Thoughts About My Protege at 4300 Miles
 

I thought some of you might be interested in my experiences with my car now that it has 4300 miles on it. I'm happy to report that I have had no problems of any kind, mechanical or otherwise. The coldest temperature I've driven in so far is about 20 degrees F and there have been no problems so far with noise from the VTCS on start-up. Has Mazda provided a fix for this problem?

I do most of my driving in the suburbs or out on the road- very little in cities. One week after buying my car, I drove it to Niagara Falls, Canada from New jersey with my family. We also visited the Hockey Museum in Toronto. The car was fun to drive, gas mileage was surprisingly good for a new car and we all had a great time. I haven't run the car over 85 MPH yet because I want it to break in a little more and have the 5000 mile oil change done at the dealer first. After that we'll see.

I agree with just about everyone elses opinion on the board that the protege is a great handling car in stock form. I've had a chance to run some really twisty roads in eastern Pennsylvania and in Vermont this past summer and the handling makes for maximum fun. In the Spring, I'll be in the market for 15" or 16" alloy wheels and new tires and I'll be back on the board to ask for advice then.

Shortly after I acquired my car I added the MP3 Strut Tower bar kit and then an AEM Short Ram intake. I've since removed the AEM in favor of my modified factory air intake system since I think it gives better low speed torque and performance in everyday driving situations, as compared with the AEM.

To sum up, the car is fun to drive and very reliable. I like the way the car looks, too. Owning the car also gave me a chance to meet a great bunch of people at the two meets I attended. I've also learned a lot from the very knowledgeable members of this forum. I made a good choice when I bought this car.

02 DX Millenium Red
MP3 Strut Tower Bar kit
AEM Short Ram intake(sometimes)

Glad to hear that you are enjoying it. I don't know how you manage to keep 'your foot out of it', we've taken ours up to about 120mph and haven't hit the governor yet (anyone know where it is?) and there is only 6k on the car! :bt:

i have a 99 lx, and the govener hits at 115 for me, but its good to hear your having fun in your new car.

That's awesome dude. I'm at 3000ish miles and i don't have any problems either :P
It's good to hear something good on this forum for once ;P

I hit somewhere between 195kph and 200kph (that is somewhere between 121mph and 125mph) and the engine didn´t cut off.

I say "somewhere between" because by the time I saw it hit 195kph, I looked up at the road (while still speeding up a bit), and noticed that I was going to run out of road in a short time... so I had to start slowing down, when I looked up again, it was at 195kph again, on the way down.

I´m sure the car can probably do somewhere around 130mph or 135mph.

Most fun I´ve had as a driver. As a passenger, I´ve once rode shotgun in a Z28 at 250kph (155mph). That was more scary than fun since I was not the one driving.

So how about some more?

37,000 miles on my P5, and my ONLY mechanical issue is a very slightly warped brake rotor (vibration, but only when braking gives it away - but it's VERY slight).

Other than that, everything is still perfect mechanically speaking. I've got a few bumps and bruises, but nothing major. Both my front and rear bumpers will get a once-over and re-paint someday (front from rock chips, etc, and the rear from those asshole parking garage attendants who LOVE to back my car up into others). The windshield will need replacing sometime too (LOTS of "sparkle" from sand-blasting - the glass seems a bit weak).

But engine, transmission, suspension, electrical - all major systems are still 100%.

Thumbs way up for Mazda reliability! :bt:

~HH

10k miles on a 2002P5. Zero problems. About ready to change out the spark plugs just for yucks. Bought 40 online. Hope they're the same OEM plugs as my 2001SE Miata (NGK BKR5E-11). Guess I'll see when I pull one.

howcome my 2000 1.6 dx protege can only go up to 100 mph??

I believe those are the P5 plugs also. Just for "yucks" is cool, but you really don't need to change them until 30,000 miles.

~HH

Probably because I have a different version of the Protegé (read signature). It´s a slightly different engine... for example, the MAF is on a different position, and I would have to do a little bit of a hacksaw job if I wanted to install an Injen intake.

The ECU probably works different as well, so it wouldn´t be surprising if the governor was different or not active (I did hit almost 7,000 rpm once while racing someone).

I might post some pictures of the engine this weekend just for you guys to compare the differences between the American and Latin America version. I´m going to post some pictures of the door panels too to show something I did to them to stop them from rattling.

is it an american, protege, because i have a 1999 1.6 lx, but i dont believe the engine is any diffrent, i just thought it was the options like the tach, and stuff. mine hits at 115 mph.

Not to be off topic but
 

since we're talking about how fast we've been in our cars, allow me to change the subject slightly, because I know we all love speed, no matter what the vehicle.

I also own a 2001 Suzuki TL1000R and this past summer at about 2am on a long straight empty highway, I made the speedo read 181 mph. Knowing the mechanics of the thing, I've come to the conclusion that I was doing about 160 - 165 mph.

Now that was fun.

There are times when I'm in the car doing 100 - 110 and I barely notice (on an empty highway mind you) all because of that one time I went 160 - 165.

I've been spoiled, and it's pretty dangerous when you consider anything under 110 to be "not as fast as before..."

Sorry for the off-topic, but I couldn't help but tell when I read all the previous posts.

Re: Thoughts About My Protege at 4300 Miles
 

How did you modify your factory intake? Just curious, been thinking about this myself. I dont care for any of the aftermarket, overpriced ,cold air kits out for this car.

thats an awesome bike, i have a 2001 yamaha yzf 600, and its fast enough for me.

Re: Not to be off topic but
 

Your speedo read 181mph? You forgot to mention how fast your heart was beating. I bet it was somewhere around 181 as well.