My 2000 EX

MorningZ

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I'm a long time Integra owner, but that car's days on the road are over. It's current setup (roll bar, fixed seats, harnesses) is just too tough on the body for just "driving around", so I was on the hunt for another run around car and I found this 2000 EX 5 speed two weeks ago today on Craigslist.

Checking out the car: it sounded good when started, the interior was in pretty good shape, needed/needs paint, but that's alright, I bought this to just run around in. Mods already on car: Skunk 2 intake and short ram, side and rear visors, and a generic front lip. There was also a Bosch temp gauge mounted on the A-pillar (yuck), which I discovered after I bought it that this was more a "necessity" than a "add on modification", i'll show why later in the post.

Here are sone "before" pictures except that I had already put on one of the sets of Integra Meshies i have













Once I made the purchase, things started to get ugly with the car as I dug in deeper, here is what I discovered (and fixed) in the two weeks I've had it:

- Dash lights didn't work: figured out the cause was that the plug on the back of the dimmer switch was loose. A previous owner had tried to shove toothpicks to make a connection. I just simply removed that hack and used a small flat head screwdriver in there and bent all the connections tight again, now I have dash lights

- VTEC solenoid switch = broken (and is now replaced). The stock ECT sensor that feeds the cluster's temp gauge = destroyed. So there was this horrid looking A-pillar gauge kit installed holding a Bosch ECT gauge. I didn't think much of it when I got the car, but after driving it a bit, I noticed the stock gauge was just buried on "C" and not working. Looking into it, the stock sending unit on the side of the head is completely f-cked. There is no hope for getting this out to replace, so I instead moved the Bosch gauge to a cluster gauge kit I purchased (also bought a voltmeter gauge to match)








On the second morning I had the car, I went to start the car and the clutch pedal went right to the floor and stayed there. Investigating: yuck, look at that fluid. Replaced: Clutch Master Cylinder, the Clutch Slave Cylinder and completely flushed out the system of that garbage. The cotter pin holding the CMC to the pedal was completely screwed up, I had to take the whole pedal out to make it right, thankfully that's not really a big deal, just awkward to get to that 12mm that holds the top of the assembly in there.





Not knowing anything about the car (the guy I bought it off of only had it a short time and couldn't really provide much history) I decided to replace the front pads, get the front discs resurfaced and replace the rear drum shoes, what a huge pain in the ass to replace the rear brakes. While getting under the car for those rear brakes, we noticed the rear trailing arm bushings were shot, so the trailing arms got yanked out and we used the 20 ton press in my garage to replace them (this actually went nice and easy).


So up in the attic, I've had a set of 2006 Si seats sitting up there waiting to get used in something. After being up there for a few years, this Civic I just got was the something. My buddy Jeff is a welder, he was up for the challenge! Pretty much he just cut off the brackets from all 4 seats and welded the brackets from the stock seats in the car to the Si seats. Little bit of trial and error to get the passenger seat done first, and then the driver seat was complete on the first try. These came out great, I'm so happy with them, they really change the car.








While he was working on the seats, I was working on the stereo system. The factory radio plug was hacked up (of course it was), so I first soldered on a Metra 71-1721 plug, I then hooked up:
- JVC radio
- Set of JVC 6.5" components in the front doors
- Matching set of 6.5" components in the rear deck
- Mounted my trusty ol' Alpine PDX5 five channel amp behind one of the side panels (this is the 4th car of mine this amp has been in)








For bass, I wanted to keep the spare tire in place, so I put together this box for my shallow mount Rockford 10". It's a great woofer that doesn't need a lot of airspace to operate. So I have all my storage and the stock spare tire stays right where it was designed to be. It's bolted in place using 4 stock bolts that hold the body to the subframe. I just had to get bolts that were 1" longer to account for going through 3/4" MDF.








Other minor things done:
- the passenger side wiper arm was completely non-existent. Picked up another on eBay and put it on
- the hood latch handle was broken. Ordered a replacement from eBay and that is replaced.
- flushed out the brake fluid after we did the brakes.

