Civic Type R - First hot hatch
Discussion
Is anyone still reading?? 
Some maintenance has been required on the car this summer:
The original nearside front wheel bearing decided at 118k miles old it was time to die, so with some long distance trips looming, I had it replaced at a family friends garage. Apparently it was an absolute pig to remove and the Civic's name was mud for a while.
Whilst this was going on the front nearside brake caliper was inspected and the main seal was toast, so easiest thing was to order in a replacement and have the friendly garage fit it at the same time. Oh and the front inner pads had worn themselves to a wafer thin sliver so new pads went on. It's fair to say braking has improved somewhat.
It hasn't all been doom and gloom, I added some front camber bolts and got the car aligned at my centre of choice - Blink motorsport in Winsford:
I didn't go for anything too drastic with the alignment, but turn in is much improved and car feels sharper at the front which these cars really need IMO. As you can see from the alignment sheet, next on the shopping list is some rear camber arms.
I also added a cheap and cheerful Sportex unsilenced mid pipe;
The standard EP3 B-pipe is the most restrictive area of the whole car - so this is a much larger diameter allowing better gas flow and it removes the silencer so the car sounds much better. As standard these cars exhausts are really quiet.
Someone has done a video here similar to what mine now sounds like : https://youtu.be/wMvG3AU5Nac To some it sounds far too raspy, to me, in person it sounds a bit like a raspy old Italian twin cam. It's certainly not intrusive or droney on the motorway.
As well as this, the B-pipe was installed with new gaskets and bolts, and I also had a pretty bad exhaust leak sorted at the flange from the exhaust manifold to the cat. The circular exhaust gasket had burnt through and was nearly half gone!
With all the above the car is much improved, it now steers better, sounds better and with the exhaust leak sorted, feels stronger throughout the rev range, even V-tec feels stronger.
Next for the car is an oil change, (only used 1 litre or so in the past 7k miles) and general tidying up cosmetically!
Some maintenance has been required on the car this summer:The original nearside front wheel bearing decided at 118k miles old it was time to die, so with some long distance trips looming, I had it replaced at a family friends garage. Apparently it was an absolute pig to remove and the Civic's name was mud for a while.
Whilst this was going on the front nearside brake caliper was inspected and the main seal was toast, so easiest thing was to order in a replacement and have the friendly garage fit it at the same time. Oh and the front inner pads had worn themselves to a wafer thin sliver so new pads went on. It's fair to say braking has improved somewhat.
It hasn't all been doom and gloom, I added some front camber bolts and got the car aligned at my centre of choice - Blink motorsport in Winsford:
I didn't go for anything too drastic with the alignment, but turn in is much improved and car feels sharper at the front which these cars really need IMO. As you can see from the alignment sheet, next on the shopping list is some rear camber arms.
I also added a cheap and cheerful Sportex unsilenced mid pipe;
The standard EP3 B-pipe is the most restrictive area of the whole car - so this is a much larger diameter allowing better gas flow and it removes the silencer so the car sounds much better. As standard these cars exhausts are really quiet.
Someone has done a video here similar to what mine now sounds like : https://youtu.be/wMvG3AU5Nac To some it sounds far too raspy, to me, in person it sounds a bit like a raspy old Italian twin cam. It's certainly not intrusive or droney on the motorway.
As well as this, the B-pipe was installed with new gaskets and bolts, and I also had a pretty bad exhaust leak sorted at the flange from the exhaust manifold to the cat. The circular exhaust gasket had burnt through and was nearly half gone!
With all the above the car is much improved, it now steers better, sounds better and with the exhaust leak sorted, feels stronger throughout the rev range, even V-tec feels stronger.
Next for the car is an oil change, (only used 1 litre or so in the past 7k miles) and general tidying up cosmetically!
Butter Face said:
Still reading! Car looks good.
I'm still enjoying mine at 120k. Did you do the Camber Bolts yourself? I've done a few How To videos on YouTube about camber bolts etc.
