Dave

So, the drama's continue! Well she is a MINI after all so bound to be something needing fixed lol Had her on a run the other day up to Scott's View which is just outside of St Boswells. She'd drove perfect all day (and returning incredible mpg!), but when we arrived at the view the oil light came on when she was idling. Went off with even the slightest touch on the accelerator. Knew Oil level was fine as had checked the day previous. Drove home gently but then another fault appeared about a mile from home! Coming down the wee back road to the village, there's a pothole that's been filled in but has left it like a bump now. It's not much but you do feel it when driving over it. Drove over it and heard this horrible noise from the front drivers side. Can only describe it as sounding like the car grounded on the road! Thought shit that aint good!. Popped the bonnet when we got home and yup, front offside strut top mount has gone! FFS! The MINIs have a big rubber bush at top of strut that has a bearing in it. Rubber has completely split (common fault) so she's now off the road again! Now booked into the garage to have it replaced and to get the oil pressure switch replaced too (turns out the oil light means no oil pressure!). Also getting her serviced at same time as it's due. Gonna be a costly month again!

You could try one of those one man bleed kits? They tend to be quite good although not used one myself.

yeah was kinda hesitant as no way of knowing how bad a company are gonna be when online. Just look at the months of hassle I had over the Mini's exhaust! lol Hoping I'm not gonna need to buy any more parts for DD as money is so tight at the moment. Will be a big achievement just getting her back on the road. Bloody insurance is due in October too i think.

Know these civics are hell to bleed mate, I struggled bleeding Ruby. Not sure if there's something else you need to do after replacing/rebuilding the master cylinder? Know that Ruby's new owner fitted uprated brakes to her (twin pot calipers etc I think and upgraded master iirc) and hasn't been able to get the brakes working since. Can't get them to bleed. Cars now been sitting for over 2 years as he's lost interest I think.

Yeah, deffo driveability over having max power for a short time than bang lol. See, If I had my engine in bits like that on a bench, I'd be looking at all the bits with my fist in my mouth going (mumbled obviously!) "shit, what have I done!! Hope I can mind where all these bits go!!" LOL Mighty impressive skills you've got their man, and makes this such a cracking thread to follow.

Got it from https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/oem/57470st3800 They seem pretty good parts wise, although not sure why so many to choose from and diff prices lol. To think, we used to only be able to by one type, for one rip off price from Honda! Now we have all these to choose from lol. Only thing I will say is their delivery times are pants. that's about a week and a half for it to come.

Sooooo, with DD off the road now for the past couple of months (MOT ran out and abs light has been on for a while) decided to get working on her. Used the Civic5 ABS guide and found it was throwing code 15 which is RR sensor. Funnily enough, this is the one I suspected as I had her at the garage a while back to get new rear discs/pads fitted that I'd bought. I couldn't get the caliper bracket bolts out on that side when I was fitting them myself so had to get garage to do it. When we got her back, all was fine until a week later the ABS light of doom came on, so guessing they had either disturbed something/poss damaged it while getting the bolts out. Anyhoo, moving forward I got the old one off (she fought me every step of the way! Most bolts holding the sensor cables in place either rounded off or sheared (or both!). Once off, tested it with my multimeter which showed zero resistance so indeed gubbed. ordered a new one, and got it fitted in place (Cable tied at one bit due to still needing to sort out the sheared bolts). Fired her up, bloody abs light still on! Did the whole code thing again, and now showing codes 15 and also 17 now which is RR sensor and LR sensor. Thought what the?? Tested both sensors in situ, both gave correct ohms readings. Looked at the fault codes again and it also states it could also be short/no power to sensors. Unplugged em at rear, checked with meter and 4.5 volts there. Not sure what it's meant to be, still trying to find that out. But least I know some kind of power getting there. Plugged it all back in then went and pulled the fuse for the ecu to make sure the memory is cleared. Ignition on, abs light went off!! Started her up, it stayed off for about a minute then came back on again!! Still same two codes. Decided to pull the ecu fuse again and leave it out for 10 mins. Fuse back in, ABS light now going off as normal and staying off. Not sure if it's fixed or not as need to get her back onto her wheels and test drive. If ok, think it may have been a dodgy connection for the second fault. No light on now so that'll do for me! Only pic I have is of comparing the old/new ABS sensor. Cost £44 delivered so well happy (even if it did take a week and a half to come). Big diff to the last one replaced (think it was £200 from Honda!) Old one And the old/new comparison

Does anyone know what size (MM), what size length and what thread the wee bolts are that hold the rear ABS sensor inplace at the rear of the brake disc and along the length of the cable? Every single bolt on mine is gubbed so don't want to reuse them.

Deffo do this mate! There are hardly any resto's/how to guide videos on Youtube for these Civic's so if you can try and log your progress/how you do it on video/pics. I'm in the middle of replacing the rear ABS sensor on DD, and she's needing a hella good rub down, then rust treatment before getting her undersealed. Suspension arms etc all rusty so really looks crap! They're still solid, but need to get it done otherwise they will eventually rot. Seeing first signs of surface rust on the floor at the rear too (not bad for her age!) so going to get that all wire brushed down with the grinder before treating and then sealing it. It's a thankless task, and not one I'm sure I've got in me but I'll either need to do it or ship it out to be done. Looking forward to following your progress on this mate!

