Magnus' ownership thread

[magnus_drives]

On Sunday I rented from U-Haul again and hit the road to Los Angeles.

The most cost-effective option was to rent the truck and trailer for a two-day round trip. I considered a one-way rental + flying home, but the one-way charge was considerably higher.

With the goal of minimizing mileage and time, I broke my usual rule and took I-5 instead of the 101.

Not much to see out here, just five hours of straight and mostly flat.

I took a break just before reaching the grapevine to fuel up and grab dinner. It's not an SF<>LA road trip without In-N-Out.

I picked up two thumbs-up along the journey - one from a GR86 driver, another from an FK8 CTR.

I finished up in Santa Monica, where I unloaded the car and street-parked the truck and trailer. My friend has secure parking and let me crash in his guest room.

G&K is open 8-5p weekdays, so I intended to get up early Monday, drive the last leg to Costa Mesa, and get there around 8a. Well...

Los Angeles just really isn't like that. I managed to nail the worst-possible traffic timing and sat on the 405 for about 90 minutes. I finally reached G&K a little before 9a. I like to imagine the Civic looking around and thinking... NOW where the hell am I? It spent the first half of its life in Japan, the second half in the UK, and now it's in an LA traffic jam.

G&K is basically the only game in town when it comes to bringing cars in California emissions compliance. I spotted an R32, R33, Ferrari 360, and BMW Z1. My R32 GTR came through here in 2019, though the process was handled by the importer when I purchased the car. This is my first time working directly with G&K.

I checked in the car with Eric. After taking down the vehicle info, he performed a general inspection around the car and under the hood, and told me that they'd need about 6-8 weeks to modify the car and take it through the California BAR certification process. I asked what they'd have to do to the car - "we'll need to put a US cat in it." And...? There was no more. We'll see when I get the car back. He told me that this will be the third 2000 model year CTR they've done.

I signed the paperwork, handed over a check, and left with an empty trailer. I worked from our LA office before hitting the road again to head home. To avoid traffic, Google routed me through downtown LA surface streets during rush hour. Top 5 most stressful drives of my life with the trailer on the back.

When I did finally reach I-5 - you guessed it, traffic. I guess nine lanes isn't enough - one more might fix it?

The highway cleared out once I got out of the metro LA area, but I did lose half an hour to a burned-out semi in the middle of nowhere.

Now I anxiously await the call that the car is ready for pickup. Stay tuned, we're inching closer to California plates...

 

[spikeyhairdude]

I love these write ups.

 

[D.r]

Superb write up. Just read through the entire thread. Can I ask what the quality was like of the sacrificial exhaust you used ? In particular fitment and noise levels. I'm guessing it's a 1320 system.

 

[magnus_drives]

Superb write up. Just read through the entire thread. Can I ask what the quality was like of the sacrificial exhaust you used ? In particular fitment and noise levels. I'm guessing it's a 1320 system.

The quality of construction was quite good, it just didn’t fit the JDM catalytic converter at all.

 

[D.r]

Th

The quality of construction was quite good, it just didn’t fit the JDM catalytic converter at all.

That's good to know. Thank you so much for your response.

 

[magnus_drives]

Received a fantastic email this week:

After nearly four months, the Civic is ready for pickup. I'll bomb down to LA again to retrieve it on Monday, then off to the DMV to get California plates

I've not been waiting idly. Over the holidays I built a parking spot in my side yard to receive whichever of my cars is rotated out of the garage.

What started as "I'll just put down some rock so my car's not sitting in the grass" turned into something more when my carpenter neighbor got involved, but I'm really pleased with it.

 

[magnus_drives]

The Civic is home!

Installation is the reverse of removal, as they say. The trip to Los Angeles was wetter this time.

I asked them to "please keep all of the stock parts you might have to remove." They gave me the stock JDM cat back in a box, with the flanges hacked off so they could be welded on to whatever cat they stuffed in there. Thanks G&K! I haven't been able to put the car in the air, but from the look of things, I think they may only have swapped the cat. The header looks untouched and I'm hopeful that the b-pipe is intact.

After another 12-14 hours in the saddle of the U-Haul dragging the trailer, I'm over it. I don't need to do any more of that for a while. Traffic was lighter this time due to a school holiday. An uncharacteristic LA monsoon flooded some streets in Santa Monica, but it was no issue for the tow rig. I returned home on the 101, which is less soul-crushing than the 5.

