lowlevel's Proteg 5 Rescue

[lowlevel]

Some discoveries/notes after driving the car to work and back over the week... some of this might have been mentioned in previous posts...

Discovered that cruise control works... winning!

A/C light wouldn't come on yesterday, but today it seems to come on and then start flickering wildly.. I think it came on fine when I got the car... I don't think the compressor is cycling with the light, but hard to tell with all the noise and vibration while driving. I'm going to try the flickering a/c fix detailed in the how-to section when it warms up a bit outside.

RPM's seem to drop off a bit when there is some electrical load.. (I start to roll the windows down, or open the sunroof...) I find myself giving it a little gas to compensate... I probably shouldn't have to do that.

One of the fog lights is out. (oh joy.)

The cup holders are designed to allow bottles and/or coffee cups to tumble out of them whenever you start from a stop. No wonder there was so much coffee residue spilled into the centre console.

I keep locking myself in when trying to exit... I've discovered my knuckles are hitting the 'lock' button as I pull on the handle...

I'm finding the 'lock tab' or whatever it's called pokes me if I rest my arm on the window opening... so I might have to modify that slightly for windows down season.

I seem to be able to get the 'vibration noise' to stop by yanking up on the parking brake... however using the brake pedal has no effect on the noise. I hear the noise coming from the passenger side front, but I suspect it's actually coming from the rear.

I think the springs in my wiper blades are a little weak...

Steering wheel shimmy comes and goes.. and ride is quite rough sometimes. Other times it's fine... I'm thinking it's the likely the winter tires... The grip on them is amazing.. I've never felt so much confidence in slippery conditions.

Rear wiper kind of stops in odd places when using the intermittent setting... I've been putting it on full and it seems to work fine in that position. When I turn it off the arm stops wherever it is, so I have to time it so that the wiper arm is in the horizontal/park position when turning it off.

Some of the lights behind the insturment cluster appear to be out.. hopefully they're replaceable bulbs and not soldered on.

 

[lowlevel]

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.

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)

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 seem to be able to get the 'vibration noise' to stop by yanking up on the parking brake... however using the brake pedal has no effect on the noise. I hear the noise coming from the passenger side front...

I picked my friend Mike up today and had him listen to the noise... and he also hears it coming from the front passenger foot-well... He seemed to be puzzled by it, but said since it's only happening while moving, it's probably in the drive line... he said there is an intermediate shaft there with a bearing, and it could possibly be that...

So, with that idea.. I figured I'de do some digging online.. and came across this post, in the protege5 forum here no less

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...r-bearing&highlight=intermediate+up+down+moan

Mine is shot.. Unless the the new wheel bearings i put on are bad. And we all know they could be. But the bearing noise is out of the passenger side floor board.. And i can feel it in the wheel.. Steering isnt changing the noise.. Only the weight of the whole car going up and down as i go up and down hills.. None of the part stores list the Intermediate shaft or the carrier bearing thats on it.. Is this a dealer part only??? Hope not.. Them sons of bitches..(sssh)
PS. I know its not the tires on my car as they were fine untill I drove to wausau wisconsin. The bearing noise started on the way back.. And takes about 5 mins or so on a cold car to start acting up in the morning. The longer i drive the louder it gets...

Thanks JT

This sounds an awful lot like what I'm experiencing.. The only thing that seems to affect my noise as well, is shifting the whole cars weight to the back. I'm going to reply to this post and see if he/she ever had this resolved.. since the thread didn't seem to go anywhere.... I suspect getting at that sucker's going to suck hard.

 

[lowlevel]

Stopped by an auto salvage place on the way in to work to look at a midnight blue passenger front door... ended up asking for both sides since they are in excellent shape as far as rust along the bottom goes. There is one little dot of rust in the middle of the driver side door which looks like an easy fix. No pics today.. an Arctic air mass has settled over the area and I didn't wanna stand around taking pictures. (lol) They're going to remove them for me and I can pick them up on Saturday. The doors will probably sit in my garage until spring...

Sad news.. cruise control stopped working... light still comes on but it won't hold any speed or accelerate. Suspect vacuum leak...

 

[lowlevel]

... cruise control stopped working... light still comes on but it won't hold any speed or accelerate. Suspect vacuum leak...

Now it works... *boggle*

 

[David1206]

I have no use for the cup holders. I did discover that the spot between my seat and the E-brake works better at holding things than the cup holders do.

 

[lowlevel]

I have no use for the cup holders. I did discover that the spot between my seat and the E-brake works better at holding things than the cup holders do.

I like how they look, with the closing lid... but they are hilariously bad at holding drinks. I'm attempting to get the 2003 center console to swap in for now but when I get it out, I think I will try and modify mine so the cup holders are deeper... I think there is enough room there anyway. The silver paint is looking pretty bad.

 

[lowlevel]

Picked up the two front doors from an auto salvage operation... they're in much better shape than my doors... you can't really tell from the picture, since they're dirty... but there isn't any rust that I can find on the new pair...

 

[lowlevel]

Picked up a 2003's leather wrapped shift knob... a little rough, but I like it anyway... should be able to get the leather wrapped steering wheel and ebrake handle as well next time I go out that way...

