[DEFUNCT] The College-Budget P5
- Thread starter Riot_Polizei
- Start date
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Alright, period of normalcy over--back to having problems!
I haven't mentioned it, but my EVAP system is in the shitter. I let that damn charcoal canister drain out once, but looks like it's completely dead now. I can't fill up my car as usual, but to bypass this, I just gently pulled the fuel pump trigger so that it wouldn't shut off the pump. This was working fine until today; I absolutely cannot fill up my car at all, even at an empty tank. I have no codes getting thrown. Thinking about ripping out the entire evap system and putting in a new one. Having to plan how and where I drive around town in order to not use up gas it really putting me off.
It also looks like my car's now burning oil at a furious rate. I have not seen any smoke from the tailpipe at all. I don't want to put any official metric on how much I'm losing, but I'm going to be monitoring that dipstick.
There's a rhythmic squeaking coming from the driver-side engine bay whenever I'm turning left, usually under acceleration or high speed. Could be a CV axle I thrashed.
Third gear went from clicking under higher RPM shifting to slightly grinding.
Because I'm a giant idiot, I got a mixture of superglue and dirt stuck on my front bumper while trying to re-attach my fallen Mazda emblem. It looks horrible, and no amount of acetone or hot soapy water + adhesive remover could get it off.
Bushings are squeaking again and need re-greasing
With all these issues popping up, I'm sad to say that I may not get much done this summer. I have a lot to investigate, and am facing the consequences of time attacking my daily. Christ, I swear I'll never have this thing operating normally!
lol anyone looking to buy a spare P5? (bang)
I haven't mentioned it, but my EVAP system is in the shitter. I let that damn charcoal canister drain out once, but looks like it's completely dead now. I can't fill up my car as usual, but to bypass this, I just gently pulled the fuel pump trigger so that it wouldn't shut off the pump. This was working fine until today; I absolutely cannot fill up my car at all, even at an empty tank. I have no codes getting thrown. Thinking about ripping out the entire evap system and putting in a new one. Having to plan how and where I drive around town in order to not use up gas it really putting me off.
It also looks like my car's now burning oil at a furious rate. I have not seen any smoke from the tailpipe at all. I don't want to put any official metric on how much I'm losing, but I'm going to be monitoring that dipstick.
There's a rhythmic squeaking coming from the driver-side engine bay whenever I'm turning left, usually under acceleration or high speed. Could be a CV axle I thrashed.
Third gear went from clicking under higher RPM shifting to slightly grinding.
Because I'm a giant idiot, I got a mixture of superglue and dirt stuck on my front bumper while trying to re-attach my fallen Mazda emblem. It looks horrible, and no amount of acetone or hot soapy water + adhesive remover could get it off.
Bushings are squeaking again and need re-greasing
With all these issues popping up, I'm sad to say that I may not get much done this summer. I have a lot to investigate, and am facing the consequences of time attacking my daily. Christ, I swear I'll never have this thing operating normally!
lol anyone looking to buy a spare P5? (bang)
- :
- Mazda protege5
No not you too! You gotta keep the p5 man, your about a quarter of my daily protege content Haha
I have the same issue with my 3rd gear randomly. If you happen to not be able to find a valve cover let me know. Ill give it to you for junkyard prices. Ive managed to acquire 4 at this point lol
If you want a lightweight flywheel I suggest picking up installshields! Hes letting it go super cheap. Im grabbing the clutch from him although I have no clue when itll be installed.
If you want a lightweight flywheel I suggest picking up installshields! Hes letting it go super cheap. Im grabbing the clutch from him although I have no clue when itll be installed.
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Good News, Bad News
I'm sure I won't be selling it anytime soon! I was, and still am, a little frustrated with these problems that come up. Part and parcel of owning an old car, and sometimes I forget to have patience for that. I'll still get some stuff done this summer, so bear with me as I learn to be patient!
