[DEFUNCT] The College-Budget P5

Back in my hands; future plans

God, it's been so long...or at least it felt like it. One can be separated from their mechanical friend for so long before the days slow to a crawl.

Ultimately, I couldn't get my weld nuts off. By extension, I couldn't get my heatshield off, so I was advised to send it into the shop. Blocking off the driveway frequently is a great way to piss off the ones you live with, so I had to go with it. Man, didn't even get to put the new Mazda6 brake assembly myself...no sir, just had to send it all to the shop. The old man isn't fond of me screwing with my daily, which I can understand, but can't a guy enjoy a spot of tinkering every once in a while? Then again, I don't blame him too much, since I did brick my car behind his for a night, and that didn't go well.

While the P5 was gone, I had another vehicle to use. It was also a lovely shade of yellow, but was even older than my car. It certainly helped me get places, but can't say it was nearly as fun:

:^)
Rie1wj0.jpg


Anyhow, the shop I dropped the vehicle off of was one that the family's been going to for quite some time now. The owner's good people. He almost always gets the job done really quickly and with high quality, and never pushes/upsells any other maintenance routine or item, and only brings up fixes of interest if its important or pertinent. I told him that the brakes I bought were off of a Mazda6, and he had no problems installing them.

They look fantastic!

6f4kmKR.jpg


I got what was supposedly an upgrade to the stock 2003 Mazda6 brake caliper. It's by a company called "Powerstop", and of the reviews and forum postings I read about them, they seemed pretty solid. Plus, they were awfully pretty.

One thing, though. The banjo bolts are in awkward positions, and do not allow the brake lines to rest in their typical strut-mounts. This is a slight cause for concern, as that means that the calipers I bought are not a true "bolt on" mod. My mechanic told me that if something bad ever happens to the lines, which after test-driving the car they believe wouldn't happen, that I can bring it back in and they'd fix it up for free. Heck, driving it today didn't feel goofy, so I think I'll be fine. Perhaps these calipers need Mazda6 lines to go with them, or perhaps I should do a braided brake line upgrade? Either way, I love the fact that they don't shake the skeleton out of me whenever I brake.

Here's the unmounted brake line:

4nSJ20r.jpg



So, what's next?


I met a guy during Time Attack who took a shine to me. He knows a thing or two about welding, so I'm thinking about doing a bit of a trade with him. I'll lend a hand in his many projects in return for reinforcing my struts for the rear sway bar! I'll finally get that bar in...christ, to think it's been almost a year since I bought it...

I've been saving up and doing research on new wheels and tires. I'm almost ready to commit now. There's a mad sale going on; I can get a set of four Konig Controls for about 250 bucks!

Finally, I gotta get an Intake Manifold worth a damn. I still have that bad broken one sitting in my garage. I want to turn the MP5 into an MP5-MP3 (MP3-5?), but need an actual part. I got into contact with a guy parting out an MP3 north of me, but the pinhead forgot to meet with me the day we arranged to commit to the transaction. I haven't heard from him since. Jesus I was so close to owning a stock MP3 intake manifold...irresponsible people make me angry!!

Suppose that'll be it for a little while. I've started summer semester, and have a few time attacks to attend in the meantime. I'll upload pictures, and hopefully be able to keep up with you folks.

Man, it's been quite a ride so far.
 
Oh you definitely need SS lines my friend. Love the feel of them. Smooth brakes even when done suddenly. I'm sure they will feel great with the Mazda6 calipers.
 
I would suggest that if you do go with SS lines, find a set that are long enough to fit in the strut mounts.

Maybe ones for a Mazda 6 or something or maybe you can order them by length somewhere.
 
Little Update

I've been really out of it after I had my septoplasty yesterday. The opioid pain killers certainly don't help, but beats the hell out of the throbbing-burning sensation I had in my nose.

So, a few things have transpired in the past few days:

+ The replacement lower grille that I ordered arrived

+ I bought foglight deletes! They'll arrive monday

And most importantly...

I finally took the plunge and ordered a new set of tires and wheels. They're Matte Black 16x7 +40 Konig Controls coupled with 205/50-R16 Yokohama S-Drives. Now, I won't have to burn up my all-seasons when I go race! I think I might get a set of cheap steelies of the same measurements for winter.

