ohh ok.. I was gonna say.. 80KM/H at 4K is pretty good.. yea the short gearing in my 99 and 03 sucked monkeys... i ran out of steam before turbo did in the 03.. oh well.. yea the protege would benefit from that 6th gear immensely.

 

I know that the short gearing and the high RPM's during driving have been discussed...but has anyone else been annoyed by the high idle when you first start up the car? I don't know if it's just me being used to my old Contour, but when I first start my Pro', it idles extremely high (not sure of the RPM range because the DX has no tach). If I drive it for a few blocks it finally warms up and then quiets down. But if I'm at a light and I have the clutch in, the engine revs right up there until I release the clutch to start going; it seems that once it catches a gear it quiets down.

If high revs won't hurt the engine I'm not concerned, but if I shouldn't be driving the car until the idling goes down, then I'm concerned. Is it safe to just get in and go (after giving it a minute, of course)?

I guess 1st-2nd shifting isn't that bad. Once you get out of 2nd then the fun starts

 

I have noticed when I lower the passenger window down, it seems to rattle as if it isnt secured down tight. This only happens when it is lowered half way, I don't hear it when it's all the way down. I'm sure many of us have heard this problem.

I think there are demons in my trunk. When I turn a corner I hear something roll around and hit the side of the trunk. I have checked and emptied out my trunk, but it still happens! I'm not quite sure wtf it is.. scary

replace the 5 gear with a 6 , is that possible?
me first me first!