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Mike's Cosmic EP3

Amazing ep3 mike loving it! Best colour on the ep3s too! :D

Thank you :) I spent a while trying to find a decent Cosmic Grey example, she still needs work though.

Correct!

And Mike's is a very nice example.

Thank-you! It's only because I haven't shown the various down-sides so far :)

Thankfully summer is here, I have a new trolley jack, and the mother-in-law has been sent back to the colonies. Now it's time to put some more effort in.

Short term I have to fix the cat flange, replace the accessory belt, try to find out why the engine is noisier than it used to be (maybe a worn engine mount?), replace the springs, find out why the driver's seat makes a noise etc.

It's a never ending quest, but the driving pleasure is worth the occasional pain :)
 
Well glad the mother in law finally gone back anyway! Hahaha :D always going to be things to do and problems to sort with used cars unfortunately but you will get there and will be worth it! I stupidly didn't read up or spot the common fn2 roof/windscreen rust when i brought mine so got that to look forward to repairing in the future :(
 
Thank you :) I spent a while trying to find a decent Cosmic Grey example, she still needs work though.



Thank-you! It's only because I haven't shown the various down-sides so far :)

Thankfully summer is here, I have a new trolley jack, and the mother-in-law has been sent back to the colonies. Now it's time to put some more effort in.

Short term I have to fix the cat flange, replace the accessory belt, try to find out why the engine is noisier than it used to be (maybe a worn engine mount?), replace the springs, find out why the driver's seat makes a noise etc.

It's a never ending quest, but the driving pleasure is worth the occasional pain :)

That's from all the dogging you've been doing mate :p
 
My trials and tribulations with my exhaust.

This is from the middle of last year, I've just been really lazy with my write-ups. I have a couple more coming after this too, probably later today.

The problem:


I'd tried all manner of fixes for the noise from the exhaust whenever I drive in the wet (pretty sure it was flexing enough to push against he chassis causing massive amounts of cabin noise). I bought a replacement third-party cat (and a whole load of other stuff)



When trying to remove the old cat I found that one of the two bolts from the manifold got stuck, then broke, then I couldn't even extract the bolt with heat, extractors, drilling, etc. So I had to hack the nut off the back of the manifold and use something else in its place.



Then I installed the new cat, but its alignment wasn't great either.



It still pushed up way too high and after a few test runs suffered the same issue when I ran through a puddle. So I bought a grinder and flange and shaped the flange to that it pushed the whole assembly down away from the chassis.



Two days of effort with no good result. And then it started showing the check engine light. Returned the cat since the group I bought it from didn't mention I'd need either a modified engine map or a lambda-fooler/standoff. I'd bought it from them in the first place because they were one of very few who didn't say that. So, I cut into the flange after that and used it to brace the old rusted flange to hold things together until I could find a better solution.

I tried to find somewhere local to repair the cat assembly, a guy I've had welding work done by in the past didn't want to touch it, and the rest suggested a new cat. At £2700 for a new Honda cat I figure I could do the aforementioned map, or even import a nicer manifold and cat from elsewhere, along with even more stuff. No way was I going to burn that kind of money.

In the end I got to talking with a guy who catches the train into London from the same station I do, turns out he's a long-time scooby fan and knew a few places. So, off to Hayward and Scott in Basildon I go.

End result, a rebuilt cat rear pipe and flange for less than the cost of a cheap "sports" cat.



I'd also bought a new rear engine mount and installed that while the cat was out of the way. So far I've solved two problems, the engine noise has decreased (the old mount had inserts that I wasn't aware of), and the cat's now well-positioned and quiet in the wet.
 
Jokes aside re: the seat, the noise from it was starting to annoy me, so I pulled it out and tried pulling it apart.



Sadly it's a little bit of a challenge (or at least I found it one) to get the damned thing apart. I managed to pull the rails off and a few other parts.



But that was as far as I was willing to push it.

In the end I found a few pounds in change (none of it anything that I'd lost, so I'm kinda up on the deal). That might have been rattling around when I cornered, and the noises are less common/obvious now. Maybe that just means there's only a little bit of change left in there any more.
 
End of February I replaced the fuel filter because the car's now around mid-late 80,000s and I have no idea if it's been done before.

No real description other than to be careful and take your time. Make sure you have something to deal with a possible fuel fire on-hand. Make sure the battery is disconnected. All that safety stuff. The filter site in the fuel tank and the way to get to it is below the back seat. Follow spudgun's guide here - https://type-r-owners.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?95063-How-to-replace-a-ep3-fuel-filter

The only thing I can warn you about is to be really careful with the fuel-float. It's a plastic float on the end of a springy metal swing-arm at the bottom end of the fuel-pump/sensor/filter assembly and it's awkward to angle around to get out neatly. If you feel like something's caught when you're pulling the filter out, it's likely that. Take your time.

As you can see, my old one was grubby. I figure it might have been the original:



This should give you an idea of how the float can be a problem on its armature.
 
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Which brings us to today (and, sadly, last week too).

My last service mentioned there was some play in the rear drop links. Since my MOT is due this month I figured I ought to get on to that, so I bought myself some Meyle HD's.

Previous drop-links I've had have used a hex/Allen-key in the end of the bolt, but the Meyle's have two flattened sides on the collar near the rubber boot. On my first attempt to install them last week I'd used a regular 16mm spanner to hold the sides so I could tighten the nut. But when I the drop-link secured on one end I noticed that I'd popped the boot off the seal. This meant I either had to buy another one, or fix it. Not one to be defeated, I opted for the fix.