With all of these new parts, my car will look a little more aggressive. Can't wait. I also can't wait to fully recover from the surgery, either.

And lastly, I was playing around with the idea of designing a heatshield for the cold air intake instead of wrapping it with heat reflective tape. Perhaps I could put heat reflective tape on it...

I'll probably make a more coherent post in the future. Besides that, summer semester is really taking off quickly and ramping up the difficulty fast, so I may not have the most amount of time to hang around on here.
 
Foglight deletes and replacement lower grille ahoy:

vKZiCLK.jpg


Never realized that the foglight deletes were solid, and not perforated. Not that I'm disappointed, hell no, it's that I figured I'd get some of these to put on the car along with the CAI I was given. You know, because I thought there'd be perforations like the lower grille. Oops!

If anything, this is reassuring, since the chances of water getting to the filter are drastically lower.

So, all I got to do now is get out there put everything together. But wait! I can't. I'm not allowed to stress my body in any way until the splits in my nose are removed, else I bleed out through my nose to death, or something. Christ, everything I'm excited for is at the end of the week!! Absolutely cannot wait to fix er' up good and to take it for a spin on the new tires and wheels.
 
Glad you got them! Can't wait to see how they look on the car.
I definitely felt the exact same way when I discovered they were solid and not perforated
 
Glad you got them! Can't wait to see how they look on the car.
I definitely felt the exact same way when I discovered they were solid and not perforated

It'll be nice, haven't done anything with my car in a long time. Can't "strain" myself either, else my clots in my nose explode open or something...ah well. At least they're out tomorrow! It'll be lots of fun putting a little rarity on my car while replacing the old ratty lower grille.

Unfortunately for me, whoever took my order at Discount Tires accidentally ordered just one Konig wheel instead of a full set. I was still charged for all four, so thankfully, the other guys there busted ass to get me the last three. Got two coming in from Georgia and one from Kansas, lmao. Goodness I'm so antsy to see them, and now I gotta wait until till next week!
 
A cause for concern

I'll begin with the good news--the guys at DT somehow corrected the shipping problem at a stupidly fast rate, since my wheels will still arrive tomorrow! Badass. These guys always come through.

Now, the bad news.

I returned from the College today with the intention of putting on all my new cosmetic doodads. Just out of curiosity, I popped the hood and just took a good look and listen. I quickly heard and identified the source of a vacuum line leak. The line that goes from the outlet poking directly straight up from the IM runners into the cruise actuator is the culprit. It ripped towards the top of the outlet. I went and bout some replacement 5/32" line for it, so it's just a matter of pulling the old one out and putting in the new one. Simple.

But hey, that's the lesser of the bad news. The other noise I noticed was a bit of ticking from my engine.

**** man...I'm praying that my valves just need readjustment or something else otherwise benign is the reason why. It's a very subtle ticking; slightly more percussive than the typical mechanical idling sounds you hear. Even more weird is that it's only on for a few seconds, then it's gone, then it comes back. I need to get someone on the gas pedal so I can check for bad news.

Damnit. I love this car so much, but it's giving me a steady stream of problems! I wish I had more know-how and experience working on cars.
 
every 2.0 protege ive owned has valve ticking. never really bothered to fix it. i think its pretty normal lol.
 
Hey man where did you buy the fog deletes and lower grill? Mine is all bashed up and I never use my fogs.

https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned). This seller shipped them quickly, and it's of decent quality!

As for the foglight covers, Gabe710 here directed me to a facebook group dedicated to selling, trading, and buying Mazda Protege parts. A dude on there sold me those for pretty cheap, considering that I saw an online store sell them for 80 bucks (and now almost 300 bucks!!)
 
https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned). This seller shipped them quickly, and it's of decent quality!

As for the foglight covers, Gabe710 here directed me to a facebook group dedicated to selling, trading, and buying Mazda Protege parts. A dude on there sold me those for pretty cheap, considering that I saw an online store sell them for 80 bucks (and now almost 300 bucks!!)
Ya 300 is a bit outta my price range thanks for the info man
 
Crisis Averted; Minor Facelift

...Duh, my dumb-ass forgot to check my oil level. It wasn't dangerously low, by no means, but low enough to cause a very slight tick occasionally. How careless of me...ended up running over the the store in the family beater to get some oil, so it's good now.

