New Guy w/ P5

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MidBlueP5

Member
:
2002 Protege5
Hello,

First Mazda, a 2002 Mazda Protege5 with just over 152k miles on it, original engine and original manual trans as far as I know. Pretty much the ultimate "20 foot car", looks good from far away, but get close and you can see all of the dings and scratches. Runs great, fun to drive. Already detailed it vigorously inside, working on the outside. Minimal rust considering its been a rust belt car its whole life, got some POR15 and ATU touchup paint to clean it back up. Running synth-blend high mileage oil, changed trans fluid to Mobil1 synthetic (had ATF in it before I changed it???????). Got JBL GTO components on the way for the front doors, along with Stinger sound deadener. Anyhow, figured I'd say hello before I start rifling off questions when I need help, first time Mazda owner, stepping up from my rust bucket '87 S10 pickup. Will throw up some pics tomorrow after work.

Later,
Jaron
 
tweety2300 said:
Google dry ice dent removable, perfect for dings
Click to expand...

hm i may need to try that, i have one on my door it would work on most likely.

and o/p congrats, these are reliable cars from my experience with mine, just look at your intake tube and check for rips, its a known issue, and keep an eye on the ignition coils, but other than that just do the maintenance and enjoy.
 
Hey everybody, back again, finally with pics. Drove my P5 around 800 miles over the past 3 weeks, got 29 and 32 mpg on the fill ups, sounds good to me (5 speed). As promised, here are some pics:

As I said, looks good in pics, too many dings/scratches in person.

Freshly polished/waxed. Still too many scratches and such.
Anyway, happy with it so far, looking to up the audio department a bit, like I said above, I have some JBL GTO8608C components, still waiting on some stock tweeter sail panels to show up from ebay, so they're not in yet, just wondering what I should do for an amplifier? Could I get some coaxials to put in the rear doors and then use a 2 channel amp for the two front speakers? Or then will I not hear the rear speakers? Thinking I'll probably wire it with a distribution block so I can add some type of sub later, nothing huge, just to fill in the low end. So I guess for now the question is: 2-channel, 4-channel, or 5-channel maybe? Hoping to not break the bank, planning to install myself. Anyhow, thanks for any input, JG
 
I used Turtle Wax Black wax (doesn't highlight the scratches and pits like a white/paste wax will).

For proper sound stage - you don't need (want?) tweeters in the back. Just get 1" tweeters for sail panels (they will fit fine with minor mods).

You could use a 4 channel amp for the doors and add a mono amp later for the sub(s). Run the RCAs and power wires sufficient for both. I put an amp under each seat ;)
 
So looking more into the amp/speaker situation, looks like I need to run basically 2 RCAs to a 4 channel amp, is that correct? Currently the PO has an OLD Pioneer HU in there with only one set of RCA outputs, sounds like I'm out of luck there? Like I said, I don't really want to throw too much money into this system. So if I'm short an RCA input, what would the consequences be if I just amped the components in front, and ran rear speakers through the aftermarket HU (rated at 22W RMS)? Don't mean to sound like a broke noob haha, just not too experienced with amplifying speakers, this is my first install of components, just replaced speakers/HUs and hooked up subs in the past with friends. Sounds like I might need to start with a good head unit then work on the amp/speakers from there? Thanks again for the advice.
 
Is it from down south? If you don't have rust now, you better get to undercoating ASAP before you invest any time or money into anything else. At least before next winter. Everything else you do will be flushing money down the toilet if you don't do rust prevention first.

You need to cover the insides of the front fenders (take them off), the bottoms of the doors and hatch, the back sides of the rockers, the entire inside of the wheel wells, and essentially the whole rear end of the car. And use a quality undercoat like Chassis Saver or POR-15 not the aerosol garbage from the parts store.

These cars are designed to rust. You can't imagine how much rust appears over one salty winter. Hell, I can't believe how much rust appears over the summer.
 
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Broke newB can keep using the head unit! Scour Craig's List for the amp/subs/box for cheap.... ;)

I say use a 4 channel amp for the doors which has an RCA output for the subs (most do nowadays...) or you could just use a "Y" adapter for the RCAs to split the signal from the doors and the subs....

By using the head unit amp for the rear doors - you will never really ever hear them. The head unit amp is really less than 15W RMS continuous...
 
OP, I bought a headunit at best buy that was on display. I was super excited, until i got home and realized my amp only had one INPUT. So, i ended up buying an RCA splitter. One for each jack on the amp i was using for my door speakers. So far (almost a year) the sound is great, very clear and works perfectly (considering the situation). That's a cheap option. under $10.
 
