In search of 4g 1995 Lude 2.2 vtec

lilac · Post by **lilac** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 6:42 pm

Thanks wurlycorner for the tip! Luckily according to the instant car check it hasn't been scrapped or written off, what a relief! It would've broken my heart if it had been. There's still hope yet.

Heeuge · Post by **Heeuge** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 5:04 pm

Hi guys,

After hitting a dead end in her search Mrs Heeuge told me about it so I thought I'd pop on and give thanks to those that offered help / ideas and add a few more details about my prelude on the offchance that someone might recognise it.

1995 Prelude Si VTEC LSD.
Chassis BB4-1302634.
Granada Metallic black (code NH-503P).
Interior Colour Type A.
A/C

Imported by UK Importers Club of Speke, Merseyside.
First registered in the UK in September 2000 on plate M521 THH.

By the time I sold her to Matt at Peugeot Crewe in May 2009 the following modifications had been made:
* DC Sports ceramic exhaust manifold.
* Longlife custom-made cat-back exhaust.
* Black Diamond Combi fronts / Drilled rear discs.
* Black Diamond Predator pads all round.
* Pi 40mm Lowering Springs.
* TSW Reflex 17" wheels
* Yokohama Parada Spec 2 215/40/17
* Pittura Sport steering wheel.
* Cobra 7777 alarm
* The offside reversing light had been converted to be the rear fog light.
* Sony [SomethingOrOther] single DIN radio/cassette with 6 CD Changer unit in the boot.
* Drivers side rear arch made up mostly of duct tape.
* 115,000 was showing on the odometer, 84,000 of which were KM.

Mechanically she never skipped a beat. She sat under a tarp on my mum's drive for 10 months in 2005/6 while I lived in France and after charging the battery overnight fired straight up into a smooth idle and happily trundled off to ABP for a service/MOT.

The car check we did shows the car hasn't been scrapped, written off or exported.

It had a number plate change in December 2009 to M155 VVV. This plate is now on an Integra so seems to be a dead end. The MOTs continue for M521 THH beyond this point so it looks like the original plate was switched back before it was sold.

I've spoken to Matt (still at Peugeot Crewe) and he says the bodywork guys there had completely sorted the rust issues and had it dyno'd (still a strong 200bhp!) before selling it to a friend a year later.

Oddly enough I happened across the car again a few years down the line (random autotrader browsing as you do) and aside from someone putting tiny white wheels on it she looked fighting fit. I can't find the screenshot I took of that ad.

The most recent MOT on it expired in June 2012 and there's mention (on the 2011 failure) of a centre exhaust being inadequately supported so additional work may have been ongoing with it - my exhaust finished in the usual position.

My hope is that someone somewhere has it sat in a garage as a trackday project or as a 2nd/3rd car but hasn't got round to getting it road registered.

This is the last video of her, manouvering around the garden after 6 months of sitting idle which I sent to Matt as evidence she lived:

[youtube]SwPKM6nXbpU[/youtube]

I've reached a crossroads in my car-buying life - mini-Heeuge #1 is incoming so Lilac has replaced her MX5 with an Octavia vRS estate. I have no need for a particular kind of car (the V6 Brera I have is no longer the practical car on the driveway) but don't like the idea of not having my own motor. There's nothing on the market that really catches my eye for £10k but if I could find her (and she'd not been run too far into the ground!) I'd have my Prelude back in a heartbeat...

The vagueness of her fate is what's keeping the fire burning - at least if she'd been scrapped there'd be closure for me! I've scanned through the 'For Sale' and the 'Lude Profiles' boards here with no luck...

Thanks for your time, fingeres crossed someone out there has met her at some point..

TL:DR - I miss my prelude, have you seen her?!

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 5:15 pm

does it not tell you the last registered keeper?

Heeuge · Post by **Heeuge** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 5:57 pm

Sadly not:

The last registered change of keeper shows when I sold it in May 2009. Not particularly helpful since I know it's been sold at least once since then!

I don't know if swapping the plate to M155 VVV in Dec 2009 confuses the system. That plate now shows MOT history on a 96 Integra through to 2015 while M521 THH shows further Prelude MOT history beyond Dec 2009. It seems to suggest that M521 THH was put back onto the car when it was sold, albeit to recipients unknown...

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 9:39 pm

Welcome, nice to read of your prelude love

there are plenty of us on here that can fully relate

A Honda verno sticker on the back!

The number plate change is interesting/strange?

as a thought, might be worth trawling through the show picture threads on here and PUK, to see if the car crops up in any of the pictures anywhere???

Post by **Drax** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:50 am

There's a black modded 4G in my area who I've never met but only waved at once. I'll see what I can dig up...

Post by **vanzep** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:07 pm

lovely looking lude - i can see why you want to find it again

just a thought but have you tried some of the european owners forums?
reason is that quite a few preludes have been exported to other european countries such as poland,latvia,bulgaria especially in the last 5 years or so- I guess when ludes are exported they get a change of number plate so would be difficult to trace. You do have the vin number though which could be the key to finding it.

dont give up as persistence normally pays off

Post by **Drax** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:19 pm

it's an M reg black lude, works here;
http://www.thebullatshocklach.co.uk/index
so ill hunt him down and check the reg for you

Heeuge · Post by **Heeuge** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:53 pm

Thanks Drax, I appreciate the effort. Google Streetview for the Bull is from 2011 and shows an almost empty car park.

I'd considered it possibly reaching mainline Europe but the car check report I ran says it's not been exported. Of course it also says there's been no changer of keeper since I sold it so anything's possible!

* Heads back to trawling pictures in old threads.

Heeuge · Post by **Heeuge** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 2:53 pm

Game over.

In re-trawling through the for sale threads on PUK I came across this one being sold by user rono in 2011. Even without seeing the pics (I've long since lost my login details for PUK) the description sounded familiar enough for further investigation (a wing mirror that doesn't fold, DC Sports manifold etc).

While waiting for my new registration to be validated on PUK I checked other posts by rono and sure enough, a month later, he talked about breaking the Prelude down for spare parts. His linked images confirmed my worst fears.

She's dead Dave....

I'm genuinely gutted...

Lude Generation

In search of 4g 1995 Lude 2.2 vtec

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Re: In search of 4g 1995 Lude 2.2 vtec