lowlevel's Proteg 5 Rescue
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bikingpro5
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- 03 Protege5
Well it could be one of many 4-1 headers, if it was a 4-2-1 it would be easier to figure out what i is. Either way its better than the OE junk.
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It's a ractive 4-1 header the name plate probably fell off because it was tack welded on. Look at the bottom of the header where the 4 pipes come together. If it looks like it's either rubbing against ur oil pan or sitting really close to it it is definitely a ractive header.
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Ask me how I know
bikingpro5
Member
- :
- 03 Protege5
cheap Ebay ones rub the oil pans as well.
Sweet ride! I wish mine had been free... Glad to see a P5 saved from sitting, and I wish for it to be a great car for you.
Thanks! Paulo said he kind of owed me and felt he should just give me the car considering how much work it needed... I think I'm up to $2000ish so far. The only thing that has me concerned about keeping the car going long term is the rust... hopefully I can head it off and get at least a few years out of her anyway.
I took a closer look and you are correct about tack welds. Looks like basically just on the 4 corners.
The header was painted or coated after this plate was tacked on.. and the missing plate reveals uncoated metal.
There are two O2 sensor bungs on it...
-the upper one, is positioned at the point where the 4 pipes join into 1... goes in on the right side of the header. (when looking at it from infront of the car)
-the lower one, is positioned after the curve under the car.. and goes in on the left.
And of course you can see the EGR feed off the right there in the pic...
I'll check how close to the oil pan it is next time I get in there...
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Pulled the battery tray to see if that would give me more room... sheered one of the fasteners clean off with two finger pressure... (it's easily accessible so maybe I'll try extracting it just for fun/experience.) The last time I was under the hood, I was trying to get the new EGR positioned, and was having a hell of a time in the cold... dropping my wrenches, sockets, bolts, gasket/etc. I had to give up... so I had a few minutes lastnight and figured I'de try again.
With the old EGR, I was able to just hold the bolts in as I positioned it, the bolts would keep the gasket on there and aligned. On the new one, there's a bunch of hoses attached that really make it difficult. The instructions say to remove the motor mount.. f-that, not happening... they also suggest using glycerin to hold the gasket in position.. hmm, don't have any.
I put the bolts through the egr.. put the gasket on... and then on the forward most bolt, I put a twist tie.
This held that bolt in, and the gasket on... now all I needed to hold onto was that rear-most bolt...
Got it in no problem after that!
(yeah I removed the twist tie before tightening the bolts)
Now I just have to do the plumbing.
With the old EGR, I was able to just hold the bolts in as I positioned it, the bolts would keep the gasket on there and aligned. On the new one, there's a bunch of hoses attached that really make it difficult. The instructions say to remove the motor mount.. f-that, not happening... they also suggest using glycerin to hold the gasket in position.. hmm, don't have any.
I put the bolts through the egr.. put the gasket on... and then on the forward most bolt, I put a twist tie.
This held that bolt in, and the gasket on... now all I needed to hold onto was that rear-most bolt...
Got it in no problem after that!
(yeah I removed the twist tie before tightening the bolts)
Now I just have to do the plumbing.
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I finished putting the EGR in... engine seems to run pretty good now. Originally I was planning to change the coolant, but the stuff in the car is green... the Mazda service people gave me this yellow/gold coloured coolant so now I'm not sure which one is the right type... Anyone?
Car still has some problems of course... my assumed stretched Alternator belt squeals alot more since the temperature dropped, Front passenger brake caliper is sticking a bit... I noticed this when I took the front end apart/put it back together... I get this awful buzz/rattle noise occasionally and I'm wondering if its the pads vibrating .... It seems to stop if I brake or turn right. Still clunks when going over bumps... sound like upper portion of strut to me, but mike thinks it might be the swaybar links... exhaust still rattles/buzzes when engine pivots on mounts. Two of my snow tires seem to be leaking air... clutch didnt seem to slip as bad today, but I think I'm just getting used to it. I guess the next items to deal with are belt squeal, brakes... tires will probably be after that.
Car still has some problems of course... my assumed stretched Alternator belt squeals alot more since the temperature dropped, Front passenger brake caliper is sticking a bit... I noticed this when I took the front end apart/put it back together... I get this awful buzz/rattle noise occasionally and I'm wondering if its the pads vibrating .... It seems to stop if I brake or turn right. Still clunks when going over bumps... sound like upper portion of strut to me, but mike thinks it might be the swaybar links... exhaust still rattles/buzzes when engine pivots on mounts. Two of my snow tires seem to be leaking air... clutch didnt seem to slip as bad today, but I think I'm just getting used to it. I guess the next items to deal with are belt squeal, brakes... tires will probably be after that.
I tightened up the alternator belt just a little, put some air in my leaky tires and took it for a spin. The belt didn't make a peep in a whole half hour of driving around in all kinds of situations so that seems to have done the trick! I'm starting to get a feel for what you guys all love about these cars... it's a fun little car to boot around in.
The belts are a little tricky to get just right. I drove mine with a squeaky belt for a few weeks. When I finally fixed it it took MAYBE 20 minutes. Mine is a blast to drive around, and it has basically no mods! New tires always make a car more fun too, let us know when you do
(rockon)
Cool... Yeah I've always felt tires were about the only thing I would want to upgrade.... But yeah, took me about ten minutes to tighten the belt... I just unbolted the cruise actuator to get in there since I didn't think I could get my hands in there otherwise. Today I had the window open when I shut off the engine.. and I hear a noise for a second or two now ... sounds almost like a belt continuing to turn, but rubbing or sliding against something... not sure if this noise was there before... its possible.