Thankfully, that Mazda Protege in the nearby pull and pay is largely untouched, thanks to no one ever owning them here! Someday, when it stops raining, I'll be able to retrieve it without wading through the mud. As much as I would like to put in a lightweight flywheel and sportier clutch, I got to put those off. I'm thinking that after I put in a lot of safety equipment, such as these alleged gauges and maybe even an oil cooler, I'd probably go back to clutch stuff. Heck, worse comes to worse and third gear and its synchro go out, I may try to find some G15MR with an LSD in it somewhere in the states. I'll beg some guys I know to help me with my lowly P5 :^) If it gets to that point, I'd definitely put in a lightweight flywheel and a sportier clutch.
Well, snooping around the car gave me some answers to my observations. The alleged toast CV axle was not the case at all. That's the good news.
Bad news is that the brake rotor may have worn unevenly. The car also seemingly pulls the left a little when I brake. The wheel doesn't shake much, though. I have the worst luck with brakes, guys!
Another problem is that my ignition switch may be on the verge of death. Check out this video:
It took me a lot of finagling and jostling of the switch to get my car to start today. Yet, coming back from work, it started up with no problems. The car hasn't died on me while driving, though, so it may not even be the ignition switch. So weird!
So, good news about 3rd gear is that when driving normally, there is no grinding and the clicks are rare. The bad news is that the limit for this is 3.5kRPM, and beyond that is when the clicking and grinding comes back. Grinding at higher RPMs is indeed indicative of a failing synchro. However, before I acertain whether this is true or not, I'm going to check my transmission fluid and see what's up.
Oil's still inconclusive; I'm checking the dipstick daily.
I'm going to be poking around the fuel tank tomorrow to look at the EVAP system. I'm going in mostly blind, and really don't know what to expect, other than possibly liquid fuel dripping or splashing out from somewhere. Got a handy diagram off of mazdaspd.com to guide me along, so here's to a productive morning!
Meanwhile, I'll be looking around for gauges and gauge pods. Not sure where to mount everything, but I figured that if I'm going to have Oil Pressure, Voltage, (maybe) Oil Temp, might as well get some A-pillar gauge.
Speaking of which, I took a look at the hoop connector where my gauge would be plugged into (white plug), and I noticed the other port-looking part is leaking some oil.
https://imgur.com/QICWu0V (link becuase imgur had a retarded update that won't let me directly put pictures in my posts anymore)
What is that?
That's all for today. I've some reading about these parts to do, with a splash of nervous optimism.
I'm sure I won't be selling it anytime soon! I was, and still am, a little frustrated with these problems that come up. Part and parcel of owning an old car, and sometimes I forget to have patience for that. I'll still get some stuff done this summer, so bear with me as I learn to be patient!
Thankfully, that Mazda Protege in the nearby pull and pay is largely untouched, thanks to no one ever owning them here! Someday, when it stops raining, I'll be able to retrieve it without wading through the mud. As much as I would like to put in a lightweight flywheel and sportier clutch, I got to put those off. I'm thinking that after I put in a lot of safety equipment, such as these alleged gauges and maybe even an oil cooler, I'd probably go back to clutch stuff. Heck, worse comes to worse and third gear and its synchro go out, I may try to find some G15MR with an LSD in it somewhere in the states. I'll beg some guys I know to help me with my lowly P5 :^) If it gets to that point, I'd definitely put in a lightweight flywheel and a sportier clutch.
Well, snooping around the car gave me some answers to my observations. The alleged toast CV axle was not the case at all. That's the good news.
Bad news is that the brake rotor may have worn unevenly. The car also seemingly pulls the left a little when I brake. The wheel doesn't shake much, though. I have the worst luck with brakes, guys!
Another problem is that my ignition switch may be on the verge of death. Check out this video:
It took me a lot of finagling and jostling of the switch to get my car to start today. Yet, coming back from work, it started up with no problems. The car hasn't died on me while driving, though, so it may not even be the ignition switch. So weird!
So, good news about 3rd gear is that when driving normally, there is no grinding and the clicks are rare. The bad news is that the limit for this is 3.5kRPM, and beyond that is when the clicking and grinding comes back. Grinding at higher RPMs is indeed indicative of a failing synchro. However, before I acertain whether this is true or not, I'm going to check my transmission fluid and see what's up.
Oil's still inconclusive; I'm checking the dipstick daily.
