Protege5 - Show us your rust!

holy ****. thats alot of rust. i dont have any rust what so ever. well except for some of the screws that hold on my underguard under the engine and little bit on exhaust welds. just seeing this makes me want to go by that black stuff that you coat the under of your car with and do it alllllll!! lol
 
holy ****. thats alot of rust. i dont have any rust what so ever. well except for some of the screws that hold on my underguard under the engine and little bit on exhaust welds. just seeing this makes me want to go by that black stuff that you coat the under of your car with and do it alllllll!! lol

you have to take into account the region your in and the region he is in.. Crap rust like crazy up north and even here in florida due to the salty air I assume.
 
Mine is close but if looking at that pic its right in front and below of the engine mount next to the timing belt cover. i will try to take some pics of the engine bay and post them soon.

Yeah, there is a thread somewhere around here where a guy detailed his rust repair to this exact spot. I had the same thing two - if you look inside your wheel well, the problem is that they join a few body panels right at this point, and they didn't seal them up well, which causes water and debris to be trapped in this spot, speeding up the rust.

I was able to re-weld this joint, and spray rubberized undercoating over the spot to fix it from the outside. I haven't done anything yet with the inside.
 
you have to take into account the region your in and the region he is in.. Crap rust like crazy up north and even here in florida due to the salty air I assume.

+1. That's actually a pretty standard amount of rust for a northern car - mine looks exactly like it. Now when your feet start to go through the floorboard, that's when you know you've got a rust problem (idhitit)
 
Unfortunately, Protege5's in the Northern states have been known to develop a wee bit of cancer. Well... Let's see how yours has held up. Mine is pretty bad, but I want to get an idea if mine is a freak or if there are others as bad.

Sept 7, 2008

2837667049_e16beff660_b.jpg


Jan 18, 2009

3209624576_7252f307a8_b.jpg


Jan 23, 2009

3220870890_ce7f2cb9a2_b.jpg


July 12, 2010

4788254218_377e14eb19_b.jpg
 
I agree Mark, but sometimes it's necessary to find out how bad some people have got it.
 
you just want to make me cry, i know it! i have hated rust since ny first new car rusted out in 14 months...the drivers side rear quarter (poked my finger right threw a bubble in the paint) and around the rear hatch glass...i fixed the rust myself every yr till i finally got rid of the beast after 7 yrs, 3 bad motors and chasing rust holes
 
Last edited:
I rattle can repaired my rear wheel wells twice now in the last 3 years. It hasn't stopped it but it slowed it down a lot. The problem seems to come from where the two pieces of sheet metal are sandwiched together on the wheel well lip. I imagine it is very rusted in there and will eventually eat through.
 
I'm starting to get some rust bubbles around my rear wheel wells, but other than the spot inside my right front fender well that I fixed, that's it. I just gotta make sure to fix it before winter...
 
do any of you have the huge spot of rust in the engine bay right below the left side engine mount? I have seen it on alot of proteges of the same generation and it doesnt matter the year.

I'm thinking this is usually just the fact that you have a few quarts of sulfuric acid hovering above there in the battery, and over time some of it finds the paint in the area.
 
I'm thinking this is usually just the fact that you have a few quarts of sulfuric acid hovering above there in the battery, and over time some of it finds the paint in the area.

I think he means the left side looking from the front (aka, the passenger side). The problem, as I mentioned above, is the there are two panels that join in the wheel wheel, and Mazda did a really bad job of joining and rustproofing them.

To your point, you'd have to leak a helluva lot of battery acid to rust through the metal, but yeah, I'm pretty sure he means the other side of the car. (thumb)
 
I'll post up my pics tonight. Right now it's only the PS rear quarter panel and down by the sideskirts as well as a nice spot on the PS strut tower just to the left of the motor mount.

I plan on using the por-15 as linked above....heard it's great stuff.
 
Back