# Mazdaspeed Protege #702 Audio Mod



## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

This is my first install of any car audio. Wouldn't have even tried if it wasn't for this informative forum. I love teh interwebs. After a few weeks of studying around here, I'm going for broke!

*Part One - Driver's Side Front Door Speakers*

Going from 5" x 7" in. stock Kenwood Excelon components to 8.5" Exile XT65 components. Installing Raammat and Ensolite.

Mazdaspeed Protege front panel removal instructions courtesy of Chulyer1 at Mazdas247.com, here.

MDF sealing tips courtesy of Rudeboy on our board, here.


*Pre Mounting Baffles*
Remove door panel and stock speaker (clip molex off of wires - note: Mazdaspeed stock speaker does not have rainguard). Apply painters tape to mounting hole. Scrape enough plastic around the speaker baffle to soft press and fill most holes. Avoid contaminating the mounting screw holes. Clamp in place and fill any crevices with more plastic. Removing the plastic door seal leaves a trail of sticky adhesive. I used strips of Raammat to cover the adhesive first.


















I continued to apply Raammat while the plastic hardened. When the baffle is removed, it has a nice seal. Remove the tape and finish covering the door. Cover the outer door panel. Use two layers behind speaker. Apply a single 12" x 12" square of Ensolite behind speaker placement. Raammat specifies one layer of Raammat behind the speaker placement, but no more.

Run a bead of silicone sealer over the molded plastic base of the speaker baffle. Press fit in place. Attach with countersunk screws. Wipe any slop. Apply Raammat up to top edge of speaker baffle.


















Apply a layer of Ensolite to inner panel. Despite the fact that pretty much everyone recommends covering all holes, I left openings for wires. I had to cut the inner door panel to fit the speaker back. I used a vintage Dremel with a new EZ-cut disk for metal. Attach crossover and test speaker. If all is well, disconnect the crossover and mount the speaker. The XT65s have an integrated tweeter, so I snipped the tweeter on the door sail. I ran the wires to the crossover back through the door and out. Attach the crossover.


















Apply Ensolite up to the edge of the speaker baffle. Apply Ensolite to the inside of the door panel. Remove the styrofoam blocks, they won't fit anymore. Use the plastic cutting disk to remove the raised plastic ring around the inside of the door panel speaker grill. Finish with the carving bit and clean-up. Fit the crossover into the cavity in the lower left corner of the door panel where the styrofoam block was. I just taped it in for now. Reattach panel.










I will complete the passenger side tomorrow. So far, a couple of hitches. Not all the screws would go back into the door panel. I think I dropped a threaded clip somewhere in all this. Also, the door handle is stiff and does not return. I need to remove a sponge piece from the inner mechanism on the door handle because it drags on the Ensolite. Not sure what I'm going to do in the end, but I'm leaning towards cutting out the door panel and using the attractive Exile grill. Also considering installation of crossover to the outside of the door panel so I can gaze at it. If I step up to an aftermarket speaker wire, I'll probably have accessory power run into the door and install some lighting effects into the door behind the grill. I have green on the cabin lights and red-orange for instrumentation and accent lighting.

The test sounded really nice. The Exile XT65 components are a noticeable step-up from the stock Kenwood Excellons. I noticed a lot of air hitting my leg down there. Is that normal? I am a bit nervous now because my current amp is pushing only 80 watts, and the upgrades can push 180-360W at 4 Ohms bridged. The speakers are rated at 175W so maybe i'm going to need to rethink this.


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## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

I'd imagine the air is coming from the woofer pushing it....nothing wrong with that

Nice car to begin with....Not as small as a Miata perhaps but still like a go kart especially compared to the larger sedans out there...

When I deadened my van doors, the door cards/panels where pretty thing so I also had some resistance when putting things back and w/the locks and handle. Had to do some trimming to fix it....BTW, I definitely need one of those nice cutting discs for my Dremel...it's almost 10 years old but in mint condition.


Jeremy


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

*Part Two - Passenger Side Front Door Speakers*

Going from 5" x 7" in. stock Kenwood Excelon components to 8.5" Exile XT65 components. Installing Raammat and Ensolite. A few notes:

*Passenger Side Door Panel Removal*
The 2003.5 Protege's passenger side window control is not removable from inside the door panel because the release clip for the molex is against the door panel, and not reachable. I broke one of the mounting pins learning this. Instead, remove the door panel and press the window switch housing (armrest) up from the inside. It is held on by a clip and pops out easily. The molex can be released at this point.

