Well, three months goes by pretty quick. Here's the next installment of this car's history documenting when I purchased the car and first got it back home (Sept 2011 - Dec 2011):
After seeing the add for this car pop up on <the other forum>, I was extremely keen to check it out. The color was right, the condition was right, and the price was right (seems like an easy sentence to write, but when you’re shopping for these cars, that’s not an easy task). Although it had multiple owners, the car came with documentation from all the previous owners, including the original window sticker. And although the car had a few aftermarket bits on it (JDM ITR Steering wheel, DC Sports Header, Password JDM Intake, Apexi VAFC II, Pioneer headunit, shorter springs, and HIDs), the stock parts came with the car, so I knew I could easily sell those aftermarket bits to offset the overall cost of the car and put it back in OEM shape.
I purchased a one way ticket and flew up to NY in late September 2011 (much to the chagrin of my wife) to check out the car. The owner of the car at the time picked me up from JFK, and we drove about 20 mins to his house where the ITR was kept secure in a garage. His reason for selling was that he and his fiancee were getting married and planning to move into their own place, which, unfortunately, didn't have a garage for the car. Instead of dealing with the stress of keeping the car outside, it’d be better just to sell it and find it a good home so that it didn't end up chopped for parts.
In checking the car out, it really was in great shape, just as advertised. I did notice a few miscellaneous things, that’re expected with a 10 year old car, a scratch or ding here or there, however, nothing that really was extremely alarming. I had a ’98 Integra GS before, so I was a bit familiar with the various checklist of items that go wrong with the car, and this one checked all the boxes. No rust on the exterior of the car. The interior was really in great shape for the age of the car — minimal wear on the driver’s side seat bolster and minimal fading on the rear seat tops. The car ran well too, albeit with a bit more noise from the transmission than I expected (more on that later), so I bought the car.
On the trip back from NY to NC, I learned a few little more fun facts about the car. When the dipstick tube came off in New Jersey, that made gauging the oil level a little harder for the rest of the trip (not a stressful thing at all in an unfamiliar B series motor, right?
). I also started to notice a few trim bits, interior clips, bolts that I wanted to either replace because of something cosmetic or install just because they weren’t there), so the list just started mounting in my head for the winter project of getting this car “in shape”. I also became increasingly aware of the transmission noise, and I expected that there might be some additional repairs on the horizon, even though the previous owner had recently had the clutch disc replaced. In addition, the shocks seemed to have seen better days — probably due to NY and NJ roads. All in all though, I expected to have ‘to dos’ with the car, so all these items were just simply adding to the list.
In any event, the car made the 10+ hour journey home without issue. I literally was ecstatic that I finally had one of these cars. But now it was time to get to work… In the first 3 months of ownership in 2011, I completed the following:
Swapped OEM parts back on
Removed and reinstalled the OEM steering wheel, airbox, springs, and header. I know some people probably wouldn’t have done this, however, I was trying to operate within a reasonable budget, and aftermarket bits didn't exactly align with what I wanted from the car.
Performed the usual “new used car maintenance":
- Replaced fluids: Oil (conventional Mobil 5W30 oil with Auto-RX cleaning dose), MTF (OEM Honda), PS Fluid (OEM Honda), Brake Fluid (ATE Typ 200), and Coolant (OEM Honda)
- Replaced the fuel filter, PCV valve, air filter (all OEM)
- Purchased two new BF Goodridge GeForce tires (the tires on the car that were getting tossed were essentially summer tires that were at the wearbars), and got an alignment.
- Performed an initial compression test on the motor (looked decent -- numbers in a pic in the next post).
Performed the following repairs:
- Used Hondabond to fix the dipstick tube
- Replaced both tail light gaskets as both tail lights had the typical moisture build up.
- Replaced (or installed) a various missing/broken bolts, clips, etc.
- Replaced the torn shift rod boot
- Had some paintless dent removal performed to get the car a bit more minty.
- Replaced the rear windshield hatch trim as the mounting tabs were broken and it didn't sit flush with the hatch.
Replaced tint on a quarter panel (the original tint was installed overtop a sticker, so in order to remove the sticker, the tint had to be pulled first)
- I also cleaned and lubed the window tracks to make the windows a bit smoother
- Lastly, unfortunately, the noise in the transmission didn’t get much better even with new MTF and a second MTF flush. I ended up taking the car to have it’s transmission rebuilt, which included all new bearings, clutch disc, pressure plate, a new pilot bearing, lock nut, and that seemed to have done the trick. Post rebuild, the transmission sounded much less grind.
Just for fun:
- I replaced the pitted OEM amber turn signal lenses with aftermarket amber turn signal lenses (in hindsight, an error I would fix later)
- And with all the fluid’s getting replaced, I swapped in Spoon magnetic drain plugs on the oil and transmission (because it’s an ITR, you have to hame SOMETHING Spoon-y).