[DEFUNCT] The College-Budget P5

During the time attack, I went to remove the spare tire as I usually do. Problem was, the weld nut that holds in the wheel broke! I've the worst luck with weldnuts!!

I just got done clawing the thing out of its housing. It was quite the mess.

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I suppose I can consider this permanent weight reduction for MaD pOwEr GaInZ, but I think I'm going to grab some fix-a-flat or whatever just in case of roadside calamity.

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Yessir, that's not going to get used anymore...

Man dont use fix a flat. s*** creates a mess thats annoying to clean and gets everywhere. Although not an issue for us, it can ruin a TPMS sensor too
 
If that were me, I'd weld in a nut and a fender washer.



I don't like the idea of not having a spare tire.

I've got a tire plug kit in the car too.
 
I mentioned way back that my weld nuts that secure the heatshield broke off, and that I attempted to loosen the bolts in vain. Well, that heatshield is dangling a little bit, and when driving, it flaps up and down so hard and so fast that you'd swear there was a motorcycle engine underneath your car. The windier it is, the worse it gets...

What about just drilling in some self tapping screws.

Drill a smaller hole first then drill in the screws.

You just unscrew them if you decide to tackle the weldnuts.

 
CELs and Crazy Clunks

CEL came on as I drove home from school, so I popped in my scanner to see what's up.

I got:

P0140 - O2 Sensor Circuit No Activity Detected

P0451 - Evaporative Emission Control System Pressure Sensor Range/Performance

P0660 - Intake Manifold Tuning Valve Control Circuiit

I've dealt with the first one before. It's seemingly intermittent, but it disappeared when I discovered that my non-fouler and O2 sensor loosened a little. Gonna tighten these tomorrow and see what happens.

P0451 makes sense, since my evap system is on the fritz. I forgot to tell you guys, but I sent my car into the mechanic a little while ago after I found my charcoal canister dripping fuel a couple time. He discovered that the baffles and contents of my gas tank were broken or disintegrated, so I had to get a new tank. Well, thing is, I have a bad charcoal canister and now a potentially bad pressure sensor or solenoid. Dunno yet, but I'll have to investigate.

And of all things, that's odd that my VICS Solenoid went out again! Perhaps I accidentally loosened, cut, or damaged a vacuum line.

And finally, the clunks from the rear swaybar are back in full-force. It's nearly constant and annoying as hell, and quite the shame, since it was virtually quiet until lately. I went under to try and re-tighten the bolts holding in the brackets and bushings, since I thought that was the problem. Turns out that they were already pretty tight, and there wasn't much more I could do. I inspected the end links too, and they were also tightened up. I then jumped in the driver's seat, jumped up and down, back and forth, and still managed to hear some clunking from the rear. It doesn't sound like the bushings are dry, so I wonder what the deal is?
 
Glad you reinstalled your swaybar, but sorry to hear about the noise. I have no rear sway and my car makes all kinds of noise. Everything seems tight, just like in your situation. If you can, get a friend and have him, or her, grab the roof racks towards the back of the car, and shake the crap out of it. You get under the car and listen. That might help you locate the noise. Been there chasing noises haha. Also, if you have a rubber mallet, get under the car with it and start hitting stuff until you hear a noise. I did that and found my lateral link was loose. Tightened it up and no more noise, well less noise. Hope that helps. Good luck!
 
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My sedan seems to keep chewing through solenoids. I get about 2 months of no CEL before the code pops again for them. I have no clue what's going on and its annoying
 
Glad you reinstalled your swaybar, but sorry to hear about the noise. I have no rear sway and my car makes all kinds of noise. Everything seems tight, just like in your situation. If you can, get a friend and have him, or her, grab the roof racks towards the back of the car, and shake the crap out of it. You get under the car and listen. That might help you locate the noise. Been there chasing noises haha. Also, if you have a rubber mallet, get under the car with it and start hitting stuff until you hear a noise. I did that and found my lateral link was loose. Tightened it up and no more noise, well less noise. Hope that helps. Good luck!
Alright, could be a good excuse to get my buddy over! A bit of jumping around on the car to find a clunk before (or even with) a beer couldn't hurt. I have an Idea as to what it may be, which may be my ghetto bolt tightened at a funny angle.

And Gabe, have you checked your grounds? Sucks to have solenoids going out so much. Definitely feel you on that.

For me, though, it's comveniently timed, since I'll just use the good VTCS solenoid for my VICS on the modified Intake manifold.
 
The weather turned nice, and gave me a chance to get under the car again and investigate the various issues I've been having.