*Fitment Note About Door Handle Pull*
I had a heck of a time fitting the Door Handle Pull back into the panel during reinstallation. This is due to the fact that one layer of Raammat and one layer of Ensolite are enough to prevent the Door Handle Cup from sliding deep enough to allow the screw to meet up with the threaded plate. I had to gouge the Ensolite layer off and force fit the handle. In future, I will apply the Raammat and then replace the door panel, and using a Sharpie, trace the outline of hole. This will allow me to avoid application of the Ensolite in this area.

*Running the Wires*
I got caught-up in applying the Raammat. Had I paid attention, I would have run the wires before covering the hole, so the weight of the crossover would pull against the panel, not the unreinforced Raammat. Also, I went ahead and applied solder to all my wire ends. 











As before, I trimmed and finished the lip inside the door panel around the 5" x 7" grill.











When I tested, the sound was very choppy, not good. I swapped the positive and negative wires at the amp and that problem went away. I still heard horrible distortion of the highs at upper range of volume. I suddenly realized I forgot to clip the stock tweeter. Finally, nice sound. The midbass is so good on the new Exiles that I had to fade the rears almost all the way because they were not overlapping right with the fronts. I think I can fix this by adjusting the crossover point at the amp.

I have yet to receive my Image Dynamics CX65s, so this week I plan to build and seal the rear baffles, this time not making the screw hole misalignment mistakes I made on the fronts.

*Is it me, or is part of the DIYMA thing about total overkill?* 
As a raw recruit, I am realizing now that in my small sedan cabin, just replacing the fronts was a satisfying improvement to the sound, and yet I have three amps, a sound processor, two rears, and a sub still to install. It's like booze, "One drink is too many, and a thousand is not enough." LOL


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

niceguy said:


> BTW, I definitely need one of those nice cutting discs for my Dremel...it's almost 10 years old but in mint condition.


LOL - In my last post you can see my vintage 60's tool. It does feel a little bit weak. I have to be patient.


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## freemind (Sep 11, 2008)

Nice, detailed write-up man.


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

^^^ Thanks for the encouragement!


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## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

Wow, I didn't realize they had been around so long....is it a Dremel or some other brand? I had friends that worked at Sears so I got my $100 (at the time) Dremel for like $15. Should've bought more tools back then but no money....

So you're putting the ID speakers in the back? Those seem almost too nice to use as rear fill. In my van and Altima ('93), I used some cheap Pioneer coaxes just for ambiance (run off the HU) since I keep the sound faded 90% to the front.

I'm running the ID OEMs (original batch) in my van's active setup which IIRC, are somewhat similar to the CX65's and they move a good bit of air as well. 
I bet that little car's a blast to drive....I wouldn't mind having an FD RX-7 w/an LSx swap myself


Jeremy


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

niceguy - I'll be full active by the end of the Summer, and then I can move the IDs up to the front. I need to build or buy some tweeter mounts. For now, because of a good deal from dman, they serve as inexpensive rear fills. But by then, I'll probably be obsessed over some other pricey fronts.

And, just for you...LOL
--

*"The Dremel Moto-Tool is a lightweight versatile tool..." --1963*

















Classic awesomeness for curious folks.


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## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

Haha, amazing.....


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

*Part Three - Support in Trunk for Amp Mounting Board*

Because of rain, I had to skip from the back door speaker install to the trunk amp mount install. The Mazdaspeed Protege ships with a Kenwood amp and sub sealed in a plastic enclosure mounted to the top of the trunk. By removing this enclosure a nice bracket is left providing a nice four point mount. I fabricated the support out of birch plywood.


















After assembly I used a Dremel to make a shallow cut in the side of the support. I also sunk the take-apart hinge I am planning to hang the amp mounting board from. I used a 24" flexible LED strip from Oznium.com for the lighting effect. All the wiring is routed inside the support. The support is covered with grey carpet to match my sub box.


