Cheers. Blink Motorsport did the camber bolts gratis with the alignment, it only took them 5 minutes. Saves me messing about really, I never seem to have the time to tinker with cars like I used to!I'm still enjoying mine at 120k. Did you do the Camber Bolts yourself? I've done a few How To videos on YouTube about camber bolts etc.
Podie said:
Likewise. Love a good project thread
Cheers, although not much project stuff going on - more daily drive diary.SteellFJ said:
I miss mine sooooooooo much, never sell yours, you will never enjoy driving again 
To me there is something about these cars, and I cant put my finger on it. It's not as if they are great at everything - they aren't stupid fast, steering racks are pants, they are a bit tinny, they aren't stylish/cool nor will they get women's knickers in a twist. But I love driving mine. That said I have a hankering for an S2000!giblet said:
Did you use genuine gaskets? Don't suppose you know the quantity of gaskets and bolts required? Need to get round to fitting the sportex pipe to a mates EP3.
I used a mix of genuine and non-genuine. Not sure what advantages a genuine exhaust bolt would have over a non genuine one to be honest. Have a look at the schematics on Lings Honda website to see what parts you need to gather.Martin_Hx said:
Mine has its 10th birthday in around a year, I've owned it for 9! 
Nice one! I can't believe mine is half my age nearly (14 years) - in fact it I think it was built around the time 9/11 happened. Seems ages ago now.Did some work on the 'ald Civic the other day.
Ever since I had the car, there was a fair bit of wind noise coming from by the passenger wing mirror/windscreen. I traced it to the rubber channel that the passenger window sits in and actually bought the channel about a year ago. I finally had time to sort it and I found the rubber channel was a pig to replace with the window in situ - but as I have Japanese sized hands it made things a little easier for me:
So that's one more thing sorted.
Next up was an oil change, 5 litres of Fuchs and a Hamp filter. Easy peasy:
Some grey paste on the magnetic plug there but that's normal.
Next I replaced the driver side door sill - 14 years of scratches and scrapes made it look proper s
t and annoyed me greatly. Old sill shown next to the new one for comparison.
I had another go at removing the atrocious and undoubtedly original wiper arms as well:
I had ordered a second hand set of arms, then sanded and sprayed them black. When it came to removing the originals I ordered a beefier wiper arm puller, and used copious amounts of penetrating fluid to help them on their way. One wiper arm reluctantly came off as you can see on the above photo, but the other just would not be defeated :
What's next for the car I hear you say? It is due it's MOT in the next month or so - there's a slight knocking at the rear of the car which I'll get the garage to look at, as well as asking them to swap the wiper arm which won't budge.
I have also acquired a facelift steering rack which I will refurb with a new rack slider and grease, with the aim of getting some improved steering feel as my rack slider is worn I think. I wanted a facelift rack because they are supposed to be better than the pre-facelift rack that mine has.
Next March I am also planning to have the car ready for it's first ever trackday at Aintree, it looks like a good beginners circuit and is local to me. I reckon I'll need new discs and pads for it at a minimum, so watch this space.
Ever since I had the car, there was a fair bit of wind noise coming from by the passenger wing mirror/windscreen. I traced it to the rubber channel that the passenger window sits in and actually bought the channel about a year ago. I finally had time to sort it and I found the rubber channel was a pig to replace with the window in situ - but as I have Japanese sized hands it made things a little easier for me:
So that's one more thing sorted.
Next up was an oil change, 5 litres of Fuchs and a Hamp filter. Easy peasy:
Some grey paste on the magnetic plug there but that's normal.
Next I replaced the driver side door sill - 14 years of scratches and scrapes made it look proper s
t and annoyed me greatly. Old sill shown next to the new one for comparison.I had another go at removing the atrocious and undoubtedly original wiper arms as well:
I had ordered a second hand set of arms, then sanded and sprayed them black. When it came to removing the originals I ordered a beefier wiper arm puller, and used copious amounts of penetrating fluid to help them on their way. One wiper arm reluctantly came off as you can see on the above photo, but the other just would not be defeated
:What's next for the car I hear you say? It is due it's MOT in the next month or so - there's a slight knocking at the rear of the car which I'll get the garage to look at, as well as asking them to swap the wiper arm which won't budge.
