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Hello guys! Been a while since I last posted on here and my car park has changed... but not really! My MB2 is sadly not with us anymore, I was involved in an accident last year around march and sadly sustained chassis damage. They had just redone the asphalt on a road I used to enjoy driving on at night, it suddenly switched from old harsh but grippy road to freshly new asphaltwith no signs. New humid roads = slippery like ice so I understeered into a cement block, saved it a bit but not enough so I hit the corner of the block with the back of my front right wheel arch, bending the roof rail and the firewall corner. I was fine but I didn't recover mentally for another 2 months at least, I was really attached to my car. Time came when I started looking for a new car, and in just 2 years the marked had imploded, I couldn't find anything I liked for a decent price. My dad then reminded me about Rovers! I started learning more about the history of this joint venture and really liked the R8 platform in particular (Honda Concerto, Rover 200 [Coupe, Hatchback, 3 doors and Cabrio] and 400 [Sedan and Tourer wagon!]. Many of you will know about it in detail already but for a quick debrief, the R8 platform had Honda D series engine options as well as rover K and T series options, front Rover Macpherson suspension for Rover T series engine size concerns ( Double wishbone domes are way too bulky for the T16 2 liter, especially turbo on the 220 Coupe ), Honda Civic EF derived rear suspension, mostly upmarket Rover designed interior with real wood trims and honda sourced switches + little details. With that in mind, I set out to scour the menacing dephts of facebook marketplace and found 2 candidates under 2k euros, a black prefacelift Rover Coupe with 280k KM and a British Racing Green facelift fascia Coupe with 317k KM. We went to check out the first one, lo and behold it ran on 3 cylinders at best, had a rust hole in the sill big enough for 2 fists and was resprayed black from Nightfire Red, which is a gorgeous color and a sin to respray. Only thing left to do was check out the other one! Turns out it was on its 5th owner, a farmer with an extremely thick regional accent I could barely understand, and apparently hoarder of cars (even had an MB6 once). The car had a lot of chipped spots on the doors and generally anything around wheels, like it was driven HARD on gravel. Despite that, it run well and had 0 rust! The interior was dirty, driver seat scratched but still solid once cleaned, and the extremely bolstered Rover seats were RIGID still. We ended up getting this one for 1200 euros! Even drove it home 400km on worn front bushings, still a pleasant ride nonetheless. Fast forward a year and it's still my daily, improved upon every month I owned it, from maintenance to sorting gremlins. I really love the D16A8 DOHC lump, it sounds heavenly with a filter and pulls quite high in the rpm! The gearbox has super short ratios, even more than the CRX equivalent (in fifth gear my tacho sits at 3800rpm at 100kmh...) Pardon my formatting skills, just tried to cramp as many photos as I could of the things I really like about the car! The frameless doors are definetely up there, but the T top roof with removable glass pieces is amazing! By now you would probably be asking yourself "Wait, why make a post about it NOW of all times, and why here?!" My dad recently got wind of a pretty sick and well preserved example of a CIvic MB1 1.6i SR VTEC in Orleans Blue Pearl near our city! The car has 52k KM on the odometer and has been garage kept its entire life, 1 owner, only used for big trips around europe apparently. The catch? it hasn't actually ran outside the garage in 22 years at most. We thoroughly checked it out and haggled it down to 2k euros. It is an almost fully optioned example, with the only options missing being the Honda head unit + CD changer and leather interior (Which I wouldnt have liked as much). It has 4 rotors and ABS, Sunroof, 15 inch alloy rims, spoiler and bumper lips, fog lights, all four electric windows, AC and alarm + keyfob! I don't have many great pics of the car as a whole, since the calipers are seized and basically every single wear item needs to be replaced because of the age, but I'll surely post one in the gallery in a week or 2! For now, I only have these messy photos under my dad's garage's neon lights, which alter colors way too much... Under the passenger seat, in the secret cubby I discovered the original folder with every single document about the car and even a Honda Gold Card! So there's that, I'll definetely update this thread whenever I feel like it, thanks for reading :D