I had been meaning to try the summer tires to see if they had less vibration over 80kmh, and get the snow tires to my buddy Mike to break down and remount/balance/etc. since theyre all leaking from around them rims and or through the valve stems... While I had the wheels off I re-torqued the axle nuts and used a punch to crush the part of the edge of the axle nuts to lock them in since I hadn't done that yet. Found my 12mm socket on the driver side ABS sensor (lol, oops)... probably not the best idea to drive the car in the snow with summer tires, but I took it out anyway and it does seem much better. I won't know for sure I guess untill the roads are clear...
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Not sure why, but out of all the socket sets, impact sets etc in my garage... I didn't seem to have a single 21mm socket to get the wheels off.. and the closest SAE one was just a tad too tight for my liking. Picked up one at princess auto.. also got a one man brake bleed kit. I spent an hour vacuuming the floor mats today so I could put them back in the car. They were full of debris, spider webs and sand. Also put the center console back in the car. New calipers, pads and rotors have been installed in the front. Other two tires/wheels are on, leak free. Maybe I can finally put some kilometres on this thing now. Will have to take it out for a test drive...
Drove about 50km today... brakes arn't sticking now... steering wheel still vibrates a little bit at 100km-120km/hr .. but it's much better than it was before. I still am getting a loud vibration noise that sounds like it's coming from the front right... only happens while the car is moving, and today it only happened once for 2 seconds while I was coming to a stop. It seemed to happen a lot more often previously... but time will tell I guess.
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I'm noticing that the steering wheel shimmy comes and goes... there doesn't seem to be any one speed it shows up at, or any thing I can do to make it come on or go away. Anywhere from 60km/h up to 120km/h the steering wheel can start shimmying... then a few minutes later, it's perfectly fine. There is also kind of a slight roughness/vibration that is always there, but I think that may be due to the rough tread of the winter tires, since that felt better on the summer tires.
In a previous car, (1998 Plymouth Neon), I had steering wheel shimmy that would show up above 80km/h... The tires were balanced several times, normally, road-force balanced, balanced on the car, high speed balanced... etc. In the end, I found a forum post of someone else having that issue.. there was a harmonic kind of vibration that was happening above 80km/h due to that rear most lower control arm bushing being completely worn... and my problem was finally solved when I insisted the mechanic change that bushing.
So, I'm thinking with my Protege 5, there could be a few things causing my .. come and go steering wheel shimmy...
-The tires are not perfectly balanced, and sometimes get in a position in relation to each other that exaggerates the issue... (mmmm?)
-I'm getting a kind of harmonic vibration sometimes due to my known incorrect positioning of the lower control arm bushing... (hope not, but I'm thinking this could be it... )
-My tie rod ends are worn... they felt solid to me while tugging on them, but they are old... and probably the only thing I didn't already replace in the front end besides the end links.
-Alignment? (kind of doubt this... I'm thinking alignment would really just affect tire wear, and not contribute to the steering wheel shimmying.. anyone have an opinion?)
I think I'll try the summer tires again on a decent day...If the shimmy still happens, I'll be reasonable sure it's not due to tires... and continue my game of parts darts. (lol)
I'll probably replace the inner and outer tie rod ends and get an alignment before giving in and buying new control arms.
In a previous car, (1998 Plymouth Neon), I had steering wheel shimmy that would show up above 80km/h... The tires were balanced several times, normally, road-force balanced, balanced on the car, high speed balanced... etc. In the end, I found a forum post of someone else having that issue.. there was a harmonic kind of vibration that was happening above 80km/h due to that rear most lower control arm bushing being completely worn... and my problem was finally solved when I insisted the mechanic change that bushing.
So, I'm thinking with my Protege 5, there could be a few things causing my .. come and go steering wheel shimmy...
-The tires are not perfectly balanced, and sometimes get in a position in relation to each other that exaggerates the issue... (mmmm?)
-I'm getting a kind of harmonic vibration sometimes due to my known incorrect positioning of the lower control arm bushing... (hope not, but I'm thinking this could be it... )
-My tie rod ends are worn... they felt solid to me while tugging on them, but they are old... and probably the only thing I didn't already replace in the front end besides the end links.
-Alignment? (kind of doubt this... I'm thinking alignment would really just affect tire wear, and not contribute to the steering wheel shimmying.. anyone have an opinion?)
I think I'll try the summer tires again on a decent day...If the shimmy still happens, I'll be reasonable sure it's not due to tires... and continue my game of parts darts. (lol)
I'll probably replace the inner and outer tie rod ends and get an alignment before giving in and buying new control arms.
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My wife and I had some errands to run last night when I got home... so we just took the protege... The loud vibration noise, or groaning would not shut up the whole time she was in the car. (And neither would she, lol) There was a lot of clunking as well that doesn't happen as often or as from as many different places when I drive the car alone.
Today, I put about 40lbs of brake parts in the trunk and drive it to work, and I don't hear a single clunk or vibration noise/groan at all in the whole 80km drive..not a peep. I'm wondering if rear bearing noise could 'sound like' it's coming from the front... so I'm gonna have a look at those next I guess.
Today, I put about 40lbs of brake parts in the trunk and drive it to work, and I don't hear a single clunk or vibration noise/groan at all in the whole 80km drive..not a peep. I'm wondering if rear bearing noise could 'sound like' it's coming from the front... so I'm gonna have a look at those next I guess.
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