So that blue plastic helix acts like a collar holding the seal above the spur on the shank. I had to separate it like a keyring, then spiral it back in place. Hopefully it holds together.

Now, I didn't want a repeat of the last time, which meant I couldn't use the spanner any more. I didn't have anything else with a narrow enough section that could maintain a decent grip so I could tighten them, so I bought something to do the job: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000C14IUA/ - A bicycle cone wrench in 16mm. It's only a few mm thick but it is perfect for the job, it'll probably help when I next need to take them off too.

Old and new



Although they look similar sizes that's a trick of the wide-angle lens used to take the shot. Note how long the shaft is joining the upper and lower stage on the old compared to the new. The Meyle is a beast in comparison. The old ones were Lemforder. I've used them before and they seem okay. That one lasted from Dec 2016, we'll see how these go.
 
I've never been a huge fan of the orange glow from the dash, and having to replace those godawful tiny bulbs on occasion, so I treated myself to a whole £30 worth of LEDs for the dash and centre console. £15 for a collection of lights for the instrument cluster, and another £15 for the ones for the centre console which are a little more specialised.

I'm sorry for the terrible photos throughout in this, they were all taken by my phone since the wife's got the camera with her on holiday, so needs must.

The before shot

Note how orange everything is? Ugh! Also the light's out on the rear window heater.

First things first, the instrument cluster. This is pretty easy to remove, just get your fingers at the lower corners of the surround just in front of the cluster and pull, then undo three screws and the whole thing can be pulled forward, undo the two plugs on top and it comes out pretty easily.



The bits I'll be replacing are those black twist-to-lock things which each hold tiny incandescent bulbs. I'm replacing them with these



They need a nice wide flat-blade screwdriver to secure, and because they're LEDs (and therefore polarised) you also need to make sure they go the "correct" way around. The only way to work that out with these ones (because they're unmarked) is to try until you get something that lights up. This made the whole process take a lot longer than it could have otherwise.



First attempt :) I had to do a lot of work in the car in the end, but more on that later.



The originals compared to the LEDs on the right. Note how several of the originals are quite burnt (even though they still worked).




If you look back at the first picture you'll see there's some light-bleed from the fan speed position indicator. This is why. I'm guessing someone had pulled it out earlier and broken the tab, sadly a new one from Lings is almost £20, so I'll have to shop around. In the mean time this can go back in place.



The fan controls, a unit worth over £900 according to Lings :eek: those two grey things hold lights which fire into some clear acrylic light-guides, they get replaced with these (originals on the left, LEDs to the right).



Sadly I didn't take any shots of the lower controls (AC, rear window heater, and air recirc buttons), but the idea is much the same, unscrew it from the console, unclip the old lights, clip in the new. Those ones are a little different in that they're longer, and more of a ******* to remove. I spent quite a while pulling bulbs out to rotate them 180°, then try again. For the console it's quite easy, turn on the headlights and see what lights up, rotate them if they don't. For the dash however... The bulbs you're putting in place are for indicators, dial backlights, high-beam, key security (that little green key that lights up when you first place the key in the ignition)

Eagle-eyed among you may have noticed two missing bulbs in my cluster. Anyone know what those are for?

I bought the following kits:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264190515673 - for the centre console
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263671355306 - for the gauges

The final result:


Much less orange where it counts (inner ring of speedo, gradations between major marks, etc.). I quite like it.

Now I need to re-code the radio, find the clip that fell off the bottom section of the console, and clean up the lock-nut for the gear knob since I was a little careless when unscrewing it :(
 
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Nice job Mike, I did wonder what the two missing bulbs were when I did my cluster with just normal bulbs (still need to do heater bulbs, buttons etc). Good to know nothing should be there
 
The bad news.

There's always one.



In order to find the clip to retain the lower part of the console (where the gearstick sits) I had to pull the lower segment of the console apart. This is one of two bolts that hold that in, and it sheared.

Future me is going to have to remove the remainder of that bolt from the chassis (it's a through-hole to the ground beneath) and replace it with a new one.

I hate drilling out bolts. Future me agrees.
 
Nice job Mike, I did wonder what the two missing bulbs were when I did my cluster with just normal bulbs (still need to do heater bulbs, buttons etc). Good to know nothing should be there ��

Thanks :)

I'm still not 100% sure what the top rightmost one could be for in that picture though. Their module has no space for a bulb but mine does.

Anyone with answers, let me know!

Also I'm using this as a further reminder to tighten the bolts holding the stereo and upper segment of the console in place since (like an idiot) I forgot.
 
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The bad news.

There's always one.



In order to find the clip to retain the lower part of the console (where the gearstick sits) I had to pull the lower segment of the console apart. This is one of two bolts that hold that in, and it sheared.

Future me is going to have to remove the remainder of that bolt from the chassis (it's a through-hole to the ground beneath) and replace it with a new one.

I hate drilling out bolts. Future me agrees.

I think this is a common one. No matter how gentle I went at this on mine, one still sheared off. Future me hates drilling out bolts too. Future me agrees to leave it where it is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I did exactly the same on my Cosmic EP3 when I took everything out to fit the JDM carpet.
 
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