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Thymighty's '97 Protege LX 5-speed

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    Thymighty's '97 Protege LX 5-speed

    1997 Protege LX, 5 speed manual.
    Purchased June 20, 2012 with 197,993 miles.
    Here's how it looked when I brought it home:




    Minor cosmetic issues included a busted LH front corner lamp, smashed RH tail light, missing gas cap. Those were addressed immediately. Parts were ordered and arrived three days later.
    Before:

    After:

    I have headlights on order as well, but they have not arrived yet. In the meantime, things are ziptied together:




    Taillight after replacement:


    Gas cap was missing, and paper towels were being substituted by the PO.

    Replaced with a new OEM Mazda cap for $8.00:


    I also took the slack out of the throttle cable:

    And put a new rubber cap on this doo-dad:

    Is there supposed to be a breather hose connected to this?
    I also have a missing rubber boot on the underside of the transmission. It's the rubber piece that covers the square opening where the shift linkage enters the transmission under the car. Does anyone know what this is referred to, or happen to have a part number?

    #2
    The breather tube is in the top-left corner of your last picture. The other thing you capped off is useless for 1997-1998 1.5L engines.

    If you can get a picture of the rubber boot you're talking about, I might be able to help. All I can think of right now that's square is the clutch fork dust boot, but I don't think that's what you're asking about.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by irishkev90 View Post
      The breather tube is in the top-left corner of your last picture. The other thing you capped off is useless for 1997-1998 1.5L engines.

      If you can get a picture of the rubber boot you're talking about, I might be able to help. All I can think of right now that's square is the clutch fork dust boot, but I don't think that's what you're asking about.
      Clutch fork dust boot is exactly what I was talking about, thank you. It was ripped in half and hanging from the clutch fork. Any idea where I could pick up a new one? I'm not seeing it listed on RockAuto (my normal odds and ends supplier) or eBay. I'd prefer not to pay dealership prices if at all possible. It appears I also need a new transmission oil drain plug and crush washer. The crush washer is pretty much done for, and fluid is leaking around the drain plug. I tightened it up and slowed the leak, but it warrants replacing.

      Comment


        #4
        Took it to the local Mike's and hosed it down last night too. Today I have to register it and will be picking up some new plugs, wires, oil, filters, and drain plugs.

        Comment


          #5
          The dealer price for the clutch fork boot really isn't that bad. I don't remember exactly, but I'll look it up and get back to you.

          Edit: it's $18.40 from WWW.jimellismazdaparts.com. I thought I got mine cheaper than that, though. I guess I was wrong.

          Stock code: F20216214
          Last edited by irishkev90; 06-23-2012, 10:15 AM.

          Comment


            #6
            Thanks Irish, i appreciate that.
            I buffed and polished the car this morning. The paint really isn't too bad:



            I also picked up two outer CV boot repair kits and a valve cover gasket.

            Comment


              #7
              What type of repair kit did you get? I replaced my driver's side outer CV boot and it didn't solve anything. The clicking was still there. I ended up just replacing the entire axle. Basically, if the joint is clicking, it's probably better to just change the axle.

              Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2

              Comment


                #8
                Fortunately, no clicking yet. The boots are just torn. There is still a lot of grease on the CV joint itself. I'm going to reboot them using the Dorman Quick Boot kit on one side, and and OE style replacement on the other. They only had one of each in stock at my FLAPS.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Is the Dorman boot the same diameter as the OEM boot? I looked around all the parts stores near me and they were either to large on the axle end or too small on the joint end. I didn't feel too hood about using something that wasn't the right size, so I got an OEM boot kit from Rockauto.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The Dorman Quick Boot is a two piece system. I've never used it before, but figured I'd try it out:

                    If it doesn't work, I've got no problem just getting a new axle.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I've seen that, I was kind of uncertain about it, though.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by irishkev90 View Post
                        I've seen that, I was kind of uncertain about it, though.
                        I have some reservations too. However, I did find a thread on the SR20 forums about this boot kit. Some of those guys were able to squeeze another 30k miles out of their axles with it.
                        I'll be tearing into the whole mess today. Hopefully I don't get any other unexpected surprises along the way.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Which side are you using the OEM boot on?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by irishkev90 View Post
                            Which side are you using the OEM boot on?
                            Drivers side for the OEM boot.
                            The Dorman Quick Boot was a major waste of TIME. If anyone is considering, be warned. Nothing about it is quick. It would be less time consuming to pop the hub off and pound the axle out than it is to use the Quick Boot system. You have to utilize a "solvent weld", a.k.a super glue, to put the two halves of the boot together. You can only weld one side at a time, and it takes an hour for the solvent to dry. If following the instructions to the T, the Quick Boot kit takes three hours to install. What a waste.

                            On to the good stuff. I noticed the oil seemed a bit low, so I did some poking around in the engine bay to see if I could diagnose the problem.

                            The valve cover gasket was in need of replacing. It was popping out in a couple places, most noticeably in the spark plug tubes. But it was also seeping a small amount of oil from the front and rear edges:


                            I also broke this dude when I was trying to gently pry it off the valve cover:

                            Once I had the valve cover off, I found a ton of sludge:



                            Here you can see some of the damage to the valve cover gasket. Fortunately it wasn't leaking into the spark plug tube yet.

                            So I had some cleaning to do. Here's the valve covered scrubbed up with the new gasket installed:

                            I got it all cleaned up and put back together with fresh oil and a new filter. I had to sub in this nifty blue hose from a spare eBay intake I had laying around the garage.


                            When I drained the oil, I only got 1.8 quarts out of the pan and filter combined. There is some residual oil under the car, that appears to be coming from the driver's side edge of the pan gasket. The crush washer on the oil pan was also deformed and oil was leaking around it's edge. I replaced the crush washer, and will need to order a pan gasket for next time.
                            All in all, everything went better than expected, up to the CV boot debacle. I'll be ordering replacement axles soon.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Hopefully that driver's side axle comes out easier for you. O had a hell of a time trying to pop it out. I ended up taking the inner joint apart so just the joint cup/axle stub was left in the transmission. My dad then welded a bolt across it, wrapped a chain around it and got it out with a slide hammer. What a pain.

                              Comment

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