My Tight budget P5 Thread

[icantshift]

Hi there. This is my 2002 Protege5. I bought it for $5400 with 107000kms on it. (67000 miles). I am a student with little to spend, and I thought some of you might be interested to see what budget mods I come up with. I'm fairly new to cars so pleaasee do tell me if I cock up and of course, I'm always open to suggestions.

Day I brought her home:

What I've done so far:

"Performance"
-eBay intake
-Megan Racing Cat-Back

Exterior
-Black Sacchi 16" Rims
-Sickspeed 3" Antenna
-Decals

Interior/Sound system
-Generic Leather Shift knob
-Pioneer FH-X70BT

What I plan to do:

-20% tint
-Red Calipers & Rocker Cover
-Headlight black-out
-New shift knob and boot. (On their way)

 

[David1206]

I used toothpaste on my headlights and they look brand new.

 

[agr99]

Great ride.rims look awesome cant wait to see it done

 

[Jackie chan]

Looks good, what size are those tires?

 

[icantshift]

I used toothpaste on my headlights and they look brand new.

I did try the toothpaste method, only saw a small improvement. I bought a restoration kit for cheap but I haven't been bothered to use it yet.

Looks good, what size are those tires?

Not certain of the tire size, I do know the wheels are 16'' though.

Some updates:

-Ebay sri arrives next wednesday
-Megan racing cat-back arrives first week of February (?)

I've been busy with finals but I'll have some new photos soon

 

[icantshift]

A better picture while I wait to be ***** by UPS brokerage fees on the exhaust and intake. I think I'm making tint my top priority for cosmetic upgrades.

 

[agr99]

Thatd look good. Are you going to lower it?

 

[icantshift]

Thatd look good. Are you going to lower it?

Maybe after another bonus from work, but I won't completely slam it because I go over a lot of speed bumps.

 

[agr99]

I feel you there.have you thought about what kind of shifter yet?

 

[icantshift]

I feel you there.have you thought about what kind of shifter yet?

Not really. Do you have any to suggest? I'm just not too fond of the stock shifter's feel

 

[agr99]

Alot of people on the p5 forum say the twm shifter is the best

 

[lowlevel]

A better picture while I wait to be ***** by UPS brokerage fees on the exhaust and intake. I think I'm making tint my top priority for cosmetic upgrades.

I called UPS once to complain about the excessive charges, and they were including $20 or something as a fee just for at the door collection of the brokerage and duty. Supposedly you can set up an account with them to avoid it... but I chose to just avoid UPS instead.

 

[icantshift]

I called UPS once to complain about the excessive charges, and they were including $20 or something as a fee just for at the door collection of the brokerage and duty. Supposedly you can set up an account with them to avoid it... but I chose to just avoid UPS instead.

Maybe I'll look into that, I hope I can still do it even though they're already in transit

 

[icantshift]

Installed the ebay short ram intake today. Holy s***. I was expecting a barely noticeable change in the driving experience but wow. Engine sounds a million times throatier, and the car actually puts me in my seat when I put my foot down in 2nd. For 70 bucks shipped this thing is ridiculous. Will buy K & N filter for it eventually.

Pics:

Box shot

Removing stock intake (seeked the help of a more experienced friend).

Can someone tell me what this thing is? Ended up zap strapping it to a group of wires

This is how we mounted it. Seems to work fine, doesn't rub against anything.

One final tighten

Done

So far I'm 100% satisfied. Why would anyone pay 200-300 for Injen or AEM?

 

[David1206]

Ive seen those on Ebay. Worth it? Your car is almost a twin to mine but I have 5% tint and my side markers are black.

 

[icantshift]

Ive seen those on Ebay. Worth it? Your car is almost a twin to mine but I have 5% tint and my side markers are black.

My god I want tint It's illegal to have any amount of tint on the windshield, driver and passenger doors here

Megan Racing Cat-back went on today, didnt take pics yet but a video is worth 1000 of those anyway so here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmL4NvPwQwg

It's got a perfect sound, deep tone. Install took about 4 hours because of the rust, on a mint car would probably take around 2. Only complaint is if the cars above 3000 rpms you cant hear the person talking next to you its so loud, but that's expected.

 

[hornsfan10609]

Ive seen those on Ebay. Worth it? Your car is almost a twin to mine but I have 5% tint and my side markers are black.

If you want it I have a weapon R short ram for a P5 I bought for mine years ago and never installed. It has a red foam filter and chrome pipe, sell it to you cheap!

 

[kms1990]

If you want it I have a weapon R short ram for a P5 I bought for mine years ago and never installed. It has a red foam filter and chrome pipe, sell it to you cheap!

how much? i need an intake! and nice car to the original poster i like the red and black!

 

[lowlevel]

Installed the ebay short ram intake today. Holy s***. I was expecting a barely noticeable change in the driving experience but wow. Engine sounds a million times throatier, and the car actually puts me in my seat when I put my foot down in 2nd. For 70 bucks shipped this thing is ridiculous. Will buy K & N filter for it eventually.

Second gear usually does... I don't think the intake is contributing to that much... I seem to recall reading that these intakes are actually worse than the stock intake as far as making power, but they are noisier that's for sure

So far I'm 100% satisfied. Why would anyone pay 200-300 for Injen or AEM?

... It certainly looks very similar to the AEM intake, and I would expect it to perform similarly.

 

[icantshift]

how much? i need an intake! and nice car to the original poster i like the red and black!

Thanks I need less wheel gap though, hoping it won't look too silly if I lower it a bit on 16's.

Second gear usually does... I don't think the intake is contributing to that much... I seem to recall reading that these intakes are actually worse than the stock intake as far as making power, but they are noisier that's for sure

Might be placebo caused by the sick engine noise I should have done acceleration tests before and after the intake and exhaust.

... It certainly looks very similar to the AEM intake, and I would expect it to perform similarly.

I'm sure the AEM comes with a higher quality filter, but that doesn't justify the price. The piping and fittings are high enough quality in the ebay intake, and still cheaper than AEM to buy a new cone to use with it. Just my opinion though.