Keith Tanner said:One piece of trivia: apparently Honda engineers are very worried about people not having any spare bulbs. These are the access panels to change bulbs. Guess I need to restock!
That's so cool!
Did you put those bulbs into the little holders, or are they genuine vintage spares?
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
They predate my ownership. I don't know if they're originals.
Track day. Brought the big gun. Let's see how the new brakes do.
I am apparently faster than the cammed Corvette on slicks parked beside me. I feel he may not be fully exploiting the potential of his vehicle. But the new brakes are so much better!
So that was fun. I got seeded with this guy.
He had a B16 and tires and suspension, I have about 20 years at this track. We had a really good time chasing each other around. I ended up being less than 0.2s faster. Amusingly, the place I could make distance on him was the straights - I could hear his wheelspin from my car. He asked if I had a turbo :)
It's fun driving a track I know so well in a car that's so different from my usual. I definitely had to modify some lines.
On the last session, the car got hot and even popped the radiator cap on the way into the pits. That's how I learned my cooling fan doesn't work. Well, that's on the to-do list now! I'm currently sitting under a tree letting the heat soaked engine cool a bit before driving home.
I also need to service the seatbelts, I discovered the inertia reels don't latch well. So that's obviously a high priority.
On the plus side, everyone loved the car and the intra-CRX rivalry, and the new brakes work well. Thumbs up!
Second-last session, I jumped into a V8 Miata and set FTD. No lap record, though - the car was too low on fuel and starving off corners.
Just for grins, because I know the course, what was your lap time in the CRX?
70.934s counter clockwise. On 300 TW tires from 2016 :) Last time we were out there together in 2014, you and I were within 0.05s. And apparently the last time I had the CRX on track, I did 70.7. So maybe those brakes didn't make that much difference after all!
For those who liked the spare bulbs, you'll love the fact that the car also carries (carried) a full complement of spare fuses. Again, I need to restock. And also, the fuse for the fan was intact.
When cool, I discovered that the radiator was very close to empty. Makes me wonder about the overflow plumbing, as it did spit out coolant. Luckily, since I was at a hot track day, I had a big jug of water in the back - just enough to fill the system. With that, I made it home with a happy coolant gauge.
At home, I dove into wiring. Jumping the thermosensor with a big fat wire made the fan spin, so it's time to test the sensor in some hot water. I'm hoping it opens below 202F, because that's the boiling point around here :)
Wow, I've not seen carpet on these car degrade like that! Thnx for sharing solution and supplier. I drive my crx to Denver every year. UV's brutal ur way
I like the the fiberglass backing on the fender. Gives room to lay flat again on the fender support - maintains panel alignment. One of the last crx's I bought was an 86si locally in Dallas. Plastic was toast. Body panels just crumbled in my hands w no effort. Achilles heel of these cars.
Nice job on the 3D fasteners! Clean. Appears stronger than I thought.
The new fasteners aren't super-strong, but they're strong enough. The carpet ones are weaker, I might see if I can rework them along a different style that I've seen in Miatas. I didn't get even a partial one to use for a model.
Turns out the seatbelts don't work like modern ones. They don't lock from a sharp pull, there's a weight in the system that locks when the car jerks instead. So they're ok.
So, that blue interior is quite similar to an S2000 blue that was offered, at least, until 2004. I wonder if the S2000 push in fasteners that hold the trunk carpet would work in this application?
In reply to Slippery :
I'll see if I can source some and try it, thanks. It's actually got a surprising amount of grey in it, but maybe I can use them as a model of the color is off.
Yeah, I went back to look at the pics and it doesnt look like the Honda/Toyota blue of the 80s. Wasnt sure if the sun exposure changed it.
My S2000 is at the office, but Monday I will check and see where those clips are used. I know for sure the trunk lining has a bunch, but do not know if those are all black on all cars.
I found this one, will check monday measurements and update:
Ooooo.
In reply to Slippery :
Thanks! IIRC it's a 5mm hole and the fastener has a maximum length of 20mm.
