Guide: EP3 buyers!

[JohnO]

Okay so there have been people looking into buying an ep3 lately and have been asking the same questions I did 2years back. So I decided to make a thread on what you need to know and look out for when out searching for a civic also what you can expect through owning one.

COMMON ISSUES

1. Engine mounts, our ep3s werent hard parkers in japan during its life maybe when it retired in the holding yard waiting to be imported. They've been tracked in japan before, harder than us noobs going hard at wakefield or eastern creek. They will break at some point and that some point is between 65000-80000km. usually its the driver side mount that drops, you can tell by the silicon liquid squirting everywhere, its brown and hard to clean off.

price to fix the problem?
350-500 for mounts alone, labour will vary


Suggestions:
1. daily driven,part time track (2-3times a year) : Mugen mounts they look like oem mounts but stiffer slightly. unfortunately mugen only supplies driver,passenger and front mount so you can either buy a rear mount or buy inserts from energy suspension from the states or ebay. 50bucks over paying honda for a new rear mount that'll cost you 300 min.

2. Js racing: stiffer than mugen i think, offers complete replacement 4 mounts.

3. Innovative 60a good for track, gets annoying for daily drive when your car is at idle. though the vibrations go away when you accelerate

4. hasport 60a same as above just more bling than innovatives but at a added cost.




2. Steering rack, common fault on the 2001-2003 ep3 however that got changed somehow by honda for the 2004 and 2005 facelift ep3. Everyone gets it, costs you 50-80 bucks to get it regreased and clamped up again alternatively you can diy, search it up in the civic 01+ forum theres diagrams. will link here




3. Clutches : they say it'll last you 120000km but you never know how hard its been driven, I havent changed my clutch yet at 75k km. reason is probably everyone has to hold down the clutch inorder to turn the car on, i switched mine off when i first got it. when you have to clutch start it all the time, the torque delivered to the thrust bearing is too great and so destroys that bearing over time and so you need to replace the whole clutch. ask youre mechanics to disable the feature, takes 5mins if they know what they're doing. nothing to worry about because we dont have cruise control.


4. coilovers : from experience you'll need to get shortenned tie rods after installing them as the ends on the ep3 is too long, one solution is js racing tie rods. theres others like M&M but its abit more pricier than js. no matter what coilovers you put on from bc to tein monoflexes you'll get the same problem with toe adjustments.

Thats basically it other than that, its a quick grocery getter!



Differences in 2002/3 vs 2004/5 model

02/03
reflector headlights ( chromed/grey)
http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/ohhep3r/IMAG0239.jpg
red recaros in suede
darkened rear tail lights ( dark red)


03/04
projector headlights
http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/ohhep3r/IMG_9318-1.jpg
two tone recaros ( red on black)
clear tail lights, think of the jazz
different front and rear bumper.
different front lip
updated grille



IMG brings in alot more ep3s than other dealers, theyre easier to bargain with and very helpful people. just google up internationalmotorgroup
other importers along fivedock on parra road but i havent dealt with them yet. everyone else feel free to add any extra info.
The ones we get here are c-package ep3 that comes standard with aircon,hid and power windows.

[pitiek]

Thumbs up..
Just what I need..
Are the differences between the preFL and FL just purely cosmetic?
Is it worth to pay extra for FL models over the preFL?
I read somewhere about lighter flywheel and LSD on the later model.
I have never driven a car with LSD before so I don't know what difference will it make.

[JohnO]

Yep youre spot on with cosmetics and lightened flywheel 4.2kg?


oem lsd is pretty good but when you do a suspension upgrade generally you'll need a better lsd as i've noticed that on my car but i cant afford to buy an aftermarket lsd since im going for an evo anyways. the models are getting cheaper now youre basically only paying for the cosmetics and more recent model with possibly lower kms. but with imports youre never certain if km's are legit but its a risk you take, engines will last forever if you service it ontime.

[Bludger]

LSD aids you through a corner like you see a driving line on car games????

worthy aye ned?

[JohnO]

yeah man

[Poeter]

Another common problem you might wanna add is the grinding of the starter motor during cold starts. 1 in 10 cold mornings or something.

Happens on on all k20a equipped cars. Prefl/FL EP3. All DC5R's. I'm not sure if FN2's starter motor has been revised or not as they are still fairly new.

It mainly affects owners who don't have garage because without it it's gets alot of colder.

