Greetings from Pennsylvania

[Myrithel]

Hey guys, welcome me to the club! Bought a black 2003 Protege5 yesterday - awesome condition, really clean, and drives great... although it was the low rust that really tipped the scales and got it sold (naughty)
Just a few minor problems.. 3/5 doors don't lock/unlock electronically and the back license plate holder is done for. A TINY bit of paint bubble rust on the hood and rear bumper/wheel area will require some prep work and 16w paint. And the shift knob leather is wearing out so a new one will be in mind.

First car

The air intake tube has a tear or something in it, the seller had some duct tape winding around a part of the tube (engine pic). I'm thinking if I would have to replace that junk, I may as well go aftermarket? (stoned) I'm a noob, so would someone tell me if this would work on this car and if it's a good deal? Used AEM intake : http://tinyurl.com/o7eff2b

The brake rotors and calipers are a pretty disgusting rust-brown, so those will probably be cleaned up later on and the calipers painted some neutral color. The stock chrome rims have the chrome wearing down and they look pretty nasty from some angles IMO, so I might paint them a few months down the road. I don't really like the shine of the rims compared to the rest of the vehicle, but I'm not sure if I would go for a chrome respray, cast iron gray, or black?

Anyway, what I really need now are 3 actuator plastic gears. I found a thread on this forum dated sometime last year that said someone was selling them on ebay, but now there is nothing (cryhard).
And the cheapest Mazda license plate holder is $40 on ebay.. anyone know where I can get one for half the price? Doesn't have to be OEM, just needs to fit

See you guys on the other forum sections!

 

[azuelke]

Welcome! As far as the intake goes, I would suggest getting a full CAI if you are going to go with aftermarket, otherwise you can find a new tube on Amazon for around $40 IIRC.

I had to replace the plastic gear for one of my locks in the past year, painless job, but you need to find them first. I got mine off ebay while they still had them. If you can put up with it, I would wait for them to pop back up, usually an on and off again thing on ebay.

 

[Myrithel]

Alright, I guess I may as well disable the whole electronic locking mechanism until I get some gears because the grinding is really ticking me off.. not sure how the system operates too well, the fob I understand, but sometimes while driving the doors try to lock (and obviously fail).

just gotta find the fuse now


What's the preferred place to get specific Mazda parts for a good price? Am I restricted to the dealer or is there a cheaper website or something? Just found out that the interior lights buttons next to the sunlight controls don't operate at all, they are just very loosely pushed in and fall back down.
And the back 2 wheels & 1 front wheel have security lock lugs, I'll try to take them off with the advice of some youtube vids and an impact wrench. Where could I get some normal Mazda lug nuts? I only need 3..

 

[azuelke]

http://www.onlinemazdaparts.com is your friend.

 

[Myrithel]

I guess it would be time for a re-introduction considering this little event involving a P5 and a Porsche:

happening only a little over a month after I bought it. Insurance totaled it, but I wasn't at fault, so they covered it nicely ($5700 including everything). Pretty good considering the car only cost me $2600 (w/ paperwork).



Fast forward a month... guess what I snagged on Craigslist?!

(headbang)
Pretty much exactly as the P5 before. 5 speed, 2003.5, Black Mica, non-ABS, subwoofer, all stock. I paid a bit more than the prior ($1k~ more) but also got some extras. First off... nearly 45000 less miles!! This car is currently rolling at 78,000 mi. Almost NO rust; not a single spot on the fenders, nothing in the wheel well, fuel pump, etc - and the underbody is clean to the extent that you could probably eat off it. 2 tires were 10k~ old, 1 was 2k~ old, and the other I replaced with the same model a week or so after I bought it. Might be the 1 month gap not driving stick, but I think the newer P5 also shifts "cleaner".

But there are some cons. First off, bad paint. You can't really tell from the pictures, but she doesn't shine. Small scratches all around. Lots of swirls. Rear doors have 3~ small parking lot dings. The hatch spoiler shows that a tiny bit of clear coat coming off. The rims are basically done for aesthetically, the chrome is slowly peeling. And the car had some really really early "minor" accident history pre-4k miles, but it looks professionally repaired - I wouldn't suspect any damage at all if it wasn't for the car report. I think the exhaust muffler sits a bit low, not too sure about that..