Thanks both - exactly - i've already found loads of little things wrong but I was expecting that considering how much has changed! I've managed to move it to my place now (it was stuck at the in laws before) so I can do a few jobs on the driveway as and when Tidied up some wiring under the dash that I wasn't really happy with and mounted a fire extinguisher in front of the passenger seat - hopefully it'll never be needed but better safe than sorry! The bracket I used ("The Bracketeer") wasn't really the best fit for this car, It's a bit wonky as I could only get one adjustment bolt in on the right hand side as it's a bit too short, but I managed to make it work and it doesn't foul on the seat moving back and forth (And yes the entire car needs a clean both inside and out. It was parked in a garage with a large german shepherd for 18 months and I swear half of her is still in the car!)

Looking ace mate 😎

Bought a VTI front lip for the aerodeck, got some slightly lower springs so it sits lower by a smidge and got temporary 15 inch summer wheels since last time. Had the car for almost a year now and I loved every single second of owning it

Passed!!! 🥳🥳 A few very minor things picked up: A couple of tyres were mounted backwards on the rim... that was the guy in the tyre shop not paying attention not me. Easy fix just need to take them somewhere A very minor leak from one of the power steering lines (I have replaced them all and had the rack out so hopefully just something just needs tightening up) But considering the entire car has basically been rebuilt by two complete amateurs in a garage and on a driveway, I'll take that as a massive win 😂 The ECU tune definitely needs work as the throttle response is all over the place, but I was only able to tune it for idle and low speed driving up until this point (by driving very slowly around the driveway!). It's booked on for a Dyno session with Jesse (J-Cal) on 10th August so really looking forward to seeing what it makes but going to put some fairly gentle miles on it locally to give it a shakedown before the big day

Thanks again Simon, I've managed to find the correct parts now (I hope) but not on there, they only had them for the decks not the MB's from what I can tell, I've had to order from Autodoc in Germany, downside is delivery times. But here are the part numbers for left & right side in case anyone else reads this & is looking for the right parts fingers crossed it helps others, what a nightmare trying to figure out the right parts though. RIDEX 83B0459 Brake hose Front Axle Right, 675 mm, INN. M10x1, 690 mm Article number: 83B0459EAN: 4059191714131 RIDEX 83B0202 Brake hose Front Axle Left, 675 mm, INN. M10x1, 692 mm Article number: 83B0202EAN: 405919136783

See that! Even now, I learn a new thing about these Civics every day in the forum!

Tubbs1 had that with us upgraded factory alarm.

If I remember rightly, the dome where the front interior light is is the sensor/receiver for the IR remote.

Hello everyone, recently pretty much every welding point of my exhaust is starting to rust apart, and the middle muffler already fell of completely (although ridiculously loud it was fun to see what sound that little d15z8 could eventually produce, even with its catted headers). Now i'm looking into aftermarket exhaust systems, but - at least here in germany - pretty much every system thats not just the rear muffler bolt-on is optimized for the models that have the cat under the car, not in the headers. Now I'm considering moving my cat underneath the car instead and switch over to an exhaust setup of the sportier models. Besides still having to clear up the legalities of that in germany, what are the technical problems i might run into? Could i reuse the little cat piece, is it universal or would i need a different one? Could my Ecu even handle having to relocate the 02 sensor, and will it still be able to adjust the air/fuel ratio correctly? Will it bork the way the car runs on cold starts or in closed loop? I dont have any experiences making serious modifications to cars yet, and not alot of contacts in my vicinity. If anyone has any experiences or insights please let me know, it would be greatly appreciated! Chsi

Yeah, it's the second time that happened too... last time it was the end muffler. Cant lie though, even though it was ridiculously loud i cant say i didnt enjoy it... had to record a few videos of it, for memories sake... InShot_20260707_215220204.mp4 Now its crudely welded together and still blowing underneath the middle console (the handbrake handle becomes slightly toasty on long drives), but at least the police hopefully wont stop me for it. Its just temporary until i find a way to resolve my upgraded exhaust issue... Yeah, it took me a while as well until i realised my cat situation, but i'm glad i did before planning ahead too far. I'd have loved to try and do some improvements performance-wise, but with the ECU being non-chippable due to the economy stuff being hard-coded in it, there isnt really alot to do. But at least they do the efficiency thing pretty good, without hypermiling but still driving a little conservative i managed to hit a max of 42.8 mpg.

