14 Sep 2004
I decided to put the Koni's back on. They've been on for about 3 weeks now. I actually prefer the handling of the Koni/H&R setup, but I liked the looks of the TEIN. Oh well. I also finally got the $10 GSR sway bar installed. The ride is awesome. I shall include some pics of my friend's 96 GSR teggy. He definitely hooks the car up where I leave off. He's a perfectionist type of guy.
I raced a MKIII GTI this evening. Of course I didn't win, but it was cool. I stayed on his tail from one light to the next at least (on a longer stretch, keeping up would have been out of the question). He said that he was supercharged and said it was the way to go... but I'm assuming then that his vehicle was a VR6 because I wouldn't expect a turbo setup to be supercharged. that's kind of redundant and two different worlds of FI. I haven't decided if I'm going to do anything with the Dub, though. The civic is definitely my baby. My next MAJOR projects will be a new clutch and down the road, an engine rebuild. :)
23 August 2004
I haven't fooled around with the car in while. I took vacation and haven't really thought about it since I got rid of the CEL.
I did swap my suspension back to the Koni/H&R setup because the cornering is much more precise for me. Not to say that the Tein setup isn't nice. It's nice to be able to adjust ride height (without taking the strut off the vehicle), have a softer ride and have very responsive steering, but without a rear anti-sway, my car's rear end was swinging like it had a lot of junk in it's trunk. So, I'm back to the harsh yet more performance oriented ride. I love tight cornering, hence the change. Right now, only the rear suspension is swapped. I still have the front to do. It gets tiring doing it all by yourself with no lift... I wish I'd adjusted the rear height to the lowest setting, but it'll stay the way it is until I can use the lift at my friend's shop. :)
31 July 2004
Things are finally coming together. I finally got rid of the CEL I'd been driving around with for 2 years! It was the knock sensor, but I couldn't figure out what the issue was. After the knock sensor had been replaced, the CEL still would not go away.
The only reason I put more work into figuring it out is because emissions testing is around the corner. I traced all the wiring and got confused because the added wires for the swap were different colors from what I was expecting to see (and they changed to 2 or 3 other colors during my tracing journey). What I ultimately found was that the KS wire was connected to pin B3 and NOT D3... Once I repinned it, no more CEL! WooHoo!
Oh yeah, I got a GSR rear sway and a "new" used carpet from the junk yard for only $20 combined! Do you know how hard it is to get the GSR rear sway and then to get it for less than $50? I also FINALLY fixed the shutting off problem- a distributor, plug wires, cap and a rotor later - the main relay was bad! Geez! This is the ultimate fix-me car!
6 June 2004
I finally got four new tires - Falken Ziex 512s (155/55/R15). They are less wide than the Azenis' I had installed (205/50/R15). Now let's just hope that I don't have issues with the sidewall height. I can adjust the coilover height at least. Click for pics.
I was actually thinking of installing the H&R springs I have for the rear onto the Tein. The spring rate of the H&Rs will be the maximum spring rate that the Tein can handle.
28 May 2004
I installed the Tein coilover set and the SRR LCA's. It was fun. My wheels are now tucked (I have on 14 with 185s since the 15's with the 205s are too wide). alos replaced the passenger's side upper ball joint and outer tie rod. Very fun work indeed!
But... here's the kicker. I took her out for a leisurely spin just to get used to the new suspension (which is a little softer than the Koni/H&R setup). While waiting at a light, as I inched up to turn, the car died! It would not turn over to save my life. I called a friend up to ask advice. Battery and alternator were fine, timing belt was only 2 years old. I did change the distributor cap and rotor (see below). In in the end I ended up having it towed to his shop. It was the distributor. So hopefully now, my troubled starting issues are gone...
21 May 2004
The B&M fuel pressure gauge is installed. I've already put together the fuel pressure regulator, it just needs to be installed. I thought I figured out the shutting off piece... but it happened today for the first time since the rotor replacement... Now I'm getting a little frustrated. The plug wires have been replaced, the distibutor cap and rotor... The plugs have been replaced twice since having the car. I hope it's not the entire distributor that's having a problem.
20 May 2004
2003 ended on a semi-sad note for the hatch back. It was broken into just before Christmas. My new Sony MP3 player and my MD changer were stolen. I didn't have the alarm armed due to the fact that it was super sensitive and I couldn't seem to tune the sensitivity just right. Just after the new year, someone cracked the rear passenger's window. But, that wasn't a total bummer, though. Stuff happens and it will come around to those who sought to get what they wanted at the expense of someone else's hard work.
I have since to removed the rear wing due to a crack in the fiberglass. I attempted to patch it up, but I haven't checked my results yet. I bought an OEM bumper from someone and installed that along with the HID lamps. It looks pretty cool (black on black). I still have a few things to install (see the mod list), but I think right now, I need to replace my tires. My ride quality is really bad. I took a look at the tires one evening after I had taken them off for a friend to use at the track. We noticed that they should have never been installed on a wheel greater than 5" in width. I bought the wheels and tires as a packaged deal... so I never even bothered to check the tires for anything out of the ordinary.
Since the above was written at about 3am while I was at work... and since i was given the day off, I decided to install the Fuel Pressure gauge since that was simple. Didn't take long. Theonly thing Im not happy about is that I wanted to use the 90 degree bolt, but I didn't want to over tighten it just to get it at the proper viewing angle. Perhaps I'll come back to it, but for now, the gauge is installed.
I also figured out my shutting down problem from since I've had the car! A very bad distributor rotor. Look at how badly the edge was eaten up! Nasty.