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Dave's Type R # 2 - Silver FN GT

Messages
389
Hi all,

I briefly introduced myself in the following thread as being the new owner of this car:

https://type-r-owners.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?100228-Civic-Type-R-2-Fn2-GT-)

My first Type R was a DC5 and I absolutely loved it. As far as I was concerned, I was never going to get rid of it and so a lot of the work I did was dead money in terms of resale value but longevity was my primary goal. Full build thread here if you’re registered on the DC5 forum:

http://www.itr-dc5.club/forum/index...rogress-thread-march-2012-onwards/?hl=yv04fvl

Best pic I have but its before I did most of the visual work:



Couple others:





Then the unexpected arrival of my 2nd daughter meant some big financial changes. Wife was to become a full-time mum and I had to cut costs wherever possible. Sadly, the DC5 had to go and to say I was gutted was an understatement.

The last 4 years have been a bit of a dry spell for nice cars having just one car in the household focused on practicality and cheap running costs.

However I’m happy to say more recently things with work have picked up a bit and I could get myself something of my own.
I’d love something properly JDM again but a decent DC5 isn’t cheap now and it would have felt a little like starting again after everything I did to mine. An FD2 would be perfect but not wanting to over commit financially, an FN2 seemed like a great compromise. 99% of my miles is commuting so a big plus was the more modern interior compared with the DC5.
Like so many others I wasn’t sure I could put up with the stigma of not owning a “True Type R” in others people’s eyes but actually it’s a lot more capable that I anticipated.
Its on eibach springs which I’m told are in improvement but its still so bobby you can feel it can’t quite put its power down like the OEM dampers and Spoon springs on my DC5 did. Perhaps it’s a stiffer chassis than the DC5 but I’d be surprised with all the extra braces that the DC5 came with as standard!

It’s also massively noticeable not having the LSD but all that aside its growing on me a lot.
I have a few plans with it but nothing drastic. Mostly just tidying it up a bit which - credit to the previous owner - it doesn’t need a great deal of.

More immediate plans:
End of the month - MOT, oil change, clutch fluid and resolve a heatshield rattle that’s driving me crazy!

Hopefully the month after that - Clutch change (its very heavy and needs to be held right to the floor to avoid gear crunching), new MTF fluid obviously, lightweight flywheel and if I can stretch to it an LSD too. Might go 2nd hand OEM to keep costs down. Either way, a helical is for me over the plate type.

I’ll be doing some detailing too which I was quite into with my DC5 but all that stopped on our everyday runners so I need to refresh what I have as a lot of my stuff I gave away.
I did still have enough stuff to give it a nice wash yesterday and given that time is limited with family life I tend to focus on a couple panels at the end of each wash so I clayed the bonnet and applied a hard wax to bonnet and wings.

Having taken very few decent photos of my DC5 (as you can tell from above!) I thought I’d make more of an effort with this car. Hope you like them :D















 
very nice indeed! I do like a silver FN2! Wheels look stunning

Really like the slam panel fixing kit too, got mine coming this week :)
 
Couple small updates.....

I replaced the one remaining front interior bulb which was blue and fantastic at being just about completely useless.

Before:



After:



Couldn’t get a before photo in the dark as it was er, too dark.

After:



It’s also been around a year since the car has had an oil service. Despite the fact it looked very clear still on the dipstick I wanted a change done. Usually I do this myself but I’d heard the filter can be a bit of a pain to get to on the FN2, especially on the drive.

I'm glad I didn’t attempt it now as even on a lift it looked a struggle and the mechanic really had to give it some force with a tool to get it off!!
So new oil filter and Millers nanodrive added 31/05/19. First time I’ve bought it but read a few years ago it had proven increases on the dyno by a couple ponies. Every little helps right :D



Lastly, I had the MOT.

Scraped a pass but with a few advisories. Front nearside shock is developing a leak, rear beam bush on the same side has split but not excessively lose and BOTH rear brakes are very lightly dragging which has caused excess wear to the edge of the pads.

So to that end along with the clutch starting to let go, the car is booked into TGM on 18th for a new clutch, lighter flywheel, braided clutch line/new fluid, front shocks and Helical diff. (I’ve left it to them to chose LSD brand).

Looks like this weekend I'll be stripping down the rear brakes to see if I can loosen them off and re-grease them. If I can save them I’ll get some new Brembo spec pads and possibly discs. If not it’ll be full reconditioned units, HEL braided lines and MOTUL RBF fluid to follow shortly.

The brake lines and fluid change are something I will be doing either way but I’d appreciate being able to get another 6 months out of the current set up given what its already going to cost me these next few weeks!!

Rear Beam bushes will also be done in another month or two. Will update again following my trip to TGM!
 
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Biggish update.