 

[lowlevel]

The noises in the car have changed a little bit over the past 2000km or so... There was a groan noise that I was hearing mainly when coming to a stop.. sometimes it would come and go while driving along (in any gear, at any rpm/etc.) This seems to be totally gone, and I didn't do anything.

I'm now hearing what I think is a heat shield or exhaust rattle at 3000 rpm either when accelerating , maintaining at, or decelerating... And the same sound at 2500 only when decelerating. (both in gear and out.) It's similar enough to the other noise that I'm starting to wonder if maybe I was just totally mistaken and this was the noise all along. At least with this rattle/buzzing noise, it should be pretty easy to find once the weather improves... until then I'll just avoid cruising at speed/gear combinations that hover around 3000 rpm.

Alternator belt started to squeal a bit here and there again, mostly on the really cold days ... it should be glazed pretty good by now.
Clutch isn't slipping AT ALL now in any gear... which I find pretty weird considering how much it would slip when I got it. *shrug*

Looking forward to better weather...

 

[lowlevel]

Sunday we finally got some decent weather... I wanted to replace the front end links and sway bar bushings, do an oil change and get the summer tires on at the same time... didn't end up getting everything done. Oil change went smoothly... I used the Amsoil 10w30 synthetic that Paulo gave me with the car, and a mobil1 oil filter from crappy tire. Front passenger side end link was really loose where it connects with the sway bar... and that bolt was stuck pretty good.. ended up cutting it off with a dremel. Driver side end link seemed fine, but on that side, the sway bar bushing was worn enough to hear ticking. So I found two noises, one on each side of the car. I did manage to free three of the 4 bolts that hold the sway bar brackets on, but the last one just wouldn't budge... I decided to just put the summer tires on for now and try again next weekend since I was running out of daylight... when I tried to swap the rear tires, they were stuck again and now the jack points don't seem to be very safe, so backed off on that for now too.

 

[Halucod]

Nice intake. Im pretty sure I have the same one lol. It sounds great doesn't it?

 

[lowlevel]

Nice intake. Im pretty sure I have the same one lol. It sounds great doesn't it?

Yeah... I like bombing around town with it in the 6000rpm range... lol

 

[lowlevel]

I finally got around to putting the used oil into the containers to get rid of it... and it turns out there was only about 2L of oil in the engine. I'm a little puzzled by this as I had checked the dip stick several times over that past 5000km, and it had always read full. I checked it cold in the mornings, perhaps it needs to be checked hot? Will consult FSM.

Had a shop replace the tie rod ends and do a 4 wheel alignment last week...

Blew out a rear tire today on the highway... Jack was missing something to turn the jack screw.... used the bolt that held the spare in. Spare tire was low... probably hadn't been checked since the car was new... I probably should have looked at it at some point myself.... *smack*

Looking for some 205/40R17's or 205/45R17's I guess that aren't going to be $1000.

Used up.

 

[lowlevel]

Got some new tires on the protege the other day there... apparently after the tech backed out of the service bay and parked my car he shook his head in disgust (according to my wife...) If he did, I'de like to think he was disgusted with my choice of cheapo tires and not the car (lol)

I went with Hercules 205/45R17 RAPTIS WR1 ... purely motivated by the price. They had some bad reviews, and people complaining about them in the rain, but whatever... I'll just take it easy in the rain and give them a shot. I paid under $400 for all 4 mounted/balanced/new valvestems/etc. They claim it's an 'ultra high performance' tire... So far they feel kind of floaty compared to the old ones (205/40R17 Bridgestone Potenza RE-050) ... could be the higher sidewalls too I guess.

Previously, there was some steering wheel vibration on the winter tires which I just chalked up to flat spots... the summers also did it but not as bad... so now it seems to be fine with the new tires... so yeah, all the old tires are garbage. Hopefully the problem is gone for good.... car is still pulling to the left a bit at high speed... I'll probably run it by the alignment shop again and see if they'll adjust it.

 

[lowlevel]

The new tires (Hercules Raptis WR1) seem to be fine in heavy rain... Exhaust starting to rattle a lot at idle... Alternator slipped enough to turn the battery light on... both low beams burned out... think I'm gonna drive the wifes car until I can at least take a look under the car and make sure the exhaust isn't going to fall off.

 

[DOMO]

Check the heat shield under the handbrake. It's notorious for rusting through and resting on the exhaust and make a lot of noise. Both my pro's had that issue

 

[The_big_dill]

Top tip on the oil checks. Make sure you are on level ground or your readings will be off

 

[Pimpecoven]

Check the heat shield under the handbrake. It's notorious for rusting through and resting on the exhaust and make a lot of noise. Both my pro's had that issue

+1
Happens to me all the time, then it will go away and I can't get it to rattle for the longest time, then out of nowhere it's back lol, notorious with the short shifters

 

[lowlevel]

Check the heat shield under the handbrake. It's notorious for rusting through and resting on the exhaust and make a lot of noise. Both my pro's had that issue

Thanks for the tip... kind of figured it was that, just can't get under the car without putting it up on jack stands... and it's been raining and cold since winter!

 

[lowlevel]

Top tip on the oil checks. Make sure you are on level ground or your readings will be off

Will make sure of that... the factory service manual says to warm the engine up, then turn it off and wait 5 minutes before checking as well.
So, that's two things I probably didn't do.