I tightened up the O2 spacer and the sensor itself, and took off both tubes connecting to the charcoal canister for draining/ventilation. Luckily, the IM upper-half that DP sent me still had a solenoid on it, so I took off the old one (couldn't hold air pressure/vacuum) and placed it on. I jacked up the car from the rear as usual, and dug in.

Upon inspection, and even after removing and putting the brackets back on, I did not see anything that could be contributing to the clunks and creaks related to the brackets. Sure, they loosened a slight bit, thanks to my repeated refusal to be smart and apply loctite. I re-tightened them, and after lowering the car back, I only had one clunk. It came from the driver-side tire well, and didn't sound like the brackets, since I have that noise committed to memory. So, I went back under and checked the endlinks once more. The threads that bolt on to the swaybar were as tight as could be, but then I checked the bolts that thread in to the struts, and found my issue. After both were tightened, I no longer had any clunks or creaks. Except, well, my driver side swaybar bushing is starting to creak again. Dangit! For now though, I'll leave it be, and re-grease it at a later time.

One of the best results from this session was a new technique I found for tightening down the bolts I dropped through the subframe.

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I have a bunch of crow's foot wrenches laying around, and I learned that with the magnetic bottom of my LED flashlight, I can push it over the hole seen in the picture, shove a long extension into the square hole ( :^) ), and then prevent the bolt from spinning freely. It's way less annoying than getting a wrench to slide in and connect, and holds it down with way less of a fight.

After finishing up, I zipped across town to fill it up, and I was able to slowly get my way to 3/4 of a tank. I held the filling nozzle's trigger in such a way that it wouldn't fill at max rate, which would play hell on the evap system. It didn't click, so no damage was done to my fuel filter. No CELs came back on, so that O2 sensor is still good, and that solenoid still had life in it. For now, all is well.

All that's left is fixing the EVAP system, which is just a charcoal canister needing replacement. Don't know how to remove it yet, but I'll get there.
Next post I make on my page is going to have some interesting pictures! I still have that IM needing the holes filled, the MP3 ECU needing plugging-in, and the trailing arms installed.
 
Finding and eliminating clunks has to be the most satisfying job for anyone messing with cars, enjoy the peace and quiet!

Looking forward to seeing the shiny new parts go in and hearing how they go!
 
VTCS Removal: Part 2

Had a bit of time to kill after studying, so I took my high-temp quiksteel epoxy and stuffed the holes with them. This wasn't like the quiksteel outlined in the pdf tutorial on this site, so rather than rolling it and stuffing it down the holes, I had to grab globs out of the container, push it in the holes with a gloved hand, and keep pressure on the bottom with my hand behind some duct tape. It wasn't pretty, I got crap everywhere, but I know for a fact that the holes are 100% filled.

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It wasn't a very clean job on my part, sure, but any loose bits I can grind off with my dremel set to low speeds. It's cold as all hell around here, so curing's going to take ages. I don't have any form of a gas torch, so I wouldn't be able to speed things up (disregarding how unsafe that is on aluminum parts).

For now, it'll be sitting in my room and hardening. After this, it'll be grinding down the excess epoxy around the holes, cleaning up and rough spots where epoxy dripped, buying the two gaskets for installation (one between the upper and lower half of the IM, the other for the head connection), dropping in the thing, and installing the MP3 ECU. And hey, Spring Break is nearing, so perhaps it'll be time for more parts and pictures?
COMING SOON

Pictures of a change to my car I didn't disclose yet
 
Of course! I ordered a bunch of parts myself just to install this spring break hue hue.
The MP3 ecu hands down one of the best mods I've done, you'll love it. I haven't even done the VTCS mod yet I still love it.. I'll get to that eventually.

You could maybe get a cheap hairdryer and use that bugger on it for awhile? (rockon)
 
I really can't wait to drop this thing now! Everytime I mention it to someone who modified a P5 before, I always get told how much the ECU transforns the car. Add a removal of an airflow blockage, and surely it'll be even greater!

Just two more updates or so...
 
all this mp3 ecu talk makes me want to throw one in my p5 beater and try it out lol. but it won't compare to the msp obviously. i've owned an mp3 before and it felt really slow to me but it was also all stock with it's heavy ass stock wheels too so i know all of that wasn't helping my experience.
 
all this mp3 ecu talk makes me want to throw one in my p5 beater and try it out lol. but it won't compare to the msp obviously. i've owned an mp3 before and it felt really slow to me but it was also all stock with it's heavy ass stock wheels too so i know all of that wasn't helping my experience.

I told you you can borrow the ECU until the P5 is sold!
 
Solid motor mounts (go soft 70 durometer) + mp3 ecu were the best upgrades for a definite change in performance in my experience (thumb)
 
VTCS Removal: Part 3 (Plus Extras)

Spring break is approaching! Pretty soon, I'll have a week to just install everything and enjoy the benefits.