Still to do:
- I hate how low the car is and the springs and shocks are garbage, I have a set of Yonaka coilovers on the way
- The passenger rear camber arm's bushing is completely shot. My buddy has a set of adjustable ones to give me
- Timing belt and water pump (since I have no idea when they were done last)
- Get the AC working again. I already have a new compressor, I need to order a new dryer as well. Figure I'd do this while I am doing the timing belt and water pump.
- Ordered a replacement steering wheel cover so I can cut and remove the one in there now.
- I'm throwing around the idea of trying to get cruise control working again, a previous owner had pulled it all out for some reason.

I think I have already spent more on the car than I paid for the car, but ah well, that's how it goes.
 
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XpL0d3r

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:welcome:

Hell of a first post man. Looks like you're saving this thing and it's coming along nicely! Sucks getting into a car without knowing the whole history and discovering a bunch of things, but it sounds like you know what you're doing.

Any plans to change the motor out? You should be able to find a replacement motor relatively cheap. Condition varies haha.

Either way, good luck with this! I look forward to seeing updates. :thumbs up

EDIT: That sucks you're a Patriots fan though! I'm from Mass, either you love the Pats or you hate them, no in between. I'm on the hate side haha
 


MACE

New Member
Nice score man.
I always liked this body style.
keep posting the good pics
ahh my day is complete/ a new build thread/ Nice weld/10
 

MorningZ

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Any plans to change the motor out?
At this point, no.... i picked up this car to just run around in with the occasional track day (the less occasional, the better) if the Integra isn't up to the task since it is seemingly broken in some form or another all the time
 


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blandsarcasm

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mr T.I. himself! welcome to club civic. nice pick up on the car. of course you couldnt help but immediately dive in and get your hands dirty improving this thing. we all know how much of a dice roll it is when buying one haha
 

MorningZ

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So digging in a little deeper:


Pulled the cluster out because the right side wasn't lit up (bad bulb), I noticed that the CEL bulb was pulled out (I'm not surprised). Man these are difficult to find. I ended up having to order through HondaPartsNow for these suckers. (size #24)




So assuming there was reason behind pulling the bulb out, I used my scanner on the car to see how many codes were waiting for me. I was expecting 5-8 for some reason judging by my experience so far with the car, I was surprised to see only one code waiting





Code P0118 -> Engine Coolant Temperature sensor error. Hey! what a surprise since the sensor is currently shredded up sitting in the side of the head. Maybe there is a way I can "fake out" the ECU with a resistor on the wire for that sensor. So one of the previous owners completely butchered that sensor, and then got annoyed enough by the CEL this threw to just yank the bulb out. faaaaantastic


Picked up a nice inexpensive, but solid, phone mount (https://amzn.com/B01HBQBNCY)






My buddy Jeff arrived with the rear camber arms that he had... out the with old (yikes!) and in with the new! No more stupid negative camber going on









More parts rolling in starting today:
- main cluster and HVAC lights from superbrightleds.com
- AC drier (i've already had a new AC compressor to put in for a bit now)
- new belts
- timing belt kit
- oil pump
- oil pan gasket
- new spark plugs
- new steering wheel cover
- new pedal pads (i see previous owners have put bolts in their places)
- coilover kit (these were what I ended up getting: https://amzn.com/B009R6ZNAA)

I don't think I am going to start the timing belt or AC stuff this weekend, even though I have the time, I just don't feel like getting into something that deep at this time. The coilovers would be the perfect project for this weekend, but they don't arrive until Monday according to UPS tracking, ah well.


.
 

XpL0d3r

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Man you are totally rescuing this thing, haha!

I wonder if you can drill into the sensor and use an easy out set to get it out.

