New guy here from oklahoma

[shawnu]

Hey guys, im new here. I had an acct on 6club when i had my last mazda 6. Ive had 3 mazda cars, a 97 626 4cyl 5 spd, a 04 mazda6 2.3 4cyl 5spd and recently i bought 02 protege 2.0 4cyl sunroof and all, unfortunately auto but the price was right at $2250 with 160k in great condition minus a little quarter panel "DIY repair".

Its recently started smoking on start up and i have the dreaded rear CLUNK.

I also have a 12 ram RCSB express with quite a few mods. Its my go fast toy. Lol.

Ill get pics up sometime. What rear endlinks do you recomened for stock hieght protege?


Thanks alot!!

 

[03protolx]

Welcome! Valve seals are likely worn, causing oil-burn off upon startup.

Your rear clunk could either be your upper strut mounts and/or sway bar links/bushings.
www.rockauto.com is a popular site with the mazda guys, you can find everything on there pretty cheap.

160k is nothing on these FS 2.0 motors, congrats on the purchase!

 

[MaxPower]

The infamous rear clunk was on the Mazdaspeed Protege. As 03protolx suggested, on the regular Pro, the clunk is the strut mounts or the sway bar endlinks.

 

[shawnu]

Thats what ive gathered so far! Lol.

And if its the same 2.0 that was in my 97 626, that thing was my first car that was bought at 217k and i drove it thru hell and back till it was in a wreck at 230k+ without a single issue besides the electric fan stopped working.

 

[03protolx]

It is, indeed, the same engine that you had in your 626. They've been making the FS 2.0 for YEARS. The only complaint people will have is the inability to have any sort of "high boost".

The FS has had numerous improvements over the years. 626's, mpvs, and proteges roll through my work constantly with over 200k, just an example of how reliable these are.

 

[shawnu]

Yeah, my ol 626 held up really good on the interior too, with 230k put it beside one with 50k and you couldnt tell the difference. This protege is really good condition too for the most part, interior really is nice, too bad its TAN!!

My 6 on the otherhand...POS. really fun car, but interior was falling apart and went thru a clutch in a year, tho i did drive it hard. But it was a exedy stage one with exedy LW flywheel. Oh well,

I have done some mods to my protege so far, kenwood excelon 697 deck, cheapo pioneer 6x8s, jbl 3way 6x9s, sundown audio sa12 in custom box 2cuft 35hz and a kicker zx750 with rockford OFC 4gauge. Looking to do the big three sometime soon before i fry that joke of an alt. Lol