Woohoo !

[Bill in Houston]

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

thats exactly what Im using now Bill

Great minds!

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

thats exactly what Im using now Bill
the other stuff was dextek or something like that. supposed to be more dense in its application, but what ive found is it simply turns to dust upon any contact. which is what makes me think maybe I got a bad can of it.

Yeah, it does sound like a bad batch. Weird.

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

and with luck, I can also use these as a mold for making fiberglass caps, and then sell them on the mazda protege forums

Sure, it seems like other people could want something similar. A nice way to finish off that hole...

[d0sitmatr]

well, hit a slight wall (literally), the fog light bracing completely covers the back end of the opening. so the only real way to attach these is to remove the fog light and the bracing itself, which I certainly dont mind doing, but its going to take quite a bit more work than I was prepared for today.
other than that, its coming along pretty good, I have the coro cut and shaped and the holes I will need to use for attaching it set and most of the trimming is done.
only a few things left before putting them on now, but not sure if Im going to be done today as its going to take quite a bit of work to get those fogs off...
and on top of it, the batt in my cam is dead so no pix yet.

[A.J.]

[QUOTE=d0sitmatr;247017]
once installed his hwy rpms should drop into the range of 2800 @ 70.

That sounds nice! I am not so good mechanically speaking, so I go around the problem: I drive 55 on the interstate. (Yeah, people are annoyed, but hey they can always pass me, that's what the left lane is for!) Also, the sound level in the car at >3000rpm, tends to give me a massive headache

Good luck with your swap

[d0sitmatr]

yea, I agree with you, the hwy rpm's are pretty annoying, but that is what my stereo is for
I wont be able to go the route of a swap for a few months, I simply cant afford it, but it is something I plan on down the road, as I plan on keeping my mp5 for a long, long time

[d0sitmatr]

man, I cant believe this...
normally, when I get a newish vehicle, the first thing I do is go over it with a fine toothed comb, well, I was so happy to get the mp5 and how well it ran that I didnt do that as normal, found out the guy I got the car from had a different set of rims on the car when he owned it, and just slapped those rims (with new tires, at least) on it to sell it.
not that I really mind, but if I had gone over the car as I normally do, I would have found that the 2 rear tires were rubbing the struts the entire time....
so now, I have 2 brand new tires that are completely ruined (still have all the nubs on them...)
1 tire has a fairly large chunk out of the inner wall, coupled with a thin wall line around the entire circumference of the tire, about 1 inch wide.
the other tire has developed a bulge in it about 6" long, that pushes out into the tread and out to the inner wall of the tire about 1/2 inch or more.

all I need to do, if I had looked earlier, to save these tires, is get 1/4" spacers...
I am fully kicking myself right now.
the upside is that Im thinking my mpg will only benefit now since there is no rubbing.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

the upside is that Im thinking my mpg will only benefit now since there is no rubbing.

Gotta be true.

[d0sitmatr]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

Gotta be true.

not sure how accurate this is, but my SG2 has read a fairly consistent 1.3/1.5 increase in the avg setting. previously was around 28avg now its been around 29.3-29.5
Im having the new tires put on today, so with luck it might help even a little more.

[d0sitmatr]

what I learned today....
never... EVER... mess with any aftermarket wiring...

my fogs have never worked, and even though Im not planning on ever using them, I like to know why something isnt working. so I took them off today to see if the bulbs were burnt.
they arent, actually they look brand new
however, I did find they werent actually plugged in. but the person who owned the car before me had spliced some wire between the foglamp feed and the turn signal feed (see pics below). but I havent a clue as to why, since the wire only splices between those to locations.
however, when I plugged in my fogs and tried to turn them on, still nothing. no big deal as my covers are almost done and I wont be using them anyways, right ?
wrong...
now, my dash lights arent working, nor are my tail lights !
brake lights work fine, and my tails do come on for about 20 secs when I activate the alarm, but they dont come on with the switch...
turn signals and front parking lights work, headlamps work (except 1 hi-beam, with a new bulb in it as well...)

so I started today with 1 hi-beam not working and my fogs not working, and now I also dont have gauge lights or tail lights....
any ideas ?

[Joenavy85]

I've had a similar and yet completely different issue with my Jeep. A few years back my brother-in-law installed a new stereo in the Jeep and screwed the wiring up. When I would start her up all the gauges would max out, drop to minimum and then to wherever they were supposed to go, that and the odometer wouldn't log trips that were under about 8 miles. On top of that the radio wouldn't save the station presets or the time. After a while (and after I moved to a new place that had a garage) I pulled the head unit out of the dash and started tracing wires and also checked fuses, sure enough the fuse for the stereo itself was blown (which explained the radio memory issue), I replaced the fuse and set the stations on the radio and all was good. That is until I left her sitting in the driveway for an entire weekend without driving her, Monday morning rolled around and my battery was dead dead dead, so dead it wouldn't even click the solenoid. So I got a jumpstart from a friend and drove to work. That night I traced the stereo wires again (more carefully this time) and found that the constant hot lead (that I replaced the fuse for) and the Ignition hot lead had been wired together, so whenever the fuse was in place I was effectively powering the ECU and everything else, which is what killed the battery. The only problem I have now is that if I shut off the ignition before I turn off the Head Lights they will turn off when I turn the knob to the "Parking Lights Only" position but will turn on again when I turn the knob to "all off", and I have to cycle the knob again to turn the Head Lights all the way off, but if I turn the lights off before the ignition there are no issues.

I would say check all you fuses, since there was no issue until you plugged the fogs in. The alarm would feed the lights through a different circuit which would be why they still work with that. I know that my tail lights and dash lights are on the same primary circuit, and that my foglight and headlight relays are separated to each side (left side on 1 fuse, right side on another fuse). I'm assuming that the Hi-Beam that's not working is on the same side as the foglight you plugged in?? if so I can about guarantee it's a fuse issue. The fogs are probably wired together off of one of the "side circuits" (probably the same circuit as the Hi-Beam you lost use of). Now, as to why you lost the dash and taillights as well, I have no idea.

[Joenavy85]

It just popped into my head, the previous owner may have tapped onto the Hi-Beam circuit for the fogs so that he could only use them at the same time as the Hi-Beams. Most(all?) modern cars are wired so that you can only have one or the other on, but never both at the same time. Still doesn't explain the dash lights and taillights though.

EDIT: read you owners manual and check how things are gruoped onto fuse circuit, he may have tapped more than 1 circuit, which would allow him to have the Foglights on whenever he wanted. Tapping multiple circuits and not putting in diodes can really screw things up sometimes, maybe this is one of those times.