I'd also shoot the previous owner a text and tell him to never work on cars again :lol:
 

MorningZ

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I tried to get in there with an easy out (once the intake tube and distributor is off, there is plenty of room to work with), but it's too far gone.. i don't see any way to go with it other than drill it out/in, which will throw all those metal chunks into the cooling system, no thanks on that

As for the guy I bought it off of, I approached him early about the dash lights, his response to me was "i never noticed since I never drove the car at night"... needless to say, from that point on i was done talking to him

 
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blandsarcasm

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And the struggle continues haha. I thought I had it bad fixing my cars previous owners hack jobs but damn this gives me a dif perspective. I'm interested in hearing your opinion on those coils. I thought it odd how high the front rates were compared to the rear


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MorningZ

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So I got my truck back yesterday (friend was borrowing it), so the Civic is now back up on stands. went around and hit all four corners with some PB blaster to make sure the crappy suspension will come out (new coilover set arrives on Monday)




Minty new RTA bushings and camber arms




Dug out my AC tools from the attic... pulling out the old r134 so i can replace compressor and drier




Compressor went in smooth, EXCEPT when I went to go plug it in, not sure why it has the wrong gender plug on it, but I just cut off the one from the old compressor and soldered and heat shrinked it on the new one




I noticed while installing my alarm that the clutch and brake pedals has bolts in place where these plastic pads are, so I had ordered a set, got them in today





Last but definitely not least, I got a package in from HondaPartsNow today as well, which included the best $1.99 I've spent so far on the car, I found having this hood prop clip broken was freaking annoying





I've got the vacuum pump back on the AC system to get the moisture out of it... it'll probably be tomorrow before I fill it and hope I have working AC... I'll also hit the suspension bolts again with PB blaster and then get the old stuff out tomorrow, spending Monday night putting the new stuff in.

I've also got to make time to get the cluster all back together, which is getting all new bulbs
 

MorningZ

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A/C system = operational! So to get there:
- New compressor ($120 on eBay)
- New drier ($13 on eBay)
- replaced every o-ring I could get to
- New belt ($10 from Advanced Auto)
- 2 cans of r134a




Also got the cluster back together and installed. Nice bright "cool white" LED's from superbrightleds.com




I've got one more round of PB Blaster soaking into the suspension bolts.. when I get home from a few hours of some basketball I'm going to try to get all 4 corners out so that task is already half completed for the arriving new set


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MorningZ

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So Sunday late afternoon, I put the car on jack stands all the way around and went to work on the suspension... once i had the wheels off, i had all 4 corners of the suspension out in under 20 mins total




The new stuff was set to arrive yesterday, but apparently it needed a signature and I wasn't home. So while I was out I got an email notifying me that I missed it and it would be delivered next day (which would have been today). but I ran into my UPS guy while at Wawa and he let me sign and take the package from there.

So after work yesterday I put it all in, that was probably my 10-12th suspension install, and by FAR was the easiest/smoothest it's ever gone.







As soon as I was wrapping up getting the car off jack stands, trick or treaters started to come to the house, so I didn't have time to drive/adjust anything yet, I'll mess with that part of it all today and/or tomorrow and look to get a full alignment early next week

Very happy with the quality of this kit for the price ($460 shipped through Amazon), hopefully they do their job!


.
 
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blandsarcasm

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So Sunday late afternoon, I put the car on jack stands all the way around and went to work on the suspension... once i had the wheels off, i had all 4 corners of the suspension out in under 20 mins total




The new stuff was set to arrive yesterday, but apparently it needed a signature and I wasn't home. So while I was out I got an email notifying me that I missed it and it would be delivered next today (which is today). but I ran into my UPS guy while at Wawa and he let me sign and take the package from there.

So after work yesterday I put it all in, that was probably my 10-12th suspension install, and by FAR was the easiest/smoothest it's ever gone.







As soon as I was wrapping up getting the car off jack stands, trick or treaters started to come to the house, so I didn't have time to drive/adjust anything yet, I'll mess with that part of it all today and/or tomorrow and look to get a full alignment early next week

Very happy with the quality of this kit for the price ($460 shipped through Amazon), hopefully they do their job!


.
No rust and no cutting! Only once was I ever that fortunate when installing suspension on a car for the first time. Not having abs makes the job a little easier vs an integra as well.


