Lude Generation

My 4th clutch in the auto box is starting to show signs of failing, there is clutch slip going into 4th and it doesn't always want to go into reverse. Last time I bought a donor car with a refurbished auto box and with the help of Honda Hardy and M@dds we swapped them over.

Now I'm not sure what to do, I have the following options
1. Sell it as it is? How much would it be worth? 1997 JDM SIR BB8 1 owner since import 7 years ago.
2. Store it until I can afford to have it converted to a manual, which could be some time.
3. Store it until I can afford to get a professional company to sort out the auto box, but how long will that last?

What's the value difference between an auto and manual when It comes to selling them?

The car also has the cat temp and battery light on, the 4ws will not reset like it normally does (but I haven't really looked it to this yet). Touch Screen is not doing the heating controllers for some reason (again haven't tried to fix this yet)

I really do like the car and it has all the red interior and some rare bits on it and the family are like it. But it will come to the point where I need to say enough is enough and get something cheaper to run on a daily basis but I can't think of anything I would rather have.

I really don't know what to do at the moment......

I WILL NOT BREAK THE CAR DO SO DON'T EVEN START ASKING FOR PARTS OFF IT!

Gordon. As your car has some really nice optional extras (like the bonnet spoiler etc) I would really think about storing it until you have the funds to restore it.

And when you do get the time to restore it then I would advice to get the automatic gearbox out and replace with manual gearbox. I remember back in the day, Salazar did the same with his auto box and we did have a blast on his auto and then manual. The difference was night and day. Probably 2 seconds quicker. And if you are very lucky then get the manual gearbox with LSD which would be a bonus.

If you think about selling it now, then you wouldn't get much for it even with the rare JDMness with those issues, so my opinion would be to store it and restore in future.

Convert to manual to hell, if you can do the labour yourself then surely what ever has been spent on the conversion will cancel out when it comes to selling it or even add value.

I'd be more keen on buying an auto that has just been converted over a factory manual because in my mind it's had an easier life, I know it depends on servicing etc but just my opinion.

you could buy a manual lude, maybe in black

swap the bits you want over, I did this with my previous 2.0i when I upgraded to the 2.2

the price of lude's these days, it could work out cheaper than the conversion

gordonlear wrote:The car also has the cat temp and battery light on, the 4ws will not reset like it normally does (but I haven't really looked it to this yet)

These are the signs of a dodgy alternator, leaking out AC power as it's not being clipped properly. This causes all sorts of electrical gremlins to appear on the car, and could well include auto box problems. This will most likely be the rectifier which can be fixed for about 25 and a few hours of your time.

Auto to manual conversion.
Why has this not been done before? No brainer. Sort it out.

That is a lovely car. I mean seriously lovely.

RattyMcClelland wrote:Auto to manual conversion.
Why has this not been done before? No brainer. Sort it out.

I didn't do a manual conversion last time partly due to money, but I am starting to regret that decision now.

IMO, converting to manual won't do anything to change the 'value' of the car - the car is worth what it is worth based on age/condition. The box makes no difference to price , it would just make it easier/quicker to sell (bigger pool of buyers).

Merc seems to manage fine with his auto box, but there are obviously others that have had their fail and so converting to manual does seem the be the 'fail safe' solution, when you can.

I have to disagree there. If there was a jdm manual for sale and an auto, majority of people would go for a manual or would pay a bit more for a manual model.