One of the advisories on the MOT were both rear calipers were beginning to stick.
I thought I’d attempt to work these free and did succeed in winding the piston back on the first side. However it stuck again and generally gave me all the crap I needed to know it just made sense to buy refurbed units.



Painted up in Hammerite smooth silver.



I’ve fitted the one that broke on me but the other is still to do. I've ordered both HEL lines and Motul RBF600 but the lines are a bit late so the other caliper will go on when the lines arrive and the whole lot can be bled at once.

In other news, the car went into TGM today for a full day’s work.



I’ve already mentioned how heavy and inefficient the clutch felt so had organised for a new clutch and lightened flywheel to be fitted. Whilst doing this I thought to the hell with it, lets throw an LSD in there at the same time!

MFactory:



To my dismay, the clutch actually looked in decent shape and the clutch slave revealed itself as being the potential culprit as it was leaking.
Unsure if that would have added the pedal weight I was feeling mind you? Old clutch, looking pretty clean to be honest:



Anyway if it hadn’t been done I wouldn’t have the diff and that alone has made such a difference to the character of the car. The new clutch is now lovely and light.

The lighter flywheel has also surprised me in how much more revvy and eager the car feels, particularly as the standard flywheel isn’t exactly heavy.



Finally, as another MOT advisory was that the N/S front shock was starting to show signs of leak I replaced both fronts with new Sachs units:





I also saw my old Teg although it resembles very little of what it was under my ownership. The HR shifter one of the few remaining signs it was once mine!




Nice picture in Toms office of her in action:



So next job will be getting the other caliper and lines fitted and the brake system bled
 
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Nice cars buddy, I have seen that photo too at TGM as I used to be a regular until recently haha.

Where about are you from if you don't mind me asking?
 
Nice cars buddy, I have seen that photo too at TGM as I used to be a regular until recently haha.

Where about are you from if you don't mind me asking?

I’m from outskirts of Newport, South Wales so I’m about 2 hours from TGM. It’s a bit of a trek but if it’s for bigger jobs that will fill a day I always deem it to be a worthwhile journey as you know the car is in good hands :)
 
I’m from outskirts of Newport, South Wales so I’m about 2 hours from TGM. It’s a bit of a trek but if it’s for bigger jobs that will fill a day I always deem it to be a worthwhile journey as you know the car is in good hands :)

Ah I see, quite the trip indeed. They are like 5 mins drive for me, so I ended up spending more time and money there than I wanted to :D But as you say, their quality of work and attention to detail is amazing.

What is next on the cards for the FN2?
 
Ah I see, quite the trip indeed. They are like 5 mins drive for me, so I ended up spending more time and money there than I wanted to :D But as you say, their quality of work and attention to detail is amazing.

What is next on the cards for the FN2?

Good question! I’d like to see if I can reduce shifter throw and improve the crispness. I’ll possibly treat myself to the Tegiwa short shifter, and shifter bushes fairly soon. I find it a struggle not having CarPlay or DAB too so if I could get the centre console/dash out once and do it all at once that would be ideal.

I want a sports cat put in so I may look at a custom system based on the spoon design. I know a great company not too far away who really know their stuff, right down to getting the note you want. I think the secret with the unique sound of the JDM stuff has a lot to do with the diameter being a little less than most tuners recommend. I know a 3inch system makes good gains but it also ruins the exhaust note in my opinion. Kakimito on the DC5 sounded sublime and that was a slightly smaller diameter than other options. Didn’t seem to starve the car of power either.

Other thing then is I’d like to replace the entire rear beam. It needs new bushes but it’s a bit scabby so I wonder if it’s easier to source another one, get it powder coated or similar, polybush and then just swap them over. Problem will be while it gets swapped I’ll probably want to take the opportunity to give the underside a really good clean up and rust prevention treatment applied.
Not cheap but I like to do things to a car that will keep rot well away!

This was the problem with my DC5, I spent all my money cleaning it up and ended up with hardly any mods :rolleyes:
 
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Lovely car mate. Tgm is 18 miles from me and i will not take my car anywhere else. Tom runs a fantastic garage.

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Bought some Meguiars PlatRx to see if I could bring the headlights up a little better.

Considering I only used a terry towel I'm really pleased with the results. Will try again in a couple months when hopefully I'll have a machine polisher but happy with this for now.

Hopefully is obvious to you which side was done vs not done :):

 
Well here’s a very long overdue update on the car.

The first 9 months of ownership have been FAR from plain sailing, but I’ve been bearing with it.

So first of all, following some nice enhancements to the car like new front dampers, clutch, lightened fly and the diff, she was driving very nicely indeed.

Then during one rather spirited drive by my FD2 owner friend I had that sinking feeling when he looked in the rear view and said “Oh…..Smoke!” and lots of it, billowing out the back. We immediately pulled over and I was thinking the engine had cooked.

