DC2 VTiR. nething to watch out for when buying 1

[trezmoc]

the engines r pretty solid, only ever had problems with the cracked radiator.

watch the electronics. my aerial ate it, the power windows can get sticky and if it has remote central locking the armature can bend out of place and the lock wont turn over. easy fixed tho, the auto electrician swapped in a spare from another car only took 20 minutes and the part was free.

also make sure uve got all the rubber stoppers in the bootlid. otherwise it can rattle

[Moey.C]

alrght beautfful.. im gona spend wat i got 2 spend.

im not 2 bothered about the condition as long as engine is in good nick

[burak213]

bro didnt u want a dc2R before ?? what happened?

[LowCoupe]

Some good info in here!

After selling my EJ8 VTi Coupe nearly 4 years ago, I've decided to get back into a Honda as a daily after many other attempts from SS utes to GTR's, as my Civic was definately my fav daily to date and am pretty keen on a DC2 VTiR as a nice, cheaper, more economical runabout that still has a bit of go....got one I'm keen on and everything mentioned seems to be alright, sunroof does jutter a bit on the way back, but as mentioned a bit of grease should fix this? Electrics all seem to be working fine, engine sounds good and the bay is very well kept as is the rest of the car, the radiator top tank does appear to be black, so does this mean its been replaced? Also the headlights are a bit yellowed/cloudy, but thats an easy fix with some Scratch-X....otherwise its all good to go, unless anyone else has anything to share as far as what to look at for problems?

Plans are to lower it quite a bit, de-wing it, colour code sides and maybe a Type R lip....wheels would come later.

Edit: I should probably mention its a '99 facelifted model, I'm guessing all the same problems exist throughout the DC2 range, or were some of the issues ironed out by '98 on....or did they have some new ones of their own?

[Mission]

The top tank being black is a give-away that it has been replaced.
To my knowledge, the Vti-R came out with a greeninsh top tank from factory. Correct me if I am wrong tho.
Hope that helps.

[Moey.C]

bro didnt u want a dc2R before ?? what happened?

that was my brother. he didnt know weather 2 go dc5r or dc2r. now he wants a turbo ? who cares bout him

[LowCoupe]

The top tank being black is a give-away that it has been replaced.
To my knowledge, the Vti-R came out with a greeninsh top tank from factory. Correct me if I am wrong tho.
Hope that helps.

Ok, it was in a garage and I didn't look too hard, but how green is greenish? Any one got pics of the factory top tank? It might have been a dark green, but at a glance it looked black.

Is it a massive issue if its been replaced, obviously the factory ones aren't too good if its a common problem for them to crack, so I guess its a good thing if its been replaced with a newer tank, right?

[T-onedc2]

Ok, it was in a garage and I didn't look too hard, but how green is greenish? Any one got pics of the factory top tank? It might have been a dark green, but at a glance it looked black.

Is it a massive issue if its been replaced, obviously the factory ones aren't too good if its a common problem for them to crack, so I guess its a good thing if its been replaced with a newer tank, right?

OEM radiator top is a very dark but glossy green, whereas aftermarket is like a matte black.

[T-onedc2]

sunroof does jutter a bit on the way back, but as mentioned a bit of grease should fix this? Electrics all seem to be working fine, engine sounds good and the bay is very well kept as is the rest of the car, the radiator top tank does appear to be black, so does this mean its been replaced? Also the headlights are a bit yellowed/cloudy, but thats an easy fix with some Scratch-X....otherwise its all good to go, unless anyone else has anything to share as far as what to look at for problems?

Plans are to lower it quite a bit, de-wing it, colour code sides and maybe a Type R lip....wheels would come later.

Edit: I should probably mention its a '99 facelifted model, I'm guessing all the same problems exist throughout the DC2 range, or were some of the issues ironed out by '98 on....or did they have some new ones of their own?

Yeah the same problems are common throughout the year range, occasionally the actuators for the central locking play up also, aerial will die eventually, but all have been easy and cheap fixes, service history is the most important thing imo.

[LowCoupe]

Thanks, yeah it has full log booking and was only serviced 1000klms ago, so all that is present. Aerial works fine....for now, as does the central, but will have a closer look at the radiator when I look next.

[sangyz]

You usually can't go wrong if they have a full service history and receipts to prove it. I bought a 98' DC2 a few months back. I didn't even test drive it, the owner did and i fell in love with it and bought it on the spot. However, he did have full log book etc etc.

Although once again, keep your eyes peeled for unaligned panel's. I was able to identify that the gap between my rear bumper and the tail light was slightly gappier than usual. So i sussed that out completely with the previous owner. Just a heads up

[Teg_Vti-R]

Yeah as above, for that price you will find one with average k's and everything wrong or high k's and looked after. My friend last week sold his '97 VTi-R with 160,000 for $11,500 but was after a quick sale, it was one of the best stock examples around.

Hmm, it's possible that's the car I just bought. I don't suppose it was Toby's car - White with the spoiler removed? I'm now the new owner if so. 11,500 felt about $1,000 more than it perhaps should have been worth, however it is definitely one of the best around, plus it had absolutely full service history, 100k of which is at a Honda dealer serviced every 5K. Plus it had brand new Potenza Adrenalines on it

My 2c - over the space of owning a car for say 3 years, the purchase price only makes up around half to 2/3 of the total cost of ownership. So i reckon get the best maintained one you can find so you're not spending thousands fixing the things that the previous owner didn't.