. If anyone has tips on what these covers are from and how to zip the front seat zipper, let me know.
View attachment 321716
I removed my roof rack, I haven’t done the headliner thing, but I wanted to see how it looks... it is much quieter on the highway and it looks better. I’ll be taking the headliner out to remove it fully.
View attachment 321717
The tint on the new trunk looks almost like privacy glass and I can’t see anything through it. I’m going to take it to a tint shop to have it removed and I think I’ll get the whole car tinted as dark as I can go. If anyone has any suggestions for how I should tint it darkness wise and if I should do the same tint all around or darker on the back I’d like to see some advice.


Took cruise control out. It worked fine but I’m trying to make my engine bay look nicer and it’s a step in the right direction. If anyone knows how to remove the steering wheel buttons I’d love to rip those out too.

Almost got scammed trying to buy a turbo off of someone on here and I realized within the first two messages that it was a scam. Still shouldn’t trust anyone as much as I’d like to.

I really want to boost my car and my automotive teacher said we can make it happen if I have the money. My school has a very capable shop and I could fab a lot of parts. has anyone done this? I’m leaning towards just buying the full kit online, but if I could put a couple of parts together and save some serious $$$ then that’ll be the way to go. It is also an automatic.

pic of my car as it stands today
View attachment 321718

I think Katzkin made a leather seat cover kit a while back, these look similar and in very good shape. It's coming along nicely.

 

[jadycr]

I think Katzkin made a leather seat cover kit a while back, these look similar and in very good shape. It's coming along nicely.

It is! I got the interior reinstalled and the old tint off the back glass; she’s ready for some new tint tomorrow afternoon!

If so, you'll need to remove the air bag and then you should be able to get to the switch and remove it. The bolts for the airbag are behind the steering wheel. I suggest you unplug your battery during this process just to be safe.

This worked perfectly, much cleaner and less cluttered look. Thanks.

 

[jadycr]

Well everyone, I need some help. I have an oil leak, it’s coming from what looks like either the rear main seal or the main bearing support. I put some of that ultraviolet dye in earlier today and decided to check it tonight. I couldn’t get any good pictures but I need some help figuring out if this is going to turn into a whole engine/tranny removal or it it’s something I can fix on the car. I assume the only way oil can get on my flywheel is through the rear main seal or the mbsp. If this is true then what should I do next. Do I have to pull the trans for the mbsp? Im sure I do for the rear main.

I have a class at school that has everything I could ever need to pull this off and I’m free to go there after school, how long would this take? I’m sure I could do it all in a few days or maybe a week and I would have help but I wouldn’t want to have it out of commission for much more than a week if I can help it

If I have the transmission out and I can get ahold of a manual then I see no reason not to go for the swap if the wiring isn’t too much of a nightmare. If it’s possible I might start getting the parts together and harness and etc put together. it would add def a few more days to the swap but it would unlock a lot of potential out of the car and I would probably get an mp3 reflash if I can get that far. I wanted to manual swap this from day one and I’d like to hear of anyone’s experience doing that and if it can be done smoothly and without trouble

I’ve read it’s worth it to just pull the entire engine out and separate the transmission outside of the car, is this an easier route? Is there anything worth replacing on the engine at 100k miles?

Other than this leak, the car is still coming together, I got it tinted and painted a couple things. There’s still a lot I want to do on it and it’s already getting expensive now that I can’t work full time.

Heres some pics: the flywheel with a drop of oil on it, even though it’s not visible in the picture, the uv light on the bottom of the bell housing, and my rear end it looks nice after painting the valence and refreshing bumper paint.

 

[LankyKiwi]

IIRC a manual swap requires a lot of effort to work properly, not impossible but just difficult and time consuming

You'll also need the clutch assembly/ harness, manual brake pedal assembly, manual axles/ half shaft and I think the dash and harness is different as well

There's a surprising amount of different parts between the AT and MT versions

Official: ATx -> MTx conversion

I have spoken to enough users and companies via private messages and e-mails - and I've determined that it is possible to do this conversion, and it is something that * I * deem worth my time and money. This thread is to acquire a precise list of all the parts required to do the conversion. I...

mazdas247.com

Oil leak is most likely the rear main seal which is do-able with the engine in the car, just gotta drop the gearbox which can be 'fun'

If you're planning a big service, check your timing belt, tensioner and water pump, check the accessory belts as well

 

[jadycr]

Yeah, after reading through everything, I think I’m gonna try it.
donor cars are cheaper now then they were back when a lot of the people did it, and it might be nice to have 2 of everything anyways. i think I’ll get a donor car soon and begin ripping everything I could possibly need out of it, and getting it all organized in my auto class. hopefully my car won’t be out for too long. I have a car I can drive until the trans is swapped but hopefully I won’t be without my car too long.
Money is a little tight but I think I should be able to do it on the cheap, with a donor car, there’s not much more I’d need to spend any money on, I’ll be doing some other engine service but the rear main seal won’t be pricey and the donor car should be around $500 or less from what I can see. Here’s my plan:

• Buy scrap donor car with front end intact.
• Buy engine paint.
• Buy MP3 ecu.
• Buy engine mounts.
• Buy rear main seal.
• Buy replacement timing belt.

Once this is all in order, I can:

• Pull harness, radiator, ecu, transmission, clutch pedal, clutch hydraulics, shifter, starter, and engine from donor car.
• Separate donor transmission from engine.
• Store engine either to sell, or maybe build it up when money permits and swap it in
• Take anything related to the transmission out: wiring harness, shifter odds and ends, cv axles, clutch and flywheel, clutch/brake pedal assembly, clutch hydraulics.

Once everything is ready off of the donor car, I’ll start assembling as much as possible outside my car, downtime needs to be kept to minimum.

• Move intake, battery, exhaust, strut brace, and harness
• Remove shifter, radiator, and transmission and whatever else i may need from my car.
• Remove flywheel and replace rear main seal.
• Change timing belt.
• Bolt donor clutch and flywheel on to my engine.
• Install engine mounts.
• Remove old wiring harness and ecu and install new harness and mp3 ecu.
• Small engine bay wire tuck.
• Paint donor transmission.
• Reinstall and begin connecting it to the car.
• Install cv axles.
• Install shifter.
• Install radiator.

It’s well documented everything I’ll need, and this is very vague, I’ll need hundreds of little clips and such and I’m sure I’m going to screw up somewhere. If I can make sure I have everything I need before it all goes in, it should go smoothly. The donor car is going to be a godsend and unless something in it is already screwed up, I should see no problems. I don’t have high hopes but if something goes wrong then I’ll just replace the seal and keep it auto and now Id have a donor car. fingers crossed I can find a yellow p5, for obvious reasons, but I think any protege with the FS-DE should work.