Taco Cat's 2002.5 Pro5 build

Taco Cat

Member
:
'02.5 Mazda Protege5
Hey all, been lurking on the P5 section of Mazdas247 for over a year now. My girlfriend picked up an 05 Kia Spectra5 back in 2013 and I really liked it, but it was a Kia...(no) so after looking at some budget wagons I found out that the Spectra5 is basically Kia's copy of the Protege5. So I spent over a year trying to find the right one that met my criteria: 5 speed, 02.5+ (I really wanted sidemarkers lol), under 150k miles and kept unmodded as possible. On May 21, 2015 I picked up my new ride. An 02.5 5 speed with 122,000 miles with only mods being Alpine head unit and wired for subs. Has some small issues, but I got it for $3000 so I'm a happy camper. I had to drive to Knightdale, NC to pick it up (a 3 hour trip each way), but it was def worth it. Never had a hiccup on the way home either. Also allowed me to get a feel for how road tripping with it would be. I'm in college currently and in the process of moving out, so I will not be able to drop tons on the P5 right away, but I should still be able to do some modding fairly often :) On to the pictures!

When I picked it up:
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A couple of the issues: a medium sized rust bubble on the hood, a golf ball size dent in the rear bumper that broke two mounting tabs under the hatch resulting in a saggy bumper, a super worn out/sticky steering wheel (sun damage?), loose alternator belt, dirty as mess engine bay (looks like I need to replace the valve cover gasket), faded paint on the hatch spoiler, super hazy headlights, peeling paint on the wheels, keyless entry remote doesn't work, and the dome light doesn't come on unless key is in ignition? Pretty easy stuff really, once I can find some wiring diagrams. I am a Honda PACT graduate so I will be doing almost everything myself, unless I do not/cannot find the tools required, e.g. a welder.

Plans to start with: Maintenance. Everything basically. I have ordered new plugs, wires, coils, air filter, belts, VC gasket, PCV valve, oil+filter change, coolant flush, brake flush, clutch fluid flush, tranny fluid flush, and any other small maintenance things I can find. I used to have a 94 Accord and my current DD is a 2000 Accord so I know what durability is like and plan to keep on top of the P5 to ensure it lives a long life :) Since it was from NC it never had a front plate so win for no bumper holes, but VA requires a plate so it currently is zip tied to the bumper grille. I will be fabricating some brackets to hold it better on the grille.

Sorry for the hella long wordy post :p Thank you for those who read it all! Any mod recommendations and/or critique is welcomed as well.

Rust bubble:
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Rear bumper dent:
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Steering wheel:
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Spoiler:
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Wheel:
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you should be pretty happy with it. parts are cheap, dont break often and are easy to replace. any cosmetic stuff im sure your smart enough to learn to paint yourself so you could prob do all the restoration yourself fairly easily and on the cheap. hope you are happy together for many years to come!
p5 is pretty awesome for road tripping, not gonna lie. seats and driving position pretty comfortable ect. even with lowering springs its pretty comfortable.
 
I was really looking for a silver one due to my love for Circuit's car, but after washing mine I really appreciate the black more as I think it has the potential to really pop over the silver. I plan to do a full on detailing of the car to try and make the black shine as much as possible, but black cars are a pain to keep looking nice. Especially without a garage.

Update: Started getting my packages of things today. First up was the 3m headlight restoration kit. It was only $10 shipped from Amazon and worked great. I also bought the 3m Polish and Protector since the kit didn't come with any sealant for afterwards. I put on 2-3 layers of blue painters tape surrounding the headlight area. It might be overkill, but with some past cars the sanding discs have cut through the tape and scratched up the paint so I wanted to take extra precautions. The headlights were pretty bad, but mostly just yellowing and hazy. Spent about an hour to an hour and a half for both lights.

Here's the passenger side done vs. the driver side untouched:
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Passenger side up close, not terrible, but I hate having non-glass looking headlights :p
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Passenger done up close:
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I'm scheduled to have more parts come in tomorrow so I should have another update soon. Thanks for looking!
 
A couple updates...Still waiting on some maintenance things so I can do a full "tune-up" at once, but I did some smaller mods in the mean time. I didn't like the stock fishing pole antenna, especially since mine was all cracked at the base, so I bought the Sickspeed 3" stubby. It's the black/carbon fiber one. I like it way more, it was very easy to install and the reception was not negatively impacted.

The old cracked antenna:
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A comparison of stock vs. stubby:
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And the final look:
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I also decided to fab up some brackets to mount my license plate to the lower bumper grille. I have to get the P5 inspected and zip ties do not cut it unfortunately. I also didn't want to drill holes in the bumper since it looks much cleaner. I had some spare aluminum lying around and used some stainless steel hardware to mount it. I had to bend the bottom of the plate up, though, so it would not scratch the bumper under the grille.