Dont use a y splitter if you have a sub amp and a mid amp going to one set of rca jacks on the head unit. one amp will control more and either ruin the deck or ruin your cables
 
Maroon- Definitely not a southern car, there some rust, and a questionable bondo-job on one of the rear fenders (just going to wait and see how it lasts for now). But already have the POR15 sitting there waiting for me to get a chance to work on it. Does anyone know how tough it is to pull off the side skirts to coat the rocker panels? Other than the bondo'd rear fender, looks like under the doors need POR15 the most.

Everyone else- What I'll probably do for now is hit up Pawn America on the way to work tomorrow, see if they've got any halfway decent 4-channel amps cheap and rock the splitters (I'm such a cheapass hahahaha). Then next will be a head unit (one from this decade) or rear speakers (depending how long the stockers last with some decent power to them), then a sub when everything else is situated. First things first, I get to pick up my new sail panels from ebay (OEM tweeters, which my car did not come with, replacing with the tweeters from my components) from the post office tomorrow, then swapping in the JBL tweeters onto the panels. By the way, where does everyone have their crossovers mounted, I'm thinking mine might end up under the seat/dash, unless there's an easier spot?

I don't know if I mentioned this, but this car (for now) is more of my winter/backup vehicle. But because I go to school 4ish hours from "home", I want a setup that will sound good on the drives home and such. Similarly my P5 is 4 hours away from me for now, so sorry about any stupid questions, I'm trying to gather info for when I tear into this project, hopefully in the next couple weeks. If anybody has a detailed P5 audio build, I'd love to read it, but for now thanks for the help/input from all, I'll be hitting up Pawn America in the morning and I'll go from there.
 
agr99 said:
Dont use a y splitter if you have a sub amp and a mid amp going to one set of rca jacks on the head unit. one amp will control more and either ruin the deck or ruin your cables
Click to expand...

Huh? I have never heard of that. Can you provide some more detail/info source?
 
MidBlueP5 said:
By the way, where does everyone have their crossovers mounted, I'm thinking mine might end up under the seat/dash, unless there's an easier spot?
Click to expand...

If they are weatherproof/sealed they work well in the door.
I wrapped and RTV'd mine with no issue.
 
Congrats on the purchase!

I recently got a P5 too and am loving it! Who cares about a few scratches, looks good in the pictures! :)
 
A y splitter cuts the rca signal into two circuits and than the signal voltage is split also .each component is now getting a lower signal.giving feedback throughout the system.i had bought some y splitters from radioshack and i had a deck from bestbuy with one set of rca ports.and idk how but it ruined two of my headunits before I went to a shop and the guy said its the splitter.i cant say this will happen to anyone else but I do know that a radio shack y splitter is crap and a crossover with a built in linedriver is better than a y splitter, it wont give feedback as much
 
Well I'm back, with good news and bad, good news is my tweeter panels came from ebay, just gotta work on popping out the stockers and mounting my new ones in. Bad news is Pawn America failed me and only had 1 or 2 channel amps, other than a couple of huge 4 and 5 channels that were way too big and way more than I'd need. Walmart only had 1/2 channels as well, Best Buy was crazy overpriced. I'll probably hit up the local audio shop when I get back to Wisconsin on Wednesday or Thursday. Really don't think I'll need to spend too much on an amp, considering my components are 2 ohm, 75W RMS. With the crossover, it looked to me like it might fit above and rearward of the stock speaker location, thinking that might work, just have to figure the wiring/where to run it so it won't interfere with the windows and such. In other news, picked up a clay bar kit, might be able to give that a shot this week too.

 
So I've done some additional reading, and my headunit has ZERO controls regarding the preouts. So I'm thinking I might go ahead and get a new one now (before I get an amp). Probably will (extremely carefully) run the components off of the HU for now, until I can get an amp and have time to wire it. I'm thinking about getting a JVC KD-AR755. 6 preouts, 4.8V. Ipod usb control, aux input, CD player, dimmer and varying colors. Is there a crucial feature that I'm overlooking that this receiver doesn't have/ I should be paying more attention to? As I've said in the past, I've never amped speakers before, only subs. Stereo has no bluetooth or HD radio, but I'm not too worried about those, but is there something else I should be looking for in a receiver? Don't want something too flashy to get stolen lol. Anyhow, any input on the receiver would be great, thanks.
 
Scored a nice Pioneer DEH-X7500HD for 100 bucks off of crutchfield, 70 bucks off supposedly, 6-channel, 4 volt preouts, Cea compliant, can't wait to toss it in next week and have a modern stereo haha the one in it now just had to go. Hopefully I'll be able to get the components in too, those tweeters above are stock aren't they? Haha, just not seeing any like them. Regardless shouldn't be too bad to install, along with the stinger sound deadening and some POR15ing. All that fun stuff next week, gotta love having a week off of work...maybe this is why I'm broke hahaha...
 
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