I’ve owned a lot of cars at this point in my life. No fewer than ten vehicles have come into my ownership in the past decade, most of which were beaters, and all of which had between 75k and 175k miles on them. Fully 30% of the vehicles I have owned have been Mazda Proteges of between 130k and 170k. Every one of those Proteges has had some kind of unacceptable corrosion above and beyond the norm for a New England vehicle of similar age and mileage. Some examples would include:

• rusted, leaking gas tank
• excessive underbody rust/rot
• structrual unibody rust with holes — rear strut towers, trunk
• completely unremovable rear suspension components
• rusted, seized brake components — bleeder screws*

The last one deserves special mention, as well as its own place in hell. All of my three Proteges required the replacement of at least two brake calipers for various reasons – sometimes a rusted slider or a seized piston, but more commonly from snapping off the rusted bleeder screw in  the caliper body. Now there is just no excuse for this. What’s the problem? Mazda designs their calipers with TINY bleeder screws — 7mm rear and 8mm front on the Protege and Miata, and 7mm all around on some of their earlier models. This is inexcusable. What happens is the bleeder threads inevitably rust in the caliper, and the bleeder itself rusts and weakens. When you attempt to remove them, what metal remains (in the form of a hollow 7mm tube, rusted inside and out) is not strong enough to support the necessary removal torque. Penetrating oil was unsuccessful in every instance. Heat doesn’t help, if anything it makes the screw fail faster. Noah has even snapped speed bleeders that probably had less than 10k miles on them.

So what can you do?

• Try very carefully to remove each bleeder. Soak those irritating suckers in PB Blaster for a while first.
• Always try to unscrew the bleeder before you remove the caliper or open the hydraulic system for any reason. If it snaps off, the car should still be drivable in which case you can probably drive to a parts store and pick up a new caliper.
• If you’re lucky and they each turn freely, or have already replaced your calipers, put something on the threads — teflon tape, thread sealant, blue or purple Loctite, anti-seize – ANYTHING
• Use rubber caps to prevent internal corrosion that will further weaken the bleeder screw.
• Replace them with shiny new Speed Bleeders, which use a thread sealant in order to function.