I'm going to be poking around the fuel tank tomorrow to look at the EVAP system. I'm going in mostly blind, and really don't know what to expect, other than possibly liquid fuel dripping or splashing out from somewhere. Got a handy diagram off of mazdaspd.com to guide me along, so here's to a productive morning!
Meanwhile, I'll be looking around for gauges and gauge pods. Not sure where to mount everything, but I figured that if I'm going to have Oil Pressure, Voltage, (maybe) Oil Temp, might as well get some A-pillar gauge.
Speaking of which, I took a look at the hoop connector where my gauge would be plugged into (white plug), and I noticed the other port-looking part is leaking some oil.
https://imgur.com/QICWu0V (link becuase imgur had a retarded update that won't let me directly put pictures in my posts anymore)
What is that?
That's all for today. I've some reading about these parts to do, with a splash of nervous optimism.
Your car dying is just one possibility of a bad ignition switch.
There's a whole bunch of little micro switches that make up the ignition switch, any of which could fail intermittently.
They're no too much money and they're easy to replace.
Check your air filter first.
It's the easiest to get to and remove.
If it's full of gas, the fuel tank can't breathe and you won't get air blowing past your filler nozzle to keep the gas flowing.
That's your knock sensor.
They crap out over time. The accelerometer is mounted in gell and it goes bad over time and turns to goo.
Your ECU needs to get accurate "knock info" to run your engine properly.
They're not much money.
.[/QUOTE]
Here's a knock sensor thread I started.
https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123831376-Knock-Sensor&highlight=
https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123831376-Knock-Sensor&highlight=
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Junkyard Dive
Hey Everyone!
With the crappy weather taking a momentary halt, I took the opportunity to drive to the U Pull and Pay. I had a list of parts to find:
The wiper transmission was for my backup Van, and the floormats was for a friend with a CRX. Sadly, those floor mats were the only thing I couldn't find in acceptable condition.
Anyhow, here it was:
Not a lot of parts were taken off of it! It had some fancy NGK wires on it, but I'd rather have brand new ones. The exhaust manifold was removed, and the fresh-air duct was also taken. Looking down, as I was curious as to how it got to the junkyard...
Christ. Both times I was at the junkyard to grab stuff off of a P5, I saw a hole in the automatic transaxle. Wonder why?
I went on to yank out the cupholder and the valve cover. Wasn't hard, but that gasket underneath saw better days. A lot of the bolts that came off of the valve cover had some cushion looking thing on them as well, and I did not take the bolts with me. I think I might buy new hardware for when I swap the VCs over. Anyhow, after the VC was removed, I finally got to take a peak at the topmost layer of the head for myself:
Now that's pretty cool. Not as gunky as I thought it would look. Man, mine's probably nasty as sin. Doing this gave me some perspective on what I would be working with if I ever wanted to drop in cams.
The interior of the car had some interesting brochures:
Sorry for sideways images. Sometimes my phone doesn't register that I'm tilting it. But either way, pretty cool, huh?
With two of four P5 items in hand, I only needed the charcoal canister under the gas tank. Well, I went around to look, and...
Damn! The guys that propped the car up on those wheels only used one for the rear, and they chose to put it on the gas tank charcoal canister insulator plate instead of the subframe. I had no way to access it (I tried getting around the insulator). No worries, they had another Protege in the yard.
Well, here it was:
And guess how they propped up the rear!
Real shame. Going to have to look elsewhere for my charcoal canister. Maybe I'll hit up JP Parts, see if he's got any functioning ones. Plus, that Mazda was a 1.8L. Who knows if the charcoal canisters are the same?
I eventually passed by a Millenia with it's KLG4 still inside, minus the throttle body. Didn't look like it had the supercharger in it, though.
Then I passed by a pretty mint looking Cressida:
It's 7M was largely intact! That engine's really solid. It may not be much, but I've actually never seen a Cressida. All I know is that they're RWD, have a solid engine, and can be tossed around if set up properly.
So you know how I was looking for an intermittent wiper stalk? Well, I found one, but ind hindsight, it was the wrong one. Why?
