[DEFUNCT] The College-Budget P5
- Thread starter Riot_Polizei
- Start date
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Jeez, that's barely even half the life of a traditional clutch! Breaking the shifter too...You sure you weren't just a rally driver whose times were reflected by how hot the pizza was on arrival?
Last night, replacing the transmission seemed like too tall of an order. It's still a big job, don't get me wrong. The parts aren't cheap. There was no way in hell I was going to pay over a grand or so for such a job, so I decided to try the "friend of a friend" option I had.
And holy s***, this going to work!
I called up the guy, and learned that If I get the parts myself and I do the work while he instructs me how to do everything, I only have to pay a drastically reduced price. If I had everything I needed on me right now, I would only pay him 225 bucks for his guidance and full use of all his professional tools.
Naturally, while I'm under there, I'll also have to take a look at the flywheel and the clutch assembly, so I'll have to get this fixed up too. You know, I may or not get some gauges in the car now, but I think I might actually get an upgraded clutch + a lightened flywheel! I believe I'm still a verified member of Mazda Motorsports, so I've access to some price cuts on otherwise expensive parts.
So, looks like I'll research the following:
Mazdaspeed Transmission....................$? (going to quote JP Parts)
Mazdaspeed Chromoly Flywheel............$254.61 (Mazda Motorsports Store)
Performance Clutch Kit........................$? (Not one of those 4-puck ones!!)
_______________________________________________________________
Total = .............................................$225 (guidance/tools) + $254.61 = $479.61 + $X
If I'm lucky, I can do a transmission overhaul/upgrade for less than a grand. Man, what a turn of events.
But hey, I'm still going to have to crack open that transmission to check for those welds. Good call, 323. I didn't think they'd be weak!
Last night, replacing the transmission seemed like too tall of an order. It's still a big job, don't get me wrong. The parts aren't cheap. There was no way in hell I was going to pay over a grand or so for such a job, so I decided to try the "friend of a friend" option I had.
And holy s***, this going to work!
I called up the guy, and learned that If I get the parts myself and I do the work while he instructs me how to do everything, I only have to pay a drastically reduced price. If I had everything I needed on me right now, I would only pay him 225 bucks for his guidance and full use of all his professional tools.
Naturally, while I'm under there, I'll also have to take a look at the flywheel and the clutch assembly, so I'll have to get this fixed up too. You know, I may or not get some gauges in the car now, but I think I might actually get an upgraded clutch + a lightened flywheel! I believe I'm still a verified member of Mazda Motorsports, so I've access to some price cuts on otherwise expensive parts.
So, looks like I'll research the following:
Mazdaspeed Transmission....................$? (going to quote JP Parts)
Mazdaspeed Chromoly Flywheel............$254.61 (Mazda Motorsports Store)
Performance Clutch Kit........................$? (Not one of those 4-puck ones!!)
_______________________________________________________________
Total = .............................................$225 (guidance/tools) + $254.61 = $479.61 + $X
If I'm lucky, I can do a transmission overhaul/upgrade for less than a grand. Man, what a turn of events.
But hey, I'm still going to have to crack open that transmission to check for those welds. Good call, 323. I didn't think they'd be weak!
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- :
- Mazda protege5
You should do an "unbuild" on your old transmission, mine's been leaking forever but I honestly have no clue about transmissions n all them gears
30 minutes or free at the time.
They really didn't like giving away free pizzas.
(I delivered for 5 years with no tickets or accidents. But I got up to speed real quick☺)
That sounds like a good idea !
My parts car is a standard.
I'd like to see them gears and such !
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Hell, that's a good idea! It may be a little similar to the old Protege transmission teardown guide, but at least it'll be from the perspective of a newbie. I'm definitely curious about this.
Jeez. Such a guarantee is just opening the door to shenanigans lol. Down here at Jimmy John's, any hint of a driver speeding is harshly dealt with, but only because they have tiny delivery zones.
I recall some time ago that a particularly strange driver sped within excess of 20 mph in a school zone through a crosswalk as school was getting out. The idiot lost his job as soon as he got back lol!
I am currently waiting on an exact quote from JP on a transmission. He doesn't have a Mazdaspeed one at the moment, but he does have a P5 transmission. It sounds like there's not much of a price difference between a P5 tranny and the Mazdaspeed one.
Dropping in a mazdaspeed transmission on a car without ABS is not without it's issues, however. Mazdaspeed Proteges got their speed readings from the ABS axles, while non-ABS Protege5s got theirs from a "speedometer gear" inside the tranny at the bottom of the open diff. Looks like I'd end up tearing down the transmission anyways just to get at the LSD! From there, I'd need a new speedo gear to modify to fit the LSD. Sketchy IMO. Howver, I saw some elaborate and allegedly "cheap" workaround, which involved setting up dummy connectors to the axles, buying some speed-sensing unit off of Jegs, hooking the two up and going from there, but I'd have to take a look. I'll try and find this claim, but I bet you no one actually tried it yet.
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- :
- Mazda protege5
I didn't realize your p5 had no ABS, is it really that tricky without it? I don't think my 76 van had ABS and I didn't really notice it that much, I never really drove it hard either so
Riot_Polizei
Comp Engineering Student
- :
- 2002 Mazda Protege5
Yeah, no ABS!
About the time I made my first or second post, I was looking at the make/model information cards inside the door sills. Under ABS, if I recall properly, it said either "N" or was blank, which I figured was indicative of no ABS. This is kind of weird, considering how I had a kind of gearing at the end of the axles, which indicates ABS.
