The largest Civic Type R club forum

[D4Z3D]

Aye know exactly the roads your meaning, love them!

Bliss! When you get it on a day like that it is pretty hard to beat for road driving [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]

[craigy_87]

Yeah was pretty surprised when it got resurfaced! Some high drop offs at some of the corners though lol

[D4Z3D]

Aye definitely, there are also gangs of motorcyclists and road cyclist who frequent this route in the summer. Best to adopt the " slow in fast out" approach to some of the corners with poorer visibility [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]

[craigy_87]

Completely random but asking as your close but do you know anywhere I could get a new drivers door had some animal run into me tonight! It's Milano red

[D4Z3D]

Hey mate that's a shame about your door,

I think your best bet is to buy one off the breakers section on this website (you need to be logged in to see it). Theres a guy breaking a milano right now and wanting £60 per door, i'm sure he will send detailed pics of the door upon request:

http://civictype-r.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... 2&t=267137

Better be quick though, cars tend to be broken down quickly with all the vultures on here

[craigy_87]

Went to a body shop an they say it can be fixed but with spraying the whole side of the car it'll be £200
Then I need a new mirror which is about £40 from honda

[murdoch]

Cars looking good mate. I also stay in hamilton. Andrew at automek is a good friend of mine knowin him for years and knows his stuff [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]

[D4Z3D]

Cars looking good mate. I also stay in hamilton. Andrew at automek is a good friend of mine knowin him for years and knows his stuff [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]

Thanks mate! I can't really take any credit for the car myself as Automek built the whole thing! Andy really knows his stuff, top notch guy also [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]

[D4Z3D]

3 weeks before my first track day of the year (knockhill jap trackday 2014) and the front starts creaking and knocking when cornering. Thinking that a track rod end or yet another droplink has gone i took the car up to automek. Turns out the rack has gone big time. Apparently it is a common fault on EP3's that have seen track use and semi slick tyres. Looks like no track day for me :bigcry:

I suppose the silver lining to this problem as i can finally junk the shitty eps steering. So after a chat with andy at automek i have ordered all the parts necessary to do a dc5 hydraulic steering set up. It means i will have to junk my aircon but to be honest i use it twice a year for demisting the windscreen. There will also be an additional cooling loop installed on the car for the hydraulic steering to prevent fade on track. I'll get pics up as it progresses, but i'm just mega pissed that it happens just as track season begins, sh-t happens i suppose!

Rack arrived today :

[SeanEP3]

whats the cost of this conversion?

[D4Z3D]

whats the cost of this conversion?

So far i have bought all the DC5 parts:
Rack was £150 from a breaker on ebay, M+M autos i believe
Pump, pulleys, high pressure lines and fittings all came as a package deal from integra stella on ebay @ £185, i would have bought a rack from him also if he had one as he has a very good reputation for second hand performance honda parts.

I still need to buy the oil cooler and lines but to be honest i think i will let Automek source them as i don't really know what i am looking for. As for labour costs to do the conversion we will need to wait and see how long it takes, and if they come across any problems!

All in id expect £600 - £700 for the conversion but ill update this thread once its done [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]

[1812_s]

Is there no way of keeping ac

[D4Z3D]

Is there no way of keeping ac

Yea unfortunately there is no way to keep the aircon. I have a mate with a DC5 and the aircon is routed entirely differently to accommodate the hydraulic pump. To fit the DC5 rack, high pressure lines and pump into the EP3 bay you need to remove the aircon. I am sure it would be possible if you were prepared to redesign and manufacture the aircon parts to take a different route, but for me that seems like a lot of faff and cost for something i don't really use.

[Rambo]

id love to hear the differences once this is fitted

[N77]

Nice to see another SS 30AE owner

Looking to do a couple of track days in mine, but I won't be going to the extent you have I don't think, well not yet anyway

[D4Z3D]

id love to hear the differences once this is fitted

Ill do my best, ive been driving this car for 4 years so i am sure if there are any significant differences ill notice it and write it up. My mate was nice enough to let me drive his DC5 and the steering felt more linear. I find the eps steering on the civic a bit inconsistent, for example when you are cruising at 50 mph it gives a little "kick" when you try to turn off centre. Also, in the wet the EPS feels the same weight as in the dry, where as the dc5's hydraulic steering would go light in the wet and stiffer in the dry (as you would expect as the grip level changed). The combination of good suspension, rack raiser, buddyclub balljoints, stiff arbs's etc made the steering feel better than stock, but sometimes it would still feel a bit artificial.

I am looking forward to comparing the dc5 rack on my car though, when i drove my friend dc5 it was 100% stock, where as mine is heavily tuned - as a result his car felt too soft, the brakes weak, the engine lacking in torque which kind of detracted from the driving experience.

