Prospective Protege5 Owner

[adirtyshisno]

Hello everyone, new to the forum as you can see.

I've been looking into getting a second car as a daily to lightly modify. I'm about 99% sold on the protege5 as it fits my requirements (wagon, manual, A/C for socal summers), and I have heard nothing but excellent things in the reviews and other things I have read about the car.

Currently my only car is a 1990 Miata, so I'm not new to the Mazda family. Have had the car for four years, and am going to start doing more serious modifications, hence wanting a daily.

I have some questions since I do not personally know anyone with the car. I tried searching the forum prior, but did not find much relevant info. Forgive me if I have made an error!

Are there are specific things to look out for in the car? Any common problems? So far all I have seen is that the headlight bulbs go out frequently? Lol not much more than a minor nuisance, it seems.

Also, I have found some seemingly good deals on my local craigslist for clean looking cars that are well maintained, however relatively high mileage. (180k+) Should this be a concern? The car seems fairly simple to work on, being a four cylinder Mazda so I'm not scared of getting my hands dirty. But these cars I have found on craigslist seem to be in very good condition other than mileage, so I'm probably going to check them out. Just wanted to get as much info as I could on the car before I pull the trigger!

Thank you everyone! Hope to join the club soon!


Edit: Here is my current car, in case anyone is curious:

 

[NaturalFlavored]

If you work on cars and know what to look for in used cars then there's not much to say. Rear panel rust is a big problem if you live in a snowy area, I don't so I don't worry. VTCS screws fall off into the engine on certain ones but im sure if the car is still driveable without any issues this long then it's not a problem.
Other than that the bushings on the car are cheap so change them when you get it, all of them as well as mounts. Also the rear brake drags due to the ebrake, fix is to upgrade to bigger brakes/rotors.
https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123855397-You-know-what-needs-to-be-a-sticky
Everything else should be in here.

 

[pcb]

Our engines like to get seized oil rings and start burning oil.
It can run fine with no smoke but still burn A LOT of oil.
Make sure regular oil changes were part of the maintenance.

 

[323]

typical things to look out for are:

- like what pcb said, engine likes to burn oil. out of my 4 protege's that ive owned, only one of them burns oil and it was clear that the car was pretty neglected. never had a problem with the other 3, 1 of them being a high mileage one at 190k.
- motor mounts tear pretty easily on this car. that's easy. buy oem replacements and with motor mount inserts or fill them yourself. that'll help it not tear as quickly again
- flicking a/c in speeds 2 and 3. there's a fix somewhere on this forum

i can't think of anything else at the moment

 

[adirtyshisno]

If you work on cars and know what to look for in used cars then there's not much to say. Rear panel rust is a big problem if you live in a snowy area, I don't so I don't worry. VTCS screws fall off into the engine on certain ones but im sure if the car is still driveable without any issues this long then it's not a problem.
Other than that the bushings on the car are cheap so change them when you get it, all of them as well as mounts. Also the rear brake drags due to the ebrake, fix is to upgrade to bigger brakes/rotors.
https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123855397-You-know-what-needs-to-be-a-sticky
Everything else should be in here.

Thank you! I was looking for something like that thread.

Thanks everyone else. Doesn't seem too bad, sounds like typical old car problems mostly. I'll definitely keep an eye out for burning oil and do some compression tests on any cars I check out!

 

[pcb]

... I'll definitely keep an eye out for burning oil and do some compression tests on any cars I check out!

Compression is usually fine so it's really hard to detect until you drive it a good distance and realize it burns more oil than gas.

 

[stormkyori]

Also the rear brake drags due to the ebrake, fix is to upgrade to bigger brakes/rotors.

How do you notice this? I will be needing new rotors and pads soon so if you're saying there's an issue, it would be more effective to fix as a whole all at once.

 

[NaturalFlavored]

You can hear it screech when you drive. I just hit the brakes a couple times and it goes away. Hasn't bothered me much so I'm in no rush to change em.

 

[smetzger]

Tend to be emission issues.

Make sure you do an OBDII scan. If anything shows up as not test yet, I'd pass. I'd rather get a car with a CEL on and know what codes its throwing than deal with a seller that is trying to pass something off on me and not having any idea what the codes may be.

But other than that my Protege's have been great cars. Not fast, but handle very good. My P5 is my daily and bad weather car and then I drive the NC for Auto-X and weekend's with good weather.

 

[TheMAN]

If you work on cars and know what to look for in used cars then there's not much to say. Rear panel rust is a big problem if you live in a snowy area, I don't so I don't worry. VTCS screws fall off into the engine on certain ones but im sure if the car is still driveable without any issues this long then it's not a problem.
Other than that the bushings on the car are cheap so change them when you get it, all of them as well as mounts. Also the rear brake drags due to the ebrake, fix is to upgrade to bigger brakes/rotors.
https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123855397-You-know-what-needs-to-be-a-sticky
Everything else should be in here.

That's VICS screws, not VTCS... due to a combination of manufacturing defect and cost cutting design (did not affect Mazdaspeed, MP3, and JDM versions because of better design/parts used)

Most common things to go bad on these cars are motor mounts, coil packs, and EGR valves... the rest aren't of real consequence

these cars are among the easiest to work on cars, with simple electrical system ("advanced" compared to an early 90s car)

be sure to go to www.protegefaq.net to learn more

 

[grffn]

make the jump! i personally hopped onto a P5 as my only car for a daily and i actually really like it.
pretty good handling too compared to most cars, also reliable, easy to work on and cheap to fix. ive heard many people had problems with rust so just make sure to keep an eye on that
theyre not fast but may feel like it at times, but seeing as you have a miata it shouldnt be a problem.

had a miata myself prior to getting it;p

currently..