Brand New to the Protege5 World

nathanagnew

Member
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2003 Mazda Protege5
IMG_9097 2.jpg

Recently picked up my very first Protege5 from my mother-in-law, who bought it new from the dealer in 2003. It has been garaged its entire life, with the exception of the few months I've had it. I bought it with 81k miles, which seems borderline insane for a P5 nowadays. The paint is in really solid shape, with the exception of some fender and rear passenger dents where my wife ran it into the garage door back in high school. I just replaced the passenger-side mirror because she cracked the inside structure of the mirror when that happened, which looked fine but it had some shake when driving at high speeds. The new mirror is black, which makes me want to replace the driver-side with a similar black one. Father-in-law is from Hong Kong, so he's into "race cars" so he put the rims on the P5 a few years ago.

So far I've barely touched it, with the exception of a few small things. Black neoprene front seat covers because my wife works as a swim instructor and I wanted to keep everything dry. I updated the factory radio with a really nice touchscreen with rear-view camera to keep it with-the-times. I replaced the engine mounts last week (and managed to break my finger in the process) and today I found a fiberglass grill upgrade on Facebook marketplace. I'll probably paint the grill white eventually, but for now I'm going easy with it.

Future plans: I want to switch the tail lights for JDM and see if I can find a Mazdaspeed front lip (which is borderline impossible, if you have one please tell me). I'm also tossing around the idea of having custom roof rack made for the car, but that might be overkill. Most of the ones I find sit too high, so I'm looking for something really low profile.

Overall, its an insanely cool ride and I'm very pleased with it. If yall have any advice, I welcome it!

--Nate from Fort Worth
 
Welcome to the forum! Good to see another white P5, looks real clean!
JDM tail lights are on my list too, a bit hefty in price but worth the upgrade in looks imo. MS front lips are real hard to find, people hop on that quick.. I guess keep an eye out on the marketplace section of this forum. I've been rocking an S204 lip from subaru's, should check that out in the meantime.

Should lower it!

As far as roof rack goes, the factory roof racks are quite hard to find. I know you can get a whole Yakima roof rack set for around $400 for our car. It can either go on your roof via the clips on the doors, or you can cut out pieces of your roof rack delete strip to mount the landing pads (which is risky, delete strips seldom come up as well!). I personally picked out the Yakima SkyLine (4 pack), Yakima jetstream 50", and the Yakima landing pad 11 (need two sets as they're sold in pairs). The Yakima SKS locks come out to an extra $50 if you want those. It's just a matter of when I'm willing to pay that much.. If you're going to go custom, keep me updated! I've been researching nearly all possible roof rack options for our car as I can't seem to find the factory racks..

Good luck and hope to see more posts from you soon!
 
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If the timing belt hasn't been replaced in the past, i would replace that before it breaks somewhere and leaves you high and dry! Common to old cars with low mileage, many times you'll find it's the original belt and probabl pretty dried out.
 
Welcome to the forum !!

If you have any questions I'm sure I can find a diagram for you.

Here's one showing all the general maintenance including things you might not think of...
(that reminds me, I need to check my battery electrolyte level.. )



 
I know you can get a whole Yakima roof rack set for around $400 for our car. It can either go on your roof via the clips on the doors, or you can cut out pieces of your roof rack delete strip to mount the landing pads

Great advice! Thanks for the reply. Hows your rust level coming from Hawaii? I know that Mazdas from this era can rust through pretty significantly.

I found a guy on a Rav4 forum that made his own roof rack styled from a *really* expensive brand. I liked the general design and I think that it would work well on the P5 if the design was shortened. I haven't seen anyone with a custom rack like this on a wagon, outside of maybe a Subaru. In terms of originality this would be the way to go. The bar light would be kinda rad too,but that might ere on the side of off-road wagon (which the P5 could never practically pull off). IMG_9115.JPGIMG_9116.JPG

One of the fears I have is making the car too "2006 high-school rave scene". I'm trying to keep it all very clean and nice, but also original and uniquely "me". The P5 scene has apparently mellowed out and car enthusiasts in general have started being more practical in their tastes. Nobody is doing really balls-to-the-wall builds anymore, which could be a good or bad thing, I'm not sure.

I found two Mazdaspeed front lips from two different guys, I'm in the middle of negotiating for one of them. If you want one, I can give you contact for the one I don't buy. One is yellow, one is blue.

Either way, I'm excited to really start messing with the car. I got it for an incredible price, so I'm willing to do some crazier things than a car I spent more money on. Its my daily driver, but might as well have fun.
 
If the timing belt hasn't been replaced in the past, i would replace that before it breaks somewhere and leaves you high and dry! Common to old cars with low mileage, many times you'll find it's the original belt and probabl pretty dried out.

That's a great point, good save. Father-in-law is your typical by-the-book Chinese guy, so he always took it in for maintenance at the Mazda stealership he bought it from. I'll check and see if its the original belt, but theres a chance it got replaced.
 
If you have any questions I'm sure I can find a diagram for you.

Thanks for the welcome! I appreciate the diagram. I'm incredibly thorough, so I bought the Mazda dealer maintenance manual a few months back when I first bought the vehicle. GOOD PRICE TOO. Its saved me a few times now.
 
I've got the factory wiring diagrams manual as well and it covers a lot of stuff the download doesn't show.
Let me know if you need a wiring diagram.
 
Great advice! Thanks for the reply. Hows your rust level coming from Hawaii? I know that Mazdas from this era can rust through pretty significantly.

I found a guy on a Rav4 forum that made his own roof rack styled from a *really* expensive brand. I liked the general design and I think that it would work well on the P5 if the design was shortened. I haven't seen anyone with a custom rack like this on a wagon, outside of maybe a Subaru. In terms of originality this would be the way to go. The bar light would be kinda rad too,but that might ere on the side of off-road wagon (which the P5 could never practically pull off). View attachment 219740View attachment 219741

I don't have any problems with rust on my car believe it or not (maybe 2 or 3 dents smaller than a finger nail that accumulated a bit of rust), which is weird seeing as I live in the middle of an ocean. I know a huge problem with rust on these cars are the quarter panels though.
That's sick, I was thinking about building a custom basket when I get around to ordering a roof rack. The bar light is definitely offroad-ish, but if you like it then that's all that should matter :)
 
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Timing belt is a whole kit: valve cover gasket, timing belt, cam gear oil seals, tenion rollers, and water pump with gasket. You have to change the water pump because the tension of a new belt will destroy the worn bearing in an old pump. The only thing the kits don't come with are a new tension spring and the oil-resistant RTV sealant that gets applied to only a couple spot on the valve cover - refer to Factory Service Manual pdf.

Always carry spare headlight bulbs in the trunk. P5s go through them several a year.

Radiators and alternators usually die between 120k and 140k miles. If the car overheats shut it off right away and get a tow, the head can warp. Both are "easy" to change, except alternator is a beeotch to pull out the top through the gap where the cruise control resides.

Tie rod ends and swaybar links are wear items to be checked and changed.

Make sure you grease the pins on calipers when you do the brakes.

~~~

I may sell my parts car's roof rack soon...
 
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