Pulled the wrong stalk out of the wrong car lmao. Forgot that I was supposed to search for a 99+ MPV, or the hatch models of the Mazda3/Mazda6. I didn't realize this until I installed it in my car. Notice the lack of a rear wiper setting:
But hey, it works really well. Glad these are stupid easy to install! It'll tide me over until my return to the junkyard.
That deep cup holder is a nice piece, but it juts out of the plastic middle assembly funnily, and had some black scratch marks all around the center.
Guess I may need to go back for the junkyard P5's center console assembly. But, it's functional. At the very least, I used this cheap vinyl wrap stuff to take the eyes off of the marks and scratches. It's a little rice, but at least it's not blemished! Check this out:
I've never used that stuff before, and it probably shows in a couple spots, but it's whatever. I'm glad I got something to replace those crappy stubby cup holders.
Oh, and I did get that wiper transmission for the Kia. It was more annoying than difficult to pull from the car, so I'm not too excited about swapping it for the broken part.
Well fellas, the search is still on for a charcoal canister! In the meantime, I'll be cleaning off that valve cover as best as I can for painting and installation. As it sits:
There's a lot of gunk around the third and fourth spark plug boot holes, so I need a finer brush to help me scrub it out. Once I got the hard-to-reach spots clean, I'll lace it with some degreaser for good measure. It'll be yellow, and with enough caution, I want the letters to be black. Or silver...I can't make up my mind. We'll see how lazy I am painting day :^)
I'm getting paid soon, which means I'll be able to make some advancements in buying parts and such. I think after my VC is painted and installed, I really want to give those gauges a try. I've read up and down about installing them now, saw the BoostedBoys youtube video about an oil pressure gauge, and I feel fairly ready for it.
It's going to be great!
Hey Everyone!
With the crappy weather taking a momentary halt, I took the opportunity to drive to the U Pull and Pay. I had a list of parts to find:
- Charcoal Canister
- Cup holder
- Valve Cover
- Intermittent Wiper Switch
- Windshield Wiper Transmission (Kia Sedona)
- Front Floor mats (Honda Integra)
The wiper transmission was for my backup Van, and the floormats was for a friend with a CRX. Sadly, those floor mats were the only thing I couldn't find in acceptable condition.
Anyhow, here it was:
Not a lot of parts were taken off of it! It had some fancy NGK wires on it, but I'd rather have brand new ones. The exhaust manifold was removed, and the fresh-air duct was also taken. Looking down, as I was curious as to how it got to the junkyard...
Christ. Both times I was at the junkyard to grab stuff off of a P5, I saw a hole in the automatic transaxle. Wonder why?
I went on to yank out the cupholder and the valve cover. Wasn't hard, but that gasket underneath saw better days. A lot of the bolts that came off of the valve cover had some cushion looking thing on them as well, and I did not take the bolts with me. I think I might buy new hardware for when I swap the VCs over. Anyhow, after the VC was removed, I finally got to take a peak at the topmost layer of the head for myself:
Now that's pretty cool. Not as gunky as I thought it would look. Man, mine's probably nasty as sin. Doing this gave me some perspective on what I would be working with if I ever wanted to drop in cams.
The interior of the car had some interesting brochures:
Sorry for sideways images. Sometimes my phone doesn't register that I'm tilting it. But either way, pretty cool, huh?
With two of four P5 items in hand, I only needed the charcoal canister under the gas tank. Well, I went around to look, and...
Damn! The guys that propped the car up on those wheels only used one for the rear, and they chose to put it on the gas tank charcoal canister insulator plate instead of the subframe. I had no way to access it (I tried getting around the insulator). No worries, they had another Protege in the yard.
Well, here it was:
And guess how they propped up the rear!
Real shame. Going to have to look elsewhere for my charcoal canister. Maybe I'll hit up JP Parts, see if he's got any functioning ones. Plus, that Mazda was a 1.8L. Who knows if the charcoal canisters are the same?
I eventually passed by a Millenia with it's KLG4 still inside, minus the throttle body. Didn't look like it had the supercharger in it, though.
Then I passed by a pretty mint looking Cressida:
It's 7M was largely intact! That engine's really solid. It may not be much, but I've actually never seen a Cressida. All I know is that they're RWD, have a solid engine, and can be tossed around if set up properly.
