Hey people. I've been a member since 2003 when I bought my '02 P5, an early model (which I like best). I can't believe I never visited the ol' home forum, I should be ashamed of myself.(smash) After the first few years, when my new car was all I could think about, I kind of took the ol' girl for granted. She's only got 74k miles, but after 9 years it's beginning to need a little more attention. Everybody else must be in the same boat.
It's been cool to get back on the forums and see who I remember. My old favorite forum, Protege owners club has been renamed and gutted. Most of everybody's posts are gone. But I've seen a few from there posting here. Now that the weather is getting nice I've been having fun fixing it up. After 9 years, no way I'm trusting a rubber timing belt in a petroleum fumed atmosphere after driving it like a thief, so that was first on the list. Actually second, my stock intake tube had cracked between the accordion shaped ridges, letting stray air in. So I put a cheap e-Bay SRI on it.
I got a
https://www.amazon.com (commissions earned) with OEM brand parts, new Nissan Pump Works water pump, Contitech timing belt(oem BMW & some Mazda) and all the rest for only $300. Spent last weekend doing that project. Took a while without a helper, had to backtrack a couple of times, but it went together perfectly. At least after I plugged the Crank sensor in all the way. You wouldn't believe the sinking feeling I had when I turned the key and it pooted out the intake.(gah)
About that time it was time to go pick up my wife, so feeling foolish and stupid, off I went in her car, which I had borrowed for the day. Didn't even get to smoke my self-congratulatory cigar. So when we were a block from home on our little road at 20 mph, a car to my left ran a stop sign on an even smaller road. I saw it to my left and a little behind me out of my peripheral vision as it crossed my road and clobbered our car. It hit square on, right behind the B pillar. My new super great brand new $800 tires dug in and didn't budge, the result being us rolling over onto the roof. It was like an explosion in a glass factory. None of the airbags blew, not even the side curtains.
We're sitting there suspended upside down by the belts and the air is filled with every particle of crap that never got vacuumed or swept out plus a spray of micro glass. I hollered
close your eyes! After confirming we were still alive, I pressed the window button and amazingly it opened. So did hers. We had to release the belts and fall into a pile of black sunroof glass.
So sitting on the ground with EMS and Firemen everywhere, I'm thinking, now we have no car because I ****** UP THE MAZDA. Envisioning a total re-do, I figured, **** it, I'll just call the man, as my wife says when something breaks down. How totally embarrassing that would be. After the hospital and all that s***, I took a quick look at the P5. Turned the key just for giggles and it cranked right up!(nana). I thumped a few wires and it pooted again. I pressed on the crank sensor socket and Click, I'm not stupid any more. Whew. But now I need to buy a new car.
I started this thread to talk about car searching and it turned into a story. So I'll start a new thread about that. The dead car was a 2007 V6 Sonata SE. It had everything that would be on a Limited trim level except for leather. It was a really great car, pretty quick too. So I might have some questions for y'all as I car shop.
Anyway, Hi everyone in SC. I'm limping around in Columbia.
Rusty