Oh, and no sunroof. The car feels a lot more enclosed without the sunroof, and I miss having the map lights at the sunroof control panel because over at the middle they are less effective. Both foglights also were done for, one was shattered and the other had a tiny tiny hole in it. Handbrake doesn't enable on the passenger rear wheel, but the car still holds up firmly on medium slopes.

So far, took out the foglights and replaced the front brake pads.

Up on the agenda..
short term:
- fix the handbrake
- paint the rims (thinking Duplicolor bronze or gunmetal)

long term:
- install a short shifter
- paint calipers
- install either new foglights or foglight deletes
- possibly tint the windows to 35 or 50
- 3M Headlight Restore
- one or two very light passes of vht niteshades on the taillights
- buy a DA polisher, shine 'er up a bit
- paintless dent repair on the rear door dings

Here is a pic of the rims.. if you could imagine how it is without the salt/snow

pretty nasty... what do you think, bronze, gunmetal, or some other color? Maybe black?
Can I pull it off with the stock rims?
And looking ahead, what color calipers?

I'm leaning to bronze (HWP105) rims and black calipers (would red be too much?) but I would love some input.

 

[lowlevel]

Welcome back! Look's pretty good... black paint always shows every defect, so hard to complain about that... but yeah the rims do look pretty rough... after seeing so many bent cheap-o alloys, I'm in favour of keeping/refinishing the stock ones. I think gunmetal or bronze would look pretty cool... tired of seeing them painted black that's for sure

 

[digitalslacker]

Welcome, Lancaster here.

 

[Pro5ordie]

Before you think about doing a complete rebuild on the brake that the hand brake isn't functioning on, check the set screw on the back of the caliper. It's a hex head. I had the same problem, and a simple adjustment fixed the issue. Mazda says to tighten it all the way, then go back a 1/3 of a turn.

 

[Myrithel]

2 cans of bronze rim paint is on an amazon wishlist right now, I'm waiting for another $15~ worth of things so I can get the free shipping lol.. turns out that no stores around me carry the HWP105, only the HWP102 (gunmetal) (notcool)

I took a look at the handbrake cable yesterday, it looks like I'm going to need a new one.

 

[Myrithel]

Alright, now I'm totally lost with the handbrake. It -barely- holds the passenger rear wheel. If I jack the rear of the car up, I can kick the RR wheel moving. Even if it's not on a slope, you can push the car back with ebrake fully engaged if you put in a bit of effort.

I already replaced the stuck right side parking brake cable and the rear brake pads. The pistons were both fully adjusted (fully tightened, minus 1/3 turn). Under the car, the ebrake equalizer (/cable divider thing) moves slanted, like so:

(a bit when ebrake disengaged, a lot more when engaged)

...suggesting that either the NEW OEM brake cable I just replaced is too long, or the other side is too short and requires too much effort to pull, unequalizing the pull? Both seem unlikely... and I'd rather not spend another $70+ for another brake cable just to figure out if it's one cable or the other.

Are there any adjustments left to be made? For the cable to engage the handbrake earlier?

edit: The rear calipers are less than 25k miles old according to service records; is it possible that the place that did the work (non dealership) installed the incorrect calipers? The left and right sides have different handbrake latch location angles, similar to this picture:

(in this picture, the MX6 rear caliper is on the left, Protege5 on the right)

where the left side has the latch angled towards the center of the rotor; the right side has the latch basically perfectly perpendicular to the whole assembly.

 

[Myrithel]

E-Brake nightmares...

Figured it all out, after unnecessarily replacing the rear caliper. I had to loosen both rear caliper hex screws fully to "accept" and equalize the pull levers. The left caliper was taking all the cable slack when the right side cable froze, and when I replaced the cable, the left caliper was still adjusted for solo work. Basically, before, I was only tightening each side individually as much as I could and unscrewing 1/3 turn. When the caliper was adjusted for solo work, it had to be fully unscrewed and reset.