So you know how I was looking for an intermittent wiper stalk? Well, I found one, but ind hindsight, it was the wrong one. Why?
Pulled the wrong stalk out of the wrong car lmao. Forgot that I was supposed to search for a 99+ MPV, or the hatch models of the Mazda3/Mazda6. I didn't realize this until I installed it in my car. Notice the lack of a rear wiper setting:
But hey, it works really well. Glad these are stupid easy to install! It'll tide me over until my return to the junkyard.
That deep cup holder is a nice piece, but it juts out of the plastic middle assembly funnily, and had some black scratch marks all around the center.
Guess I may need to go back for the junkyard P5's center console assembly. But, it's functional. At the very least, I used this cheap vinyl wrap stuff to take the eyes off of the marks and scratches. It's a little rice, but at least it's not blemished! Check this out:
I've never used that stuff before, and it probably shows in a couple spots, but it's whatever. I'm glad I got something to replace those crappy stubby cup holders.
Oh, and I did get that wiper transmission for the Kia. It was more annoying than difficult to pull from the car, so I'm not too excited about swapping it for the broken part.
Well fellas, the search is still on for a charcoal canister! In the meantime, I'll be cleaning off that valve cover as best as I can for painting and installation. As it sits:
There's a lot of gunk around the third and fourth spark plug boot holes, so I need a finer brush to help me scrub it out. Once I got the hard-to-reach spots clean, I'll lace it with some degreaser for good measure. It'll be yellow, and with enough caution, I want the letters to be black. Or silver...I can't make up my mind. We'll see how lazy I am painting day :^)
I'm getting paid soon, which means I'll be able to make some advancements in buying parts and such. I think after my VC is painted and installed, I really want to give those gauges a try. I've read up and down about installing them now, saw the BoostedBoys youtube video about an oil pressure gauge, and I feel fairly ready for it.
It's going to be great!
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- :
- Mazda protege5
Yellow for the win, it's kinda buried right now but it's yellow haha
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Yellow for the win, it's kinda buried right now but it's yellow haha
Heck yeah, looks nice! Hope I can get mine to look as good as yours, but I'm going to try and keep my letters :^)
Did you use any kind of engine degreaser product? I'll be honest. I did a half-assed job cleaning up the intake manifold upper-half DP sent me, and want to do a good job cleaning an aluminum part for once.
What all did cleaning and polishing your valve cover entail?
- :
- Mazda protege5
Honestly I shaved the letters because I couldn't get them clean enough. First I sprayed it down with brake clean and a green scrubber pad. Then I just went over it with some sand paper, i sprayed it down with brake clean at the end too. It turned out pretty good, just make sure you do really good on the sanding. The paint doesn't like to stick to aluminum unless it's got a rough surface, I think I used like a 60 or 80 grit.
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
U pull and Pay disallows jacks, torches, and grinders, unfortunately :^(
I told them that they shouldn't jack up Proteges like that, but who knows how much they'll take that to heart. Glad you like the wrap job! I very cheekily took a picture from that side for a reason, though; the other side has a very obvious discontinuity in the wrap pattern, lol.
Got the proper windshield wiper this time! Ran back to UP&P and they took care of me by waiving the entry fee and allowing an exchange!
Works like a charm.
When I got home, I tried out StudMuffin's suggestion to use brake cleaner. Man, worked like a charm! Solid advice there; all the grime and crap flew off with minimal persuasion. Had to brush the nastiest parts, but the brake cleaner still got it done. With that over, I decided to try my hand at scraping it down with one of those bell-shaped metal brushes you attach to a drill. It gave me some pretty interesting results:
Obviously, because the thing was so big, I couldn't hit the tight areas around the spark plug holes. Not even my dremel with a mini wire brush attachment could hit, so I think I'll have to use a brillo pad as instructed alongside a brush.
Can't wait to paint this thing!
I told them that they shouldn't jack up Proteges like that, but who knows how much they'll take that to heart. Glad you like the wrap job! I very cheekily took a picture from that side for a reason, though; the other side has a very obvious discontinuity in the wrap pattern, lol.
