My new EP3 CTR 2004

[Mr Way]

Hi everyone

My names Ash I live in Hampshire I'm just in the process of changing jobs. I used to work for UK Mail as a delivery driver. Finally left and now I'm starting a new job working for Hss hire.

I just bought a civic type r ep3 in nighthawk black it was in some need of a little TLC as the previous owner didn't really look after it and it had no service history front tyres were bold and it had done 102k which was slightly different to the advert. but as soon as I see it being my first ctr and saving for a while and the fact that I'm inpatient I had to have it as I did see potential. But having owned a bmw e46 320d previously I was a bit worried as I spent a lot on mods for that car in a short space of time and had full service history but it started to become an expensive car due to parts failing every month so it had to go along with all the mods on it :smt022

 

[Mr Way]

The cleaning process

The first I had to do after getting the car back home was give it some serious cleaning inside and out the inside was filthy there was even some sort of green slime in the cup holders after about an hour and a half with the mrs helping it was looking a bit better although there were still holes in the carpet and chewing gum on the seat which is a pain to get off. I decided that some new mats were in order to cover up the holes. They are a perfect fit bought them from eBay.

 

[scrawnban]

Excellent project mate. Best of luck

 

[Mr Way]

Adjusting the coilovers

Now to the next task which was adjusting to coilovers that had been put on by the previous owner but it was far too low for my taste and also it would scrape on the speed bumps leading into work every morning unless I drove over them at 2mph which was very annoying and unsuitable for roads where I live so I took it to a garage who said
those adjustable coilovers are not adjustable lol :smt075

So I then took to a friend of mine an ex mechanic he really knows his stuff so we played with it over next couple of days to get it to the right height as I do like the stance when it's lowered but wanted it high enough not to scrape so I got it set pretty much as high as it will go it is very firm now but at least it doesn't scrape.i will get some pics up of the coilovers I'm not 100% sure on the make of them I think they are called pro sport or something.

 

[Mr Way]

Thanks mate it all takes time and money need a nice win on the horses I think

 

[Mr Way]

New tyres and painting brake calipers

Next thing on the list was new tyres as they were almost illegal. I only wanted something that wasn't to expensive at the moment and did the job so it turned out that one rear tyre was still like new but the other 3 needed replacing so I ended up with a budget one on the other rear side and two Marshall ones on the front they do the job for the time being although in the advert it stated it has recently had 4 new tyres costing over 300. I then decided to paint the brake calipers red as I did this on my bmw and it did look good so I bought a tin of Hammerite from b&q and I am quite pleased with the result. I then bought some honda centre cap stickers to finish it off.

 

[Mr Way]

Time for an oil change

My next job was an oil change which I had really meant to do earlier but work had been busy .the advert stated a fresh new oil change a couple of weeks ago. I checked when I got back as I forgot when looking suprise suprise it was empty so in put 5 litres of 5w30. I had been keeping an eye on the dipstick over the past few weeks and it was using oil like it was going out of fashion I had put in 5 litres in 2 weeks only driving to work and back morning and evening not really vtecing apart from the weekend on a few drives out with mrs but 5 litres in 2 weeks was mad so changed the oil to some mobil 1 0w 40 thinking this might go a bit further although it is thinner it was a better quality oil and 2 weeks later it was gone with same style driving so when it came to the oil change I said to my mate who did it that there is oil on my drive not a lot but there is a bit at first I thought it was just a wet patch as there are few a few different patches of dirt and oil from previous jobs. I thought it may have been a corroded oil filter so that was changed and the old oil was changed with 5w 30 as that is what honda recommend so I was looking round to see when the oil leak was coming from and there was a bolt on the back of the engine where the previous owner had taken out the engine to do the timing chain and hadn't put one of the bolts back in so it was coming out of there bolt was put back in and problem was solved thank god that wasn't expensive.

 

[Mr Way]

Sportex unsilenced b pipe

I had also been looking into getting either a back box or catback exhaust but the only one that really took my fancy was the Dc sports catback but was a bit expensive for me and couldn't find a second hand one for a reasonable price so I looked at some videos of the sportex b pipe and I quite liked it so I kept my eyes peeled for a second hand one and one came up on eBay for 15 squid so I kept an eye on it till the end of the auction and bid and won for 15 quid I was well chuffed went and picked it up from a fellow ctr owner in Surrey. Got it all fitted as others have said bolts were rusted and needed new gaskets etc but I am very pleasantly surprised with the sound I have listened to a few videos and always thought I preferred deep tone to the rasp but I love the rasp of the sportex b pipe it give a lovely sound with the aem cai that is already on there from the previous owner they sound brilliant together well impressed I'm still looking at exhausts as the b pipe hangs lower than the oem pipe and where the car is lowered it does scrape now and again but I do love the sound.

