What have you done to your P5 today?

Protege52003 said:
any pics......?
Not yet, I did it last night and am working now. The shift plate won't stay on properly, even with copius amounts of double sided tape. It also has a couple minor cracks. Both pieces look very cloudy, and the radio surround just looks overall cheap to me. I think I'm going to cut the ends off, where our fake cf is now and just cover those. How does one go about cutting cf anyway, what's the best tool for the job? The shift plate is gonna go too, I think. I'll order it new one day. No more used carbon fiber for me.(pissed)
 
Dremel tool is best with a cutting wheel. Tape it off and use a steady hand.

p5_dash2.jpg
 
man josh......you are posting some sweet pics of your car this morning!

exterior and interior......

-R
 
altspace said:
Yea, I've been thinking about hardwiring it in.....for over a year now.

like i was thinking about getting the kartboy combo for the last 2 years......mine cost me $128 and an hour+ of time. re-routing the wire behind the dashboard costs just your 1+ hour ot time at most......

get-er-done!

-R
 
Protege52003 said:
like i was thinking about getting the kartboy combo for the last 2 years......mine cost me $128 and an hour+ of time. re-routing the wire behind the dashboard costs just your 1+ hour ot time at most......

get-er-done!

-R

I have mine just go right beneath the silver trim piece. I didn't do any cutting of the trim piece or anything, so it rubbed off a bit of the thick insulation over the wire. I have a replacement cord I just haven't gotten around to it yet. You could in theory tap off of the 12v outlet's power and ground wires without cutting any wires since they can both be unplugged from behind the outlet. I'm running mine off the power wire I have coming through the firewall for my head unit (IIRC, I haven't worked on that wiring in a long time).

Edit: actually, without even doing any wiring you could do it. Just have it go between the two vents up top, down along the right side of the head unit, and then come out and plug right into the 12v outlet. That's how I did it with my mom's Altima because I didn't want to have to do any wiring.
 
Protege52003 said:
man, you still have 3 gallons left......another 70+ miles before you should really get worried.......

-R

Yeah, I was surprised when the pump turned off. Reason I stopped on my commute home was my warning light came on, on my way into work. In the interim I made a 35 mile journey (round trip) to my daughters school and back to work.

Any ideas on when the light is supposed to come on? I would think at 11 or so gallons on a 14.5 gallon tank is early.
 
my idiot light goes on, then off a couple miles later, for about 5 or 10 miles it stays off, then goes on for good. At that point I can squeeze in 12 gal max.
 
Survived the VICS recall "event" (44k miles)since was idling into driveway when happened. Got into garage, fished out the single screw from cyl 3. Had only made 6-8 taps at low rpm before motor was shut off. No CEL. No closed gap on plug. 2 butterflies in bottom of intake that wallowed over remaining loose screws. Only 1 screw actually out, all others loose. Pulled apart, red loctited new screws in on VICS, removed VTCS, put on new int gasket on head, cleaned egr, did coolant buypass on TB, put it all back & running better than ever today. Close call, lucky not on freeway when it came off!
 
i12drivemyMP5 said:
Survived the VICS recall "event" (44k miles)since was idling into driveway when happened. Got into garage, fished out the single screw from cyl 3. Had only made 6-8 taps at low rpm before motor was shut off. No CEL. No closed gap on plug. 2 butterflies in bottom of intake that wallowed over remaining loose screws. Only 1 screw actually out, all others loose. Pulled apart, red loctited new screws in on VICS, removed VTCS, put on new int gasket on head, cleaned egr, did coolant buypass on TB, put it all back & running better than ever today. Close call, lucky not on freeway when it came off!

Yikes. You hadn't taken it to the dealership yet? Or are you outside the recall VIN range (eekdance) ?
 
altspace said:
You think the coolant bypass on the TB makes a diff?

I did it when I was in the area doing the EGR cleaning and.. didn't notice anything. Sounds eerily familiar to most of the mods I've done to this car though.

I've noticed my suspension mods and low profile tires letting me feel every little pavement irregularity and jarring me over bridge seams, and I've heard my exhaust note change with each exhaust modification, but to me the car doesn't really feel any faster. It just sounds nicer as it climbs revs :)
 
zverg said:
Yikes. You hadn't taken it to the dealership yet? Or are you outside the recall VIN range (eekdance) ?
Nope, I refuse to let non-caring asshats touch my car. The closest dealer to me sucks infinite ass & mazda roadside assistance only would only take it to nearest dealer for free which woulda been that one. I am in the recall range & had been planning to do the workaround my self way before actual recall & because the dealer won't remove VTCS while there or clean the egr for free. The car just bumped up my schedule.
 
altspace said:
You think the coolant bypass on the TB makes a diff?
Not any more than anyone else that has done it. I live in Texas so not aware of any reason I need hot water running through the TB. Maybe if I lived somewhere that actually had real cold weather & maybe if it wasn't garaged all the time. And I was there while intake (top half) was off & I happened to have the right sized sleeve & 2 small hose clamps laying around. Not expecting any noticeable performance gain. Any reasons not to have done it?
 
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