I have also acquired a facelift steering rack which I will refurb with a new rack slider and grease, with the aim of getting some improved steering feel as my rack slider is worn I think. I wanted a facelift rack because they are supposed to be better than the pre-facelift rack that mine has.
Next March I am also planning to have the car ready for it's first ever trackday at Aintree, it looks like a good beginners circuit and is local to me. I reckon I'll need new discs and pads for it at a minimum, so watch this space.
Big update alert!
I have been bled dry this month. The car had it's MOT, tax and insurance due around the same time of my girlfriends birthday - good job I have been doing some overtime recently! I was looking forward to the MOT because I knew it was knocking from the rear and there was a nasty vibration between 80-90mph which was worse on long left hand turns.
As it was, the Civic scraped through - The MOT picked up that at 120,000 miles, the rear ARB droplinks, front lower ball joints and front shocks decided they had enough of being hammered around what the North West calls roads and should be replaced. The offside front shock in particular had a fair bit of play in it so that explains the vibration.
I got the chance to look under the car whilst at MOT; generally clean, surface rust on brackets and things like that so will keep an eye on them with a view to cleaning them up eventually.
Here are some of the parts accrued to get my car ship shape: This picture doesn't include the shocks or the 2nd hand steering rack from a facelift car I wanted to fit. I also ordered a new steering rack slider from Honda as there was a fair chance the secondhand rack had a worn one which causes creaking.
I got my local friendly garage to fit all of these for me, and seeing as I was replacing the front shocks I thought I might as well replace the top mounts as they can be a weak point on these cars -
The rack replacement was a 'fking of a job' apparently - but I get on well with the garage so as well as persuading them to refurb it for me with the new slider and grease it up, they even sprayed it silver without me asking and sprayed a crossmember black as it was beginning to look a bit rusty. Good lads:
This has been a vast improvement - the new facelift steering feels more weighty than the pre-facelift - and it was also a prudent buy as my old rack was toast, very rough and notchy in its movement.
All that remains now is to get the car aligned again and settle in the new shocks.
In other news, I noticed a slight leak with the recent wet weather, looks like it's coming from the (now hardened) inner door seal, so like with the passenger side I will replace it (although its a ball ache):
The old central locking remote bugged me, so bought a refurb kit from eBay - old on left obviously:
Got really, really, really fed up with the stty standard Honda radio - it couldnt even keep the right time! So bought this basic Sony replacement with real carbon fibre YO!:
And I thought I would go for a top speed run:
Only joking - the cars clocks are in 'test mode' - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGf3t9nRbP4
Since I have owned the car, the fuel gauge has over-read by about a quarter, so the fuel light would come on when the gauge told me I had a quarter tank left. I thought it was a fuel sender issue or something like that, but all it took was putting the car in test mode and readjusting the needle. Little things like that make me happy!
That's it for now - here's a picture of the car at the watering hole after a late night blast.
I suppose I better start looking after the cosmetics of the car - I got the valeter at my work to give the bonnet a once over with a rotary polisher as there was a weird haze on it and it came up ok - so will try and get him to give the whole car a once over - Nighthawk Black paint has a lovely purple/green fleck in it but this car has 14 years of scratches and swirls covering it!
I have been bled dry this month. The car had it's MOT, tax and insurance due around the same time of my girlfriends birthday - good job I have been doing some overtime recently! I was looking forward to the MOT because I knew it was knocking from the rear and there was a nasty vibration between 80-90mph which was worse on long left hand turns.
As it was, the Civic scraped through - The MOT picked up that at 120,000 miles, the rear ARB droplinks, front lower ball joints and front shocks decided they had enough of being hammered around what the North West calls roads and should be replaced. The offside front shock in particular had a fair bit of play in it so that explains the vibration.
I got the chance to look under the car whilst at MOT; generally clean, surface rust on brackets and things like that so will keep an eye on them with a view to cleaning them up eventually.