 

[Mr Way]

Skunk2 gear knob and the beanie

My next thing was a new gear knob so I bought a rip speed gear knob from halfords which was heavier than the oem one which was a nightmare to fit. Kept it on for a couple of days but didn't like how it felt so I looked on the forums and liked the reputation of skunk2 so bought one from amazon it cost £25.99 + £4.00 shipping so I thought bargain and bought it. It was a rainbow coloured one, it finally arrived and as I took it out the box I was very disappointed with the weight so i went to fit it and realised it felt lighter than the oem one so I weighed it on my cooking scales it was 170g so I realised I had bought a fake and after some more research I found out that skunk2 don't make rainbow colour one they only make one colour which is dark grey so after contacting the seller and him trying to tell me it was the new lightweight version I finally got my money back and got a real one really pleased with it and the weight is very nice and makes changing gear a lot smoother. After looking on eBay I had stumbled across gear knob beanies I instantly wanted one for my new knob so the mrs said she would knit me one. I was quite impressed and really like it.

 

[Mr Way]

New steering wheel cover

One thing I had want to get for a few weeks was steering wheel cover but I wanted a nice grippy one like I had in the works van as I had a leather one on my bmw but ended up taking it off as it was really slippery when cold or my hands were dry so I bought one for £3.97 from eBay cheap and cheerful as I found sometimes cheaper ones have better grip but it did not fit although it said for civic ep3 so decided I will get a stitch on one and stitch it myself I opted for the perforated leather £18.50 on eBay says it takes 50 mins to install well it took me 2 hours after a bit of trial and error and a youtube video. It's not perfect but it looks ok and does feel a lot better so all in all a good buy. And it goes with the interior.

 

[Mr Way]

The car today and my next project

So I have now owned the car a little over a month and covered about 1.5k and all is ok (touch wood) and it is starting to look good in my opinion the next thing on my list of things to do is a gearbox oil change and I am looking at the mugen style spoiler as I really like the way they look after looking at one of the other ctr owners threads I really want one but they're not cheap so will have to keep my eyes peeled and I also want a double din head unit to replace the boring oem one I will be doing other small bits aswell as I now have 2 weeks before I start my new job to fiddle about with bits. This is how she looks now, unfortunately I didn't take any pics of when I first her to show the difference but it is a big difference.

 

[User1martyn]

You caught the bug too? Lol.

 

[Mr Way]

Hi mate I caught the bug a long time ago it's just got worse lol there is a lot of mods available for the jap cars.

 

[Mr Way]

Drove to Weymouth with the Mrs

Decided to go for a drive with the mrs last night haven't done a road trip to nowhere for a long time at 9:30pm on a Sunday the roads were lovely and quiet so a few chances for some spirited driving. We ended up in Weymouth the beach is lovely especially at 12:00 midnight when no one is around. In 26 years I have never been there I've been missing out. A few pics of the car by the beach lighting isn't great though.

 

[Mr Way]

The oil guzzler

So I thought I would check the oil to make sure it wasn't using as much since the leak was fixed and oil was changed two days ago. I have done 300 miles with not a lot in v-tech and it has used 1 litre of oil which is a ridiculous amount it's better on fuel than it is on oil so it appears the leak was not the problem. so I have two options either an engine rebuild which I don't want to think about at the moment after buying some goodies off eBay this morning or try some oil additive to lubricate the valve seals. So I have opted for the latter one of the two first as it's pretty inexpensive. So Another litre or so of 5w 30 fully synthetic oil has gone in this morning and a can of this jelly like valve seal lubricant so hopefully it works. Also changed the gearbox oil this morning with the Honda mtf recommended by other ctr owners and I've got to say the gear changes do seem a bit smoother and less notchy.

 

[scrawnban]

That won't fix it, there's definitely a mechanically issue there, theres definitely seals gone on the top side of the engine.

 

[Loxy]

5w-30 is quite thin for these engines. You'll probably use less oil with 5w-40 in there but I do agree something is amiss using that much.

 

[User1martyn]

I bit the bullet and paid £730 for a full engine rebuild. No smoke or noise. Worth the money.

 

[scrawnban]

I bit the bullet and paid £730 for a full engine rebuild. No smoke or noise. Worth the money.

Bit the bullet...love the expression...she all good now?

 

[User1martyn]

Mechanically yes but I have some electrical problem I need to repair. More tinkering for me. Well worth the rebuild though. Also painted the rocker cover and fitted matching silicone hoses and a red powder coated subframe. Looks a lot better for it.