Many little annoyances!

[stewartfan]

Ok, so I have a 92 Protege LX AT with 86000 miles. Many mild to moderate annoyances include, but are not limited to:

-Unable to drive in town (25MPH) with the a/c on. It drives really rough, and then when I come up on a stoplight, it sputters and dies.

-Driver's passive restraint "automatic seatbelt" gets stuck at about an inch to three inches past the "buckled" position. It buckles fine, but then doesn't move past a certain point when the door is opened.

-Dome light has to be smacked to turn on

-Passenger's side rear door doesn't open from the outside

-Passenger front door doesn't always unlock with the power locks when it's cold.

-Driver's side rear door doesn't open at all, and before that, the lock was so stiff that it could hardly be operated with pliers.

-Driver's door sensor broke off, so the dome light and other door-sensitive operations don't function when the driver door is opened (weirdly, the passive restraint still works...)

-Driver's lap belt buckles fine, but the sensor in it doesn't work; it beeps intermittently telling me to buckle my seatbelt when it's already buckled.

-White paint is peeling on the trunk lid where the bumper and lid meet; also peeling on the sunroof and a couple other areas.

--How can I go about taking off the door panels to fix the handles/locks?
--Why can't I run the a/c in town??
--how difficult is it to fix the passive restraint? what needs to be done?
--Why does the dome light not work correctly?
--what can I do for the paint besides a repaint to prevent it from peeling more, or cover up the peeling altogether?

Other questions:
How hard is it to upgrade the stereo system?
Easy way to get a little more power without seeing the economy go down the toilet?

Thanks!

 

[irishkev90]

Sounds like some simple and some hard problems. Have you replaced the dome light at all? Could just be a bad bulb. I have a 2nd gen Protege LX (1998) and the door panels are held on by a screw behind the door handle, one behind a cover near the edge of the door, and another in the little hole in the arm rest, then it's just held by clips, just pulls right off. Don't know how similar it is to your car, but door panels are pretty simple to remove. As for the paint, is it just the clearcoat or the actual paint? I think Mazda has had problems with the white paint. I'd say do some wetsanding to smooth it out. If it's the white and the metal is showing, spray some primer, then white, then some clear. Spray cans are probably $5-$7 each so it won't be too expensive. Your seatbelt telling you it's unbuckled could be a lose connection, check under the seat and make sure the wire is plugged in good.

I'm not too experienced myself, but I've done my best to help with your issues. Upgrading stereo isn't hard at all. I got my headunit from www.crutchfield.com. (I think I have a 20% off coupon/code thing if you decide to go with Crutchfield.) Came with all mounting and connection parts. Crutchfield also sends a diagram to show you which wire are connected to what. Speakers are even easier to change. I went to Bestbuy for my speakers. Basically take the old ones out and put the new ones in. Just make sure you get the right size. As for power, depends on the engine. If you have the 1.5L there's really nothing you can do besides an intake. I have a short intake on mine right now and had a cold air intake for a few months. Made it with parts from Autozone. The short intake really helps with throttle response. If you have the 1.8L you have a few more options, such as intake/exhaust manifolds I think. Also a new exhuast system can give a few more horses, but it's expensive and I don't really know your budget.

Again, I'm not a genius on this stuff, but it's better than nothing I would guess. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[11B-33T]

Ok, so I have a 92 Protege LX AT with 86000 miles. Many mild to moderate annoyances include, but are not limited to:

-Unable to drive in town (25MPH) with the a/c on. It drives really rough, and then when I come up on a stoplight, it sputters and dies.

-Driver's passive restraint "automatic seatbelt" gets stuck at about an inch to three inches past the "buckled" position. It buckles fine, but then doesn't move past a certain point when the door is opened.
-Over the years, the graphite lube had basically hardeend & collected dust/dirt/grit. It's a mother to take apart and clean.

-Dome light has to be smacked to turn on
bulb needs to be replaced

-Passenger's side rear door doesn't open from the outside
check to see if the child lock is engaged

-Passenger front door doesn't always unlock with the power locks when it's cold.
The uber super black glue/goo that holds the white membrane between your door and panel has 'oozed' or spread to the door lock mechanisim shaft. It's like molasses when the temperature is low.

-Driver's side rear door doesn't open at all, and before that, the lock was so stiff that it could hardly be operated with pliers.
read above comment

-Driver's door sensor broke off, so the dome light and other door-sensitive operations don't function when the driver door is opened (weirdly, the passive restraint still works...)
gotta replace the door sensor plunger/unit

-Driver's lap belt buckles fine, but the sensor in it doesn't work; it beeps intermittently telling me to buckle my seatbelt when it's already buckled.
gotta find the 'sweet' spot when you're buckled by pulling a slight bit of slack out of the tensioner. It never goes away really unless you replace the shoulder belt tensioner.

-White paint is peeling on the trunk lid where the bumper and lid meet; also peeling on the sunroof and a couple other areas.
old age. the clear coat is gone.

--How can I go about taking off the door panels to fix the handles/locks?
--Why can't I run the a/c in town??
--how difficult is it to fix the passive restraint? what needs to be done?
--Why does the dome light not work correctly?
--what can I do for the paint besides a repaint to prevent it from peeling more, or cover up the peeling altogether?

Other questions:
How hard is it to upgrade the stereo system?
Easy way to get a little more power without seeing the economy go down the toilet?

Thanks!

Other than that, it's a great car and I'll keep mine till it collapses into a pile of rust. BTW, original owner with 150k miles..

 

[irishkev90]

If the child locks are engaged, doesn't that mean you can't open the door from the inside? That way the "child" can't open the door while going 65mph down the highway?

 

[11B-33T]

(hand)...I screwed the pooch on that one...