Two technical performance issues on 2001 mazda protege mp3

Hey everyone, Im needing to fix my car before I head out back to college. Two issues; one engine, one suspension. If you guys can figure it out youre amazing.

Engine: burning oil on cold startup. I replaced valve guide seals along with spark plugs and valve cover gasket, the smoke was then not as bad but it still smokes on cold startups. somehow piston rings maybe?

Suspension: On higher speeds i get some scary oversteer turning right. The situation is when I turn right at highway speeds, it seems my left wheel "catches" and i swerve until i catch the vehicle. This also happens when hitting a bump turning slightly right. Could this be caused by a small amount of misalignment on front end? or is this with the sway bar and linkages since my vehicle is lowered slightly. (good note is I welded my sway bar link-to-strut mount piece back on since it broke off once before.)

I cant find the source of either of these issues and its really getting to me, Its kind of scary to drive my car at highway speeds.

Last note - when turning my wheel lock to lock, the P/S suspension "POPS" and seems to misalign the steering until i turn the wheel all the way to the opposite lock side.

On the oil burning, this also happens at high rpms. Revving engine or driving above 5k causes oil to burn and smell.

It could take many excruciating hours of search and replace time to figure out the suspension/alignment issue(s). Can you bring your car to a well-reviewed alignment shop? I think it would be worth it.

Secondly, it looks like your rings are worn to a point that blue smoke is evident while you are driving. If you need an engine rebuild, it may not be worth the expense unless you do it, yourself. How many miles are on your engine? My wife's coworker sold her 2000 Protg with 125,000 miles on it for $1600. It was not burning oil and was in very good shape. Keep that in mind when looking at repair costs for your car.

concept said:

It could take many excruciating hours of search and replace time to figure out the suspension/alignment issue(s). Can you bring your car to a well-reviewed alignment shop? I think it would be worth it.

Secondly, it looks like your rings are worn to a point that blue smoke is evident while you are driving. If you need an engine rebuild, it may not be worth the expense unless you do it, yourself. How many miles are on your engine? My wife's coworker sold her 2000 Protg with 125,000 miles on it for $1600. It was not burning oil and was in very good shape. Keep that in mind when looking at repair costs for your car.

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Thanks for the reply, Im just trying to get the vehicle safe with the limited amount of money i ave since Im in college right now. Im going to rebuild the engine eventually I was just hoping there was an easier fix than the piston rings. I have about 80k miles on the engine but it was a salvage engine.

You might want to do a compression check, but blue smoke at steady speed almost always points to worn rings.

I'm just telling you this because I just solved oil burning in my car with this stupid little thing. My car burned oil cold too, also whenever I accelerated hard I made a cloud that would made nimbuses proud.

I replaced my damn PCV... yup, just that. Car never smoked again. The damn thing just dumps oil in cylinders 2 and 3 when its bad. Costs only 4 dollars. I had almost replaced and rebuilt my engine head.... it was that. It embarrasses me to admit, lol

That's surprising at 80,000 miles. It could be that very dirty oil caused the PCV to stick in the closed position. That would prevent oily crankcase gasses from being evacuated, which in turn would pressurize the engine.
Thanks for letting us know how you solved the problem.