What have you done to your P5 today?

today I drove my car for 4 hours with about 2oz of gear oil in the tranny. Last night on my way from Rochester to CT, about an hour away from my house in CT I heard a loud clunk like a rock had hit the underside of the car.. it felt fine for the drive home so I didn't think twice. I was redlining it like CRAZY on Route 8 in Mass too haha god I love that road. So anyway, this morning I was late leaving to go pick up my FMIC/bov and I started her up and heard a weird new rattling noise in the engine bay. It was definitely much louder on the drivers side of the car, and I popped the hood and was pretty sure it was coming from the tranny. I drove downtown to gas up and go to the car wash, and the car felt/drove ok, though I did notice it was a little bit hard to put it in gear at times. As I got into Rhode Island on my way to Pawtucket, I was noticing strange sounds coming from the transmission. 3rd gear had a moderately loud whine and it had popped out of third for me (it has done this in the past.. seriously like 1-2 times per month but it hasn't increased in frequency so I've been ignoring the problem since I bought my car). I was beginning to think that the sound I heard the night before was my drain plug just.. falling off the car. I couldn't locate the drain plug since I couldn't even fit my head under the car (yay being lowered plus not having the jack in the car), but I could see that the tranny was soaked in its own fluids.

I picked up my FMIC/bov in Rhode Island, and then went searching for an auto parts store in East Providence. I found a NAPA, asked them about the drain plug, and they said "I highly doubt it has a drain plug. I've never heard of a car with one of those, what is it a Volkswagen or somethin?".. ugh. He said there was a dealership down the road so I went there. The parts lady looked it up, but I guess their computer system doesn't actually give them any valuable information about the plug (like the size). They wouldn't be able to get it in for at least a week anyway. I went back to nAPA and bought the only gear oil they had, Valvoline Syntech 75w90. I poured some in with a cool filler neck thing with a built in valve made just for tranny fluid fill-ups. It poured right back out as fast as I could pour it in. I still couldn't get a good enough view to see if the drain plug was there or not.

I got farther, and into Mass. I was probably about 5-10 miles from Mark's house (bazooka joe) and happened upon a Pep Boys. I went inside and asked them about the part. They didn't list it in their system. The guy showed me some universal expanding plugs that could be used as a stop-gap measure, so I bought a couple sizes that I thought might fit. I also bought 4 qts of Royal Purple Syncromax because pep boys carries royal purple for some reason (almost makes them a decent company). I was able to locate the drain plug, right where it should be. This is when I really started getting worried that there was like a hole on the backside of my tranny, even though it hadn't grinded gears at all. I removed the drain and fill plugs to see how much fluid would spill out .. about a shot glass worth. Ouch! Wherever the leak was it was low enough down that almost all of it could leak out. I managed to get to Mark's house, though at 1:30 instead of 9am like planned.After a while I decided to go under there and Josh (altspace) and I located the culprit. There was a little M10 or M12 (can't remember which) bolt missing (see picture here .. it can be zoomed in, I uploaded it at a decently large size). Hey at least it was up a little higher than the drain bolt so the tranny wasn't totally dry. ugh.

So yeah.. note to self: next time the car is jacked up, loctite that little bolt :P
 
yikes man...that was almost tragic. You would have been selling all the turbo parts for replacement tranny parts...glad that didn't happen.
 
Yeah I was on the phone with rob and he was telling me about the tranny rebuild kit suspiciously going on sale on protegegarage :P

I hope there's no major permanent damage. I noticed a slight whistle in 5th gear on the highway that I don't think was there before.. but who knows *crosses fingers*
 
Well.. last night, I was pulled over in my p5... why? for my Mazdaspeed Sport exhaust.. the cop stopped me and asked if it is "Factory"... told me that he could hear me from 2 or 3 blocks away... lol...
 
iLisa said:
Well.. last night, I was pulled over in my p5... why? for my Mazdaspeed Sport exhaust.. the cop stopped me and asked if it is "Factory"... told me that he could hear me from 2 or 3 blocks away... lol...

Did you promptly point him to the text that says "mazda(speed)" on it? :P I got pulled over for that once too. It's usually just small town cops with nothing better to do.
 
Kansei said:
Did you promptly point him to the text that says "mazda(speed)" on it? :P I got pulled over for that once too. It's usually just small town cops with nothing better to do.
nah.. I flashed him, gave him a donut and he let me go... :p
 
iLisa said:
nah.. I flashed him, gave him a donut and he let me go... :p

I got thrown in the pokey last time i tried to get out of a ticket that way (ughdance)
 
I got my stock rims put back on with some new kuhmos for "winter". The 16s just look so tiny now that i've gotten used to my 17s its kinda embarrasing.
 
yeah, the stawkies look different fo sho...

I have 55 series rubber so it helps... big fat meats
 
Oh yeah ... picked up a DGM rear valence cover in fiberglass. It's getting painted satin black to tie in the (superior :)) style of the P5 to the newer 3's
 
Bala de Plata said:
I got thrown in the pokey last time i tried to get out of a ticket that way (ughdance)
bet you didn't have the right kinda donuts.. (hah)
 
MyZmZm said:
Nice pic Mark! very cool... how'd they turn out?

P5 sat yet again today, but the new headlights - black housing from factory :p - are getting VHT Nite Shades eyelids as we speak. Hopefully Monday evening I do the swap and then ship out the old headlights to an MSP owner in Seattle. :)

they came out great andrea! it wasn't really that hard, more time consuming...we were up against the clock...we got the last bumper on just at dusk! ut was a good day!

hey instead of nite shades how about rock blocker (smoked)? protect them new lights!!
 

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Do you have HID's?

bazooka joe said:
they came out great andrea! it wasn't really that hard, more time consuming...we were up against the clock...we got the last bumper on just at dusk! ut was a good day!

hey instead of nite shades how about rock blocker (smoked)? protect them new lights!!
 
bazooka joe said:
they came out great andrea! it wasn't really that hard, more time consuming...we were up against the clock...we got the last bumper on just at dusk! ut was a good day!

hey instead of nite shades how about rock blocker (smoked)? protect them new lights!!
Good to hear, looks great!

What my plan is - come spring when the P5 comes out of hibernation - is to get them covered. It's not Rockblocker, and it's not the 3M stuff either... I forget the name, but it's optically clear (much clearer than the 3M) and a lot thinner, but it protects from chipping just as well as a lot of the thicker stuff. With these pretty new headlights, I don't want them all chipped and pitted to hell. Pics of the new, eyelid-tinted headlights, below - they go on the car tomorrow evening hopefully.

I taped the headlights, but unfortunately it didn't quite seal in a couple places, and I got a little leakage from the VHT. Anyone have any suggestions on how to remove it without damaging the headlight lense?
 

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Liquid_Ag said:
i wasnt invited :(

looooooser

you should have been there. I drove from Rochester, you have no good excuse lolz

and plus I drove with a shotglass worth of gear oil in my tranny

Today I used my P5 to transport my nintendo wii.. I haven't unboxed it yet and I've been back for like 20 minutes!!!
 
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