I used wingbolts to connect the support to the mounting bracket, for easier removal. The LEDs are not visible unless your eyeline is below the level of the seats. The LEDs are "ultraviolet," and contrary to my expectations, they really appear ultraviolet. The visible purple is very dim, even in the dark, but throw anything white in the glow and it pops like crazy. An instruction book over two feet from the LEDs glowed very brightly, though the purple glow was barely visible. This should be an interesting effect with the pearl *********** wire I am using. I did want to see the glow so I am adding four blue led units that will target the amp board. Also, I plan to mount the amps lifted 1/16" or so above the board surface, so that small, bright red LED strips in cut-outs under the amps can shine through.


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

*Part Four - Amp Mounting Board*

This week I managed to kill my driver's side front tweet. Not fun. I decided to try the MB Quart Premium Coaxials that are dirt cheap right now. 

The box 'o wiring finally appeared from Neukonceptz, so I could get started on the amp mounting board that will be installed behind my rear seats. I did a test-fit and while difficult to mount, when the break-apart hinges clicked into place, the connection was rock solid. I traced out all my wiring on the board before I removed the components.











Next, I used speed bores to drill out my wiring conduits. For the RCAs I drilled two holes across from each other and cut out the inbetween with a jigsaw to make a slot. The bulk of the wiring will route behind the board. I want some of the wiring visible to pick up the blacklight LEDs I installed in Part Three. I cut out a large slot to ventilate the Helix Dark Blue 2.











Next, carpeting and wire routing. All wire ends got a nice tinning. I used paste flux for the 4 and 8 gauge wires. I was impatient to finish today so I decided to proceed even though my heatshrink wasn't delivered, and I was able to mount the wires cleanly enough that they are seated all the way up to their casing, a clean look. I installed some nice handles to make locking the board into the break away hinges a bit easier.











Finally, I placed two 1.5" LEDs to illuminate each device. I chose red for the amp components to offset the blue and ultraviolet top and side lighting. I flipped the board and routed the cables neatly. I used nylon cable clamps to tie down all the wiring, and electrical tape to assist. In the end, all the wiring is on the board with the exception of a lead to be connected to the remote wire, and LED positive and ground so I can wire in a switch later. I managed to finish one of the cardboard templates for the covering panels. It is set atop the black Arc Audio amp.










The board mounts:

1 Arc Audio KS300.4 (Front tweet, front woofer)
1 Helix Dark Blue 2 (Rear mid-bass)
1 AudioControl DQX (The DDC controller is in the mail)
1 Tsunami Grounding Block
1 Tsunami Fused Distro Block with Blue LED Voltage Readout

Still to do:

Rear Mid-Bass (Image Dynamics CX65s)/Deaden Rear Doors
Front Replace Exiles with MB Quart Premium coaxials
Complete trunk mounting frame and affix JL Audio Sub Enclosure
Trunk amp mounting board for Eclipse XA1200 Mono Amp
Deaden Trunk
Mount blue accent side lighting for both boards
1 gauge breakaway power and ground
4 gauge breakaway power and ground to the rear amp board


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## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

Wow, coming along very nicely.....you and your Dremel


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

Thanks Niceguy - you are nice!










Almost done - Here's a shot with the amp board panels in place. I think I'm doing my "big3" this weekend. One of the Mazda club guys is going to help out.


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

Mazda Fanbois are doing a photoshoot today, and my whip isn't cleaned up yet (needs rubber re-blacked, rims polished and two waxes), so my buddy couldn't do my big 3 today, so besides pulling the window regulator out of my wife's Dodge Caravan just to find the replacements from Rockauto.com are not the right parts, I did get a little bit done.

*Front Speaker Replacement *

If you recall, I earlier installed a pair of Exile XT65 Comps up front. They worked fine for awhile but something happened to the driver's side front speakers - they just don't sound right (Sometimes just weak, sometimes kinda watery, sometimes almost, but not quite spot-on). I'm at the end of my current build budget so I decided to try the underpriced MBQuart PVI-216 6.5" Premium Comps. Woofersetc has them for $189 but I found them at millionbuy.com for like $129 - cheap. Could I have spent the hundred bucks on a decent pair of Image Dynamics tweets to go with the CX65s I was planning to use for rear fill? Er, yeah, I wish I thought of that. I am totally fine with no rear fill at this point. Anyhoo, here's the MBQuart PVI-216 set-up for coax, and the giant crossover.










My first impression of these speakers was, WTF cheap POS. Compared to the ID CX65s and even the Exile XT65s, these things are light, plasticy, kind of flimsy. I had to test them against the Exiles to decide if I wanted to even bother swapping them out. To my surprise, the woofer sounded quite clear, and the tweets were extraordinary compared to the Exiles. I tested the PVI-216 woofer against the ID CX65. Both sounded good, the ID richer, but the Quarts still sounded quite good, just super clear. So install went forward.

The highs from the Quarts are very strong. I cranked the Alpine up to 26 and decided to attenuate the tweets -1dB (at the crossover). I think even this might be too bright for some, but I like to hear the rosin on the violin strings. The "Widesphere" tweeters presented a totally freaky image. Rather than the front stage sounding like a shelf above the dash, I was presented with a more radial image that seemed to emanate from center stage. Once I got used to the sound coming from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, I stopped noticing the difference.

I auditioned Pink Floyd, _Meddle_ as a test. As I have read from other members, I could hear detail in the music I had never heard before. The clarity and definition of the MBQuarts is exceptional for the price. I much prefer the detail to the general "fullness" the Exiles put out. There isn't less bass, it just seems like the speakers aren't adding bass where there isn't any in the recording itself. In summary, the MBQuart PVI-216 6.5" Premium Comps are bell-clear at high volume (Star Wars OST), and boast extraordinary detail. However the packaging is lame-looking and the construction feels flimsy. Also the "stylish" plastic grills don't measure up at all. I'd enjoy hearing from you old-timers how these cheap-ass speakers measure up to high-end CDTs or Focals, or whatever. 

I am embarrassed to say I pierced the passenger side rubber woofer surround while installing, but the sound quality seems unaffected. Also, the fitment of the MBQuarts is a bit small, so I ended up sealing them in with silicone.


*LED Accent Lighting*

Since I had the door panel off I tapped the power window harness and added a 3" Oznium LED accent behind the grill. The Mazdaspeed panels aren't that attractive, but although the photo makes the LED look like a harsh line, the actual effect is dim and radiant.


















*Mono Amp Board*

As the trunk has more room, I went for an inset look for the mono amp board. The construction is 3/4" birch ply, screws and glue. I finished it off with the requisite black carpet. I really miss my can of 3M adhesive, the brand I'm using now was designed for ensolite, not carpet, and is very unforgiving.


























As I don't have a lighting plan for the trunk yet, this box is not illuminated (except for the blue stripe on the Eclipse XA1000 Ice mono amp). As with the front amp board, the box will be finished with a plexi panel.

A full day for me. I'm disappointed my 1GA break apart connectors haven't arrived yet. Maybe I'll try my hand at torch soldering the 4GA break aparts tomorrow. Cheers!


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## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

That eclipse is a very classy and sleek looking amp! It can be frustrating I know when parts/supplies aren't here when you need them. I had a couple of days off to do some tinkering but the materials didn't arrive until I went back to work and it's rediculous how overpriced best buy is on wiring accessories.

I used to only buy wire off the spools at Home Depot which at the time was much cheaper than buying them in audio stores. Now even Wal Mart has gone up on audio junk and it's hardly worth buying in store unless you're desperate to get something done.

BTW, any pics of the Mazda itself? I'm going to pick up either a G35 or V6 Altima to supplement our little '93 Altima but will definitely miss the go kart like steering and handling (in comparison to larger sedans)...

Jeremy


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

Jeremy,



niceguy said:


> That eclipse is a very classy and sleek looking amp!


We'll see - some complaints have been posted about the xa1200 on the Hot Deals thread, here.




niceguy said:


> I had a couple of days off to do some tinkering but the materials didn't arrive until I went back to work and it's rediculous how overpriced best buy is on wiring accessories.


Agreed. Also - just confirmed that my wiring upgrade is going to happen this Saturday, thanks to Circuit Chris, who won Mazda of the Month at Mazdas247.com this year - check him out!




niceguy said:


> BTW, any pics of the Mazda itself? I'm going to pick up either a G35 or V6 Altima to supplement our little '93 Altima but will definitely miss the go kart like steering and handling (in comparison to larger sedans)...


I just saw that V6 Altima on the way into work today - very sharp.

Since you asked, 2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege pics.

































The last pic is from 2009 "Ultimate Santa Clara Meet," a Mazda-only event in the California Bay Area. Oi, CA Bay Area Mazda drivers interested in joining check out the MOCC Forum, here. We had around 80 cars last year. The big day is April 24, so don't delay. 

Thanks for reading!


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

Is it me or do mp3s - even at 320kbps pretty much sound horrible? I never noticed before this last speaker upgrade. I have to keep the volume pretty low to avoid distortion. CDs of the same material sound terrific. 

I encoded using iTunes. Is it worth it to rip everything all over again as AAC? What's the best SQ folks have using iPod as source?


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

Got my big three done by Chris "Circuit" B. from the MOCC forum. The wifey and I drove up to Hayward, CA and I put her up at the "W" while Chris and I worked on the car. Chris is a fantastic installer and he got the 1GA done up nicely and run to my Tsunami fused distribution and grounding blocks.

I've gone through 3 sets of fronts and have found that the components sound better to me than coaxials. Also, I have tried Exile, MB Quart and finally Image Dynamics mids. The IDs are by far the most dynamic of the three. Right now I have the front set-up with ID mids, the MB Quart crossover and the MB Quart tweets. This is fine for now because I am building up to a fully active system so I don't want to spend on a new crossover. Gee, I wonder how Focals differ from the IDs? 

I finally got the Eclipse XA1200 set-up with a JL Audio 10w6-v2 sub. Not as punchy as I hoped. It feels like the sub is underpowered coming off the rear outputs of my Alpine HU. I used Raammat and Ensolite on the trunk. 

I also got the Audiocontrol DQX up and running. So nice. I am still figuring it out but I got the frequencies smoothed out already using a cheap RTA on my android phone. I plan to buy a $39 iPad RTA app on payday to see how accurate the android app is.

All that's left is getting the rear mids up and running, run wires to the fronts to run fully active, and replace the MB Quart tweets with something nicer. After that I'll probably re-run the wiring to make it look cleaner, and that's it.


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

So here's the big three shot under the hood...










Here is the amp board with the test wiring. For months I couldn't get the DQX to turn on. I finally traced the wires and had no voltage to the DQX. It turns out I had put the wires in for safe-keeping and never went back to strip them - DOH!










Here's the trunk. Everything fits tightly under on the preexisting rack that the stock Kenwood equipment was mounted on. The Eclipse XA1200 sub amp introduced alternator whine into the system, so I added a ground loop isolator inline with the RCAs to the sub amp. Lame. The sub amp enclosure and the sub box unmount quickly if I need access to the spare tire.










I really like the Audiocontrol DQX. Strangely, I can't get the peak indicators to light-up. I'm EQing by ear and then cleaning up with a "RTA" app on my Android mobile phone. 










This is the display of the Android RTA app on my HTC EVO4G. I calibrated the app using a pink noise source from AmpGuts.com. I had the engine running at the time, but I wasn't on the freeway. _Britney Spears, Toxic_.

Before









After










Here's the redone door LEDs. Much more visible than before.










I have a fear of swapping in the new head unit, but I will probably try to do it this weekend. I got an Alpine CDA 9887. Not sure how I can take advantage of the time alignment since the DQX has only one stereo line in. I plan to run the sub amp off the head unit and time align that channel, but I'm not sure what I can do with the fronts.

I'm not ready to run more speaker wire so Not fully active yet.

If I get into the front console to do the new head unit, I will fix the daytime illumination on my boost and temp gauges and drop two orange LEDs into the AC vents.


*Current Problems:*

1) Sub sounds underpowered, even with the gains turned all the way up. Confirmed sub wiring is correct for 2 Ohms, and in phase.
2) Peak LEDs on DQX wont light up.
3) MB Quart tweets are to loud, even with the MB Quart crossover turned to -5 I have to EQ all the way down and also use the parametric EQ to take the edge off the highs.
4) Need to spend another $40 for the iPad RTA app to see if it's more accurate than the Android app. It should be.

It would be nice to have a list of common musical instruments and their corresponding frequencies to help me identify pain points while EQing.

This is my first install, so I am open to any advice!