Awesome to hear youre a bit of a Rover head yourself too ahah! I always kinda ignored the MAs and MB1 but I'm starting to prefer this front end for some reason now ahah. I'm sure the MB1 still has some surprises for me, but I gotta say I didn't expect the material on the seats to be different from regular cloth seats, like on the MB2. It's some sort of soft carpet-y like material, extremely comfortable and I love the pattern. The dash and console trim is also pretty cool but doesn't come out nicely in photos under that light (in photos it looks like a weird greenish camo and the blue sunstrip on the windshield doesn't help), irl it's more of a... clear coated dark marble like looking texture? I really like it. Sadly the clock's LCD decided to implode years ago probably so I'd have to source one of those someday I still have all 4 original mats with Civic stitched on the driver side one, in pretty good condition, though they were out of the car when I took this photo. As far as I'm aware the heated seats option was Rover exclusive even though they are mentioned on the user manual as I was skimming through it yesterday, quite fun I gotta say. I'd also love to know if, given these have an ir keyfob, they also have an interior ultrasound sensor for detecting movements like on my Rover coupe! I tried checking for sensors on the pillars but couldn't find anything, the only thing I found was weird tiny dots next to the door lock assemblies, which I'm pretty sure I didn't have on the MB2.

Sorry to hear about your other MB, it hurts when your attached to a car and something bad happens to it. At least youre OK wilhich is the main thing. Love that Rover, always been a fan of Rovers (I used to help my brother in the garage he worked in/Co owned that repaired/broke/restored Rover SD1s). Always had a real soft spot for the R8, came close to buying a 216SLi in nightfire red metallic. Deffo is one of my most favourite colours on a car! That MB1 you've bought is a real rare gem! Finding any pre-facelift Civic M in good condition is like finding the proverbial hens teeth! Loving that one, same colour as my wee 1.4 MA8. I bought a drivers seat from an SR to us the base for my pass seat so it had height adjustment, same as drivers side. Had that same black/red pattern which I think looks funky as hell! Keep us updated mate with loads of pics of the Civic, and get a wee thread going for the Rover too. Both genuine modern classics now.

If the reason for moving the cat is to fit an aftermarket exhaust, it might be best looking into an adjustable cat replacement (test) pipe - something like this https://share.google/n1r8yBj8vDQZ475Xs Then you'd be able to keep your current setup, but use this to make up for the difference in length You'd have to check that the fittings are right for your exhaust. Other than that, a custom exhaust place would be able to either make a section to fill the gap or even a full system back from your headers

Sorry for your loss, but nice to see you found a solution you're happy with! Although for some 'more reasonable' people than us old car people that 2 car solution you picked might seem a little risky or unreliable even, i think its a good choice for a lineup of daily and project nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing it unfold, and to see what you'll be doing to both of them!

