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Martin's VTiS Aerodeck


martinw
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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

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Hi Martin, good to see a new deck joining the club. Not many VTI aerodecks, and that one sounds like it's had plenty of love from honda.

Will be interested to see where you take it next. 

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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 …..

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Hi Martin, so good to see another VTiS aerodeck being saved. These are indeed a rare beast now, so deffo worth fixing her up. Clutch could be the slave cylinder that's on way out, clutch needing bled? Cant remember of you can adjust the biting point on these although 95% sure you can. Rust is the biggy with these and most other civics of this era, although to be fair the Civic M's do seem to be a wee bit better at resisiting the tin worm than the 3 door civics. Keep us posted on your progress and plenty pics!

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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 :oops: (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......

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The clutch thing is really common tbh. New clutch will improve it. The balljoint for the release fork wears aswell. can you hear a creak from that area when you press the clutch? Replace that and the clutch I'm sure it'll be good as new

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7 minutes ago, KiNK43 said:

The clutch thing is really common tbh. New clutch will improve it. The balljoint for the release fork wears aswell. can you hear a creak from that area when you press the clutch? Replace that and the clutch I'm sure it'll be good as new

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 ?

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