Dexter

Gold and black - you'll never go back! Nice.

You do, otherwise the it will leak between the mani and the exhaust. If you can find a exhaust clamp that goes from 63,5mm to 60mm that would be perfect, then just join the mani and the rest of the exhaust like this for example: Of course you'd need one with a flange to match the mani, or weld one on.

10mm pre-load, you won't regret it!

Nice one! A good way to correct one of the very, very few design flaws the m's have

Still no Recaros ... none on sale here. But i've done some small upgrades: Re-painted the calipers all round and added 5mm spacers. Also replaced the headlight washer covers with new ones painted with the same code as the car. Don't have a photo of those but they look nice and very subtle. ET is now 32, the 8.5" rears looks nice but the 7.5" fronts are still a bit too much tucked in to my taste. But don't fancy fitting any wider spacers, don't want to risk losing a wheel! But so far they've stayed on perfect even at relatively high speeds. I was chasing a GT86, on a closed circuit ofcourse , and he didn't disappear into the horizon until i was close to hitting the revlimiter on 5th . Here's some more shots from the past weeks. The deck is lower than ever, i wrenched a few mm down from last time. Still could go more i reckon!

I guess you might need an address too? I'll PM.

Sent!

Well there's still the question of back seats... and btw these came and went, and there hasn't been a single set of Speeds for sale in Finland since! Should've got them when had the chance...

I bought OEM when needed one. Best way to search for ebay-parts in my opinion is this: http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?159338-Need-genuine-honda-part-numbers-Look-within!!! Then just put the partcode in the searchfield in ebay and choose a reputable seller. Thermostats aren't that complicated devices so i don't think it necessary has to be oem. It's pretty easy to replace, you will need new coolant as well since you will spill quite a bit while removing the radiator hose from the thermo housing. I'd say 30minutes if you know what you're doing, and a bit more if you learn as you go . As long as you have proper tools it's really no problem, just take your time.

You can get really good sounds out of a m (even without vtec ) with a reasonable effort. I upgraded all at once and was super happy with the result. I ended up with a Pioneer head unit, Jbl mids & tweeters + crossovers and Pioneer co-axials in the back. The rears needed spacers since the oem's are paper thin but the fronts fit in their original spots... after only a little bit of modification . Took some time but wasn't difficult at all. The fitment of the crossovers took a bit of head scrathing but eventually found their place inside the door cards. Also sound proofed the front doors and should've done the same on the roof above the rear speakers (deck), since heavy bass resonates the metal a bit. But no extra amps or subs and it's sounding great.

That's some good work, man! Shame about the discs though, i've also heard similar experiences about mtec's and that's why i opted for grooved discs instead.

Gorgeous. I want a bay like that! And that's one crazy looking mani, but since it's bisi it must have some very well thought out logic behind that shape?

No, never, besides some random tips in the pits by some random people . I'm sure would help heaps to have a pro co-pilot for a couple of laps!

Had some yellow film lying around so decided to try out the euro thing... don't know if it's any better than before, but hey, it's a mod nevertheless! I was heading off to Ahvenisto to start my track season so bought some shiny new wheel nuts and showed the R888's some tire marker... Surprisingly i didn't manage to improve my track times from 2 years back, even though since i've upgraded the exhaust, brakes and suspension and definitely got the driving lines nailed better than before. My guess is old tires and bad alignment... the Toyo's are down to 1mm and 3mm of tread per pair so they probably have one track day left in them. But gotta tell you, the brake setup is pretty awesome at the moment! I was doing 5-7 hard laps in a row and got practically zero brake fade... i'm running grooved discs, Ferodo DS2500 pads, Hel hoses and Motul RBF600 fluid. While i raised the car to track height, i played a bit with the pre-loads for the first time. Set it at 10mm at each corner (was at about 4mm before) and lowered the damping to 5 clicks from hardest for street and i couldn't believe how much better it was! At track i gradually turned it to max but just for normal cruising 5 is perfect. For the next track day am tempted to add even more pre-load. But unfortunately i've started to lose some oil. It's always been seeping a tiny bit from the gearbox side, but this summer it's increased to the point where i've already added 0,5 liters twice, within 2 months. That's a bit too much so the plan is to do a proper engine wash, check the torque of the valve cover bolts and start following carefully where the oil is coming out. I already replaced the vtec solenoid gasket and torqued it down. For those of you who's participated in the 5 dream car garage thread, well i got a step closer to mine by going to see and test drive this gorgeous '82 TE71 Corolla coupe for sale fitted with a 4-AGE. LUCKILY it was not perfect enough, otherwise i would've ended up with a 5000 euro loan! Yeah, pretty steep for a car like that. Taking into consideration seeing it live i noticed it had some flaws that made me lost interest before even seriously thinking about buying it. But definitely worth the time, still one of my favourite models of all time... That's pretty much it so far. I had a battery issue which got sorted out, more of that in detail here if someone's interesed. My 3 year old Optima failed, for no apparent reason... so now i'm just running a el cheapo brandless battery. Fortunately it comes with a 3 year warranty so in the end 65€ well spent me thinks. Thanks for all the comments. And like i always say, more stuff is on the way! I haven't done any bigger mods in a while and the Honda jar is getting faaaaat so i better start looking for them Recaros again.