It almost seems old fashioned to create a build thread these days on the age of social media (one of the worst things that happened to the car community is the 2382834 facebook groups full of scammers and people asking the same questions over and over - but thats a rant for another day). I always find they are a great thing to do, if for nothing else for my own benefit to remember what I did previously 🙃 also found lots of great gems of info already on this forum - and more to discover im sure A bit of backstory - I've been bitten by the Honda bug after buying a 2010 Honda Accord with a K24Z engine - I'd originally intended to get something as a cheaper, ULEZ compliant run-around (I don't live anywhere near a ULEZ but sometimes have to drive into them for work) after getting bored with a non-ULEZ diesel Mercedes that i'd owned previously. I then discovered the scene for those cars, and good they look with the right modifications. I love it to bits but it's heavy, and the modifications you can do are somewhat limited by it having the less desirable R40 head on the engine and the rarity of 2.4 petrol, manual examples in the UK. Most buyers bought a diesel version (it was peak era of buyers being encouraged by the government to buy a diesel - how the tables have turned). I only know of a handful of others in existence and even fewer are modified. They are popular in the USA so some tuning parts are available over there but it often results in expensive shipping, import duties and long waits for things to arrive, and no chance to get anything second hand as most sellers aren't willing to ship internationally. Me and my father in law have been looking for a project to do together for a while as we've reached the end with most of our other projects (mostly just repairs and upgrades to our other cars) - initially I thought maybe a restoration project but we went to a car show recently and saw lots of cool JDM cars and thought that it might be an idea to do something along those lines. I have always been interested in a K-swap of sorts anyway and as I know quite a lot about Hondas and K-series engines from modifying my accord a plan was formed.. Initially I started looking at the usual suspects for a K-swap like an EG, EK, etc but we missed the boat on getting one for a good price and even rotten examples are changing hands for more than £2000 now, so I started digging into more unusual choices. After speaking to an acquaintance he mentioned to me that the MB civic might be a good place to look as it shares a lot of parts with Civic EG and Integra DC2, two now (to me at least) unaffordable cars but with great aftermarket support. I also looked at a few more leftfield choices like a really high mileage Honda CR-Z (came to the conclusion the subframe was rotten) and a Honda logo (too much fabrication). The MB/MC seems to be the last affordable 90s Honda, so it was now or never. I found a low mileage MB2 for sale. It was a 1.4i model, completely base spec, but that didn't matter for our purposes. In fact, I was quite interested because it didn't have a sunroof, and I've had nothing but grief with sunroofs in the past letting in water and making the car smell like an "old man's ball sack" (as my fiancée succinctly put it), and the low spec didn't really matter anyway for what we were going to do. Because of the low mileage (56,000) and original looking condition, including what I believe to be original dealer plates and stickers, I thought this could be a promising lead on a shell. It's very late for an MB2 - March 2001 on a Y plate - I've seen EP/EU civics rolling about on older W and X plates so they must've been sold at the same time - it would've looked and felt incredibly dated by comparison I imagine! The pictures weren't great as they were clearly from an auction (you know the ones I mean with the car photoshopped badly onto a showroom backdrop) I arranged with the seller dealer to go and see the car (near Bradford by the way - the stereotypes are alive and well) and when we arrived I was told the car wasn't available as there was "a problem with it" and it was parked at his house (undoubtedly this is why it was auction in the first place). Whilst being annoyed at him, I explained that we wanted to buy the car as a shell anyway and asked what was wrong - some kind of overheating issue - so we went around the corner to have a look at it on a driveway. The car looked fine although very dirty, and the sills/bodywork etc seemed to be solid other than normal age related surface rust and mileage genuine as the seats look almost new. The bodywork was unfortunately a bit tatty with various dubious repairs and perished rubbers but it's to be expected for the price/age. I took it for a quick test drive - which was a particular highlight as the prospective seller lit up a cigarette while I was driving around - without asking permission might I add - but other than the rising temperature everything seemed fine, so we agreed a price - so I drove it to the nearest petrol station, bought a bottle of radiator sealant (it seemed to be losing coolant) and poured that in, along with some water, and then drove it 1 hour home with the windows open and heater blowers on full to try to make sure I didn't break down on the M1. The car made it back fine although the temperature was climbing when stopped in traffic, it went down again when on the move. Here's the only picture I have of it at the moment: The current plan is basically to do a K-swap with a K24A with mild upgrades (K20 oil pump, 50 degree VTC), and an EP3 civic gearbox. We would love to build a boosted car eventually, but lets get the basics done first. As it's a heavier (by 90s standards) car and K24s are much cheaper these days, it seemed a better choice than a K20. In terms of styling i'm not really sure at the moment - probably try to keep it OEM+ for sleeper factor although not full sleeper - the wheels will definitely need to get changed as it's currently running 175 wide 14" tyres, budget brand that were getting on 10 years old (can confirm - they have no grip whatsoever). Watch this space 👀

