martinw

Spoke too soon ! After a night of frost and the front end up on ramps, the water was back in the drivers side rear wing. Looks like the change of angle the cars sitting at had exposed another area of bad seal. So, as I have only partially sealed the rear boot window, looks like I will have to do more. As I had put the spare wheel back in, decided to check if any water under there. And there was …. Traced where this water was coming from and it was entering from the seam where I,ve shown on the fist pic. As couldn't tell from inside if there was a hidden closed panel where the water was sitting, decided to remove the rear bumper and the second pic shows that there is no exterior seam or hidden closed panel in that area. The only closed panel where water could sit and then enter the boot is the panel below the boot lock shown in the 3rd pic. Bit of a mystery this - shone a torch around the boot lock and no sign of water sitting there, but cant see much in there and there were signs of mud, probably from a previous wash of the boot/trim. One thing though, this closed panel connects to the closed panel running up to the rear windows so..... I could just seal that seam inside the boot but it worries me that the water could still be sitting behind it

Thought I would add some interior pics etc, all original as far as I know …... Some wear to cloth on drivers seat in first pic plus vtis drivers mat (holed) removed in 2nd pic. Found that embroidered patch was just glued on to mat (pic shows it removed), so plan is to get a new plain black mat and glue the patch back on. 3rd pic shows carbon trim on dash and centre console (original or option on VTiS ?) and original Pioneer radio/cassette (got the manual with the bookpack). Then back seats. "Bobbling" to cloth at rear base of front seats will be shaved off. Especially from condition of boot trim/carpets, leather in general and the dog hairs and dirt everywhere it was obvious that this car had been used for a long time as a dog carrier. What I didn't expect was that the dog hairs had pervaded everwhere - even behind the boot trim panels ! (as shown in the next few pics). And on the headlining above the boot. As you might expect, the interior is going to take a lot of work, mostly on the leather, before its back up to scratch. Once I realised how dirty and dog-infested the car was, thought I better take a look at the pollen filter. Surprisingly there weren't many dog hairs in there but there were a hell of a lot of leaves. In the filter, in the filter compartment and in the fan (as shown in the next few pics). Cleared all that out and fitted new filter. What I don't get is - how do leaves of that size get through the grille on the scuttle ?? Anyway, currently working on more important stuff - rustproofing ….. More later

The car is now in Norfolk but spent nearly its whole life from new more in your area (Morecambe). From there it found its way to Birmingham where I bought it. Morecambe is where I was born - strange how things work out …...

Hi Noodels, hope to see your car around sometime (colour ?). You going to Jap Auto Extravaganza at the showground in August ?

No creaks from that area. However, while making sure the slave cylinder piston ball was located in the fork socket, had a push/pull on the fork and there seemed to be a fair bit of slack/movement at the other end (maybe worn ball joint you mention ?). When I get to the stage of replacing the clutch I'll make sure to replace the fork as well. Maybe the ball stud also if looking worn ?

Hi Dave, my own thoughts too on the clutch. Found a slight leak on master cylinder so ordered new master and slave (to be safe). After a long wait for parts to arrive from Germany (don't order from Autodoc if you're in a hurry) along with various other service bits, fitted those. Then ran into next problem - system wouldn't bleed properly. Tried everything including pressure bleeder but all I would get was "hard pedal" too early and would not go to the floor. After thinking that maybe I had got a duff new master cylinder or a blocked line, decided to dismantle the master end of the system. Whilst doing this found that I had not properly located the pin which connects the pedal to master cylinder (it is difficult to see what you're doing up there). Anyway, pin properly in place system bled ok. Improved the bite point a bit so had a look in the trusty Haynes manual (one of my first purchases) and found that you can adjust the pedal height (from the floor) - this was already at the correct height. You can also adjust the pedal freeplay - this is just how much slack you allow at the top of pedal travel (should be 12-21mm) before you start to move the piston in master cylinder - again, freeplay was already ok. In terms of adjusting the bite point, not much you can do on that. Its a combination of the two adjustments above and the adjuster bolts can only be moved by a max of about 2cm so doesn't have much effect on bite point. So, maybe my clutch plate is on the way out (?) but its ok for now. Rust - ah well - that's another story ! More later......

Thanks guys, but you know that old saying "looks can be deceiving" …... It all started with (forgot to mention in first post) during the test drive noticed that clutch was engaging/disengaging with pedal very near floor, had to remove floor mat. It goes downhill from here ! More later but still pleased with purchase …..

Hi All, New member introducing my recently acquired '99 VTiS Aerodeck. Latecomer to Civics (and FWD) but had a mint MB3 for a short while last year that got me interested. My son suggested an aerodeck when he knew I was looking for an interesting estate (not many around - Volvo 850 T5R ?) and when this one came up (having checked the rarity), had to go and see it. On paper a good car - one owner from new, 93k miles, full main dealer history (16 stamps to 2017), cambelt done at 55k. All by same dealer, as were all the MOTs to 2018 when it failed on corrosion to rear suspension mountings and seatbelt anchorages. Car being sold with new MOT, so was expecting some welding in those areas. Small time dealer selling it sent me pics of underside - looked ok. Anyway viewed it (rather hurriedly) and it was obvious had been standing outside for a while, very dirty, green mold in places, interior very dirty, underbonnet dirty and rocker cover flaking, some marks to half leather interior, bit of water in spare wheelwell. VTiS drivers mat holed in 2 places. Bad scratches to top of rear bumper. One headlight washer missing. Nearly new standard exhaust from cat back. Unmarked alloys. Only one key and remote fob (rubber buttons missing), no red key. Full set of books in original wallet. Totally original. Welding appeared to have been done quite well, neat but some welds needed grinding back and underseal already coming away. Took it for a drive - plenty of power, braked and handled ok. Electrics all worked. Overall, ok for the money and when I found out that it had spent its whole life in my birthplace, had to buy it. The pics below are just a starter, more about the bad bits later. They show the results of about 3 washes and jetwashes, one missing headlight washer replaced, foglights removed (totally corroded away). Some of the purple in the paint has come back but obviously needs a good claying and machine polish. At that stage was already thinking it would need an extensive service, cambelt, waterpump etc etc More later...….. (you will note that pattern exhaust tailpipe does not exit in centre of bumper cutout) Cheers, Martin

Nice colour on the calipers ! You don't happen to know the paint name/code ? I was thinking of going for a similar colour and already had a tin of VW/Audi Jazz Blue (which has a bit of purple in it) but yours are much more purple …..

i, had a very similar problem recently on my mc2 aerodeck recently which took days/ weeks to source. At first thought the source was low down and applied mastic to various seams but still didn't source it. Eventually, (after drying the area up every day) realised that the water was entering quite high up, probably inside a sealed interior panel. On my car, the next highest panel upwards included the boot side widows so had a look and the seal to the window looked perished on the top edge, so applied mastic to that top edge ( you need to apply masking tape to the painted areas around before you do this) and after a few days the leak stopped. In your case this is complicated by the the rust around the hinges but still, look higher up than you might think for the source of the leak......