A quick assessment of the road however revealed it was coolant and the smoke was in fact steam hitting hot headers. A considerable amount of coolant looked to have been lost but luckily we were less than 2 minutes from home so I took a very slow crawl home, praying that the sudden lack of coolant wasn’t going to cook the engine.

I got it home ok and left it to cool.

Some investigation the following day found that a metal water pipe that should be fused into a cast aluminium block on the side of the head had failed leaving me to need to replace the whole unit. How it should look:



and mine:



Part 2 and gaskets 3 and 4 were required:





To cheer myself up a little I figured while there was access I’d fit some uprated shifter bushings. I’ve had HR bushings in the past so figured I’d give something totally different a try and these have made a noticeable difference, I’m really pleased with them. Sorry about the pic quality of these:





With the car back up and running again my focus shifted to making the interior a more pleasant place to be. I couldn’t deal with analogue radio and a CD player any longer so this went in - Pioneer SPH-DA230 with Pioneer ND-BC8 reverse camera.





Not going to lie. Fitting this lot nearly broke me but eventually I got everything neatly wired, hidden, connected to fusebox and out the way of airbags!

I fitted some metal pressed plates which I have no photos of yet I’m afraid. Will get some better updated photos of the car soon.

Then not long after and I start getting more problems. MPG seems to be dropping and car stops to eagerly when crawling in traffic without applying the brake. It seemed to come and go for a few weeks until finally parking up one evening at the house the car quite abruptly stops without me applying brake. I get out and there’s smoke coming off the front drivers side disc. Unbelievable! Completely new calipers at the back and now the fronts start seizing!

I wasn’t happy to pay over £300 for another set of what I’d consider substandard brakes so I went for an upgrade. Initially I ordered Spoon units because I like how they don’t upset the balance of the car, retaining the original rotor size but reducing weight and vastly improving brake performance.

Unfortunately 2 weeks waiting for them to ship from Japan and the response I get from Spoon is they won’t ship until there is a UK order bigger enough to warrant their time! So without an ETA and already being without a car for over 2 weeks by this point I cancelled the order and bought these from freaky parts instead:



They’re the units from the latest Megane RS however they're common across lots of cars including the Range Rover V8 and the newest Evo. They’re huge to be honest but are still lighter then the OEM units!

As I didn’t get the Spoon units I really wanted I decided to treat myself to 2 piece upgraded rotors so these are the 345mm units:



They’re probably overkill to be honest but they do look good.

Here’s a really poor shot of them on the car. The weather has been so bad I’ve struggled to find the time to both wash the car and have the time left to drive it somewhere for photos but I will try and update with some better photos soon!

 
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Anybody know why the photos aren’t displaying? If you click on them they’ll open. I’ve used the same method as my previous posts. Is it a forum issue?
 
Car is looking good mate and sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced.
One of the best upgrades i have done is changing my ice system!

What pads are you running?

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Anybody know why the photos aren’t displaying? If you click on them they’ll open. I’ve used the same method as my previous posts. Is it a forum issue?
Think it's a forum issue bud. They work fine on TapaTalk
 
Car is looking good mate and sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced.
One of the best upgrades i have done is changing my ice system!

What pads are you running?

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Thanks mate. Just standard Brembo road pads for an Evo. They seemed like the best option for fast road
 
What do you think of the Uniroyals?

I am needing new tyres soon on the FN2.

I'd say from a price point of view, don't think they are a cheaper option as they are soft. The fronts look as though they have about 5 to 6k miles in them to me.

From a performance point of view they are great for water displacement. If you favour a good wet tyre I'd say they do well there. They seem on par with Eagle F1's I've run in the past but I still think for my next purchase I'd favour Eagles. I'm going to try a different tyre altogether next though. See what all the fuss is about with the Michelin range. PS4's or even cups if I can stretch to it.
 
Likewise but will get pbs next as i was expecting better bite from standard brembos

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Is that on standard caliper units? If so I've heard very good things about PBS. For the calipers I'm running now the initial bite is already huge so if anything I was looking to try and tone that down a little with road pads. I always favoured standard brembo pads on my DC5 too but I think the standard caliper units need all the help they can get. I was never happy with their performance coming from the Brembo calipers on the DC5.
 
Is that on standard caliper units? If so I've heard very good things about PBS. For the calipers I'm running now the initial bite is already huge so if anything I was looking to try and tone that down a little with road pads. I always favoured standard brembo pads on my DC5 too but I think the standard caliper units need all the help they can get. I was never happy with their performance coming from the Brembo calipers on the DC5.
Mine is on the dc5 brembo kit but noticed a lot of brake squeal. Pretty good bite when warm but could be better. Didn't notice that much of a difference from the standard brakes

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