Ive been test driving the car and noticed a pool of oil underneath. Inititally I thought it was power steering as i'd been making a lot of changes there but on closer inspection I found a pool of oil on the gearbox - uh oh! It turns out i'd installed the driver's side gearbox oil seal completely wrong and it had been chewed up by the intermediate driveshaft it SHOULD look like this (after installing a new one, this time installed flush with a seal driver) Topped up the gearbox oil and so far so good (or more like refilled... it had lost over a litre which could've ended badly. At least I found it after only doing about 30 miles in the car) It's going on the dyno on Monday ... fingers crossed there's no more issues and it makes good numbers!

Hi I am currently putting a k20z4 from an fn2 into an mb3 1.5 vtec e “x reg”… it’s hard to find information out there about doing this swap, I believe I am the first to do the z swap with electric throttle etc, my main concern right now is I have heard a lot of different information about the conversion wiring loom, I’ve read online that an eg one is a direct plug and play but then people say it depends on the year… if someone could please let me know if this is the case, also I’m struggling to find out what nsf driveshaft I need it is 32mm hubs I managed to get b series outers onto fn2 shafts but they where too long on the near side “offside fits perfect” has anyone made up shafts and could let me know what ones I need to buy… thanks in advance I hope this forum is still used lol picture for attention

I used this conversion harness on my 2001 MB2 so it should work for you. BWE Civic EG 92-95 Integra 94-01 K Series Swap Harness k20 Narrowband EU Version | eBay UK The ECU pinout for my car was somewhat mysterious but I managed to figure it out using wire colours. I did manage to get everything working properly - MIL light works as expected etc. Speedo and RPM works although the MPH is badly out, reading 40mph at 30mph, and so on - i'm going to try a "speedo healer" device at some point. I can't remember 100% as it was over a year ago now I did that part of the swap but here are some notes I had: The main one you need to find is the wire for the fuel pump relay, here is the extract from the service manual Wiring for MIL: Cooling fan: Driveshafts I used OEM EP3 ones and swapped the inners joints side-to-side, knocked off the 36mm CV joints and used blueprint outer CV joints suitable for civic EG6 (32mm). No issues yet... Do NOT buy cheap aftermarket ones, you cant use them as the splines don't accept replacement CV joints.

Nice one 😎 you should be proud of yourself with that result - cracking stuff

Try sticking your vin number in here https://www.parts-honda.uk/honda-cars/search_vehicle/chassis

And civics going back to 1982? https://www.parts-honda.uk/honda-cars/CIVIC

They do have the aerodecks listed https://www.parts-honda.uk/honda-cars/CIVIC-AERODECK/1998

Midnight purple... Skyline style 😂

That looks gorgeous! Awesome looking bus that! That wrap is like an even more intense pirates black, liking that!

All done (I think) And what the wrap looks like in the sun

Yeah, think id get some of those wee magnet things to hold it in place if I do it.

As far as I know it was standard only on Coupes, no clue about the others. Also update it decided to throw tantrums at me yesterday, fob didnt work anymore and got me stranded for an hour and a half at a random square, even had to order pizza while I waited for my parents to come back home from a trip just to get me the spare fob LOL

Bit of a nightmare on this body kit with all the weird lines, shapes and curves. There's a few wrinkles in what I've done - especially where the shape is curved, and then a flat top, like on a bumper, as material needs to disappear instead of stretch. It's much, much easier on a flatter surface like a body panel.. Just need spare hands.

Aye, was sick of the sight of them mate, more chips than paint! Still to finish prepping the spoiler as DD was called to duty yesterday.....moving a bed for one of Faith's friends! Roof rack on and job done. Forgot how useful this old girl is! The place we were moving is about an hour and a half from here, so nice long run for her. I was shattered on the way home, so had to pull over and let Gayle drive the rest of the way home. She loved driving DD, said she's so lovely to drive😎

Does look odd without the splitter. Nice one for getting it ready for a blow over.. Plenty of stone chips in ey?