The "brackets". I really could have just used oversized washers, but this was easy enough and only cost a couple $$.
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Finished product installed. Even though I wish I could run without a front plate, I like it a lot and think it still maintains a cleaner looking front end.
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I'm going to the junkyard later and hopefully picking up a couple things. Feedback is always appreciated, thanks for looking! (thumb)
 
Well the past 4 months have been pretty busy. I know a lot would like to see wheels, drop, and all that good stuff, but sadly I haven't been able to splurge for all that yet. I do have some other updates, however.

First, in June I did a majority of the regular maintenance. I replaced: spark plugs & wires (NGK), coil packs (Hitachi), air filter (Fram), the 3 accessory belts (Gates), PCV valve (Fram). I have a new timing belt and valve cover gasket set too, just been holding off due to laziness haha. My gas mileage improved a lot, from 25 to 31 avg. Very happy with that. Also feels like some lost ponies were returned. (2thumbs)

New parts:

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Old plugs looked ready to go for sure:

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I went to the junkyard and I grabbed a tribute intermittent wiper stalk. Installed that and have been loving it.
Then I bought a shift knob from jimmy o. This one is actually lighter than my original knob, however, I like the look and feel of it much more so it's staying until I decide to buy a weighted one.

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I also bought some MSP pedals for hella cheap and installed those. They're pretty worn out, but for $25 they'll do just fine for now. What a huge pain in the ass that was. Took me almost 2 hours for all 3 haha never want to do that again!

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Then I got tired of having to use my iPod for music, so I sold the Alpine unit and bought a Pioneer FHX-720BT. This is probably the best bang for buck double din right now. Only $110 shipped through Amazon prime and it's awesome. The features are much better than the Alpine, especially since I have bluetooth now, which I use everyday. However, the radio now sits crooked since it has no support behind it, so I'm trying to come up with something to hold it in properly.

Day shot:
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Night shot, turquoise with purple keys:
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I also finally decided to use the yellow fog light tint I had bought the first week of owning the car haha my girlfriend did all the cutting since she has way more artistic ability than me. For only $4 shipped it worked well enough. Definitely not top tier tint, but good enough (shrug) I also installed some Sylvania Silverstar's after my driver's bulb burned out. They are awesome bulbs, very bright without blinding anyone and decently priced.

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In September I had a thermostat failure and started to overheat on the highway. I waited til it cooled down and drove it the 2 miles from home, without it overheating anymore. I discovered my coolant reservoir was cracked and coolant had spewed everywhere, so got a new (used) one from the junkyard for $9, win! I bought a cheap Stant Xactstat from Advanced (Part No. 48478) and used some Prestone coolant I had. I flushed the system with distilled water and the Prestone radiator flush. My temps have been steady ever since and it feels a lot cooler in the bay now (thumb).

Then in October I was having a weird vibration while driving. So put it on a lift and found out I had belt showing on both front tires and my front driverside caliper was seizing. I bought some used Kumho Ecsta for $40 ea just to get me through the winter and bought a remanned caliper (NuGeon 22-07802L) along with some centric posi-quiet pads (Centric 105.0637). My rotors were brand new when I bought the car so those obviously stayed. Now the brakes are smooth like butter. The posi-quiet's are pretty good. They're super quiet, as expected, but they dust is worse than before and the bite isn't superb. They're cheap DD pads though so I wasn't expecting much anyways. Eventually I will do a full brake upgrade, but for now this will work. My MPG's also went back to being 31 avg. so very happy with that. You can kind of see the damage the seizing was doing to the rotor:

<a href="http://imgur.com/Hu7AAG6"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Hu7AAG6.jpg?1" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

The new caliper, wish I had painted it though, it's already starting to get some surface rust (notcool)

<a href="http://imgur.com/Hb3MEt7"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Hb3MEt7.jpg?2" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

Old pads :O you can see the inside one wasn't too bad, but the outside one was definitely low.

<a href="http://imgur.com/lMwPcWx"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lMwPcWx.jpg?1" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

And that's pretty much caught up to present. I have a few more mods planned for winter, but not a ton. I'm trying to sell my Accord since I haven't driven it in over a month. That money will help fund some larger things (thumb) Thanks for reading!
 
Last weekend my girlfriend and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary by taking a trip up to Shenandoah National Park. It was super gorgeous, especially this time of year. Skyline drive was also a blast to drive, even though the speed limit is only 35 (notcool), but you can go faster when no one is around (sssh). The P5 handled great, but now I really want some coils and other upgraded suspension parts. My new brakes also got put to good use and held up great! Took the opportunity to take some pics with the scenery. I used my phone so quality isn't superb, but hope you enjoy anyways!