Now though, I'm 100% certain I don't have ABS due to my racing antics and how I'm still developing threshold braking.
I know I'm rapid firing these little updates, but is there such thing as intermittent gear grinding?
Today when driving the car around, I found it quite odd that I had no 3rd gear grinding or pop-out on engagment. So, I pushed it to 3.5kRPM. Just fine. Pushed it to 4kRPM. Also fine. Finally revved up to about 6kRPM, and no grinding or engagement pop-out! What the hell?
Do I actually have a weak or failing master/slave cylinder? So confused...
About the time I made my first or second post, I was looking at the make/model information cards inside the door sills. Under ABS, if I recall properly, it said either "N" or was blank, which I figured was indicative of no ABS. This is kind of weird, considering how I had a kind of gearing at the end of the axles, which indicates ABS.
Now though, I'm 100% certain I don't have ABS due to my racing antics and how I'm still developing threshold braking.
I know I'm rapid firing these little updates, but is there such thing as intermittent gear grinding?
Today when driving the car around, I found it quite odd that I had no 3rd gear grinding or pop-out on engagment. So, I pushed it to 3.5kRPM. Just fine. Pushed it to 4kRPM. Also fine. Finally revved up to about 6kRPM, and no grinding or engagement pop-out! What the hell?
Do I actually have a weak or failing master/slave cylinder? So confused...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvuEcrPfJxY
Definitely a daunting task. I'm not looking forward to the day I have to drop mine.
Definitely a daunting task. I'm not looking forward to the day I have to drop mine.
When I first got my car then winter came, my car would grind every gear until it warmed up for about 20 minutes.
I replaced my gear oil with SynchroMesh oil and it's been fine ever since.
It's really thin oil but designed for a manual transmission.
I don't know if it would make a difference for you or not under racing conditions but you could consider some sort of alternative transmission oil to see if it helps.
I know Redline makes a quality gear oil but it's quite expensive. It's about $70 for the amount you'd need.
I did embellish a little.
I did put SyncroMesh in my tracker but when I went to get some for my P5, they wanted almost $20 a liter for the stuff and I needed 3 liters.
I remembered how my GLC recommended ATF type F (F for friction modified or Ford who used it) for cold conditions, so I got 2 liters of that and one liter of Lucas Oil.
That's what's in there now and it's been working great for over 6 years.
I remember Installshield was shocked at what I did and said "Get That s*** Out Of There !!" so I'm not gonna recommend it to anyone except to say that it's been working great for me.
One other thing I remember is that the Sulphur and other additives in regular gear oil can corrode some parts in the transmission.
I think our gearbox is "corrosion proof" with no susceptible parts inside but I don't remember.
I did put SyncroMesh in my tracker but when I went to get some for my P5, they wanted almost $20 a liter for the stuff and I needed 3 liters.
I remembered how my GLC recommended ATF type F (F for friction modified or Ford who used it) for cold conditions, so I got 2 liters of that and one liter of Lucas Oil.
That's what's in there now and it's been working great for over 6 years.
I remember Installshield was shocked at what I did and said "Get That s*** Out Of There !!" so I'm not gonna recommend it to anyone except to say that it's been working great for me.
One other thing I remember is that the Sulphur and other additives in regular gear oil can corrode some parts in the transmission.
I think our gearbox is "corrosion proof" with no susceptible parts inside but I don't remember.
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I was delivering for Domino's in the mid 80's when it was 30 minutes or free.
Then there was a crash in the US were a driver went through a red light and severely injured a lady. The company had to pay more than 78 million dollars.
Since then it's 30 minutes or $3 off the price.
I remember one driver I worked with had two 25 minute old pizzas and he told the boss he could'nt get them both delivered in five minutes.
The boss handed him the keys to his Fiero and said "make em".
He got them both delivered in under 30 minutes.
He was driving over 100 mph on city streets.
(It was late at night with nobody on the roads but still !!)
- :
- Mazda protege5
I've tried royal purple in mine before the trans started dumping oil, it was alright but 3rd would still grind and shifting felt the same as the cheapo gear oil I'd thrown in there before. I've heard only good things about synchromesh and now I have some set aside for when I figure out how to keep it inside the trans lol. My p5 would pop out of gears on acceleration and it just came down to being low on oil, probably a dumb question but have you changed the oil?
yeah i'd check/change the gear oil first and check for broken or sloppy engine mounts possibly. i've used Redline MT-90 in the past and liked it. reason i didn't use it again was because i was impatient and the store had syncromesh lol. i felt the redline shifted smoother but it could've been my trans was younger at the time too. i will prolly run redline again next time around.
That makes sense to me.
The way I figure it is that the thicker gear oil coats the gears better and cushions the shifing impact.
But when it's -20C the oil is as thick as honey and the synchro mesh gears stop spinning.
I figure the Synychromesh oil keeps the syncro's spinning but doesn't protect the gears as good.
However I'm sure I was doing more damage grinding my gears for 20 minutes every day in the winter.
I still mis-shift a few times a year and even stall it a couple times a year (you'd think I'd know how yo drive standard by now. lol)
But I drive my car very gently now because she's old and brittle with very little unoxidized metal left on the car.
That is another possibilty.
I remember more that a few guys that would only have shifting problems when the car was hot and they were in stop and go traffic.
It turned out to be the master/slave cylinders and replacing them fixed the problem.
However most people went with aftermarket components and they started failing not too long afterwards. (even though they were brand new and not rebuilt)
The best option was big $ for OEM and one guy was trying to source a rebuild kit for his original cyinders and spent more money for the kit than buying a new after market cylinder.