Can you 3D a cup holder? It's about the only thing we need the HMC engineers didn't include
In reply to Keith Tanner :
By the time I had over 200k miles on my Civic Si, the driver's seatbelt was getting pretty frayed. I went to the dealership to buy a replacement and was told that Honda had sort of a silent lifetime warranty on seatbelts and that I would be getting a brand new one for free. The only catch was that they needed to install it at the dealership. They didn't want one of their cars on the road with compromised seatbelts. Not sure if this still applies, or if they could even locate a new one for your car at this point.
Conversely, the Jeep dealer was more than willing to charge me $300 for a new Wrangler seatbelt and slide it across the parts counter to me.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
I think they still offer black ones, but blue seems to be NLA. I will drop by the Honda dealership and see. I'm not keen to have a stranger messing with my interior panels at the moment.
Fan: the thermosensor is working. It closed in boiling water. The fan is working when I jump the thermosensor connector.
I'm not sure what to make of that, unless the inop fan was a result of the coolant dump and not the cause. Not sure how. Anyhow, I'll reassemble and monitor.
So, a French composites company is currently making fiberglass panels for my car. They're apparently quality parts. I only have one fender and a door cap that's being problematic, but thinking of the long term I decided to order some while they're available. Parts availability for these cars is erratic at best.
I ordered two front fenders, the header panel (between the headlights), the lower cladding for the doors and the sills. All the endangered plastic parts.
Well, the fenders showed up. Not the other bits. The paperwork indicates that's all that was shipped, so now we'll have to work that out. I'll unpack these further once we've finished that discussion, but they look really nice though the bubbles.
Looks like you get to use some vintage Fiat/Ferrari side markers now!
In reply to Slippery :
Or patch holes :)
Also could the plug/wiring at the thermosensor not be making good contact? If you unplug the thermosensor, does it default to the fan running at full speed?
In reply to Slippery :
The wiring for the fan is simple, it's 12v grounded through the sensor. So a bad connection means no fan. I did have it apart when I changed the rad, but everything felt good and the sensor came with the rad so it's relatively new. I'll make sure it's all super-clean and tight when I reassemble but it seemed okay when I pulled it apart. The factory connectors are pretty heavy duty and well sealed, Honda didn't skimp there.
We'll see how it behaves. I have learned that the fan is almost silent when running which makes it hard to tell unless you actually look at it like I did yesterday.
So the rad cooling fan won't come on at all? Then swap the fan relay w one of the ac relays. Could be intermittent contractors like the main relay gets us on the fuel pump - cracked solder joint
A friend of mine raced 85si's late 1980's. I'll reach out to him. He did have an si overheating problem. Appeared fans/sensors worked. He put temp probes on the rad inlet/outlet, in/out at the water pump. I believe he pinpointed a bad WP impeller. I see ur red amp meter can accept a K-type probe. If you go down this path, keep us posted. I did a post on RPR comparing oem si vs carb impellers. Bought 4 different aftermarket WPs comparing impellers. Pix and dimensions documented. Since NOS NLA, I've been curious if aftermarket's do the job. You guys are pushing these engine much more than I do.
Not sure if I understand the problem. Hope this helps. I assume u got the t-stat covered
My rad t-switch comes on around 175-180 at 600' elevation
I opened up my seatbelt mechanism earlier this year. Replaced the recoil spring. I recall seeing the 1/3" inertial ball bearing. That area looked pretty robust. I remember it locking up quickly just holding the assembly in my hand and slightly jerking it. Easy to check. I drive my car very easy, it's note something I notice.
Nice to see all the love your cars getting!
The fan comes on when I jump the thermosensor, so it works fine. I'm going to spend more time watching the fan to get an idea of its behavior. There is no fan relay according to the wiring diagram, it's as complex as a flashlight.
I was pushing the car pretty hard - our track is really hard on cooling because of low air airspeed and thin, dry air, and the B16 CRX that was chasing me didn't last as long as I did. The pacing of our sessions yesterday was also excellent for heat-soaking, so the cars just got hotter and hotter. So I'm not sure there's a fundamental problem, a lot of cars were having trouble. Next time I just won't go for the last hard lap when the car's starting to get hot. I don't recall anything specific about the impeller on the pump I installed.
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