<a href="http://imgur.com/zdnabeU"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/zdnabeU.jpg?1" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

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Well I have some more updates. Keep in mind these are still all budget friendly mods.

First, I bought a set of roof rack delete caps at a price I couldn't refuse. They came in great shape so I threw those right on. I love the sleek look tons better than before with the rack. Also no more annoying wind noise (thumb).

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Then I decided to try the Tribute nozzles to see if they really were better. I believe they do have a much better spray pattern over the stock ones so I'm happy with them. Also took maybe 2 minutes to install so super easy mod.

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I bought some black plastidip and decided to spray all 3 wiper arms since mine were starting to show bare metal. They came out super well in my opinion. I still want to upgrade to the Mazda6 rear wiper, but for now just being a solid black helps.

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I then decided to start on my interior black out. I plastidipped the silver center console trim and bought some OEM CDM carbon style window switch trims to replace the loud silver stock ones. I thought I had to remove the door panel to remove the trims (that how it was on my Accord) so I pulled the driver side off and was surprised to find I had Rockford Fosgate speakers. I had always thought my speakers were pretty good for stock, but now I realize it's cause they're not stock haha I then also realized I could just pop the trims off with a small flat head, so the passenger side took all of 30 seconds to replace.

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I also want to start cleaning up the engine bay some, so I used some flat black rustoleum to spray the stock radiator brackets as those were starting to get rusty. I also had some Dupli-color torque n' teal that I bought to spray some of my girlfriend's stuff with, but I really liked the color and decided to try it on the P5. I just sprayed the battery tie down for now and used a couple coats of gloss clear. Turned out decent and definitely adds some pop to the bay.

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That's it for now, but I plan to keep working on cleaning up the bay and blacking out the interior as well as a couple smaller things. Thanks for reading!
 
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Thanks for reading!

HEY MAN! Where in VA are you located? I'm in harrisonburg, right out by Shenandoah where you all went for a drive recently. If you're nearby it would be great to meet ya sometime. My buddy also has a white one in town, we bought them 2 weeks apart haha. My thread is the one that says "support car". Looking forward to talking with you man
 
HEY MAN! Where in VA are you located? I'm in harrisonburg, right out by Shenandoah where you all went for a drive recently. If you're nearby it would be great to meet ya sometime. My buddy also has a white one in town, we bought them 2 weeks apart haha. My thread is the one that says "support car". Looking forward to talking with you man

Hey man! I actually live down in VA Beach, so it's a good 3-4 hour drive up there, but I definitely want to make a trip back up sometime. I have a bunch of friends that go to JMU so I'm sure I'll be up there sometime soon again. We'll meet up for sure dude, would be awesome to take a look at each other's rides! Sorry it took so long to reply by the way, wish we got notifications when people replied to our threads
 
Well I had let my oil go a little long...7k miles, with cheap crappy oil and filter from Big Al's. I had always thought about switching to full synthetic, but never really looked into it. Well my local Walmart was having a sale on their Castrol Edge, $20 for 5 quarts, so I decided it was time to switch. My valve cover gasket was old and leaking so I finally used the Felpro replacement I bought way back when I first got the car, I didn't want the new synthetic oil to be wasted by leaking out. It was super easy to replace and I just followed the guide I found on here. I did some research on oil filters and decided to go with a Napa Gold (Wix) filter. It was one of the highest rated and only $8. Some pics:

Looks pretty good to me.





Timing belt also looks good, I have a new one, but haven't felt like changing it. Previous owner didn't tell me when it was last changed, but looks fine for now.



Supplied used.



Old crap filter vs new good one





Oil that came out. Looks like soy sauce




Castrol states this oil can last 15k miles before changing, but I'm probably going to do 7.5k twice to make sure all the old oil gets removed and there are no hidden leaks exposed from the better oil. Not exciting stuff, but I'd like to also keep everything a record for myself. Thanks for reading!
 
I wish I could break 30mpg. Highest I've gotten is a 28 average.

For future reference, the Wix #51356 is a larger filter that is better suited for extended OCIs.

I wasn't super happy with synthetic oil when I tried it. It liked to leak past the valve stem seals and create smoke on startup. YMMV though.

Timing belts can't be evaluated just by looking at them. I've seen good looking belts break and cracked belts that still worked fine.
 
I wish I could break 30mpg. Highest I've gotten is a 28 average.

For future reference, the Wix #51356 is a larger filter that is better suited for extended OCIs.

I wasn't super happy with synthetic oil when I tried it. It liked to leak past the valve stem seals and create smoke on startup. YMMV though.

Timing belts can't be evaluated just by looking at them. I've seen good looking belts break and cracked belts that still worked fine.

