[Farqui]

Received a delivery today...

They are front compliance bushes, OEM versions to replace the Polyb's.

The Polyb's are a two piece design and really easy to remove (or install). Which was good start.

Then I find the new 'uns need the whole lower suspension arms removing and lots of ingenuity to get them on. I wish I had an press, it would have been a simple job then. Or a really, really big vice.

I made good progress initially, until the wrestling began. But we got them both swapped over in the end.

A quick test drive was fine, the front now wiggles a bit more especially on these wider/firmer tyres.

Will get some miles racked up and report back.

All because our roads are in such a state

 

[Zaheen]

Farqui how much have you spent doing all this?

Rounded down to the nearest bag.

 

[CDT808]

ah... so those are compliance bushes!!

good work chap

 

[hondacivicnut]

Somebody has been a busy boy . Any better for you?

 

[Farqui]

The fronts are maybe a bit more compliant, not a great improvement tho. Perhaps I also need to revert the front wishbone bush back to OEM?

The noisy/harsh Falken's have come off and we're back on F1's. The ride is a great deal quieter, hurrah - but the car still tracks every bump. I miss the Evo's already

4kg rear springs were ordered this morning, which I hope to pop on later this week.

Oh and I need to her booked in for her MOT - the F1's all have good tread

 

[CDT808]

looking forward to hearing about the 4kg springs - worth a try eh

 

[hondacivicnut]

If you still need to try those 6kg springs, they're here for you.

 

[Farqui]

If you still need to try those 6kg springs, they're here for you.

Thanks pal, I'm still keen to give them a try but have been away for a while. I'll come grab 'em soon, kinda busy this week tho.

On my OEM wheels/tyres I found the ride was still jiggly and felt odd. Only to find that my dampers had zip all in the way of damping #doh.

Dialing in a few clicks to the rear and a few more to the fronts calmed down the ride nicely again #phew.

I guess I must have zero'd the damping on the Evo/Falken combo for testing and then forgot to reset 'em #duh.

 

[CDT808]

do you mean that you had set them to fully soft mate and forgot to reset them? (setting them to fully hard you've have noticed! my teeth nearly fell out on 7 from hard! )

are you back to 5 all round? Thanks for all you help with mine - much appreciated

 

[Farqui]

Oh yeah, defo fully soft.

I can't cope with anything over 10 from soft on't local roads. 7 from full on hard must have been terrible.

Nay probs, I hope my feedback helped.

Yes, it's now close to 5 clicks from soft. I reset to 25 clicks front, 28 rear - set from full hard, as per manual.

It's MOT time tomorrow morning and once that's out of the way then I'll get the 4kg rear springs on.

 

[hondacivicnut]

Yes ten from soft is my limit too

 

[Farqui]

The FK3 sailed through another MOT, with no advisories either

One interesting comparison to last year is the smoke test.

'14 was a Celtic stage 1, EGR on map and it only just passed with an average of 2.9 K(¹/m) over 3 runs.

'15 has a Premier Tuning stage 2, EGR off map and it sailed through on the 1st run with .25 K(¹/m).

 

[Mozilla]

You have a blanking plate fitted right?

 

[CDT808]

so is that due to the map or the EGR removal I wonder??

 

[Farqui]

I suspect the EGR off made the most difference l, 'cos with it on I used to get a steady haze under hard acceleration.

Although I will never fully know as I changed maps too. Which is kinda frustrating but I'm happy the car now runs okay.

 

[Farqui]

You have a blanking plate fitted right?

Yup, I sure do.

My inlet manifold has also been thoroughly cleaned l, the old fashioned way. With 'elbow grease' instead of fancy additives

 

[Mozilla]

Its the blanking plate, thats why you have less smoke. The smoke (or haze as you put it) is created because the recirculated exhaust gas is inert and the injected diesel cannot all combust as it requires fresh O2 rich air, not inert gas to burn. This leads to unburnt diesel which is the smoke particulates/sooty haze coming out of the exhaust. Thats what DPF filters try to capture, its 1 fix for another fix.
The trade off for less smoke is high NOx and God knows when they start monitoring for that in MOTs.

 

[hondacivicnut]

I suspect the EGR off made the most difference l, 'cos with it on I used to get a steady haze under hard acceleration.

Although I will never fully know as I changed maps too. Which is kinda frustrating but I'm happy the car now runs okay.

I get the same reading with a fully functioning EGR

 

[Farqui]

I went EGR off as we suspected dodgy EGR operation. It was cheaper/more fun to remap/blank the valve than buy a new EGR valve/actuator.

 

[Farqui]

4kg rear springs replaced the 5kg rears at lunchtime and l'm encouraged by the initial feel.

The dampers can be set much deeper into their range (towards firm) and the handling/ride isn't adversely affected.

It's also been interesting to feel how a softer rear seems to benefit the front. I reckon it's calmed the way the whole vehicle rides over bumps, not just the back end.