New Old Protege5 to me, Looking for tips, advice

So I needed a replacement car real quick after the engine in my wifes tiguan blew due to lack of oil last week (fml)... new old engine on its way.


Anyways, I picked up a 02 protege5 with 150,000km, apparently only 20,000 put on in the last 8 years and grandma serviced. It lived on the north coast of BC so it has the salt effect of living close to the ocean for 16 years.

I live on a drivers roads, lots of curves, hills etc, no police ever. Turns out this car is perfect for this (lucky me).

The suspension was shot so i have a full set of Monroe quick struts coming to get in before the snow flies.

New battery going in.

The previous owner put new rubber on, had it shipped up here and parked it.

I was pleasantly surprised when i found out it had 2.0 in it. Fun to drive a non turbo for a change.



My questions....

Is there anything i need to look out for on this car that needs to be checked?

What are the easy performance upgrades to do?

Are there any preferred parts suppliers (no mazda dealer in my town)?


Does anyone have experience with these in extreme cold (up to -40?)


Anyways, i sure i'll be around here looking for guidance and asking those dumb "new to me" questions.

If it's got a standard transmission you probably want to put synchromesh gear oil in it or you'll be grinding your gears all winter long.

pcb said:

If it's got a standard transmission you probably want to put synchromesh gear oil in it or you'll be grinding your gears all winter long.

Click to expand...

i am in yellowknife, so -30c avg winter temps with excursions to as low as -45c.

are there winter weights for gear oil? or just "syncromesh" designation

There isn't really a winter weight listed, just an all season.



The synchromesh is designed for a manual transmission but it's thin like 10w30.

I think it's a GM product.

Regular gear oil is as thick as honey at -35 and your synchromesh gears won't spin.

Here's a link to the Factory Service Manual for our car.

http://www.floptical.net/mazda/

There are a few companies that make the synchromesh oil.