It could very well be due to the heat mate. Know at the moment when we have the occasional really hot day (yes, has been happening in Scotland believe it or not! lol) our wee MINI Cooper S convertible has started doing an odd thing. The doors open and close without any noise under normal temps, but when its really hot the hinges ect are creaking and cracking like crazy. I've got them all greased, but just seems to be with the metal expanding with the the heat it's causing them to creak. So could be there's maybe something in that that's causing the issue with your abs.

Glad to hear the weldings getting done mat, that'll be a big part of the resto done with that out of the way. If you have her ready for 2nd October (or even just on the road by then) should bring her to the civic5 st mary's loch meet, be a good run for her and nice to see you there if poss.

It's hard to say mate as any fault with the ABS should throw a code so the fact there is not code is strange. How long was the car standing for before you did the test for abs code? It may be worth driving it till the light comes on then stop and do the test there and then. Does the parking brake light come on when the abs light is on every time?

That TKY performance has broke some bloody mint condition Civic M's, really Pee's me off. Why break cars with perfect shells, there's plenty of ones where the shells are shot but panels/engine etc are fine. Got a feeling that at some point it's only going to be D series Civic M's that are left as they tend to not want them from breaking as there's no B series engine to be had. Sad you decided to sell her Andrew, cracking Aerodeck that.

Fair play to the Seat, she did you proud! Love the Jazz, had a slightly older model as a courtesy car when Roxy was in at Honda to get the gearbox done. Was an awesome wee car! Yours looks tidy and loving the interior, dash reminds me of the FN1/FN2. So big Civic5 welcome to Jessie!

Loving your work so far mate, transformed what was a clean wee civic into a sweet looking Civic. Tidy!

Did the exhaust hanger etc line up at the rear ok? Thats a bonus if all you need to do is add length to the tailpipe! Love Powerflow systems, thats what we've got on DD. Very quiet/subtle on tickover and driving normally, but give her beans and she has a nice deep tone. Looks nice on the fans, I'd keep em although it depends on what alloys you were thinking of buying.

Mega worrying mate. Recently, due to being absolutely skint with the cost of oil for our oil fired heating and the leccy bill trebling in price, I've had to run DD on E10 as well as Poppy. If there does end up being a trend of injectors failing due to E10, then the drivers of this country need to make a stand against the oil companies and also our poxy gov. if the e10 is destroying injectors, then the fuel companies can be sued for selling a product which is not fit for purpose.

nah.......................that means yours is worth 24K! lol

That looks decent, nice finish on them. Yeah have to agree, back to black leaves them looking like they've had oil sprayed on them!

Is the latch receiver bolted tightly to the tailgate/hatch lid? When you close it, does it make a loud metallic thump sound like metal hitting metal? If so it could be the receiver is stuck in the closed position. Try the key in the lock, and see if the latch moves.

No masking required although I was initially going to mask it. Just got to be carefull, don't keep the gun concentrated on one area for too long. I used the flat narrow tip for the gun so more controlable where the heat goes, and had the gun around 10cm's away from the panel. Basically start at one end, pointing the heat gun at the one section for no more than 2 to 5 seconds then move along the part slowly, so it's spending 2 to 5 seconds heating the bit that's in front of it. I had the tip horizontal, so it was only really heating the plastic, not the paint (although some heat obviously transfers as it's blown over the plastic). I moved the gun slightly up and down towards the edges of the trim as I moved along it. I did 3 passes over the trim like this, then stopped to let the trim cool down and also let the gun cool down. Once gun has cooled down, move to next bit of trim. Once all are done, go back to the start and do it again. Think in total I did 9 passes over the trim (with the stops as mentioned above) and it came out really well. Like I say, just got to be careful and methodical with the movement. And your spot on mate, the theory from what I've read/watched is that the natural oils and dyes in the plastic move from within it back to the surface, which leaves it looking like new again. Highly recommend it! Going to give DD's one final pass, then might do poppy's arches/kit (although it's still pretty black tbh).

Did a little bit of resto work on DD recently. Her plastic door trims and sills were looking faded and patchy (as all car trim goes over time) so decided it was time to do something about it. Normally just put back to black on them once shes been washed, but the effect only lasts a few days so wanted a more permanent solution. Had seen videos of folk using heat guns/blow torches and it's meant to make them like new again. Thought, right, lets give it a bash! Had the heat gun on a low heat and took my time with it... Heat gun at the ready! Drivers door trim done, can see the difference compared to the wee bit trim on the front wing which hasn't been done. And after.. Drivers door (done) compared to rear door (not done) All done including the sills Wee photo of DD and Poppy together Really impressed with how they turned out. A week later, and they still look like that so going to give them another wee go over with the gun then maybe seal it with silicon spray. Has made a big difference to how she looks as she's now dirty again but trims look good!

yes, I never get tired of the MB/MC shape. To me it's a classic 90's design, simple and classy.

Look at the space in the rear of the bus! That's amazing mate, can see the appeal of these, so practical but still look sweet! The Broon bus looks to be packed to capacity Simon lol

TypeR is looking spot on mate, shame about the drive shaft though. That wee Clio is prefect 1st car for your boy.