Nice to see another SS 30AE owner

Looking to do a couple of track days in mine, but I won't be going to the extent you have I don't think, well not yet anyway

If you want to do track days with a stock civic it i would say as a bare minimum:
1) high temperature pads + fluid £200
2) baffled sump + run oil level at max £300 fitted
3) cheap track tyres (federal rs-r), (£400 for a set ) if you use road tyres you will murder them, and good road tyres as more expensive than cheap track tyres
4) Track day insurance (£80)

5) enjoy yourself and take it easy till you learn the lines [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]

[garde-la-peche]

3 weeks before my first track day of the year (knockhill jap trackday 2014) and the front starts creaking and knocking when cornering. Thinking that a track rod end or yet another droplink has gone i took the car up to automek. Turns out the rack has gone big time. Apparently it is a common fault on EP3's that have seen track use and semi slick tyres. Looks like no track day for me :bigcry:

I suppose the silver lining to this problem as i can finally junk the shitty eps steering. So after a chat with andy at automek i have ordered all the parts necessary to do a dc5 hydraulic steering set up. It means i will have to junk my aircon but to be honest i use it twice a year for demisting the windscreen. There will also be an additional cooling loop installed on the car for the hydraulic steering to prevent fade on track. I'll get pics up as it progresses, but i'm just mega pissed that it happens just as track season begins, sh-t happens i suppose!

Rack arrived today :

Good modification ! In France some people have also changed hydraulic steering. They say that is a good modification for the race.

[D4Z3D]

Time for an update:

So , the conversion has been completed and it was a total success. The aircon was stripped out and thrown away , it was leaking oil anyway, ill take the 20kg weight reduction cheers [smilie=karls_thumb.gif] . To get the DC5 rack to fit in the EP3 correctly the inner arch had to be "sculpted" (hit with something blunt and heavy) until both full left and right lock could be achieved. There is also a 5X3 inch rectangular hole in the inner skin on the bonnet to give the large power steering pump pulley the right clearance. The exhaust manifold heat shield had also to be removed to make room for the hydraulic line routing. The only other noticeable cosmetic difference is that the EPS light is now on permanently in the dashboard. So not the conversion who like their cars OCD perfect . The only thing missing from the conversion at the moment is the DC5 clip for the reservoir, it is currently cable tied on and the clip is on order.

I managed to drive the car briefly (for reasons i will get to in a minute) and the new hydraulic steering feels brilliant compared to the old system. I always felt like the EPS let the car down, as evo magazine said about the EP3, "Potent engine, drivetrain and chassis, duff steering - 4/5 stars". The hydraulic steering feels heavier than the EPS steering, the old "kick" i felt in the EPS steering when moving off centre is gone. The steering "feel" is completely different than before, i think the best way to describe it is that you can feel things happening through your finger tips that you just missed entirely with the EPS set up. For example, when the road surface changes from smooth to rough you actually feel tiny virbrations through the wheel. You can also feel your diff working when you are pulling out of junctions or on an uneven road. Definitely a nice upgrade IMO. I will learn alot more about how well it performs when i take it on track.

Unfortunately, on the test drive there was still a loud click coming from the front of the car after the conversion, although the old rack was nackered it turned out not to be the source of the original problem. Turns out my front driver side coilover is completely fooked. When the car was on the ramp you could get a good 5mm of play in the wheel. This has been stripped and sent off to KW to get rebuilt (lifetime rebuild warranty FTW).

They have only been on the car for 1 year (6k miles) so i was initially pretty annoyed with this as KW are supposed to be very good coilovers. I then remembered that a couple of months ago, i hit a pothole on the M73 at about 60mph that was so large the front end of the car jumped. At the time i though i had killed my driver side wheel, as there were 2 cars 100 meters down the road pulled over onto the hard shoulder with flat tyres. I though i had got away with it but it seems that the impact obliterated the shock absorber.

When i get the car back on the road i will take pictures of all this stuff and post it up. Hopefully this will be all my bad luck with the car used up!

[Rambo]

amazing write ups. Hope you get the shock sorted asap. Ive always dwelled upon doing the dc5 rack but never been sure if its been worth it against the cost. Found your final drive write up very usefull and thank you for that aswell. Top car and top bloke

[D4Z3D]

amazing write ups. Hope you get the shock sorted asap. Ive always dwelled upon doing the dc5 rack but never been sure if its been worth it against the cost. Found your final drive write up very usefull and thank you for that aswell. Top car and top bloke

Cheers mate,

I had a good look at the conversion a while ago when another forum member had it done "jreedy" (http://civictype-r.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... 9&t=165847). I have only seen his EP3 on here with the conversion done and it was a good few years back. At the time i priced it up and it was going to cost £600-£800 all in depending on parts availability. I decided that it was a lot of money to pay for better steering feel.

However when my rack actually went it would have been impossible to replace with a new EP3 one as they are about £1300 new from Honda. The options were to get a replacement from another 10 year old Ep3, which may or may not have been fooked to begin with, or get my old steering reconditioned. Both options would cost at least £4-500 including fitting. So i would be paying a lot of money just to have average steering again. Moreover, Andy up at Automek told me that he sees a lot of ep3's that use semi slick tyres and do track days killing their EPS racks, so i couldn't be sure that a straight fix would last very long. The larger fluid filled integra racks seems to be bullet proof and none of the DC5 guys seem to have any such issues. This made my decision to go for the conversion a lot easier .