Got the proper windshield wiper this time! Ran back to UP&P and they took care of me by waiving the entry fee and allowing an exchange!
Works like a charm.
When I got home, I tried out StudMuffin's suggestion to use brake cleaner. Man, worked like a charm! Solid advice there; all the grime and crap flew off with minimal persuasion. Had to brush the nastiest parts, but the brake cleaner still got it done. With that over, I decided to try my hand at scraping it down with one of those bell-shaped metal brushes you attach to a drill. It gave me some pretty interesting results:
Obviously, because the thing was so big, I couldn't hit the tight areas around the spark plug holes. Not even my dremel with a mini wire brush attachment could hit, so I think I'll have to use a brillo pad as instructed alongside a brush.
Can't wait to paint this thing!
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- :
- Mazda protege5
Looks good man! I forgot to mention the wire wheel, I used the same thing to get all the top layer gunk off
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Alright, valve cover's base paint layers are on!
It came out mostly good; there are three notable spots where I missed some paint layers. However, it'll be hard to gleam from the above image. I did, however, forget to pull that rubber boot the PCV valve slides into at the top of the VC. Dang!
Now, I got to find a way to paint the letters black. Judging by how intricate the letter shapes are, this is not going to be easy. I'm half-tempted to just file off the letters and have them stay silvery, but I dunno. I'll be thinking about this. If I could use a paint pen, I definitely would.
Aside from that, I made a mean meatloaf for dinner, and learned how much of an ass pain installing windshield wiper transmission is. I'm going to hit up JP Parts for a charcoal canister, but until then, I'll just take it off and try to let it drain and dry out a little bit.
I have to save at least a little bit of money this summer, so the gauges and gauge pods will wait a little bit. I'm thinking about getting them 2-3 paychecks from now.
I am backtracking on my front-end noise being the brakes again. I'm sure it's something related to the suspension. I'll be dropping by a friend's place to get some inspections done.
It came out mostly good; there are three notable spots where I missed some paint layers. However, it'll be hard to gleam from the above image. I did, however, forget to pull that rubber boot the PCV valve slides into at the top of the VC. Dang!
Now, I got to find a way to paint the letters black. Judging by how intricate the letter shapes are, this is not going to be easy. I'm half-tempted to just file off the letters and have them stay silvery, but I dunno. I'll be thinking about this. If I could use a paint pen, I definitely would.
Aside from that, I made a mean meatloaf for dinner, and learned how much of an ass pain installing windshield wiper transmission is. I'm going to hit up JP Parts for a charcoal canister, but until then, I'll just take it off and try to let it drain and dry out a little bit.
I have to save at least a little bit of money this summer, so the gauges and gauge pods will wait a little bit. I'm thinking about getting them 2-3 paychecks from now.
I am backtracking on my front-end noise being the brakes again. I'm sure it's something related to the suspension. I'll be dropping by a friend's place to get some inspections done.
- :
- Mazda protege5
Yours turned out real nice man, are you gunna clear coat yours? I almost left my pcv boot in too. It's a real pita I had to cut mine out, was like a rock.
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Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
I actually did after that picture! It's really nice from the front, but I really goofed up the rear. The coats in the rear are far too light, but I can fix that. However, my attention is on some pressing issues in my car now :^(
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
3rd Gear Grinding, Worrisome Times
My aforementioned problems seem to be getting worse.
For some time now, I thought that I was just being a lazy shifter, and wouldn't put the car in 3rd gear properly. I'd just mindlessly drop the thing in third, get back on gas, and then VROOOOOOM I'm in neutral. Well, this is happening far more consistently at higher RPMs now; if it doesn't grind, it doesn't engage.
Needless to say, this is more than enough to temporarily take me out of the Time Attack series. I can stop driving the thing at high RPM to stop oil consumption (which is another serious problem by itself), but 3rd gear's boogered.
I know that I've little to no technical knowledge of removing engines or dropping transmissions, and that I'm largely limited to bolt-ons. I know that if I pay a shop to get this fixed, I'll be looking at paying well over half the price of the car. I'd rather not think about my Dad learning about my car having these problems (Can't wait to graduate and move out lol...).
