Won't believe what happened to my new MSP

[Bluelightening]

I have been shopping around for a MS protege for about 2 months or so, then bam one day while searching goggle I found a beautiful blue in tulsa, OK for 9grand with 70 thousand miles. I got everything worked out w/ the bank and my friends and I went down there and picked it up. When I test drove it had a jerk to it when I got on it and at the time I thought I was doing something wrong cause I never owned a turbo or an import. On the way home I quickly noticed that it was the car not me. So I got home then took it to a small performance place and in 5min of driving and he ask me is there a manual boost controler, and I said I don't even know what that is. He looked under hood and there it was a manual boost controller. He said he highly recommends people never to buy these cause it's the best way to blow your motor. He said I can give you a real eletronic boost and fuel controller that would be good for your car for $650.00 installed. I said how much to make it Factory again. He said 50 bucks and I said cool, so i went home to wait till my wife got off work so I can drop the car off and when I was 1/10th a mile from home while in first gear something felt weird and then tink, tink tink, all the way home. Took it back to the shop and they said I thew a rod. I didn't even own this car for 72 hours before I had to rebuild the motor ($2,525). Anyone else have an experience like that?

 

[Captain KRM P5]

sounds like you are being taken advantage of by more than just one place here.

first question i want to ask is, does the car have an aftermarket boost gauge. this gauge reads in psi and will tell you how much boost your turbo is pushing. stock is anywhere between 6 and 8psi generally speaking. if it was pushing more than that for an extended period of time without other modifications in place that would explain the blown engine. if there was no gauge on it and the prior guy was using a boost controller, he obviously didn't care enough or didn't know enough about using such a device. a boost controller, manual or electronic, can increase the amount of air your turbo is pushing into the engine. more air means more power, right? not always. you push more air than you have fuel to compensate for and you will surely cause engine damage.

there is no way the dealer did not know there was a problem with the car if the car acted the way it did on your test drive. $9000 probably seemed like a deal then but they probably thought "this car is screwed up, we don't know how to fix it without spending dealership money to fix it, and we can probably get rid of it fast for cheap and not totally lose our shirts on it." been in the car sales game long enough to say this is more than likely the case on the dealer ship end.

for the performance place to claim a manual boost controller is worse than an electronic boost controller is hilarious. there are two sides here, but a poorly made or tuned electronic controller can spike as easily as a poorly manual controller, and a well tuned electronic controller can function as well as a well designed manual controller. there is no "real boost and fuel controller" for this car for $650. to make it factory again he pulled the manual controller which is more or less a two minute job.

i would get a second opinion before going back to either one of these places.

 

[Prodigy]

I have a feeling the guy up'ed the boost before you went home.

 

[Bluelightening]

Thanks, there was no boost gauge. The guy said if there was a gauge then you would know how much psi is getting released and then we could of just turned it down. He said he bets that it was getting almost 20 psi w/ no extra fuel and that is why it threw a rod. Now I'm lookin for a 3 pod pillar and gauges. I can get the gauges on ebay $15.00 and I'm not sure were I can get a grey pillar from.

 

[Prodigy]

Geez...
thats twice as much as these cars can handle without forged internals...
and a good EMS

 

[16902]

Dude, that totally sucks. I hate it that everything sounds so shady about this.

On another note: I'm sure that the 3/MS3 guys wouldn't mind that this thread got moved...

 

[Captain KRM P5]

Thanks, there was no boost gauge. The guy said if there was a gauge then you would know how much psi is getting released and then we could of just turned it down. He said he bets that it was getting almost 20 psi w/ no extra fuel and that is why it threw a rod. Now I'm lookin for a 3 pod pillar and gauges. I can get the gauges on ebay $15.00 and I'm not sure were I can get a grey pillar from.

if you need anything or have any questions don't hesitate to contact me. i live on these forums you might say.

 

[exoticracr]

sounds like you got screwed.

 

[djarkitek]

so you take it in with no problems besides what sounds like fuel cut with the manual boost controller , and come out and blow the rod with the stock factory boost..which the engine should have been happy about? I mean was it even making these bent rod feelings after you bought it? It sounds too ridiculous.
oh yea, NEVER GO TO A TUNER SHOP AND TELL THEM YOU KNOW NOTHING. Those people are in the market of making money usually and only a few usually bother to tell you the easiest and cheapest way to fix anything or mod.
I dont know what to tell you but please go to a mazda dealship and get a second opinion form the stealership....i mean you should also do tonnns of research about turbo cars....then after you leanr the price of going forged..go forged....GL.

 

[BOOSTR]

something sounds a little (screwy) here.

 

[yashart_mp3]

oh yea, NEVER GO TO A TUNER SHOP AND TELL THEM YOU KNOW NOTHING. Those people are in the market of making money usually and only a few usually bother to tell you the easiest and cheapest way to fix anything or mod.

In all fairness, sometimes the easiest and cheapest way to solve the problem is not the best solution. My motto has always been "if your going to do it, do it right". I'd rather a trusted shop "do it right", rather than do a patch job to get me by.

I'd agree with you in most cases though. There are one too many shady shops out there, and very few that you can blindly trust. Theres a lot of shops who claim to "do it all", but don't know it all. Just my 2 cents

Anywho, sorry to hear about your car. I can understand how you would be furious. Who is doing the engine rebuild; the dealer or a performance shop? Once your car is back up and running, Im sure you will enjoy it. The mazdaspeed protege (MSP) is a fun car to drive. Be sure to keep us up to date to how everything turns out.

Oh yea, WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

 

[122 Vega]

Still, $11,525 for an MSP with a new motor is a good deal, but I hope you didn't waste your time rebuilding with stock internals...

Britt

 

[Matrix]

...I hope you didn't waste your time rebuilding with stock internals...

Ditto.

 

[Speed_Racer]

however should he feel like wasting his time, i do have 2 sets of about 40,000 mile P5 internals from engine builds. along with all the miscellaneous parts amassed from engine builds and rebuilds.

however the cheapest way, IF YOU PLAN ON LEAVING IT STOCK, is to get a junk yard engine for around 400-500 bucks, or an imported 1.8L FS-DE which will have lower miles.

 

[GhostMercury]

forge it..dont bother rebuilding it stock just forge it

 

[Speed_Racer]

that is the ideal, but not everyone has forge money or time. From what I've read, it sounds like he'd be perfectly happy with a strictly bolt on stock engine msp.

 

[daedalus]

Been there, done that my friend. I had the car i think a little less than 72 hours before mine blew up... except mine had 13,000 miles on it IIRC.

or an imported 1.8L FS-DE which will have lower miles.

Eh? Meesa thinks thats not gonna work out so well. (first)

 

[Riceman]

This is why you should buy from an old guy like me. I'm 34 and baby my MSP. It's completely stock and I may sell it soon.

 

[ItsSlow]

I had the same thing happen to me recently.. Stock boost= rod through block.. Hell its been broke since 2 weeks after thanksgiving and I still dont have it back.. Although, Im selling it once I get it back.. With all the parts I have for it for 13k (paid 14k for it, + what I bought the stock parts for)..

 

[orng1]

Wow man that sux, just catching up on the forums after a few busy days. I can't believe a shop would charge you $50 to remove your boost controler. It's one vac line and just need to pull it out and reatach minus the controler, can't imagine even one minute.