['99 MB2]

Hi All,

 

Hope you're all doing alright - long time without an update.

 

First off, I had the timing belt & other belts changed around the new year (if i remember right) so happier knowing thats been done. Next on the list is the clutch when funds allow.

 

I've finally got round to fitting a 3 point front brace I got for Christmas - fitting wasn't too bad but needed a few things doing first for ref:

Air con & PAS pipes needed a nudge over, the bracket which holds the wires/connectors next to the drivers side strut needed removing, needed to remove the bracket on the bulkhead which holds the throttle cable and pipe from the master servo to intake & the fuel filter holder bracket which holds them needed chopping off too.

Oh and the holes on the brace where the tops of the suspension turrets go through needed enlarging slightly.

Not had a chance to test it out yet so will report back.

All this has made me tempted to remove the air con to declutter things slightly, never use it so just lugging it around!

 

 

It does highlight just how grim the engine bay is though so will need to give that a good clean at somepoint.

Can anyone recommend a decent degreaser/cleaner for the engine?

 

Was also thinking of removing the resonator from the airbox - Is there any drawbacks from doing this other than an increase of noise?

 

 

Did also pick up a brochure for the car - proper impulse buy but so pleased with it:

 

 

Cheers, Dan

 

 

 

['99 MB2]

7 hours ago, Dave said:

Excellent, glad to see my old memory can still remember some stuff! lol The reason Honda didn't fit twin rear fog lights is MOT/ EU law required one fog light to be fitted to the offside/drivers side of the car as it was deemed twin fogs could be mistaken for brake lights. The reason for it being the drivers side is that this is the side that is positioned towards the middle of the road. If it had been nearside/pass side, in thick fog a car coming up behind could mistake the car for a motorbike/bicycle and go to over take, and hit the rear drivers side of car. TBH, that last bit is in reality crap, as if the fog is so bad you can only see the the fog light and not the car/normal tail lights, you shouldn't be overtaking! Nuts eh! So for left hand drive cars, the fog is on the left side of the rear, hence why the left light can also take a fog light bulb really easily. Makes sense when you think about it.

Does still seem weird as my 96 Ford Escort mk 6 had twin rear fogs, but my 96 Honda Civic MA8 had the single fog on right side.

Interesting! I wonder if the twin fog lights potentially being mistaken for brake lights is a hangover from when before high level brakelights were common? I always thought two lights are safer as it's easier to judge the distance of a car! (One reason why so many people pull out on motorbikes at junctions).

Just had a look on the lighting regulations and cant have anymore than two so should be good! (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/11/made)

[MB Cluster Change]

Engine bay looks cracking mate Will be good to see the whole car once you've finished it all!

['99 MB2]

@dr_broonAh yes forgotten yours is being refurbed! got any more news on it at all?

 

@Dave You were right mate, it is a plug for a tow bar. Finally got round to wiring it all up so now I've got nice symmetric fog lights! Always bugged me the car only had one. Surely shouldn't have cost Honda much more to make it with the two from factory in the first place.

 

Excuse the pic of the dirty car!

 

['99 MB2]

@dr_broon Found it, more earthing points in this thread

 

['99 MB2]

@Dave many thanks for that! Hoping to check the plug tonight with a multimeter as it was tipping it down last night! 

 

@dr_broon Thanks mate. That's interesting, have you checked your earth straps? I changed mine and cleaned up where they attach to the body and it helped things with the electrics. I replaced the wires in the top two photos in this thread: (there is another thread which shows another earth if you have vtec but i cant find it)

 

['99 MB2]

10 hours ago, Dave said:

Looking sweet lowered mate! Really is a tidy MB that. Regarding that plug in the boot, I've seen that one before in the past. Almost sure it is for plugging in the oem Honda towbar electrics, as Ruby had a towbar (Honda one) fitted when we got her and I removed it. I'm sure it was plugged into that plug. Hopefully someone will be able to confirm this for sure shortly.

Cheers Dave, really happy with how its turned out! 

Oh perfect about the plug if it is, I'll have a check with a voltmeter when I get the chance. I did think potentially it was for a CD changer. If it's for a tow bar itll make wiring in a second fog light easy! 

