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- Protege5 2003
I've been trying to fix up my 2003 P5 to repair some previous owner's none too skillful repairs. Last weekend it was the broken bumper cover clips. This weekend it was the misrouted air mixer cable, which provided the wonderful feature that air was either cold or hot, but nothing in between. Since that didn't take too long to do, including disabling the auto A/C and defrost
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55382
(thanks zapwizard!) I figured, I'd better change the plugs too.
Everything went fine for three plugs, working left to right, but it went south while pulling the second coil upward (the one attached to the longer wire). As it came out of the hole I could see for about 1/10th of a second that there was a big gap in the top of the little rubber boot which lives down at the bottom of the vertical plastic connector - at which point the little boot fell off and straight back down the hole! Choice words were uttered. I can see that little bugger down there, with about a 1/3 of an inch chunk missing from the outer edge and some of the inner part gone as well. Apparently at the best of times the only thing that holds the boot on is a ridge on the plastic connector, and if the rubber breaks, as here, the boot just falls off. Note there was nothing I could do to prevent this - the first point I saw that the boot was broken was also the instant it fell off.
So I called up a Mazda dealer and it turns out that stupid little piece of rubber costs $40 (KJR118T08), whereas an entirely new coil is $89.67 (ST8518100C). I didn't have any forceps long enough to get down into the hole to remove that rubber, so I carefully pushed the coil back into place, tightened up the bolts, and luckily it made a decent connection - the motor runs and it isn't even rough. So I can wait a little bit before dealing with this mess.
When I do fix this the first problem is going to be getting the broken boot, and any little pieces of it, out of the hole. I'm thinking a nice pair of straight and sharp 10" forceps should do the trick, not that I own anything like that. Is there a simpler tool available for retrieving this boot?
Secondly, I really hate to pay Mazda $40 for a piece of poorly engineered rubber. Is it possible to relocate the existing coils and run a set of 4 normal plug wires? I figure for $40 one can probably obtain a set of wires with the right electrical characteristics that will fit, and have enough cash left over for a few bits of mounting hardware from Home Depot to hold the coils.
Thanks.
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55382
(thanks zapwizard!) I figured, I'd better change the plugs too.
Everything went fine for three plugs, working left to right, but it went south while pulling the second coil upward (the one attached to the longer wire). As it came out of the hole I could see for about 1/10th of a second that there was a big gap in the top of the little rubber boot which lives down at the bottom of the vertical plastic connector - at which point the little boot fell off and straight back down the hole! Choice words were uttered. I can see that little bugger down there, with about a 1/3 of an inch chunk missing from the outer edge and some of the inner part gone as well. Apparently at the best of times the only thing that holds the boot on is a ridge on the plastic connector, and if the rubber breaks, as here, the boot just falls off. Note there was nothing I could do to prevent this - the first point I saw that the boot was broken was also the instant it fell off.
So I called up a Mazda dealer and it turns out that stupid little piece of rubber costs $40 (KJR118T08), whereas an entirely new coil is $89.67 (ST8518100C). I didn't have any forceps long enough to get down into the hole to remove that rubber, so I carefully pushed the coil back into place, tightened up the bolts, and luckily it made a decent connection - the motor runs and it isn't even rough. So I can wait a little bit before dealing with this mess.
When I do fix this the first problem is going to be getting the broken boot, and any little pieces of it, out of the hole. I'm thinking a nice pair of straight and sharp 10" forceps should do the trick, not that I own anything like that. Is there a simpler tool available for retrieving this boot?
Secondly, I really hate to pay Mazda $40 for a piece of poorly engineered rubber. Is it possible to relocate the existing coils and run a set of 4 normal plug wires? I figure for $40 one can probably obtain a set of wires with the right electrical characteristics that will fit, and have enough cash left over for a few bits of mounting hardware from Home Depot to hold the coils.
Thanks.