Got 1 skirt wrapped and fitted, and 2/3 if the rear bumper..

Okay so i haven’t had the time to properly start fixing stuff yet however i did take a photo of the disconnected engine wire harness connector. I don’t really know what these wires are actually for or if they’re supposed to be like this but it looks weird to me so yeah.

Been busy as had a day off from work and the sun was shinning! Decided to get DDs front VTiS spoiler off to get it ready for respraying. Also got a replacement bumper to do and the bonnet but they're getting done later this year. The spoiler was bugging me as it looked crap, more stone chips than paint! Gayle got me a new orbital sander for my birthday on Tuesday past, so put it to the test. It's bloody awesome! It's got quite a small head so perfect for the curves etc on the spoiler. Half way there... Had to stop as its now tea time and its baking hot here so needed a break. Also went under her and got all the excess power steering fluid that had leaked out from the rack. Was a right old mess! Gunk to the rescue! Leak hopefully now cured too. DD sporting her temp "spoiler-less" look. 😁 She looks bloody naked! Although still better than the scabby looking spoiler.

Yes that I do know, I meant the ultrasound sensor which detects movement in the cabin and blasts the horn if it does! The rover has it on the pillar so I expected this one to have one too ahah, it's really handy whenever I leave my roof open

The coupe one seems not to work (for me at least) The old Mb2 sure is moving, though! I really like the facelift-look of the plastic parts being colour-matched, i plan on doing that to my Mb3.

That sure sounds wild, truly supporting all the straightpipe civic stereotypes haha

Just found out I can insert videos so here's one from the coupe mainly for the sound(slower than usual as I had the roof off and uphill) and one from my old MB2 at an event! Highway acceleration.mov WhatsApp Video 2026-07-09 at 14.02.37.mp4

Didn't know I could add videos ahaha, here's what mine sounded like (cut off right after the cat) petal_20251015_104629.mp4

Oh yeah these exhaust LOVE rust, my mb2's mid pipe fell to the ground while driving and it sounded like a kanjo racer, my ears still hate me. The one on the Rover coupe, which is the same basically apart from maybe different hanger location, had insane blowing so i changed that too, still blows pre cat... I didn't know they made models with an upstream cat like yours, I guess the VTEC E engines were the d series efficiency flagship so they had to do that. Good luck with it

Thats the part that makes a car a hobby i'd say! I'm still a long ways away from being able to upkeep my car all by myself, but i'd like to reach a point like that where i can confidently do my best to keep it alive. Stoked to see theres still enough reachable people out there doing the same!

Yeah they definitely wouldn't be viable for someone who doesn't enjoy doing a bit of trouble shooting, but I feel like I can say I'm really knowledgeable about D series engines and just Honda chassises as a whole so troubleshooting comes out as fun, aside from some issues I'm still trying to tackle!

She is looking soooo good now, sitting perfect. Good luck with the motcmate, I'm sure she'll pass with flying colours. One absolute sleeper that!😎

Ay up lads indeed of some help please. Can’t find any wings for my Mb1/Ma. Would buying a full front end of an mb6 fit nicely? Needing to know ASAP please

Finally got around to doing some wrapping.. Bit of a learning experience, but starting to understand it. Gone for midnight purple.. Looks lush in the light. Only about 70% happy with the front bumper. If I did it again I'd do it differently, as there's a few creases. Just wrapping the body kit.. The paint and filler are where there'd been stickers that the garage had peeled off, and it took paint with it, but also done cracks and damaged areas

It's probably cheaper to just buy a Civic with the engine you want already in - maybe you could get a right hand drive one form the UK that's rusty? Theses kind of cars tend to be cheaper over here ... MBs haven't gone up in price much (yet!) like EG/EKs have in recent years. Obviously you'd have to get it back to where you are but depends how desperate you are! You are absolutely right on the K-swap front - especially if you use quality parts not ebay copied junk. I spent £750 on my shell, £700 on an engine, and £250 on a gearbox, but I would say the parts to do the engine conversion properly are probably 5x that, especially when you add in a lot of items that get done "whilst you're in there" e.g. new clutch/lightened flywheel, bigger injectors, different intake manifold... etc. etc.

