Nathan's Daily Drive BB4

[nucleustylzlude]

Nice work bud, mine need doing actually.

How much were they in the end?

I spy a lidl/aldi special jack?
I know, I bought one!

[NafemanNathan]

Just consulted my new '95 Prelude Silver tab on the old spread sheet and I can tell you I paid a grand total of £35.83 for both rear droplinks from MotorFactors

And indeed it is a Lidl's special Had it a couple years now. My mates and I did a secret Santa a couple years back with a £10 budget. One of my mates got me that... And something else!

[mercutio]

good work nathan new drop links always tighten up the handling

[NafemanNathan]

Cheers Merc

Well after too'ing and from'ing work today it's definitely tighter at the back end and the knocking has pretty much gone. There's a very very very subtle knocking now and again, only really when I go over rough terrain (aka potholes), so I know it's nothing serious, but I think I'll try the old shock knock fix to see if that's it.

[JayJay]

Don't forget it could be a worn ARB Just make sure there's no play in it. Mine is quite worn where the bushes are and now it's moving and knocking. Going to get a new one next month.

[NafemanNathan]

Yeah I thought that after I read your profile thread and you mentioned yours were worn. Well there definitely is less meat on them than there should be as I removed all that corrosion. The remaining bar was still round and fairly smooth, but what with the aided fact the bushes are going to be worn as well, it probably all adds up to a bit of play.

Like I said though, it's very very subtle and easily livable. I doubt a passenger would notice it. So when the time comes, I drop the ARBs off the project like I said to get powder-coated if they're still decent.

[NafemanNathan]

And the final of three cars to get treatment yesterday was my daily. I started off by simply cleaning out the EGR valve. Having removed it, I could see it had never been done It was absolutely caked in carbon! Though the pictures don't do it justice... It was really thick inside...





And the EGR valve itself. Again, the picture doesn't demonstrate how caked it was...



So I simply scraped and poked at the carbon on the intake manifold before spraying a load of carb cleaner in it, and then I had started to do the same with the EGR valve, but quickly remembered I hadn't done the project lude's one too long before I parked her up, so I simply blasted that one with a load of carb cleaner which practically took it back to bare metal, so I used that one instead Put it all back together and job done.

Then it was time to wash the lude. But first, lets remove those damn door strips!

So I carefully removed them, which didn't take any effort at all, but along the way they did decide to remove a few specs of paint ...





And leave behind a whole bunch of sticky...



So after a good wash, some of the sticky remains, but it's evident both doors definitely need some attention





That large patch in the middle of the drivers door is a small patch of rust, so I'm glad I found it at least, but the whole edge of both doors really needs new paint. I'm yet to remove all the sticky (Need to get some sticky-stuff-remover ), but once that's done, that'll determine whether I touch up the doors myself or seek a professionals help.

[NafemanNathan]

Exhaust swapping time!...

Saturday morning I drove on over to my local garage and had my mechanic see if he could aid me in loosening my downpipe/CAT nuts, as after a previous attempt on the ground I'd had no success doing it myself. I had popped in on friday and asked if he could help and he intially send no, but come 9 o'clock he'd obviously felt a bit bad as he rang me to say he'd give it a look

Anyway, after looking, not being able to shift them with the first attempt and much deliberation of what I was going to do if the studs snapped (As he didn't want the car stranded there) I told him to go ahead and give it his all.

To our joy the first two nuts (the lowest two) gave up with just a few grunts on his part. The third one however, wasn't going to give up without a fight and started rounding. Great! I thought. The most awkward one to get to. I didn't much care if any of the studs snapped as I have a spare CAT, but if the nuts round, there's not much I can do without removing the downpipe as well. Anyway, my mechanic wandered over to his mahoosive toolchest and picked out a special socket which had concurved sides (Supposedly for use on a "rounding" nut). A few more grunts and a pitched fart and BAM! It's loose!

There was absolutely no way I would have done that without his help (And his tools ) and all for the sum of a fiver

So back home I go, and drop the Pro-Speed catback with decat from the Project lude and give it a quick clean up. Then I jack up the Daily and easily remove the standard centre pipe with PowerFlow backbox and CAT.







I had full intentions to keep the CAT on the Daily since I'm not in it for performance (Upgrades ) but having seen these...



... It was obvious it was staying where it was for now (I tried them, they did not budge).

I then grabbed my spare CAT and offered that up, but with the CAT being so chunky and the Pro-Speed being 2.5" I required two 17mm spanners to tighten the nuts and bolts up. Unfortunately I only have one and a socket just wouldn't go over it. It was going to be getting dark soon, so I wanted to crack on, so just fitted the decat back on. I even fitted the spare sensor onto the decat so as not to throw a CEL, but when offering it up into position the sensor looked to me like it was hanging far too low and the chances are I could catch it straddling a speed bump or something. So again I remove that, and just put the delete back in.

Anyway... Moment of truth, and...







Much happier I just don't much fancy oval style tail pipes

Unfortunately Shaun had previously cut a curve into the bumper to clear the PowerFlow backbox, so being my Pro-Speed is slightly angled, it was no longer on centre...



So I simply extended the curve to make it look a little better. I don't think anyone would really notice unless it was pointed out now as it is angled. And the flash has highlighted the underside of the bumper, so it looks a mess, but none of that can be seen normally...



Then with that job done, I set about cleaning off the sticky gum residue from the door strips. After the first attempt it's much better, but I obviously need to sort the rust, and as it was so cold today I gave up trying to tackle the lower part of the door, which seemed to be a whole lot more stubborn than the rest ...





Jobs done for this weekend, but I did finally remember to take a picture of how the heating controls look now. When I picked the car up, the heating controls were the only thing that really let down the inside... As the buttons looked like this...



The light in the rear screen heater button also didn't work. So I simply swapped the unit for the one I took out of the Project...



Much better. Now the inside is pretty much mint

Oh and also a couple weeks ago I purchased a dudey little gismo I have absolutely no use for, but looks cool and fills a void See if you can spot it... Pushki ...

[Pushki]

A USB charger/socket!!!
I don't really have much use for mine either but it looks cool.

[4thgenphil]

that exhaust looks much better! sound any better?

keep it up dude!