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2002 JDM EP3 - Championship White

Good things come to those who wait.

I don't have the car yet, but it's got to the front of the queue and has parts fitted. Just needs tyres and we're good to go. I'm hoping to get it within the next week. Super excited.

In the mean time I've bought insurance. Super boring stuff.

I'm hoping for some new pictures tonight or tomorrow.
 
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As above, that looks stunning!

I'd recommend replacing the intake hose with a Samco jobbie as the OEM will be brittle and split with the extra flex exerted from the Gruppe M (speaking from experience, albeit with a dc5).
 
As above, that looks stunning!

I'd recommend replacing the intake hose with a Samco jobbie as the OEM will be brittle and split with the extra flex exerted from the Gruppe M (speaking from experience, albeit with a dc5).

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into that :)
 
I picked it up on Tuesday and had a 300 mile drive back home. What a riot it was. The noise it makes when vtec engages is like a savage bark, so addictive, I burned through quite a bit of fuel chasing that noise :D:D

It all seems in fairly good condition considering the age, but I need to have a good root around and see what's what. A couple of things straight off the bat:

* stereo - the actual stereo is an old pioneer unit, with gps, hard drive, mini-disc (!!!), pc card, fm radio, tv tuner, cds and probably some other crap. I have cd's and minidisks so it can stay - but the tv tuner (found a digital tv tuner under the passenger seat) and various wires and cables for the gps can all go
* suspension - blitz ZZ-R is fairly new but quite firm I'll need to soften it up
* shift knob - has a round one, to be replaced with OEM
 
Had a poke under the steering wheel at the rats nest of stereo wires.
SRS light is on now.

I’m sure these things are related :rolleyes:
 
The Japanese always seem to do crazy stuff with wiring.

I don’t even know where to begin with them. I’ve got manuals, but they are in Japanese. I’m trying to source a JDM workshop manual for the EP3. I have a US one, but I’m not sure if the wiring will be the same due the engine difference.

I want to have a reference in case anything goes wrong. Don’t want to end up with a non starter on the driveway.

How hard can it be though….
 
Congrats on the purchase.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you end up paying for the car in total, meaning purchase price + all shipping cots.
I am curious about that.
 
Congrats on the purchase.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you end up paying for the car in total, meaning purchase price + all shipping cots.
I am curious about that.

Sure. No problem.

So it’s a 2002 model. Had just over 60,000miles on the clock. Auction sheet showed it as a grade 4 B interior and B exterior. Noted that there were a few dents, scratches and one of the panels had been replaced. The team at BHP Imports checked it at the auction house and gave the thumbs up.

My budget to get a car from Japan on the road here was 14,500 with a bit of wiggle room if needed for changes in exchange rate etc. Based on my budget, Baz at BHP gave me a breakdown of the bid, expected tax and transport costs, and the BHP prep and fee.


I dont have the exact numbers to hand, if I remember correctly the bid max was around 11,600. We won the car for 11,300. Tax and transport came in at 1750 and the BHP fee was 1500. So we came in around the 14,500 budget mark. That got the car from the auction block to being road legal in the Uk. 6months tax and mot. The only extra I needed to get was new tyres as they were running low. The only unexpected cost was a 30quid fine for failing to pay the toll on the Tyne Tunnel when Driving home.

The BHP prep undersealed, detailed the car, changed to mph, refurbished the alloys, changed filters, new oil, removed the dents including the noticeable one on the passenger door/skirt, etc. It felt quite comprehensive.

My budget was based on what I’d seen good premieres going for here. I’d been searching for a while. The rusty lemons tended to hang around and eventually sell (I made a lot of use of DVLA MOT history to weed them out). The good ones seemed to get snapped up super quick.

During the process I purchased various parts and had them fitted once the MoT was passed. But that was all outside of the original budget for the car.


I’m super happy with it. It’s 20 years old. It’s not perfect. But it drives great. Sounds great. Puts a smile on my face
 
I’ve just been enjoying driving, washing, driving. But I’ve picked up a few bits that I’d like to get changed. New clutch, engine mounts and a couple of other wee bits.
I’d been searching for a proper workshop manual. There is a PDF floating around for the US EP3 which is almost there, but nothing I can find for the European one, never mind the JDM model. Some late night searching, and one thing lead to another.

04A814BC-20D5-4B9E-A771-2DFAC6A85B24.jpeg

One minor problem is they are in Japanese. But the translate apps seem fairly good these days. I wasn’t sure how complete the EP3 manual would be, but it’s pretty good. I probably don’t need the K20A one as well.

F7645ED7-5824-4B64-A8E8-AE3937EC5FD9.jpeg2DAE832A-33CF-4765-8E09-289B59EEDC8A.jpeg
 
Jumped in the car a few days ago, ignition went on as normal. But when I went to start, just a whining noise then all the lights went off. Bugger.

Nothing obvious looked wrong under the bonnet and the fuses looked fine. The stereo has been playing up recently and I knew there were a ton of wires with it so I set about taking it out. I'd planned on replacing it and I knew there would be some wires, but I wasn't prepared for the miles (it felt like miles) of wires I've removed, and I'm still not finished only the front end is done but everything there is clean and no random things are connected. I've got a random pink wire to trace which mentions the car speed sensor, I guess it was something to do with the gps in the stereo.

After all that it still didn't work. so it was off to eurocarparts to get a multimeter. The multimeter read 0.0, which felt wrong. So I tried it on a few other things and nothing registered at all. (I then foolishly tried it on a light socket and managed to touch the probes and trip the switch, annoying as I cannot returned it now).

One multimeter later the reading was 9. New batter ordered and fitted and everything sprung back into life. I measured the new battery before I fitted it, came up as 11. I measured the old battery once I remove it, it also said 11. I don't trust my new multimeter and will be returning it for a more accurate one. I've still to measure the alternator output to make sure that is good.

After changing the battery the central locking stopped working, but thanks to this forum I found a thread with the reprogramming instructions and that did the trick. @Loxy Is the donations post still valid as I'll sling some coin in the coffers.
 
OEM will be brittle and split with the extra flex exerted from the Gruppe M.

@sunday_driver You called it :)


Luckily I’d put an order in for a Samco replacement months ago. So I didn’t have long with the split.

7EC557B7-DF0C-4FD8-A02E-4A20D84A973D.jpeg

much better

6FBAD40B-4C7B-4CC7-B316-A808773BF1F5.jpeg

I also replaced the interior light bulb and one of the map bulbs (messed up my order and didn’t buy enough for two). Finally I replaced the bulb in the boot. Now I just need to replace the blown fuse and they will actually work:D
 
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