['99 MB2]

Finally got round to fitting my coilovers with a 50mm drop all round, more than I'd hoped, but that was as high as i dared go on the adjusters, didnt want it super firm. Will let it settle for a week or so before trying to raise it up if needed. Don't want the car trying to eat the arch liners or anything stupid like that!

The car looks a little nose heavy - is this normal? I measured from the floor to the top of the wheel arch to keep the drop the same for the front and rear over stock measurements.

 

Have also made some coilover covers out of the arms/legs of an old wetsuit to hopefully keep them nicer over winter etc - will get some pics next time the wheels are off.

 

 

Next up will to make/fit a harness for the headlights as theyre pretty rubbish, should sort any voltage drop issues. Had a harness like this on my motorbike and it made a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know what the below plug is for?

It's in the boot, behind the passenger side rear lights, above the vent flap?

 

 

Cheers, Dan

['99 MB2]

17 hours ago, Dave said:

The good old Honda equipment levels in models can be hit or miss. All depends on what the first owner optioned in a lot of cases. My pre facelift MA8 1.4i was the base model, but had been optioned with the electric pack, alloys and mica metallic paint. So basic Civic but had electric mirrors (also heated, with separate switch for this), electric tilt/slide glass sunroof, electric front windows (wind up rears). The mirrors, even though fully electric, were plain black plastic housings, not colour coded. Bumpers were only half colour coded (which looked nuts!). Bloody brilliant wee car though, never ever went wrong in the 8 years or so we owned it.

Yeah never really thought about the optional extras. I've just checked the dealership brochure in the download section and even weirder it says my car should come with colour-coded handles and mirrors but doesnt haha.

The MA's are nice, the half coloured bumpers remind me of the old Rover 214's / Toyotas AE86!

 

@AJCivic

The previous owner installed the fogs however it shouldn't be hard to fit some. I've got the proper fog light switch in the dash & they can only be turned on when i've got the side lights on, so would assume the switched power is taken somewhere from the sidelight circuit. The wire from the switch then goes through the firewall to a relay under the bonnet.

['99 MB2]

21 hours ago, AJCivic said:

 

Indeed, it looks good. Keep us posted.

 

Yeah fair enough mine is base model so don't even have the rear disc brakes or ABS  Can't miss what you've never had though! 

Yeah same mine has drums and no abs too!  Guess the iS just adds ac? Have been keeping an eye out for some rear discs to do a conversion at some point but cant justify it at the moment. 

Gotta love a base model though, less to go wrong! 

['99 MB2]

Cheers guys, proper pleased with how its turned out! Definitely improves the front end so much.

 

10 hours ago, AJCivic said:

Love the look of this car, the VTIS lip with the big fogs in that colour just looks superb mate! 

 

Mods look great so far as well, is this a base model, 1.4iS or a sport? 

It's the iS model, got Air con but other than that really basic

['99 MB2]

Thanks mate, might have already gone back on that though and ordered some coilovers haha.. things are looking better with work so it was a pre-christmas treat Just waiting for things to arrive before fitting them.

 

In other updates..

- Fitted the K&N Panel Filter but no photos.

- Fitted some LED number plate lights for a Ford, got fed up with LED T10 bulbs blowing or flickering in the Honda bulb holders. Had to make a 10mm spacer and some wiring for it to all fit but working well! (bright!)

- Sprayed the front grille black & wrapped the boot trim black. Had planned to wrap it all but my wrapping skills arnt great..

- Also split the headlights and sprayed the surrounds black & tango'd the indicators even more. Gave the headlights a polish at the same time too.

 

I highly recommend the Montana White spray paints, came out looking really good even for me. They're supposed to give a gloss finish and it does with some practice, I just didnt give it a thick enough coat. Ive seen people spray entire cars with it on other forums with decent results.

 

 

 

 

 

[Civic Aerodeck MB9 (Hinata)]

Car looks awesome - love the wheels.

[Rover 400's Wing Mirror in my MB3 1997?]