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MorningZ

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So some minor updates:

1) The door panel frames were all cracked and broken, I hated every time i went to open or shut the door feeling the panel "give". So I busted out some Bondo/Fiberglass stuff and went to town to try to fix all that. It's drying for the weekend now, I'll get them back in the car on Sunday and see if this helps (it should)

driver_door_01_cracks.jpg

driver_door_02_glassed.jpg


pass_door_01_glassed.jpg

2) I'm an old school Car Audio guy, and in my truck I have a set of Image Dynamic Horn Loaded drivers. I realized with the Civic that I'd never be happy with the system I put in it until I had a set of these in it as well, so I kept my eyes on eBay for a while, finally found a set (they are next to impossible to buy nowadays). Theres issues in that one of the horns was broken off and the crossovers are cooked, but more Bondoglass to get the horn back to operational and my neighbor is going to repair the crossovers for me, hopefully by the end of the month I can get these into the system.

horns_01_eBay.jpg
horns_02_xovers.jpg
horns_04_before.jpg
horns_05_gooped_on.jpg
horns_06_progress.jpg
 

MorningZ

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To follow up on the door panel fixing: worked GREAT ! No longer does the door panel give/move when I open and shut the door from the inside, I'd recommend doing this for anyone who thinks that plastic frame inside is damaged in any way
 
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XpL0d3r

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Love the progress on this thing... it's coming together nicely now that it's in the hands of an owner who knows what they're doing!

:thumbs up
 

MorningZ

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So it's been a while since I've updated, heck since I've even done anything on the Civic, but I wanted to share a fix/win that happened yesterday and was confirmed today.

Issue since I got it: when the car was cold, like parked overnight, it was very tough to start, it would take a good 10-15 seconds of cranking before it finally started and then it ran like s**t until the car was up to temperature.

So a few weeks ago, an old TI member was in the area on vacation, someone much smarter and wiser than I, and when we were catching up over a few beers I showed him this picture of the fubared temp sensor on the side of the block.

civic_temp_gauge_sensor.JPG


So while the yellow line points to the issue, he looks at the pic and says "did you notice this other temp sensor to the right has one of the wires pulled out of it?"

NO! I hadn't. I was so focused on the mashed up sensor that I hadn't noticed.

Yesterday I pulled the plug off, cut the wires and soldered in a piece of wire with small spade connectors to "plug in" to that sensor. It's kind of hack, but it's what I had available and I wanted to see if this made a difference

civic_temp_ecu_sensor.jpg


Difference = made! I just went out to the car and she cranked right up and idled smooth, I'm so happy this issue is behind me! It really took away from the car getting to be at "trustworthy to drive" status, and that's all I bought this car for, was to have a reliable more fun alternative to my F150.

So if you Civic starts rough and doesn't run good when cold, check the wires on this plug, which I'm guessing is what feeds ECT temps to the ECU.
 

blandsarcasm

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So it's been a while since I've updated, heck since I've even done anything on the Civic, but I wanted to share a fix/win that happened yesterday and was confirmed today.

Issue since I got it: when the car was cold, like parked overnight, it was very tough to start, it would take a good 10-15 seconds of cranking before it finally started and then it ran like s**t until the car was up to temperature.

So a few weeks ago, an old TI member was in the area on vacation, someone much smarter and wiser than I, and when we were catching up over a few beers I showed him this picture of the fubared temp sensor on the side of the block.

View attachment 28732


So while the yellow line points to the issue, he looks at the pic and says "did you notice this other temp sensor to the right has one of the wires pulled out of it?"

NO! I hadn't. I was so focused on the mashed up sensor that I hadn't noticed.

Yesterday I pulled the plug off, cut the wires and soldered in a piece of wire with small spade connectors to "plug in" to that sensor. It's kind of hack, but it's what I had available and I wanted to see if this made a difference

View attachment 28731


Difference = made! I just went out to the car and she cranked right up and idled smooth, I'm so happy this issue is behind me! It really took away from the car getting to be at "trustworthy to drive" status, and that's all I bought this car for, was to have a reliable more fun alternative to my F150.

So if you Civic starts rough and doesn't run good when cold, check the wires on this plug, which I'm guessing is what feeds ECT temps to the ECU.
That's funny cause when I bought the y8 harness to swap the Gsr into my hatch, that same plug was damaged the same way. There was another plug damaged as well but I was lucky enough to have the y7 harness to cut from.


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