[Antv]

about number 2: steering rack greasing doesnt cost 50-80 bucks ! where are you getting this price from?

it costs $15 tops really for white lithium grease and diy. all you need to do is pry open the clamps push the hose in abit spray heaps of the grease inside and turn the steering wheel to either side to get to all areas better. once youre done get some long cable ties and lock the hoses back in place. wallah, no more squeeking. (note that it would be faster and easier if you had a mate turning the steering wheel for you)

also the rubber seal on the doors tend to fall out of place or warp. you can easily run to IMG and grab them and diy or let them do it.

as well as add in, when it rains the water hits on the underside of the ep3, i think specifically the exhaust and makes a pretty cool (i reckon, interestingly) violent rumble that will vibrate the whole car especially when you let off on the throttle.

its weird but FL ep3's dont have side indicators. i dont know how that made sense to pass customs and all that

[JohnO]

lazy to diy the greasing so i got my mechanic to do it.

[Poeter]

about number 2: steering rack greasing doesnt cost 50-80 bucks ! where are you getting this price from?

it costs $15 tops really for white lithium grease and diy. all you need to do is pry open the clamps push the hose in abit spray heaps of the grease inside and turn the steering wheel to either side to get to all areas better. once youre done get some long cable ties and lock the hoses back in place. wallah, no more squeeking. (note that it would be faster and easier if you had a mate turning the steering wheel for you)

also the rubber seal on the doors tend to fall out of place or warp. you can easily run to IMG and grab them and diy or let them do it.

as well as add in, when it rains the water hits on the underside of the ep3, i think specifically the exhaust and makes a pretty cool (i reckon, interestingly) violent rumble that will vibrate the whole car especially when you let off on the throttle.

its weird but FL ep3's dont have side indicators. i dont know how that made sense to pass customs and all that

The rumble drives me nuts lol. Sounds and feels as if my cat has shat itself.

Both prefl and fl have no side indicators before compliance. I have not seen a fl without a side indicator though. Unless you're referring to b16a2's ep3 which I believe is an early batch prefl but he installed the fl bar afterwards. I thought it was the only the very earlier batches which importers/compliance places ignored installing them on.

[b16a2]

I got lucky :)

[Perry]

The rumble drives me nuts lol. Sounds and feels as if my cat has shat itself.

Both prefl and fl have no side indicators before compliance. I have not seen a fl without a side indicator though. Unless you're referring to b16a2's ep3 which I believe is an early batch prefl but he installed the fl bar afterwards. I thought it was the only the very earlier batches which importers/compliance places ignored installing them on.

Poeter is correct the early batches of Ep3's which was imported wasnt very strick with the indicators being installed well for compliance anyways, me and b16a2's are one of the lucky ones =)

[unl3a5h]

no side indicators! LOL just saw one on carsales without one...what are the legalities? defect? not rw?

[Philip Lee]

i think only the early batches of IMG complied cars didn't have side indicators. most other RAWs used Mitsubishi ones.

for me i want them becos i drove in peak traffic a lot and i want ppl to know i'm merging.

[oh_lol]

Awesome thread, just went a looked at one and told the guy I would be back after arming myself with some info!

The asking price is 19,990 for a 3/2002 model with 70,507kms on it. Looked pretty clean from my quick check. Is that price fairly ballpark? I'm hoping to get it closer to 18k.

Has the UK badge on the back, so does this make it a Japan or UK model? I assume it is a Jap model from my research but the guy said it was British. Doesn't add up though since the log books and all paperwork with it is in Japanese!
Does anyone know how to read the Japanese logs? What should I be looking for?

What are the service intervals for this car? When are the minor and majors, and what are common prices for both types of servicing?

Other than the suggestions in the first post, I assume that's the only common problems, and I should just look out for normal things you'd check for when test driving any car?


Edit: I was also wondering if it's any use taking the car down specifically to Honda to get them to check out. Will they be able to identify anything that a non-Honda mechanic can't? Maybe with their Honda database, or won't it matter since it is an import

[Philip Lee]

Has the UK badge on the back, so does this make it a Japan or UK model? I assume it is a Jap model from my research but the guy said it was British. Doesn't add up though since the log books and all paperwork with it is in Japanese!
Does anyone know how to read the Japanese logs? What should I be looking for?

all EP3s are made in UK. even JDM ones. as long as the plate is JDM with VIN starting EP3-xxxxxxx then u are ok. u can locate it inside the engine bay passenger side sussy tower.



What are the service intervals for this car? When are the minor and majors, and what are common prices for both types of servicing?

i'd personally follow the service procedure of AUDM DC5s.



