19 replies to this topic

[jatinder]

Hi all,

I been after a VX for a while and an opputunity came up to trade up from my Integra.

From this


To this

I got the car in early March, just in time for a sunny weekend and had a chance to take the roof off.


Picking her up




First impressions were not favourable, the wind noise was LOUD, I didn't realise it was going to be like this so for the 200 mile journey back I stuck to about 60.

I was a bit fed up although still excited and stuffed it in the garage.



After I had driven her around a while the only adjustments I made was checking the tyre Pressures (Drivers rear was low) and setting all the dampers to soft with 1 click on the front and 4 for the rear. My jaw stopped aching after that! I also replaced the ciggie fuse so that worked, reset the ecu and pulled the intake pipe up so that it wasn't pushed too far down.

I ended up doing over 1000 miles in less than a month and I don't commute to work as i work in London!

Anyway the car was in very very good condition (thanks Rsdub!) but needed a few tweaks.


The first was a full machine polish, I'm not a detailer but I do like my cars looking good and don't mind getting them dirty so long as the paints protected.

I spent about a week and evenings included after work and it made quite a bit of difference.



Polished on the left, original on the right.

You could really tell the car had metallic paint now.

After driving it around for a while I noticed when pushed hard for a while there seemed to be a bit of strangulation higher up the rev range.

Artie (rsdub) had told me that the intake pipe seemed a bit soft, so I replaced that with a Courtnay Black Alloy pipe and black hoses with a top hat for good measure. I also replaced the spark plugs with NKG Iridium’s which sorted out the hunting at idle, quicker start-up and stopped the massive backfires (which I sort of miss!)

Fitting the pipe was a bit of a bitch as the funnel were the turbo is needed to moved took me forever getting those screws out!

Made a bit of a difference and the car felt less strangled at the top end.

All was good for a while then the rain started, the car is left on my drive during the week and I came to use it on Friday it just about managed to start and I drove to London, I had a wet arse all night and it didn't click until I went into the car the next day and there was a couple of cm of water!

I tried to move the car but it refused to start!

I managed to charge up the battery and move to my garage and strip everything out.






Ewww Mould!

More to follow.....

[jatinder]

There was mud everywhere in the passenger side, so much that you couldn't see the orange glue.


So I set to work with some APC/Detol and shoved all the carpets in the wash.




After cleaning I:

• Repainted the cup holder in black as it was a bit tatty
• Polished every Ali surface
• Removed the speakers and puts some wadding to improve sound (didn't really work)
• Stuck L shape dividers unders the seats to stop stuff sliding down there.
• Cleaned and fed the leather seats
• Fitted my Momo gearknob
• Cut the edges of the passenger runner under the seat for the bolt from hell and repainted (it made me bleed so much!)
• Found speakers under the footwells???
• Put everything back and stuck down with velcro
• Sealed the foot rest bolt holes with extra sealant

Felt much nicer after that.

Clean!

Fitted

I then tackled the battery with my brother doing the hard work (pain in the arse!)

I think I found the water leaking down the heater pipe as there was water in there so I took it apart installed a new filter (tights) and also shone a floodlight inside the interior which revealed a few weak points which were also sealed up with sealant.

I then adjusted the Passenger window it's not perfect but doesn't leak now.

While I was waiting for the battery I cleaned up the earth points (which i think was the orginal cause of the battery drain I have a good GM battery if anyone wants one!)

Removed the rear diffuser and undertray and jacked up the car. (I was very nervous but it wasn't too bad)

Arch liners was removed on both sides and I started to do a few other peicecs.

• Reverse light switch removed and used some WD40 to bring it back to life
• Air box removed and trumpets removed and cleaned out
• Air filter cleaned and re oiled lightly
• 90 degree silicone pipe 70mm to 76mm I got on ebay replaced the stock intake to the airbox and pointed to the air vent.
• VXR intercooler installed

Old and new (VXR on the left Original on the right)


Main difference (VXR)



Original


With that all done undertrays cleaned and refitted and Philips bulbs to replace the originals I was done!

Here are a few pictures with my brothers Merc.
Not great as i was very tired so not much thought gone into these and the car only had up to that point one coat of wax. It has three now and looks loads better.

Edited by jatinder, 16 May 2012 - 11:09 PM.

[jatinder]

Thanks for reading, that's all for now but I have some more updates soon.
Jatinder

[Hark]

Different wheels than I've seen before, what are they? Any more plans in the future?

[Goosenka]

Well done for getting stuck in! I think the wheels grew on me as I read your post. Glad you are getting there! Where abouts in London are you? Will keep an eye out for you

Edited by Goosenka, 17 May 2012 - 05:10 AM.

[rob999]

Next plans are....? Good work so far sir

[-Dab-of-Oppo-]

Nice integra. Hate the wheels personally but the rest of the car looks nice and tidy. Random observation but how come you have a gold coloured gear linkage? I have never seen one like that before.

[techieboy]

Mine is gold (well mostly) too.