3 hours ago, XtrimePT said:

Thanks a lot! The Rover code mirrors look just like those of yours. The connector is the same as mine so it will fit and if it's like you said and those 2 black wires are for the heater then it may work straight away because my 3 wires are in the same place as your other 3 wires (besides the black ones).

I'll give it a shot and order those mirrors. Then I'll show you how it went.

Many thanks to you and @Dave :D

No problem at all, hopefully it all goes smoothly! Even if not it should be simple case of swapping wires over

[Rover 400's Wing Mirror in my MB3 1997?]

So found my mirrors - they're from a Rover 45 for reference.

Photos below of the plug/wiring, if the mirrors on the website are like these they should just plug straight in, but I wouldnt know if they'd work straight away.

You'll probably need to get a wiring diagram for both cars to match the wires up. A quick search suggests that the two black wires are for the heated mirror element.

 

 

['99 MB2]

Slight update -

 Finally got round to removing the rear wiper and followed the guide from  here. If anyone else does this, removing bothside trims on the boot definitely helps and you cant get away with just removing one!

Managed to find a nice aluminium bung which uses O-rings as a seal.

Think it tidies up the rear nicely but highlights just how rubbish the paintwork is on the car!

 

Other than that I think future mods are going to have to wait - bloody Covid and all the uncertainty it's bringing. Cant really justify spending lots if things are going to get tough with work etc.

 

Cheers, Dan

 

 

 

 

 

[Vti-s Turbo project]

Car looks amazing  - really like it on those wheels!

Interesting about the EG washer bottle also!

[Rover 400's Wing Mirror in my MB3 1997?]

Hi there,

 

Are your current mirrors heated? I would imagine that its 3 pins for non-heated and 5 pins for heated.

The Rover mirrors should work - not sure if they'd be plug and play though, the wires in the plug might need some moving around.

 

I'm sure i've got some Rover mirrors here somewhere.. I'll have a hunt and see what the differences are.

 

Cheers, Dan

 

[Dr_Broon's VTI 'deck]

This is looking amazing, bet that first drive home in it will make it all worth while

['99 MB2]

Cheers guys, I can only thank the previous owner for the fogs! When I bought the car it came with a spare bumper and these retro fitted in so im guessing he got them from a scrappy.

I've seen a pair on ebay though for £120!! Mental money.

 

 

['99 MB2]

Hi All,

 

Figured I should actually start a post after years of lurking on here - A big belated thanks to all the various threads I've read up on!

Think I did post up a 'Hello' thread years ago but it seems to have disappeared.

 

I've had the car for about 5 years now and its a proper joy to drive. Thought it was just because it was my first car and having nothing to compare it to, but after driving/having other cars these Hondas are fun!

Only recently started modifying it properly now the insurance isnt shafting me!

 

Mod list:

VTIS Front Lip & Skirts (Have the rear lip aswell but prefer it without)

Optional Extra OEM big fogs!

Leather Steering Wheel - think its the VTIS/Sport one?

Honda alloys off an EP (I think) with Toyo Proxies CF2's

Heko Wind Deflectors

2.25" Gravity Performance Spoon N1 rep stainless catback Exhaust (For an EJ/EM - just had to lengthen the backbox pipe) - with custom baffle as its too bloody noisy, should have gotten a smaller tubed exhaust!

MGZS shocks & springs all round

 

Future plans:

Double rear fogs - in the blank space on the tail lights.

Coilovers - The car is sitting high at the front with the MGZS setup, the D14 engine is too light for the springs really. When I swapped the suspension from the stock setup the rear dropped 25mm but the front remained the same, I even tried ZS120 springs but no difference. So it'll be nice to even it out and lows!

New LCAs & MGZS rear ARB - Ive had this for about 4 years now waiting to go on! The MB2's LCA's dont have the bolt hole needed for the ARB's drop links annoyingly. Need to pick up some EG LCAs but will sort the coilovers first so the shocks fit onto them.

Front Strut brace.

K&N panel filter (waiting to go on)

Rear wiper delete (waiting to go on)

Vinyl wrap the chrome trim.

Projector headlights (have a spare set of lights just need to get projectors etc)

Various maintenance (timing/clutch).

 

Dreams:

Respray

Engine swap

 

 

Cheers, Dan