Hello, new louisiana msp owner. 2003 black mica msp

jleblanc26

Member
:
2003 Mazdaspeed protege
2003msp.png2003msp2.png


its my first turbo car and loving it. i'm getting all of the usual msp problems Right now the biggest issue is the suspension is toast, lots of banging and squeaking. i'm here to soak up some knowledge of these little gremlins of a car,lol. is it me or did the aftermarket industry give up on the msp? alot of sites are not around anymore and the rest have very little.
 
Welcome... We're last of a dying breed. Prepare to be frustrated or spend lots of money... Or spend lots of money and still be frustrated... Either way, welcome!
 
This is not a show a car in any way, lol. I'm extremely happy with the car. Boost will stay stock. Only money I plan on spending is replacing suspension pieces.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I might start a thread on websites and/or companies that are still producing parts. I follow a lot of links to outdated/shutdown websites.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Try Cross Over Auto.com, Street Unit .com and corksport.com. (no spaces in the URLs)Facebook groups have a lot of parts and are a little more active than this site, but the information is frequently incorrect and the members have varying levels of taste and education. For the suspension, start with new swaybar bushings and endlinks, you can move on to strut mounts if they are bad but the swaybar bushings should take care of most of the noise.
 
Yeah. I have been scouring those sights, lol. I think the struts are definitely gone. It sits pretty low and I'm not sure if it's from aftermarket equipment or that the struts are bad and most of the weight is on the springs. The struts are blue and the springs are red, from what I gather that's oem equipment. I'm going with some HPs and sport line springs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Can you find Tokico HPs? When I looked last year I was unable to locate any from any websites, had to find a BNIB set on ebay.
 
Try going to ***************. Several different to tokico options.

Sent from my iPhone using
 
Last edited:
welcome! that's a clean looking msp you got there. i know you mentioned only fixing up the suspension, but if you upgraded the stock side mount intercooler, the car will run a lot better too. the stock unit heat soaks fairly quickly and it takes the fun out of the car.
 
Thanks. Yeah, That is also on my list. Definitely wanna do some "upgrade" mods. It's a daily driver. I was hoping to find some decent used parts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That's weird they are in stock again, I had trouble finding new struts last year. Keep in mind the replacement struts will drop the back of the car .75" and it will sag unless you drop the front to match. The spring perch on the original struts are 3/4" higher, otherwise the struts are the exact same as stock.
 
Welcome and nice MSP! I'm fairly new here as well (bought my MSP in November). You can find a lot of parts on facebook. "The msp owners lounge" and also "mazdaspeed protege enthusiasts" are both active groups. I bought an aftermarket smic and hard pipes on there for $250.

Sent from my XT1058 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks! I will look on there. Finding decent parts is becoming a full time job, lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Latest posts

Back