[JG]

and mine

[mbes2]

Meet you at the Essex meet a while back, the bling of the wheels does grow on you for sure. Thats one of the first posts i've read all the way... look forward to your next update

[jatinder]

Thanks for all the comments guys. The wheels do indeed grow on you, a bit marmite but as it has spacers for wheels with a 5 x100 stud pattern I have a greater choice. Well next on my agenda are a few niggley items which I want done mainly cosmetic, I don't want to change the outside of my car much as I prefer them largely standard. I am lucky as the car has the following mods before I brought it. Thorney Stage 2, Gaz gold Pro , MMG Diffuser, Mintex 1144 & Drilled and Grooved disks. I do still miss my Integra and Mbes I do remember you and all the carbon in your car! Goosenka I live near between Gants Hill and South Woodford!

Edited by jatinder, 17 May 2012 - 03:29 PM.

[TazN]

Almost ended up going for an integra in white, loved the look on them and yours looks perfect. Glad your starting to enjoy the vx abit more Used to live near Woodford so pop down to see family, I'll keep an eye out for you.

[Goosenka]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

The wheels do indeed grow on you, a bit marmite but as it has spacers for wheels with a 5 x100 stud pattern I have a greater choice.
Well next on my agenda are a few niggley items which I want done mainly cosmetic, I don't want to change the outside of my car much as I prefer them largely standard. I am lucky as the car has the following mods before I brought it. Thorney Stage 2, Gaz gold Pro , MMG Diffuser, Mintex 1144 & Drilled and Grooved disks.
I do still miss my Integra and Mbes I do remember you and all the carbon in your car!

Goosenka I live near between Gants Hill and South Woodford!

Nice I'm not far at canary Wharf ::

[jatinder]

Went for a Dyno day at TDi in lakeside with the SELOC forum.

http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.ph



The car made 195.5 Bhp a t the hubs and 197,6 lb/ft of torque.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp4HEZX72bo&feature=youtu.be

The operator told me that the car was over fuelling massively above 3000 rpm. I sort of had my suspicions due to the fuel consumption. I think this is due to the map as it’s at full throttle the car doesn't rely on the lambda it uses the parameter set in the map.

I will be getting a remap sooner than expected then!

Also can anyone help me find were the earth for the engine is? I found one side attached to the chassis, ecu and inlet manifold already.

Edited by jatinder, 22 May 2012 - 09:42 PM.

[jatinder]

Graphs

[techieboy]

Also can anyone help me find were the earth for the engine is? I found one side attached to the chassis, ecu and inlet manifold already.

The one between the subframe and the gearbox is the main engine earth.

[jatinder]

Also can anyone help me find were the earth for the engine is? I found one side attached to the chassis, ecu and inlet manifold already.

The one between the subframe and the gearbox is the main engine earth.

Cheers, I'll have to take the wheel off and jack it up again because I can't find it.

[jatinder]

I had a bit of a problem with battery drain.

So I brought a multi meter and goggled how to use it, then set to work.

Disconnecting the earth cable from the battery and connecting the multi meter with the alarm off, the car was using 0.64 amps. I left it a while as sometimes the modules are still running until the go to sleep and stop drawing power.

After 15 minutes the multi meter was like this.



I went and disconnected each fuse under the bonnet one by one but the current drain stayed the same.

Then by chance as i was looking for the relays in the boot, I remembered that the car has a backup battery for central locking. It is charged the same way as the main one.

So I undid the cover and found a leaky battery, which would explain the strong smell of sulphur when I went into the garage the other day.



I disconnected it and...



Much better!

I have ordered another battery and will be stripping and repainting the brackets that hold the battery.

So if you have battery drain or a dead battery and have central locking I would check the back up battery first!

Edited by jatinder, 26 May 2012 - 05:18 PM.

[jatinder]

Update

I've done something pikey....

Well my Thorney stage 2 map wasn't very good. I was looking around and found a link to eBay with EDS maps for the Z20LET and well I brought a cable off eBay and remapped my car for a grand total of £50....

First of all I did look at this person’s feedback and he has 100 % with many maps sold. I also saved the Thorney map should I need to put it back on.

I haven’t had it on the rolling road yet but will do by the end of this month, the car idles a lot better and the fumes from the exhaust smell like a normal car before it didn't smell right, also the exhaust no longer soot’s up after one drive.

The EDS maps are very aggressive which I had read about, I was given Stage 1 low torque, Stage 1 normal, Stage 2, Stage 3 (your need VXR injectors, Maf & turbo for this one).

I decided to go for the stage 2, it has made a MASSVIVE difference to the car, it pulls like a steam train, the fuel consumption has improved also, but the throttle is a bit on/off probably as its been produced for the normal FWD variants so it doesn't matter so much.

I will be taking the car down to Courtenay’ssometime later this year but for the moment I'm sticking with this. Although I might put the Stage one map on instead as the car is a bit too fast for my liking.



I’m not going to be using the car much this month but will report back on the dyno results.

[mbes2]

Sorry to see that your selling up Just seen ad on PH