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Enzo's Daily 2005 Facelift Civic EP3 Type R Premier Edition - Cosmic Grey

Aero Wipers upgrade

So with it being winter now, and the standard wipers I got with the car were wayyyy past their best (borderline dangerous...) I decided to upgrade them to Bosch Aero's::

Before::

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After::

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I love them, think I'm about due to replace them though as they're two and a half years old and not clearing as well as they could.
 
On your next oil change use any 2 litre fizzy bottle, cut it in half,place that over your oil filter and undo,all oil and filter drop straight in without any drops
I've been doing this since I think it was you that posted it.
Great idea but I still manage to lose some oil but nowhere near as much as before.
 
So I'd ordered some 8000k HID's as the standard headlights were really showing their age, and I hate the OEM bulb colour, it really doesn't do the car any favours. So after doing some reading up I went for some 8000k HID's and also understood I needed bulb holders for the facelift EP3 for these to fit, so I picked up a bundle on eBay with these included. I had 8000k's on my previous car, and I much prefer their look to the 6000k one's most people seem to run, the blue tone in the light just looks fresher to me.

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As it stood before installation, I had a headlight out so I'd been driving round with one, and my fogs on to compensate.
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Passenger side install::
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Driver side install (was a fking ******* as no access room!!):
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Done:
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I still need to upgrade the sidelights to LED one's so it all matches light colour wise, but that's a job for another day as I need to take the wheels off to gain access and remove the wheel arch covering. I'll also be replacing the number plate lights at the back to LED one's.

I'll also at some point change the fog light bulbs too, but this requires front bumper removal and I just don't have the time at the moment with work and the weather being **** and dark... :(. So at the end it should all tie in light colour wise at the front and you can kinda imagine what it would look like if you compare the first picture I posted with all the front lights on with the standard bulbs.


Here's also a brief reflection of the costs of the car so far, what I've done and installed... also the modifications / upgrades without dates by them are parts I've purchased but not yet installed:::

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I'd also had a full bleed of the brake system this week and new Castrol Dot4 brake fluid put in, and the rear passenger side caliper replaced as the handbrake was ceasing on. All running sweet now!
 
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Do you still have to faff with the OEM clips to hold the HID bulbs in?

Also just so you know, you can get to the sidelight bulbs without removing the wheel, just lock it over and you get just about enough room and I have ham hands!
 
Do you still have to faff with the OEM clips to hold the HID bulbs in?

Also just so you know, you can get to the sidelight bulbs without removing the wheel, just lock it over and you get just about enough room and I have ham hands!

Yes pal, it was a nightmare to figure out initially as despite how much you read online, it's one of them things you'll only 'get' when you try to do the job. When I got to the drivers side one I just want to take a baseball bat to the car I was that frustrated!! :evil:

Ahh cool ok, is it alot easier with the wheels off though? and how did you get on removing the arch cover? is it easy orr? I'm gonna be putting in LED 6000k bulbs, so should be fairly ideal to run as daytime running lights so to speak! (fogs too when I do them)
 
Yes pal, it was a nightmare to figure out initially as despite how much you read online, it's one of them things you'll only 'get' when you try to do the job. When I got to the drivers side one I just want to take a baseball bat to the car I was that frustrated!! :evil:

Ahh cool ok, is it alot easier with the wheels off though? and how did you get on removing the arch cover? is it easy orr? I'm gonna be putting in LED 6000k bulbs, so should be fairly ideal to run as daytime running lights so to speak! (fogs too when I do them)

On the drivers side turn the wheel left and undo 3 clips under the arch. pull plastic down enough to get your arm through to the side light bulb, twist left and pull out
 
Just unclipped the liner and pulled enough of it back to get my arm in, probably about half way around the wing, it was a couple of years ago now.

Not sure if taking a wheel off will help enough to be worth the time it would take but it's up to you how you go about it.
 
Finished Light Upgrade

So I finally finished up the front light upgrade at the weekend after installing some 6000k LED sidelights, pics below:

Before:
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After:
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All done: 8000k HID's with 6000k LED sidelights:

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I also give the tailpipe a clean while there was some light left Sunday, I used the glorious AutoSol:

Before:
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After:
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Track Day #1

So a local group I'm a part of, 'North West Ultimate Meets' was hosting a track day event at a local circuit: The Three Sisters. It was £20 for 10 laps round the track so this took my fancy :cool:.

I've been round the track many times before, but in the Type-R I managed to shave 6 seconds off my previous personal best of a 0.56 down to a 0:50! I thought that was a serious gain on such a small circuit, anyway it was mostly a learning curve of learning how the car handled round the track flat out and learning it's feel.

Findings:
- I found the steering rack slightly slow compared to other cars I've drove round the circuit, but in it's defense my other car were much newer and this is now a 12 year old car.

- I felt a lack of feedback from the wheels and grip, hard to explain but when I've been flat out in previous cars you feel the car go light on certain parts of the track and I ease off and then feel the car regrip the track so I know I can press on again. I didn't like the feedback I got from the Type-R's seemingly dead steering. I'm hoping a fast road setup can help improve this feel.

- Goodyear Eagle F1's tyres held up great on track, would recommend.

- Pretty much it until the next session! Car was better than I thought :):)


The Track:
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Pics below:

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I got all the footage on my GoPro as a dash cam so I'll go about uploads some footage tonight on YouTube and link it up:
 
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I found that when I had the LSD fitted it 'weighted' up the steering nicely and also gave a much better feel. On tight bends I often find I have to add quite a lot of steering input but it hasn't bothered me.
 
I found that when I had the LSD fitted it 'weighted' up the steering nicely and also gave a much better feel. On tight bends I often find I have to add quite a lot of steering input but it hasn't bothered me.

I can imagine the LSD costs a fair bit though.... not quite at that point with it yet but it's good to keep in mine, I know what you mean.

I think the FRSU in the new year will help it a lot, or so I've read, that'll probz total to a cool £500 for the full set up. Regardless of cost though, if i'd had done all of this to my previous BMW's the cost would have been in the thousands by now, and i'm still under the £1k mark with all the work done :D
 
Our track car had a FRSU done with a JDM rear ARB just fitted too and that made quite a bit of difference, still need to time the laps to confirm though but car felt much better for it. That's on standard shocks and springs still.
 
Rear badge tart up & quick resolution to reservior leak

So I'd noticed recently that the cap on the brake fluid reservoir is complete sh!t and it leaks slightly, and brake fluid is corrosive as ****... Apparently this is a common fault in EP3's? ..See below:

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Leaking down all over the rocker cover....
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So the socks were order! Hopefully they should catch and soak any excess coming out. I picked up 2 for £10 on eBay, ideally i'd have like the proper Mugen one's to match the colour of the other parts in the engine bat, but I couldn't justify £10 per sock!, so cheap Spoon one's it was.
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Looking pretty.


The rear 'Type-R' badge on the car was also looking very tired also, and instead of fitting a new badge which was around £30 on ebay (f#ck that!) and also would have been half a nightmare job to fit and line up correctly, I come across some simple vinyls which would go over the current R on the badge, and these were on eBay for £2.50.

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Before:
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After:
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Much better!
 
They look much better, I also refuse to pay for a new badge.
I would rather de-badge it than pay that.

Please can you share the link?
 
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