Here are some of the parts accrued to get my car ship shape: This picture doesn't include the shocks or the 2nd hand steering rack from a facelift car I wanted to fit. I also ordered a new steering rack slider from Honda as there was a fair chance the secondhand rack had a worn one which causes creaking.
I got my local friendly garage to fit all of these for me, and seeing as I was replacing the front shocks I thought I might as well replace the top mounts as they can be a weak point on these cars -
The rack replacement was a 'f
king of a job' apparently - but I get on well with the garage so as well as persuading them to refurb it for me with the new slider and grease it up, they even sprayed it silver without me asking and sprayed a crossmember black as it was beginning to look a bit rusty. Good lads:This has been a vast improvement - the new facelift steering feels more weighty than the pre-facelift - and it was also a prudent buy as my old rack was toast, very rough and notchy in its movement.
All that remains now is to get the car aligned again and settle in the new shocks.
In other news, I noticed a slight leak with the recent wet weather, looks like it's coming from the (now hardened) inner door seal, so like with the passenger side I will replace it (although its a ball ache):
The old central locking remote bugged me, so bought a refurb kit from eBay - old on left obviously:
Got really, really, really fed up with the s
tty standard Honda radio - it couldnt even keep the right time! So bought this basic Sony replacement with real carbon fibre YO!:And I thought I would go for a top speed run:
Only joking - the cars clocks are in 'test mode' - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGf3t9nRbP4
Since I have owned the car, the fuel gauge has over-read by about a quarter, so the fuel light would come on when the gauge told me I had a quarter tank left. I thought it was a fuel sender issue or something like that, but all it took was putting the car in test mode and readjusting the needle. Little things like that make me happy!
That's it for now - here's a picture of the car at the watering hole after a late night blast.
I suppose I better start looking after the cosmetics of the car - I got the valeter at my work to give the bonnet a once over with a rotary polisher as there was a weird haze on it and it came up ok - so will try and get him to give the whole car a once over - Nighthawk Black paint has a lovely purple/green fleck in it but this car has 14 years of scratches and swirls covering it!
Nice work so far.
I had an EP3 and loved it. It was such a good car to drive, and I loved that it could be as refined as 1L corsa, then the next minute when you were thrashing it, it was like the gates of hell had opened up - great stuff!
PS: Have a look at my old thread it may give you some more inspiration for this
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I had an EP3 and loved it. It was such a good car to drive, and I loved that it could be as refined as 1L corsa, then the next minute when you were thrashing it, it was like the gates of hell had opened up - great stuff!
PS: Have a look at my old thread it may give you some more inspiration for this
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
have the same fuel light problem but cant get my clocks to go into test mode even after following that sequence. now I think the neighbours think im daft.
dipped beam headlights on
depress and hold trip button
turn key to position 2
turn dipped beam lights ofoo, on then off
release trip button
press trip button 5 individual times
anm I doing it right?
dipped beam headlights on
depress and hold trip button
turn key to position 2
turn dipped beam lights ofoo, on then off
release trip button
press trip button 5 individual times
anm I doing it right?
Thanks for the kind words guys.
I suppose I throw a lot of money at upkeep on cars, but then I don't have much else in the way of hobbies or going out so I am allowed this as a vice I suppose!
Although Track Cit - I looked into the cost of replacing the gear shift mechanism as mine is sloppy as well - errrrrrmmm it's certainly an 'investment' for what is a kilo or so of moulded plastic!
Paulw123 - in test mode my milage display also stayed the same like the video - do you happen to have a facelift car with the outside temperature gauge?
I suppose I throw a lot of money at upkeep on cars, but then I don't have much else in the way of hobbies or going out so I am allowed this as a vice I suppose!
Although Track Cit - I looked into the cost of replacing the gear shift mechanism as mine is sloppy as well - errrrrrmmm it's certainly an 'investment' for what is a kilo or so of moulded plastic!
Paulw123 - in test mode my milage display also stayed the same like the video - do you happen to have a facelift car with the outside temperature gauge?
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff