I have a cousin that has a 1997 mazda protégé that she wants to just give to me. It has several small problems and one some what big problem. She said the brakes are locked up because of a safety feature on the car when the back lights go out the brakes lock up. I have never heard of this before and as wondering if this was true or something she thought was true. She said there is a break release switch on the car also to undue it. I don't really need this car but thought if I could get it up and running it could be my daily crap driver keeping miles off my other cars.

 

Now,now! You are calling a Protege a crap driver? I would never help a guy like that! On the other hand our '98 is meanwhile indistinguishable of a crap can.

If I knew where "Teas" is I would get it myself!

There is no electrical brake lock up on a Protege. Repairing the brakes is straight forward. It can be difficult to get the drums off.

This might help you with various issues:https://www.mazdaforum.com/forum/maz...g%C3%A9-31136/

 

Sorry, I ment in its current state its a crap driver. Ment no disrepect. I had a mazdaspeed protega for a short period of time. Fun car it was. This ones a 5spd maybe some work and a turbo will bring it from crap state to fun again.

 

That was tongue in cheek.

It is a Texas car, meaning it should be rust free. Ours has the rocker panels fall off.
A turbo would be awesome. I mean who would expect power from these little grocery getters? You would surprise a few guys with that.

 

Should be rust free , yes but if you knew my cousins and how they treat cars...I wouldn't ne surprised if it has rust in all kinds of places. They buy a car. Trash it out, park it and get another one. Starts all over from there. One of them trashed out a.vw gti after a year and let it sit for two yeard. They are being forced by the city to get rid of two of them. Anyways. It's in decent shape to where it could be fun to mess with. Its not going to hang with my 13 s60R but itll be fun.

 

Get it and post pictures of it as you go forward with the project. In general they are very easy to work on.

 

Will do. Going out there tomorrow to take a gander at the damage. It does not roll due to the breaks so it should be fun. I had a ford probe with the kl ze engine with some cork sport work done to it. As I remember that was a fun car so the mazda being smaller should be a mini rocket. Cork sports still up and going?

 

I have no idea. My cork sport involves wine bottles.