x 2

Well it's been over 2 and a half months since my last update, mostly because of a rather lengthy moving house project and some holiday trips but the deck hasn't been neglected, just my civic5 time! So time to catch up a bit, let's see if i can remember everything that's happened. Btw i never got the crap off the wheels, it's just gonna be re-paint time if i want them to be like new again. First of all i removed my Moman plasma dials which haven't been working for a while. During the last fixing attempt i managed to overload the instrument cluster and a piece of the circuitry melted off. After asking around a bit bought some liquid silver and after 3 layers got it working without any issues, so now i'm back to stock which honestly looks pretty good to me. But sometimes de-tuning is a step forward... or then maybe i'm just getting old, haha! Replaced all the bulbs while i was at it. Ordered a new wing mirror to replace one i cracked during a too tight parking attempt, and while i had the door card open, re-located the crossover to a perfect spot i didn't think it would fit in during the initial install. Lot better here than in the passenger compartment! Then we got a new toy at work... Kärcher Puzzi car interior washer. I gave the deck a treatment and even though the seats don't really look any different (they weren't visibly stained to start with), the dirtyness of the water was pretty sick! Probably a first interior wash for this car. Also started to search for some Recaros, found three sets from Evo's all for a good price but in the end skipped them... why settle for second best when i know i can get DC2 ones eventually! There's one red pair for sale at 700€ here's but i think the price is pretty steep, and i really want the black ones with red stitching. Might have to wait i guess! Have i mentioned i bought a foam jet? It's pretty awesome! Since i stepped up the car care game decided i asked my friend to do a machine polish... 7 hours later with both of us working the end result was shiiiiiiiny! (looks kinda good without the roof rails, doesn't it?) Wow this is getting pretty long... i'll have to continue with part 2 a bit later at a better opportunity.

Plenty of talk about this topic here, take a look at this thread for example: http://civic5.com/forum/topic/9752-best-springsshocks-to-lower-my-m/

Payment sent for a M zippy, the size is missing for some reason in the first post. Postage to Finland will probly be a bit more than usual but shouldn't be too bad, i order stuff from the uk all the time.

Yeah i can't believe what a good car the deck's been, had it for over 6 years now and the only parts i've had to replace worth mentioning because they broke have been the clutch, an abs sensor, one driveshaft gaiter and now the battery. Not bad for a car of 18 years and 230,000km on the clock .

...and it didn't start the car. So i sourced a third one, and after a proper charge it indeed worked! So it was all down to me having 2 duff batteries, and not believing it ! I bought a cheap 65€ battery for now but it comes with a 3 year guarantee, which is rather good in case my car has developed some kind of electrical fault that drains batteries. Haven't driven since friday, so keeping my fingers crossed it's still working tomorrow when i leave for work!

I got it charged up, took over 24h but it's holding load now . I'm trying it out tomorrow but i'm also getting a booster, just in case..

...unless i have 2 duff batteries, i guess it's possible! I can probably source another spare somewhere, charge and load it and see what happens.

I haven't noticed anything out of the oridinary about any electric devices, except the drivers power lock sometimes needs a couple of turns before it locks everything. But it's been like that for over a year now allready. I'll give the spare battery a full charge today with the intelligent charger and then try a load test... fingers crossed! Otherwise it's power drainer search time i guess...

Ok so the spare battery i had charging overnight was up at 12.1 volts so i gave it a shot. Nothing. Checked the supposedly empty Optima, was 12.7 so that should be ok? But didn't start. Roadservice got me on my way and i charged the Optima at work for the whole day. Went up to 13.5 but when i tried it with a load tester, it wouldn't hold power. Out of options good, weak or bad i got the last one. And wouldn't start without auxiliary power. Once the car was running again i checked the battery with a multimeter. I was getting about 14.5 so i guess the alternator is working. Stayed steady even when given revs. So that's ruled out for now. Somehow my battery has just gone bad but how and why? It's relatively new and a quality one. I checked it again with a so-called "intelligent" charger and it just said error so i guess it's a goner. The spare battery though started to charge with that one so there's still hope. But i don't want to end up with two useless batteries so there must be a problem somewhere i need to find. The battery clamps have been a bit loose so i properly cleaned and adjusted them so now they clip tight. Checked the engine earth. All fuses also. Everything seems fine... any suggestions?

Thanks. I took a quick look through the fuse sheet yesterday and didn't find one specifically the alternator so decided to check them properly later... which will be today after work. But i'll check the voltage when i start it up today... either with the spare battery i've had charging overnight, or then the road service. Luckily i just upgraded my insurance to cover track days, should cover roadside assistance as well!