Hi, New Protege5 owner with some questions.

02P5_06SRT

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2002 Mazda Protege5 & 2006 Dodge Charger SRT8
Sup guys and gals, I bought a manual red Protege5 back in March to fix and daily drive. Well I have the car running and I've been driving it all this last week. My question is can someone tell me if this car is stock ride height? I bought it so I could stop driving my SRT8 Charger daily but this thing rides as stiff or stiffer than my SRT8! If it isn't stock ride height would putting the stock suspension in soften the ride on this thing? A local salvage yard has a 2001 Protege Sedan I could snag the suspension out of if so, if its compatible? I've attached a few pics from when I picked the car up, fixing it, and a couple from today.
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well, looks to me to have about a 2" or so drop on it, probably has lowering springs. I am pretty sure the Protege's OEM springs will work on a P5, or you can buy some Moog Brand coil springs on Amazon for around $100 total for both front and rears...
 
well, looks to me to have about a 2" or so drop on it, probably has lowering springs. I am pretty sure the Protege's OEM springs will work on a P5, or you can buy some Moog Brand coil springs on Amazon for around $100 total for both front and rears...

Great, thank you. After a quick look im finding the moog Part #81109 coil springs for the rear. Will that same spring work on the front as well?

edit: Nevermind I found them, Moog part# 81238 for the front
 
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Cool man, you won't be disappointed with that P5!

Just from the looks of it, it's certainly lowered. User rsvinylgraphics's observation is valid.

Out of curiosity, could you take pictures of the actual struts as well? If it's as stiff/stiffer than your SRT8's suspension (beautiful American muscle btw!), then there's a possibility that it could have a set of Tokicos on them. To my knowledge, at least, I don't think springs alone would greatly stiffen up the ride.
 
definitely lowered.

However, just to set realistic expectations... even stock it is not exactly a "soft cushy" ride either. It's just the nature of the car, it's rough, bumpy, and has a ton of road noise. Honestly i've had lowered cars that actually ride better, but it is a really fun little car to drive. Handles really well, gets great fuel mileage, and super reliable. Lots of people on here are well over the 250k mile mark (myself included) with nothing but routine maintenance. The worst part about the car is they have a bad tendency to rust out up north, long before the drive train wears out... but being down here in the south it's not really a problem.
 
Cool man, you won't be disappointed with that P5!

Just from the looks of it, it's certainly lowered. User rsvinylgraphics's observation is valid.

Out of curiosity, could you take pictures of the actual struts as well? If it's as stiff/stiffer than your SRT8's suspension (beautiful American muscle btw!), then there's a possibility that it could have a set of Tokicos on them. To my knowledge, at least, I don't think springs alone would greatly stiffen up the ride.

I'll get pics later today. I know the struts are blue and the springs are Orange I believe.

definitely lowered.

However, just to set realistic expectations... even stock it is not exactly a "soft cushy" ride either. It's just the nature of the car, it's rough, bumpy, and has a ton of road noise. Honestly i've had lowered cars that actually ride better, but it is a really fun little car to drive. Handles really well, gets great fuel mileage, and super reliable. Lots of people on here are well over the 250k mile mark (myself included) with nothing but routine maintenance. The worst part about the car is they have a bad tendency to rust out up north, long before the drive train wears out... but being down here in the south it's not really a problem.

Yeah I like it so far. I am not expecting it to ride like a Cadi or anything but I think it should be softer than my SRT once I get the stock suspension back it. Back around 2007ish an ex of mine had a Protg sedan and it rode well from what I remember. This car has 275k on the body and needs some paint/body work that I may address when I move into my house that has a garage.

Thanks for the replies guys!
 
My 1989 Mazda MX6 GT Turbo had Eibach springs that lowered the car by 1.4 inches. The car had an almost Lexus-like ride with the replacement KYB shocks.

Fast-forward to today - My 2014 Mazda 3 with Eibach springs is lowered by about the same amount but these Eibach springs, even with Koni shocks are much stiffer, making the ride very choppy at times. Handling, fortunately, is much improved.

The Protg ES that my daughter drove for 8+ years was all OEM and its ride, good - quite a bit less harsh than my modified Mazda3.

I think you'll be fine with OEM springs.
 
Cool man, you won't be disappointed with that P5!

Just from the looks of it, it's certainly lowered. User rsvinylgraphics's observation is valid.

Out of curiosity, could you take pictures of the actual struts as well? If it's as stiff/stiffer than your SRT8's suspension (beautiful American muscle btw!), then there's a possibility that it could have a set of Tokicos on them. To my knowledge, at least, I don't think springs alone would greatly stiffen up the ride.

OK, so here is a pic of the struts/springs. Its the same on all 4 corners.





My 1989 Mazda MX6 GT Turbo had Eibach springs that lowered the car by 1.4 inches. The car had an almost Lexus-like ride with the replacement KYB shocks.

Fast-forward to today - My 2014 Mazda 3 with Eibach springs is lowered by about the same amount but these Eibach springs, even with Koni shocks are much stiffer, making the ride very choppy at times. Handling, fortunately, is much improved.

The Protg ES that my daughter drove for 8+ years was all OEM and its ride, good - quite a bit less harsh than my modified Mazda3.

I think you'll be fine with OEM springs.

Looking at the pic above, will the OE replacement moog springs work with those struts or should i get factory replacement struts as well?


edit: found this thread doing a search. I think I'll be ok just swapping the springs.
https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123709455-Are-Tokico-HP-(blue)-worth-it-over-OEM-KYB
 
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