ouch, sorry dude, were you that frustrated?

HAHA, no, i traded my lx for a msp :) - then wrecked it, then bought another msp... (1st was 03.5, current is 03 - got pictures of my poor '03.5 somewhere. i know they are on my.prostreetonline.com/member/Jackelope

Alright, I looked around under the hood and found a couple of things that I want to ask about. I made photo's so you can see and be able to help better. Thanks in advance.

I found the housing of the MAF to be cracked on the side where the wires plug in. You can see it in the pic. Also you can see how the wires were cut and reconnected. The other thing I noticed was a short thin rubber hose that was only connected on one side. I'm holding it in one of the pics. The other end goes to a small "thing" where I find another hose that goes from there to a small black plastic can which is just hanging there (by 3 hoses). Also made a pic of that. 3 pics total, please take a look and see if you can help me find where it all needs to go. I really appreciate it.

To show how new I am to these Mazda's... is the P5 the wagon version of the Protegé? What is a 03.5... is that a P5 built in 03? Sorry for the nooby questions.

Here are the pics :S

http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=10/29413074132.jpg&s=x10
http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=10/29413032910.jpg&s=x10
http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=10/29412593159.jpg&s=x10

Oh and if you finally want to see my car:

http://www.putfile.com/miltonos

Okay the cadmium plated device with the two hoses is, I believe, the PSV or purge solenoid valve. the black plastic canister with the three hoses is the catch tank for the charcoal canister (itself located back by the fuel tank, I think). The PSV should have the top hose running over to the catch tank and the bottom hose running to a vaccum port on the throttle body.

Thank you! Do you think it could cause CEL to come on? What is it for?

It has to do with the evaporative emissions system (fuel evaporating out of the gas tank), and yes, it absolutely will cause a CEL. go plug the bottom hose back in where it belongs and tell us what happens. Oh, btw, your MAF is a salvage yard part, you can tell by the yellow paint on it, salvage yards mark stuff like that for identification.

^^yup. the cracked MAF housing could be the cause of a CEL as well, probably more so than the spliced wires.
BTW, damn, your wheels look familiar! Are they painted or powdercoated?
(Hey Matty, I thought I was unique)...

Sweeeeeet. I plugged the hose in, (awesome pic btw, thanks!) started the car and drove it around the block. It really seems smoother than it was earlier today. Great! I didn't reset the codes yet but I'll stop by autozone on monday and buy a code reader. I just don't know where the interface is to hook it up. I know it's near the driver seat/door.

How hard is it to put on a CAI? I mean does the MAF stay? Does a new one come with a CAI? I was thinking I could get a CAI instead of hunting for stock parts. Thank you too kargoboy!

Oh and the wheels.... they are the stock Mazda rims. Previous owner must have painted them black. Paint is chipping in some places so I'll have to redo it. I don't know who does powdercoating around here though..

You mean you didn't reset the ECU? Try that and you may not need to
take it to AutoZone again. Unplug negative battery cable, press the brake pedal for about 10 sec and reconnect.
CAI/SRI installation is very easy, even I did it in about 45 minutes and I'm not exactly a mechanical genius by any means.

As for my wheels, I guess I'm not the only silver ES with black stock rims! Roddimus Prime (Matty) powdercoated mine but I arranged shipping to/from Alabama from PA...I don't recall you mentioning where you are from.

I'll try that tomorrow then. Haven't really programmed my radio channels anyway lol. I'll let you know what happens. Usually it takes a day to come back on so I'll have to drive it a bit.

My car is a little off silver. More like titanium. But it's close :). Is powder coating such a big deal that you had to ship it off?

Well, I reset the ECU yesterday like kargoboy said and the CEL hasn't come back on. I drove it quite a bit yesterday and into work this morning which is about 20 miles through rain. Car runs real nice. :) Thank you all!

I'm sure I could have found a powdercoater closer but Matty was looking for some biz and I've grown to trust his work over the past two years. He did a great job and since I work for a Freight Forwarder the cost was not an issue for me.