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## hottcakes (Jul 14, 2010)

this may be what you are looking for.


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## SuperLamer (Feb 19, 2010)

hottcakes said:


> this may be what you are looking for.


@Hotcakes: I'll certainly take a look!

I managed to get the new Alpine HU installed. I decided to run the sub amp off the HU rather than the DQX, because it felt underpowered. That went fine until I picked up the alternator whine again. At this point, after step-by-step troubleshooting, I believe the amp is bad. Other than the whine, however, it performed well. Unfortunately, my inline RCA ground loop isolator really muted the low frequencies, which was poor sounding. Now, I guess I get to decide whether to a) Run the sub off the DQX so I can boost the low-end, b) Spend the $114 on the Jensen LF Isolator, or c) Procure a new sub amp . For now, I'm just turning the HU subwoofer channel up all the way.

Regarding the Audiocontrol DQX: New HU, still no green LEDs on the DQX. I think it's time to call support unless any member has a bright idea for me. 

I plan to play with the time alignment this week, but I tweaked with the subwoofer channel TA a bit and got the sub hitting _in front_ rather than behind me. Awesome. :laugh:

Just a note: I know the guys at All Pro Audio have five stars on Yelp!, but they really did a number on my gauges. I had one of the units not turning on, and their solution was to rewire everything to accessory power, which meant my beautiful two mode gauges were always in "night mode." I would have preferred if they said - "We don't know how to fix this." Rather, they told me "You had it wired wrong." Well guys, I put everything back how it originally was, white wire to white wire, red wire to red wire, orange wire to orange wire, all perfectly labeled how I had it before, and I got "night mode," but no day mode. I suspect that originally I had a loose connection in my gauge harness because after I resoldered the wires they mixed and matched with their plastic splices, everything worked fine. I used a circuit tester to to trace all the connections and lo and behold, no signal on the illumination wire (orange) WTF. I trace the wiring back and they had disconnected my orange illumination tap into the dimmer. In the end, I just tapped the Mazda side of the Alpine harness (which is the orange wire), and boom, "day mode". 











While I was in there I decided to hook up the HU illumination (which a different installer never hooked-up), and dropped an LED into each center console heating vent. They need some adjusting but, neato.











The bad news is that the temperature cable on my climate control went out of position and now I only get hot air out of the register....

My next step is to clean up the wiring on my amp board - messy. Also, I managed to quite easily pull the RCA connector off one of my brand new oh so awesome "pro audio" cables. The brand eludes me, now, but I'll add to post later.

The moral of the story is: DIYMA is hard work, but you get the job done how you want it, in the end, even if you have to disassemble your front console a half dozen times to achieve it!


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## dodd9966 (Jun 15, 2012)

Love the work you have done man I just got my Mazdaspeed protege #121 about a month ago!!! It's good to see someone doing some mods to them!! Keep up the good work


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## DarkAngel (May 31, 2010)

Love seeing work like this done. I am a Mazda fan and currently have my garage full of just Mazda vehicles. Quick question and I know it has been a while but if you or anyone can answer or point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

Do I have anything to worry about with my Protege5 and it's Alternator? I feel that it's not going to be able to keep up with any of my stereo systems demand although I feel it's not as demanding as what I have seen members have here. 

The concern I have is that with our Alternators, the power generated varies on the electrical load that is requested to include any and all accessories running. Now I work nights and have an older Avic D2 Unit installed and have the option for the display gauges on the screen. I have a voltage gauge displayed and at times I see the gauge fluctuate from say 11.9 to 13.1 almost constantly every minute or so and sometimes drops to 10.8 or so. This is with the A/C on, Lights On, Stereo System on as well. I find myself having to lower the volume and thats me not even having it loud at all. I do find myself sometimes with my lights flickering as well. 

I guess I am asking have you had this experience yourself owning your MSP and performing all these mods or is maybe my Alt on the fritz? Never experienced this with any car before. I have an Optima Red Top installed including a 400 watt Kenwood amp and a 12" Pioneer Woofer that I would guess are taking up the most power. No other lighting additions or anything. Just your thoughts and maybe experiences in this matter would be of great help. 

Is a "CAP" (Capacitor) a forbidden word in an Audio forum? LOL Just a question. Wondering if I really need one.


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