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What Have You Done To Your Coupe Today


Mangoman

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Just drove it today, over 100 miles , the sticky front left brake, I set off with , cleared eventually but probably needs the caliper off for a look see.

The exhaust sounds like it is beginning to leak again which either means the temporary repair is exactly that , or its gone somewhere else, and the illumination on the climate display has gone out !!!!

 😤

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Not so much What Have I done to my Coupe Today, but more like what I have done in 2021😁

I took Bluey in for an MOT back in July and it failed on a fractured front spring. They couldn't source the parts in the UK, so the garage said I could source the parts and they would heavily discount the fitting as a favour to me.

I was about to order a pair of shock assemblies from Rock Auto (couldn't see the point in changing one), when fortunately for me Stu (AKA Hughezee) intervened and told me the listed parts were not the best choice. I therefore cheated by using his knowledge to order some KYB assemblies, namely KYB SR4074 and SR4075. It was also logical to order the drop links at the same time, namely Delphi TC1210 and TC1211.

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After further chats with Stu, I decided to do this job myself rather than allow the garage to get brutal with it and potentially damage the new components that I had paid a considerable sum to get shipped from the USA.

I started by having a read of the Haynes manual to see what was involved. It seemed fairly straight forward. Once I got in front of the car, I was a little puzzled as the manual says to drop the lower control arms to allow access to removing the old shock. Another quick call to Stu, who told me the upper wishbone needs to be lowered to obtain access for removal and subsequently re-installation, and the penny dropped.

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I had my better half Michelle support the old assembly, whilst undoing the fork bolt and the upper mounting nuts. I was then able to slide the assembly out. I also asked Michelle to put the upper mounting nuts on the new assembly after feeding it up. I guess it can be done by oneself, but much easier with two of you.

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Following this, I had to tackle the drop links. Easy enough to remove the old ones by knocking off the plastic locking tabs, using  locking pliers on the joint and removing the nut. This is where I eventually learned the importance of re-using the M10 nuts from the old Honda drop links. Sure, the replacement Delphi Links had new nuts, but M10 nuts generally need a 17mm spanner, and you simply cannot use a 17mm spanner due to the recess as shown in the picture below. The existing Honda M10 flange nuts are 15mm and that 2mm discrepancy makes all the difference.

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Also I noticed the thread must have an imperial (or american metric) pitch, as conventional M10 nuts stop after a couple of turns on the thread. All of this may sound trivial, but I actually spent ages trying to get new nuts on, only to revert to the old Honda ones. I suspect for the price of the genuine Honda drop links, they will come with the uniquely sized nuts 🙃

Anyhow following this, the car passed the MOT with only tyre advisories (which I knew about) and drives beautifully smooth and silently on decent surfaced road. It doesn't drive as nicely on damaged road surface (i.e most of our roads), so Stu has kindly agreed to cast a beady eye over my work to see what could be done to improve this....

Over to you Stu😉

 

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Wow! 

You guys have been busy,  well done Michelle, for stepping in and keeping yer man sane !!!!

Re the thread discrepancy,  the original threads may well be 1.25 pitch whereas your replacement nuts could be standard 1.5 pitch. 

Looks like a great job, interested to know what you think about the shocks as compares to the originals,  obviously they will be better from an age perspective but do they still give the smooth feel of the originals??

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36 minutes ago, Retro Rich said:

Also I noticed the thread must have an imperial (or american metric) pitch, as conventional M10 nuts stop after a couple of turns on the thread. All of this may sound trivial, but I actually spent ages trying to get new nuts on, only to revert to the old Honda ones. I suspect for the price of the genuine Honda drop links, they will come with the uniquely sized nuts 🙃

 

28 minutes ago, PTR200S said:

Re the thread discrepancy,  the original threads may well be 1.25 pitch whereas your replacement nuts could be standard 1.5 pitch.

Almost certainly the reason Pete, Honda seem to have a penchant for using the "fine thread" version of fasteners on things like suspension and exhaust manifold to downpipe studs/nuts.

Some great work there Rich, i suspect Stu will do a few strange things (i have my ideas!) to it and send you on a test drive............................... :P;):D

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1 hour ago, PTR200S said:

Looks like a great job, interested to know what you think about the shocks as compares to the originals,  obviously they will be better from an age perspective but do they still give the smooth feel of the originals??

On good road surface it feels like a magic carpet, but on damaged surfaces it can sound like someone rattling a box of maltesers 😆

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37 minutes ago, Retro Rich said:

On good road surface it feels like a magic carpet, but on damaged surfaces it can sound like someone rattling a box of maltesers 😆

That's probably the road !  It has got worse recently and I have been checking suspension on all the transport for faults, none found. 

I have noticed recently the Coupe seems noisy but as soon as I get to a decent road it goes quiet.

The Elysion is really bad on the potholed and this "throw a bit of stone on it" attitude by the councils,  again beautifully quiet on the good roads.

I reckon there has been zero maintenance in the last 8 months, plenty of money to build new cycle lanes though 🤬🤬

 

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The Coupe is now off the road, 😭, no point in using it now as it needs that exhaust looking at and the Elysion is my full time ride at the moment.

Will get checked over, winter underbody check and seal and when I have time / energy ( enthusiasm ) I will tackle the exhaust but realistically it will not be on the road again until after Christmas..

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Due to the disaster with the Elysion the Coupe has been put back into service, exhaust temporarily fixed as I had intended to do it properly whilst off the road....didnt have chance, so now two weeks down the line and it's had to be re taxed .

Without the Elysion the Coupe has now become the daily motor and the weekend motor too !

So, today I checked all fluids , lovely clean oil still,  gearbox the same , topped windscreen wash and checked brake fluid, all good.

The power steering fluid is looking dark again so that is on the list for tomorrow,  suck and fill I think !!

The rear screen , inside, has become a fly graveyard and the spiders seem to be visiting it frequently,  vacuum and full screen clean along with a RainX session on the outside.

Big vac around the interior and a dashboard clean and polish....

Along with the PS tomorrow I think I might give it the leather treatment again, the smell is intoxicating,  officer !!

50 quids worth of Shell 99 later, "just going for a test run, dear" she (the Coupe 😉) is running a treat !!

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18 minutes ago, hughezee said:

Did the PAS fluid and coolant on the coupe today, not that it needed it.😉

Did you drop the coolant completely? Bottom hose jobbie???

Haven't done mine for a while now, got some Prestone in stock though 😜

Might be a good time to replace that bottom hose clip...

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Just done a 260ml change on the ps fluid, genuine stuff back in too.

Extracted fluid looks a bit dark but no bits in it.

Coolant will be another day due to swmbo demands on other areas  ! Steady on 😂😂, just gardening!!

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A bath and a fluid check this morning,  all looking good now, oil is a little darker due to piling on the miles recently.....actually cleared 90k last Monday but checking this morning it's nearly 90,650 ...my low mileage beast is no longer.   I know some of you have hit 150, 200k so it's all relative but still..........

Tyre check reveals front tyres half worn now, that may account for the slippy off the mark stuff reported under the tyre thread last week.....back ones, er, round and black.....

New rear brake pads and disks still looking good....just a clean inside the car now and good to go another week or two ready for mot on the 5th January,  might oil change before mot though.

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Drove it for a birthday treat to myself after i got 10mins alone time and to a local brewery to collect to gift packs and have a cheeky half. Not been in the Honda for over two weeks. Love the way they smoothly start, about 1 and half turn overs and gently whirrs into life and the seats and comfort compared to the euro box 👌

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