Well, I did pop the hood anyways to get everything a good look-see, and I made one discovery that may or may not be of interest. The video doesn't do it justice, I swear: my upper pulley here is wobbling noticably, and may need attention sometime:


Well, with that misunderstanding cleared up, I moved on with the other projects I planned. I removed my really bashed up and faded lower grille and popped in the new one. Simple enough:

Sn34CQV.jpg


I mean, look at that thing...glad it's gone!

Next step was to remove the front bumper to get those fogs out. I've done this several times at this point, so it was easy and fast.

cENjiGV.jpg


Raising the thing on my new ramps granted loads of wiggle room, too.

jnHOSJ0.jpg


Bumper off, fogs about to come out and get replaced.

Also, I went and got about two feet of 5/32" vacuum line. Quick and easy fix! Now that I think about it, this may be the reason why cruise control wasn't working for me.

3FkuZ31.jpg


With the bumper all fixed up, I took out the old airbox and intake assembly and put in this CAI. I want to start getting intake air temperature readings to see if this thing suffers from heatsoak like I'm anticipating it to.

SnPqU4r.jpg


I need to strip off that gaudy black and red paint on the heatshield and bolts, jeez. Talk about a bad idea.

But hey -- I must say, I was not expecting the CAI to really transform my car's sound!


I can hear the throttle butterfly open if I stomp the throttle! Wow, I can see why butt dynos love CAIs. I drove around, and my car sounds a heck of a lot meaner with it on. But hey...a louder growl doesn't mean jack. Can't wait to get some OBD readings and scans.


In Conclusion


I gotta be careful. I love this thing, yet I constantly forget about the valve seals. From here on out, I'll adhere to a strict weekend maintenance schedule where I inspect my vacuum lines, my tire pressure, fluid levels, and where I do a minor engine bay clean-up. Plus, this thing really tidys up nicely now with the new grille and fog deletes.

Oh, and did I mention that I repainted the grille I cut a hole in for the goldstar airbox mod? It was faded badly and stuck out sorely, so I corrected that.

vtQzWBA.jpg


I'm in love! Can't wait for those wheels n' tires to arrive.

As for maintenance, all that remains is to replace the rear splash guards.
 
Last edited:
Damn really? I see at least one a day here in Washington sometimes 2 or 3

I live where the state douchebag car is the Subaru Impreza WRX/STI, which means that almost all car meetups look like a damn Subaru dealership lmao

No kidding; everyone here drives an Impreza of some form. As a result, everyone wants one, and its super profitable to get a bad one, fix it up, and flip it for some hella big wang gang bro dollars!
 
Wheels!

They came in, and oh my goodness. I haven't been this giddy since I got NFSU2 for christmas many years ago; look at these things!

VKym1Nb.jpg


Kgl5aL9.jpg


UDSOOsn.jpg


The offest and width pushed the wheel assembly to be just sub-flush with the fenders. I'm in love.

Curiosity gripped me as I headed to a twisty road I knew of. How sticky these Yokohama S-Drives are blew me away!

God man I can't wait for the next time attack.
 
I feel it, there's a ton of suburu guys here in WA too. If it's not a impreza slammed on it's nuts and cambered till the tires don't touch the road, then it's a civic with the same Damn setup XD. Great looking rims btw and what size do those yokohamas come in? Will they fit the stock rim?
I live where the state douchebag car is the Subaru Impreza WRX/STI, which means that almost all car meetups look like a damn Subaru dealership lmao

No kidding; everyone here drives an Impreza of some form. As a result, everyone wants one, and its super profitable to get a bad one, fix it up, and flip it for some hella big wang gang bro dollars!
 
I feel it, there's a ton of suburu guys here in WA too. If it's not a impreza slammed on it's nuts and cambered till the tires don't touch the road, then it's a civic with the same Damn setup XD. Great looking rims btw and what size do those yokohamas come in? Will they fit the stock rim?
Thanks man! I was smitten when I saw their design. Those Yokohama S-Drives came in 205/50 R16, and quite a few other sizes that I'm forgetting. You can fit 205s on the stockers, too!
 
Back