Other than the suggestions in the first post, I assume that's the only common problems, and I should just look out for normal things you'd check for when test driving any car?

general used car checks still apply.



Edit: I was also wondering if it's any use taking the car down specifically to Honda to get them to check out. Will they be able to identify anything that a non-Honda mechanic can't? Maybe with their Honda database, or won't it matter since it is an import

Honda dealers won't know about the EP3 and they will not care. best bet is Honda specialist who have EP3/DC5 experience.

[oh_lol]

Thanks for the answers Philip.

I just called the dealer who is selling, and asked if they had any idea if any of the parts that are common to deteriorate, but he 'honestly, I couldn't tell you, you'd have to come have a look'. Also mentioned that the car is from AutoTerminal.

I have no idea who has Honda experience in Darwin lol

[JohnO]

service intervals is just standard on every honda which is 5000km

what you should look for is the mounts, how low are the plates sitting which will give you a rough idea on when its gonna break. check the belts is another thing you could do to see how old it is and the condition its in which can really indicate if the km's match the car. test drive the car you should floor it abit i did and the dealer didnt mind all he asked me was do you know how to drive manual. honestly your only interested in a good healthy motor + uncrashed/repaired panels

[oh_lol]

Thanks JohnO.
How low are the plates sitting? Sorry I am not the most mechanically minded person.

When are the major services due? This example has 70k kms (they want 19990 for it).

[pitiek]

My FD's service interval is per 10k/6 months according to the logbook...
So do I need to prepare a bigger budget for service since it's more frequent?

[JohnO]

The driver side mount if ypu look carefully if its got like less than 5mm then its very close to cracking as the mount will drop lower and lower overtime.

As for servicing I reckon its in the best interest to do it more frequently than every 10

[pitiek]

Anyone has experience dealing with Edward Lees?

[Symphorced]

Anyone has experience dealing with Edward Lees?

Have a read of the following:

http://www.supraforums.com.au/forum/new-south-wales/39154-edward-lee-parramatta-warning.html
http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/139818-edward-lees-japanese-auto-centre/
http://forum.jdmstyletuning.com/showthread.php?33854-Looking-for-the-Edward-Lees-car-yard-thread
http://www.nissansilvia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=400864

Also view:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O36vtWQMpuU

"2L VVTI"

[JohnO]

LOL edward lee

watajk

[Antv]

i watch edward lee youtube channel for laughs

[flashcvc]

i watch edward lee youtube channel for laughs

Same here!!!! hhahahhahha

Just to add on mod list on Ep3. Engine/Torque dampers should prolong your engine mounts

[stienerv2]

Just to add on mod list on Ep3. Engine/Torque dampers should prolong your engine mounts

My js racing engine damper actually made my mounts worse. So does the spoon one, it pulls the engine mount it a wierd way when the car is revved hard.

[flashcvc]

My js racing engine damper actually made my mounts worse. So does the spoon one, it pulls the engine mount it a wierd way when the car is revved hard.

Are you sure it was installed properly?? Lol

I installed j's racing engine damper on mine along with stock mounts lasted me the whole time a had my car for 90,000kms
And it was my daily.

[JohnO]

well you can just get energy inserts for a fraction of the price and that'll prolong the front and rear since thats where all the force goes to.

[stienerv2]

yeah its installed properly, and i've changed the setting to see if it helps but only by a little

[flashcvc]

yeah its installed properly, and i've changed the setting to see if it helps but only by a little

GL with your current setting man...

Coz doesnt seem to make sense that well known brands of engine dampers would make your mounts worse..

[pitiek]

Did you ended up selling your EP3 Johno?

[forensics]

whats the average fuel consumption do you get for a full tank?

mines crap.. only 380 and im not even a hoon

[Perry]

450-480

[shepparton]

whats the average fuel consumption do you get for a full tank?

mines crap.. only 380 and im not even a hoon
most Ep3r driver i hav seen are fking hoon eventhough its slow they still hoon it

[TonyxTony]

whats the average fuel consumption do you get for a full tank?

mines crap.. only 380 and im not even a hoon

I get around 450 now. I was only doing around 280-300, check your primary o2 sensor. maybe thats playing up. I got mine replaced and its all good. Costed around $400.