I'm going to have to make some decisions rationally and quickly in this critical moment. However, I have one option here that might save me. At work, I got a friend that has a friend who's been a professional mechanic his whole life, and is more than willing to lend a hand with his friend's coworkers' car issues. I recall my CRX pal going to him, getting her brake master cylinder and brake lines all fixed up, and leaving only 60 bucks lighter. Now, that's nowhere near the magnitude of this job I'm looking at, but all I got to do is call him and see what's possible.
I'm greatly concerned for my car's health. I'm really feeling the burn of racing a daily, and a nagging corner of my chest is angry at me for throwing caution to the wind.
If this friend of a friend plan falls through, man what should I do? I've dumped so much money into this car now, perhaps just about or exceeding the cost of the car now, and it's still just been problem after problem. I know I just have to persevere, and I want to, but I can't help but feel as if the walls are closing in. I may not race this thing ever again, who knows?
I think I can empathize with those old bastards who collect MGs.
My aforementioned problems seem to be getting worse.
For some time now, I thought that I was just being a lazy shifter, and wouldn't put the car in 3rd gear properly. I'd just mindlessly drop the thing in third, get back on gas, and then VROOOOOOM I'm in neutral. Well, this is happening far more consistently at higher RPMs now; if it doesn't grind, it doesn't engage.
Needless to say, this is more than enough to temporarily take me out of the Time Attack series. I can stop driving the thing at high RPM to stop oil consumption (which is another serious problem by itself), but 3rd gear's boogered.
I know that I've little to no technical knowledge of removing engines or dropping transmissions, and that I'm largely limited to bolt-ons. I know that if I pay a shop to get this fixed, I'll be looking at paying well over half the price of the car. I'd rather not think about my Dad learning about my car having these problems (Can't wait to graduate and move out lol...).
I'm going to have to make some decisions rationally and quickly in this critical moment. However, I have one option here that might save me. At work, I got a friend that has a friend who's been a professional mechanic his whole life, and is more than willing to lend a hand with his friend's coworkers' car issues. I recall my CRX pal going to him, getting her brake master cylinder and brake lines all fixed up, and leaving only 60 bucks lighter. Now, that's nowhere near the magnitude of this job I'm looking at, but all I got to do is call him and see what's possible.
I'm greatly concerned for my car's health. I'm really feeling the burn of racing a daily, and a nagging corner of my chest is angry at me for throwing caution to the wind.
If this friend of a friend plan falls through, man what should I do? I've dumped so much money into this car now, perhaps just about or exceeding the cost of the car now, and it's still just been problem after problem. I know I just have to persevere, and I want to, but I can't help but feel as if the walls are closing in. I may not race this thing ever again, who knows?
I think I can empathize with those old bastards who collect MGs.
I remember delivering pizzas in my Mazda GLC for years.
I drove the snot out of the thing and only got 40,000 km out of a clutch.
I slammed it into 3rd gear on the 401 in Toronto and broke the shifter right off.
I drove 100 km home screaming down the 401in 3rd gear.
Towards home I had a bunch of stop lights and signs to deal with. I just rode the clutch till it finally got moving.
Then I got my brother in law to weld it back on and I was good to go.
My next car was a Subaru GL1800 Wagon and I only had it 3 months before I smoked 3rd gear.
I just skipped 3rd and went to 4th gear.
I needed 3rd to get on the freeway and had to power shift with no clutch to get it in gear. Somewhere around 3,500 RPM it would engage.
I drove the snot out of the thing and only got 40,000 km out of a clutch.
I slammed it into 3rd gear on the 401 in Toronto and broke the shifter right off.
I drove 100 km home screaming down the 401in 3rd gear.
Towards home I had a bunch of stop lights and signs to deal with. I just rode the clutch till it finally got moving.
Then I got my brother in law to weld it back on and I was good to go.
My next car was a Subaru GL1800 Wagon and I only had it 3 months before I smoked 3rd gear.
I just skipped 3rd and went to 4th gear.
I needed 3rd to get on the freeway and had to power shift with no clutch to get it in gear. Somewhere around 3,500 RPM it would engage.
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