Today, I grinded down the epoxy blobs to match the walls of the manifold, but accidentally took too much off of two spots. I broke out the epoxy once more, lathered it on, and vowed to use a drum sander next time around. After that, my gaskets came in, so I officially have everything I need.

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Pardon the crap picture, but here's a close up...no more hole! It's still quite dirty, but I can clean that up.

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Everything's ready to go. Only thing is, I'm slightly nervous about the installation. It may not be a whole lot, but there's certainly enough to make me uneasy. Lots of fuel rail stuff, the strut tower bar, miscellaneous vacuum lines and coolant lines are in the way, and may be very old and brittle by now. This all could amount to one giant mess. Plus, do I have to take off the entire throttle body if I'm just replacing the upper-half of the intake manifold? It almost looks like I don't have to. I don't remember too much from when I yanked a [faulty] upper half from the junkyard, as I extracted it in an admittedly gung-ho manner. One thing's for sure; getting those bolts that secure the upper-half of the manifold won't be fun. I bought various extensions at various sizes for my...various ratcheting socket wrenches, so perhaps this time around it won't be such a struggle. Probably going to call over a pal to help me out.
Extra Stuff

I mentioned an "undisclosed" mod a little while ago, and here it is!

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Got a new headunit plus new speakers all around. The OEM one on my car began eating CDs and asserting itself as a pain in the ass, so after I failed to persuade it to work (as in, I punched the damn thing so hard that I caved in the little panel underneath the screen...), I went and got a new system. It's absolutely wonderful! The sound quality is astonishing, and even has a little USB drive for my MP3 player. I'm not going to have to bring 4 or so CDs with me everywhere anymore. I must say, some tweeters might sweeten the deal...
Well, just a few days ago, a record-setting blizzard ravaged the city. Record-high wind speeds topples fences and trees, and dear lord it almost took my car from me.

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That 40-some-year-old tree looked like it was about to fall on my car (perpendicular to the position of the tree), but another gust picked up and blew it back towards the side yard. Fellas, my build page almost ended, lol. Made me realize that if I ever had a part-out, I'd have a decent selection of items to sell.
Post-MP3 Tune?

After the IM and the ECU are installed, that leaves the trailing arms, and that about does it for this round of modifications. I have some ideas for future mods past this point:

  • Oil temp and/or oil pressure gauge
  • Voltmeter gauge
  • Lightweight crankshaft pulley
  • Short-throw shifter (hopefully one that works and fits properly)
  • Cusco front tie bar
  • Better seats
  • Used Tokicos/Koni strut inserts or New Coilovers
  • Motor Mounts
  • Headlight restore + blackout housing
  • Interior dress-up items such as metal pedal covers or mazdaspeed door sill plates
  • J-spec camshafts

That's my grand list of ideas. Realistically speaking, the crankshaft pulley may come sooner, since my accessory belt is starting to squeal and slip more often. That way, I can get in there, replace both belts, swap out the crankshaft pulley, and be done with it. Since I started racing, I really felt a need to get some gauges in my car to monitor it's "health" while pushing it hard. Pressure and temp say a lot, and can potentially keep me from killing it. The headlight "restore" I did is beginning to fade, as my job wasn't as good as I thought it was. Next time I do it, I'll use a different method, and use a power drill with an adapter for buffs and pads. When I'm done, I'll crack open those headlight units and give it a nice spray of black paint! Finally, I greatly miss the feeling of those bronzeoil bushings coupled with a solid shifter, so that's up there in priorities.

The maybes are motor mounts, the tie bar, volt gauge, and better seats. My driver seat has been broken for quite some time now, and a replacement is in order. I either do this the traditional way by getting a new seat at the junkyard, or take it a step further and buy racing seats.

It's either unlikely or far-off that I'll tackle coilovers or tokicos/koni inserts, interior dress-up items, and cams. I'm not willing to spend crap loads on suspension while the struts on my car are alright for now, nor does the gamble to buy used tokicos sound all that appealing. Plus, there's no real point in upgrading the suspension while I'm still learning how to race on stock suspension! Cams are something I really want to do, but know absolutely nothing about installation. Not only would I have to learn how to time an engine/remove the timing belt, but I'd have to become comfortable with exposing the head of the engine and exercise extreme caution. Freaks me out!
That about does it. That MP3 tune is so close I can almost feel my car redlining freely...
 
Looking good man, glad your p5 escaped the storm. I gotta say I really miss driving mine already, these b2200s handle like pigs in comparison and lord the acceleration is lacking. Keep up the good work, your build inspires me to fix mine [emoji23]
 
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