[JohnO]

Did you ended up selling your EP3 Johno?
sold it afew months ago, got a new car now


whats the average fuel consumption do you get for a full tank?

mines crap.. only 380 and im not even a hoon

do you have mods on it? remember if you have mods and running without a tune = bad fuel. stock i doing about 430 max then i just felt like refuelling, didnt want to run out of fuel...this was mostly short drives around urban streets and afew days of highway driving.

after i did i/e no tune fuel just shot down to less than 350...


most Ep3r driver i hav seen are fking hoon eventhough its slow they still hoon it

not true man majority of the older guys drive normally with our slow cars, ive seen more eg/ek/dc2 giving it a go everywhere lol cabramatta...


I get around 450 now. I was only doing around 280-300, check your primary o2 sensor. maybe thats playing up. I got mine replaced and its all good. Costed around $400.

only if you get a CEL, run a diagnostics and if its the o2 sensor then change it. regards to fuel better if its been modded and no kpro then best bet is to get a kpro, tune it and you'll get better economy again.

[denrie]

John did you get the Golf R? :P

[JohnO]

yeah buddy

[butterfingers]

most Ep3r driver i hav seen are fking hoon eventhough its slow they still hoon it


not true man majority of the older guys drive normally with our slow cars, ive seen more eg/ek/dc2 giving it a go everywhere lol cabramatta...



you guys must have been driving boost all your life. Your even sounding like POS ek/eg/dc2s are faster. please dont make me sad, i believe there are ionly 3 hondas that are faster than an ep3 from factory. nsx, s2000 and fd2r. and the s2000 is debatable.

[JohnO]

kswap pos ek eg and dc2 is faster. im just saying ep3 owners are a maturer bunch, compared to 17 year olds getting their p's and buying a older car with cannons.

[butterfingers]

kswap pos ek eg and dc2 is faster. im just saying ep3 owners are a maturer bunch, compared to 17 year olds getting their p's and buying a older car with cannons.

not many nice examples of those around. i omit them from the equation cos i dont like being slower than a pos.
:)

[JohnO]

Does it hurt your pride that much?

[butterfingers]

not as much as when you get beaten by a corolla. but that was only in the auto cxi

[baby_phantom]

NSX -FD2R- EP3R / i leave s2k's for dead lol no chance!

[Antv]

kswap pos ek eg and dc2 is faster. im just saying ep3 owners are a maturer bunch, compared to 17 year olds getting their p's and buying a older car with cannons.

umm i have to disagree with the generalisation that ep3 owners are mature. Now im sure most on this forum are good blokes and are mature car enthusiasts that are at least slightly more sensible on public roads than the stereotyped p plater hoon ;)

theres been a massive influx ep3's being imported into australia for past year or two. they have become p plater cars. see fair few driving like race pilot wannabes. dont be suprised to see typical asian boppers with dragonball z haircuts and all pumping music, vtak'n everywhere and doing laps around and on john street cabra cause they think theyre 'cool' lol.

thats the stereotype surrounding the ep3 in the south west at least. dont beat me for this !

[brody]

Not many here in perth.. and i drive like a nanna:) *most of the time-_-

[Antv]

lucky you man

sorry what i meant was theres one around every crank and corner in sydney. used to be rare.

i miss my ep3 though..

[butterfingers]

no there isnt. i see more toyota 86 then ep3r

tbh most comon are ek/eg/dc2/dc5

then dc5r and fn2r

s2000

then dc2r and ep3r are seen the least

and then once in a blue moon you see ALIEN NSX

[Antv]

no there isnt. i see more toyota 86 then ep3r

tbh most comon are ek/eg/dc2/dc5

then dc5r and fn2r

s2000

then dc2r and ep3r are seen the least

and then once in a blue moon you see ALIEN NSX

Dc2r and ep3r all over whatcha talking about willis?

Common but nowhere near common as eg and eks. You just need to be outside of house more often

[cuppa]

Lol gws has heaps of ep3r and dc2r flying around, almost as common as eg and ek's

[butterfingers]

Dc2r and ep3r all over whatcha talking about willis?

Common but nowhere near common as eg and eks. You just need to be outside of house more often

1. my name is not Willis
2. apart from mine and my mates, i see one ep3r about twice a month. i also spend alot of time around bonny to cabra.

[cuppa]

1. my name is not Willis
2. apart from mine and my mates, i see one ep3r about twice a month. i also spend alot of time around bonny to cabra.
Lol, should pay more attention.. there are heaps of ep3r's around those areas

[butterfingers]

Lol, should pay more attention.. there are heaps of ep3r's around those areas

maybe just different timing, a car like that usually catches my eye.

[egads]

Lol, should pay more attention.. there are heaps of ep3r's around those areas

this, see atleast one a day. nice cars, miss that vtak yo.

[baby_phantom]

i see them alot around livo area