Cheers man, I've really fell for it. Crawled around underneath at the weekend squirting lanoguard in all it's crevices. Just lifted it right up on the bags and it was higher than I can normally jack the deck up 😂 Took a couple of (not very good) before pics after a bit pressure wash the day before. Generally clean enough, but glad I've got it treated now as there's a few places where there's some slight signs of rust starting.

RIP 1998-2016 Honda civic 1.6iLS gearbox is done cant get it out from 4th gear......... it was a fun car, maybe i will do a gearbox change or swap the engine to my EJ9...hmm have to drive my CE8 ACCORD NOW here's some pics of him: .

for context: i bought my 1998 mb3 in november of 2025 as my first car, before that i haven't had any experience whatsoever with working on cars, nor do i know anyone who can teach/help me so it's pretty much just me and the internet trying to figure this one out. (what i'm trying to say is that my knowledge is somewhat limited, so keep in mind that what might be obvious to you may not be obvious to me). also wanna mention that my current financial situation is quite bad to the point where €20 is a noticeable chunk of my wallet, therefore i would very much appreciate any help with this issue as it's literally impossible for me to just buy a new alternator and see if that fixes it. first of all i wanna make very clear that i had a mechanic replace the alternator + belt in january of 2026 because i was having charging system issues so i'm currently trying to rule out every other possible cause of this issue before having to put myself in debt to get ANOTHER new alternator. so i've been trying to figure this out for a week straight now and it's driving me crazy, not joking when i say i've spent every night of this week researching until atleast 4am, but i'd say my average sleepy time this week is around 7am. i've then woken up 5 hours later and went straight out to the car to try and make my every braincell work together to fix this. (obviously haven't worked out great) a couple weeks ago i was out driving with my friend and i was in second gear accelerating quite hard. as i was approaching 7000rpm i noticed the battery light flickering a little bit. thought it was weird but didn't really think twice about it since it didn't stay on or anything. fast forward about a week and i was out driving by myself. accelerated quite hard once again (not gonna act like i don't abuse this car, because i really do drive it harder than i probably should lol) and i was probably somewhere around 6000rpm when the battery light came on and didn't go out. i stopped the car on the side of the road and called my dad since he lived closeby and decided to go to his place because he has a booster pack and tools etc incase i was gonna need it. the drive to his place was around 15km, and during the drive there i noticed the battery slowly being drained to the point where i literally JUST made it outside his place before it was gonna die completely. however when i parked the car the battery light suddenly went out? i let the car idle for a bit and eventually drove like an elderly lady home hoping that the battery light wouldn't come on again, which it didn't. day after that i was out on a drive enjoying the moment and once again the battery light came on but this time i was only at about 4000rpm when it did. decided to go straight to a family member who lives closeby and also has some tools etc if the problem would escalate. i parked the car and went inside and talked for a bit, then went out to the car to see if it would start, which it did, and no battery light. the next 3 or 4 days this cycle would continue where the battery light comes on during a drive, always somewhere between 3500rpm and 4500rpm, i shut the car off and turn it back on with no battery light. since then i've done the following things to try and fix the issue: - replaced the very worn out ground cables from the valve cover and transmission housing with thicker 21mm2 cables aswell as sanding down to expose bare metal underneath the grounding locations on the chassis - replaced the battery ground cable with a much thicker one (not sure exactly how thick) and also relocating the ground location in the chassis + sanding it down - checked the fuses in the engine bay + under the dash - checked the alternator connectors and cleaned out the green connector since there was some kind of mayonnaise looking gunk in there (i'm now realizing that it might've been some kind of grease and maybe that was intentionally put in there but oh well) - checked the spark plug wires since i noticed one of them kept getting pushed out slightly and also noticed some kind of clicking noise which i suspected was the spark possibly arcing to the metal and somehow making the alternator act up since the alt is grounded through the engine block (if i understand it correctly) but after changing all the