Sports Exhaust Question/Problem

I'm glad I found this site! I've had my P5 for 2 months and although I've read some good info in this forum about the P5 Sports Exhaust option, nobody else seems to have posted pictures of theirs. My problem is that I think my Sports Exhaust sticks out too far...it's 7" past the bumper. Does anyone else have this thing on their P5? It looks cool and all but it doesn't look like the picture in the P5 accessory catalog nor RacingBeat's website. Could my dealer have installed the wrong exhaust [from the MP3?] or just plain installed it wrong? I'm afraid someone might just trip over the tip (actually, that's already happen) but worse yet, it probably won't be long until some idiot park too close to me and ram into the exhaust.

Sly's Protege5 Pictures

Sly

[ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: Sly ]

Geeze... looking at those pictures, i'm PRETTY sure that they have given you the MP3 exhaust. The MP3s trunk is longer than our P5s and that's why your tip sticks out that much. I would complain about it and get it changed. Don't mean to be harsh but it's ugly. It's like those ricers that add a big exhaust tip to their exhaust and it sticks out of the bumper.

yeah man i think theres something wrong there i mean that thing sticks out really far.........i think maybe i might go back and have them check itout cause i dont know about that

This is what Racing Beat says about the OEM muffler:

Per Mazda's request, only a rear muffler section was designed for the Protege MP3 project. The design of the muffler incorporated an OEM style flange to allow fitment with the stock connecting pipe. The muffler outlet was configured to allow the tip to be correctly positioned in the rear bumper of the MP3 bumper. This alteration will not allow the tip to position correctly if the MP3 muffler is installed on a non-MP3 Protege. (This muffler is not applicable to the Protege 5).
http://www.racingbeat.com/FRprotege.htm

Originally posted by Douggie:
<STRONG>Geeze... looking at those pictures, i'm PRETTY sure that they have given you the MP3 exhaust. The MP3s trunk is longer than our P5s and that's why your tip sticks out that much. I would complain about it and get it changed. Don't mean to be harsh but it's ugly. It's like those ricers that add a big exhaust tip to their exhaust and it sticks out of the bumper.</STRONG>

Click to expand...

You are right. Thats exactly what happened with his car. Did you get it installed at the dealership? They gave you the wrong part. The protege5 part# is different from the sedan. Go back and change it. How does it sound though? Is it deep or can you barely hear the difference? Any gains?

You might be able to take it to a sho and get the extending pipe behind the tip cut and welded, or is there more inside the pipe?and how much for the leather?

yeah i like the leather deal i didnt have that option with my ride

The leather looks NICE!!!! Cheers to that.

Although, I'd work on getting the "Gallo" dealer sticker removed. The nerve! I'm so glad my car didn't come with any of those stickers on it, or they wouldn't have heard the end of it!

Um...the leather looks real good. Was that an option or did u do that move on your own? I think u got the stiff end deal on that muffler. Why Mazda would make such an queer mistake is beyond me. The only problem is it sticks out to far. For a minute i thought u had a factory exhaust. Why not throw a CAI and then see what it feels like. Then again just swap the muffler out and get a real one or a cat-back. U should have really caught that mistake before u left the dealer though.

That leather looks great! How much and where was it done?

Also, how does the exhaust sound?

Thanks for all the replies! After reading all what you guys said, I took the car back to the dealer yesterday (yes, everything I got was installed through the dealer) and asked them if they put the MP3 exhaust on. Not suprisingly, they claimed ignorance. Since they still haven't installed my Lojack, mask, and the perimeter alarm isn't working, I'm dropping the car off tomorrow so they can address all the issues. Hopefully, they get everything fixed.

How does the Sports Exhaust sound? I asked a friend who's more into cars and mods and his reponse is: "your exhaust is more about the look than the sound...it has a mellow hum to it". I can certainly hear a deep rumble when I step on the gas. While not deafening, it does get people's attention. While driving, I can hear the hum from the rear...helps drown out all the wind noise!

As for the leather, it was $1500 and the dealer sent my car out to a local shop for the work. I could've had the perforated sections in a different color (dealer had a yellow P5 on display...it looked really hot with the yellow/black seats! very sporty) but I choose all-black for mine. It's pretty supple leather...not cheap hard stuff. Even nicer, as I just noticed while in the dealer yesterday, was that they put leather on the side panels of all the doors! I thought what I had was standard until I saw that the stock P5 had this velvety material.

Oh yeah, that GALLO sticker is history!

Sly

that leather is hot. i dropped a hint with my parents that a leather reupholster in my p5 would make a great graduation present (graduate SSU in may) i definitely want to get the neoprene on arm dealies changed out. only problem is friends have said that leather will rub color in different weather and i dont want to dick up the sleeves of my nice shirts. but ho-dang, leather in the p5 should be standard imho. it looks supa-nice. what looks bad is that exhaust, good luck on getting that replaced and let us know if the sport exhaust is a worthwile accesory. if its just about looks save it for the umpteen jillion hondas out there and get yourself a real catback system. of course if you were worried about performance and not looks you prolly wouldnt have gotten the auto-tranny. when i test drove the auto first and was underimpressed, the thing barely moved, but the manny had zoom.
its not just the mp3 that is longer btw, all protege sedans are longer, by about 4"-5" iirc.

OK, so I took my car back to the dealer and confronted the Sport Exhaust issue. They finally confessed that what I have isn't right. Then they went on to say that the P5 Sports Exhaust is not available yet. So...WTF? I'm sure they're lying! Mazdastuff.com has it for sale. They said they were going to try to get it for me and to check back in a week. We'll see.

And a tidbit about the (real) P5 Sports Exhaust option for those interested. Since nobody on this forum seems to have the Sports Exahust option, I contacted Racing Beat and sent them pictures of my car. I asked if this is what it's supposed to look like. They said what I have is definitely the MP3 since Racing Beat doesn't make the Sports Exhaust that Mazda is offering for P5; it's from some other supplier. They're gonna come out with cat-back as stated on their website but that's completely different.