Yeah I've been really happy with my MPG's, I tend to stay between 60-65 though, unless I'm late for work. I'm sure with a heavier foot it'd be around 28-30. Not sure if that's why yours is lower? Maybe it's the swap too? For now I enjoy the money saving.

Thanks for the tip about the larger filter, I'll switch to that for sure since it's the same price.

And thanks for the heads up about the stem seals. I'm definitely keeping an eye out for any leaks/smoke. I hope I don't get any, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to switch back to standard oil. Just felt like trying something new :p

I'm still going to replace the timing belt "soon", I just felt like it would be fine for a couple months until spring hits. Hopefully the new valve cover gasket doesn't let any oil get to the belt.
 
Now that the cold is mostly "over", I'll be getting back into things. Over the past 3 months I didn't due much at all. I've been saving my funds for my move, hopefully in April, so the couple of mods I did were budget as usual.
First, I wanted to help protect the sides of my car better during our snowy weather from all the salt so I purchased some basic universal Rally Armor mudflaps. I found them on eBay for $24 shipped which was the best price I could find when purchasing the flaps alone. Install was kind of a pain as I didn't use a template, so I measured 10 times to find a suitable fit. I purchased some black screws from Lowe's to keep them in place without being super noticeable. I'm not 100% happy with how I installed them, however. I have way too much of the flap showing on the sides so I will trim the inside portion and bring them in a couple inches. I believe I left them with 3 inches sticking past the fenders, so I will bring that down to 1 inch, if not more.

Second, my tires were toast. Road noise increased substantially and the tread was awfully low, making it pretty dangerous for me out in the wet. I didn't want to buy new tires for the stock wheels though. They were in really rough shape and I knew eventually I wanted new wheels, so I decided I would look for new wheels and if I found some for a good price I'd take the plunge and buy them. Luckily, I found some not too far from me for a great price. They're Drag DR9's, that have been plastidipped gunmetal. They had trashed tires on them, but I expected as much for the price I paid. They're 17x7 with a 40 offset and white underneath. I work for a VW dealership so I am able to take used tires for free. Last week a customer used his "diesel-gate apology" money to buy new tires, even though his were perfectly fine, so I snagged them up. Stock VW 17s use 225/45 tires though. so they're pretty big on the P5. But at stock height I'm able to run them with very slight rubbing on sharp corners or big dips. Once I lower the car I will need to get new tires, but since that will be months away, these will do just fine.

Here you can see how much the mudflaps stick out past the fender...and also my falling off bumper (sad2)

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I purchased some red Gorilla lug nuts and some red valve stem caps. The wheels came without center caps as well, which I didn't mind since the original Drag center caps are ugly IMO. I went to the junkyard to find some that would fit. I found that 1st gen Acura TL center caps fit dang near perfect! I put on 5 coats of black plastidip to use as primer and then 2 coats of dupli-color red. I think they came out pretty well. The P.O did a poor job of applying the plastidip, so the wheels look crappy right now. Especially since during the tire install, most of the dip around the edge of the wheels came off. I will be taking the dip off in the near future, revealing the white that I really want.

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I found out that the new wheels don't leave enough thread on my broken wheel stud for the gorilla lugs, so I'm rolling with 4 lugs on the 1 wheel until I can replace the stud :(

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And a full side shot of the new setup. I can't wait to get rid of the dip!

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Thanks for reading :)
 
Looks good, I'd like to see how the wheels look in white. but I'm not feeling the red caps.

Thank you! I'm not looking forward to the amount of time it will take to get the dip completely off, but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end. Just gotta push myself to do it. And yeah, I'm not 100% set on the red caps myself, but I'll wait til I get the dip off to see how I want to go about changing them.

Loving the CF door switch trim. Where did you get those?

Thanks! I bought them from someone on a Protege Facebook group. If you have a Facebook, join Mazda Protege Parts (MPP) as well as Protege Parts for Sale. I'm fairly certain these were the OEM CDM door switch trims, so it shouldn't be too hard to find someone selling some. They should go for about $10-$20 shipped for the pair!
 
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Plastidip is hard to get off wheels. I plastidipped one of my RHs a couple of months ago to test a different color. Didnt like it... Took me forever to get it off. Even after applying like 4 thick coats. The trick is gasoline. The dip just wipes off. And the gas didnt even hurt my spray-bombed wheels.
 
Plastidip is hard to get off wheels. I plastidipped one of my RHs a couple of months ago to test a different color. Didnt like it... Took me forever to get it off. Even after applying like 4 thick coats. The trick is gasoline. The dip just wipes off. And the gas didnt even hurt my spray-bombed wheels.

Awesome tip, I'll give that a try. Did you pour the gas over the wheels and let it soak, or did you have a rag or something soaked in the gas?
 
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