spark plug wires back to the original ones that were in the car when i bought it, the battery light does still come on so i guess that was a dead end (and the clicking noise is still there) - checked the spark plug that was pushing the wire out and found it was a little bit loose, there was some brown-ish residue at the top of the porcelain part but i don't know if that's relevant or not - checked the battery voltage with multimeter; 13,3v with engine off, 12,5v with engine running and battery light on, 14,5v with engine running after shutting the car off and starting it again. my battery has a indicator light which is green meaning it's good so i'm just assuming it's good lol - sanded down the ground location for my subwoofer amplifier (2000w amplifier with a 900w rms subwoofer) just in case that has anything to do with it. amp is grounded through a factory bolt in the trunk where the factory "rear speaker holder/thing that covers the trunk" thing meets the rest of the chassis, i really have no clue whether that's a good or bad ground location but yeah. probably also worth mentioning that whenever i crank the volume up real high and the sub is working hard, the headlights dim down a little bit aswell as the dash lights but it's really only noticeable when it's dark out - checked the alternator belt which seems to be in ok condition however it looks kind of dry-rotted and has some tiny cracks all over, and from what i can tell it's not slipping unless it's doing so silently. my AC belt likes to slip alot and that sounds like 345 pigs screaming for their lives in symphony, which my alternator belt does not. - checked the battery terminals and noticed the positive cable wasn't really very tight so i jammed a little nail inbetween to make it sit tighter (i am the literal opposite of rich so if a ghetto fix is possible then that's what i'm gonna do) - spent countless hours googling/youtubing/checking forums/checking service manuals/brainstorming with chatgpt/overall researching trying to find anything that might be of help but so far nothing has worked and i've only found one single forum post of someone having a somewhat similar issue but it didn't help my situation so yeah. i don't know what to do next. the only thing that i haven't investigated so far (to my knowledge) is the wires in the 3p connector on the alternator, maybe there's a break in one of the cables somewhere but even if there is, idk how to find it let alone repair it. and also i don't see how that would be affected by the engine being at higher RPMs. everything seems to be pointing towards the alternator or voltage regulator or something but like i said, i really don't want that to be the cause because i probably won't be able to fix it for atleast a couple months and i need my car every day since it's my only car. some things worth mentioning: - i'm in sweden so my car is left hand drive, if that makes any difference. - the wire harness at the top right corner of the engine bay where the brake fluid reservoir is located has 3 connectors (male connectors i think) but only 2 of them are actually connected to something, while the third one is just hanging there next to them. - while i was underneath the car and inspecting the alternator, i found a cable that was disconnected (it was the same cable but had a female and male connector inbetween them that were plugged out) but i believe that was just the cabin warmer outlet thingy, like the thing where you can plug in a heater fan in the passenger side footwell. i don't use one of those anyway so i don't really care that that's disconnected but i'm just mentioning it in case someone knows something that i don't. - i'm pretty sure the wires going to the passenger door are damaged and shorted, because when i upgraded the door speakers i noticed that all the speakers in the car (i have 4 speakers) besides the subwoofer stopped working whenever the passenger side door speaker was connected to the headunit, so i'm guessing the headunits internal amplifier went into protect mode. another reason for suspecting the wires are shorted is that every time i unlock the car with the key, the passenger door mirror adjusts itself a little bit so i keep having to adjust it back up to not be just seeing the pavement lol - almost every time i do anything that requires electricity (rolling the windows down, turning the wheel so the power steering engages, turning AC or headlights on, etc) while the car is idling, the rpms drop to the point where the car starts shaking from the vibrations for a second and then goes back up i'm probably forgetting some stuff but it's now 2:30am and i've been writing this post for 2 hours so this will have to do for now. if you need any other information from me then i'll gladly provide it, i just really need this to be fixed ASAP and i really really REALLY hope it's not an expensive fix. any help would be greatly appreciated !!!!!!!!!!!!!!