I got the car home and went the next morning bright and early to the California DMV, a black hole of bureaucracy and pain. In theory I had nearly all of my paperwork in order - I just needed a "VIN verification" where the DMV inspector looks for the VINs on the vehicle to confirm that it is what it claims to be, and that it's not obviously stolen or hacked together. This proved to be quite the process. I recognized the inspector: polite man, very thorough, with really nice penmanship. He conducted the VIN check on my GR86 when I purchased it from out of state. In that instance, he marked the car as not complying with California emissions (though it did), which held up my registration and wasn't resolved until I got a letter from Toyota USA.

The Civic proved to be even more of a challenge for him. After a very thorough inspection, asking me all about the car, history, model year, etc he filled out the form and handed it over. Year: 2012. Make: HOND. VIN: wrong numbers. I took it back to him for correction. He said, "wow, you are very detail-oriented!" Well one us certainly needs to be. I'm 0/2 with this guy, I can't imagine how much havoc he wreaks on a daily basis.

With that resolved, I went back inside and hit the next road block. The California DMV is not a fan of the fact that the UK does not issue vehicle titles. I have the V5C, which looks very much like a title type of document, except where it says in big letters on the front that it is not proof of vehicle ownership. The signed bill of sale was not enough for them. So I learned about surety bonds. For those like me who did not know, a surety bond is essentially an insurance policy against someone else coming out of the woodwork to claim ownership of the vehicle. It is used when titles are lost and duplicates need to be issued. In my circumstance I know the full history of the car, so this is not an actual concern. But paperwork is paperwork.

The bond arrived today so I will try again on Wednesday. Wish me luck! Fingers crossed that my next post will feature California plates on the car.

 

[magnus_drives]

In the meantime - on Saturday I went to a local meet and ran into the only other CA-legal EK9 in the area. I haven't managed to meet the owner but it's a lovely car.

 

[magnus_drives]

4 years, 6 months, and 15 days after purchase, I can drive this car in California.

It was a straightforward return visit to the local DMV. The paperwork has to be sent to the big office in Sacramento, and once that clears, the title and plates will arrive in the mail. In the meantime, I have a temporary operating permit and I'm off to the races!

Having no plate on the car feels a bit odd, so I stuck the UK plate back on.

I drove in to work and my friends finally got to see this car they've heard so much about. It certainly feels like a punch line when I describe the wait, the shipping, the hassle, the payment, the paperwork, and it's... a 2000 Honda Civic.

This weekend it will make its Cars and Coffee debut, and then I've got a stack of parts ready to go on

 

[Bart83]

Great thread to follow! You have a very nice, clean EK9. Thanks for sharing it with such high-quality photography. I hope it stays OEM or OEM+.

Cheers,

Bart

 

[magnus_drives]

Thanks Bart! I'm glad you're enjoying the thread. The plan is to keep it pretty close to stock.

Last weekend the car made its Cars and Coffee debut.

There are a lot of extremely nice (and extremely valuable) cars in the San Francisco area, and it takes a lot to stand out in a sea of paint-to-sample Porsches. The Civic drew a steady crowd all morning and received many compliments.

The California emissions hassle is a big part of it, but for whatever reason you simply don't see these cars here. There's mine, the one I posted recently, and then one owned by another employee at my company. I haven't found anyone else :-/

The car had BC coillovers installed by the previous owner, I found them a bit aggressive and sourced some OE suspension when the car was in the UK. The ride-handling balance is excellent but the dampers are showing their age, so I went in search of OE-equivalent replacements. I ultimately decided on the Kona STR.T dampers. I also purchased new bump stops, top mounts, etc. The OE bump stops crumbled to dust when I pulled the springs off.

My test drive was cut short when I noticed coolant outside of the car when it should be inside of the car :-(

With the car parked while I wait for a replacement hose, I swapped in a CarPlay-compatible head unit and some new speakers.

On evening drives I'd noticed that the instruments were quite dim, so I pulled the cluster and swapped out all of the bulbs. While I had everything out, I installed a new lens.

I'll break the post here for the image limit.

 

[magnus_drives]

Next job is a big one: timing belt service. According to the car's records, the last one was done in 2014, which means it's overdue. I've never done this on a car before myself, I've always been intimidated by the potential for catastrophic engine damage. I've decided it's time to learn, and the CTR is my guinea pig!

I ordered all OE parts. I took a closer look at some tutorials this week and convinced myself to tackle a few more "while I'm in there" items, so the rest of the parts are in the mail. (Cam seals, crank seal, timing belt cover grommets)

A "before" image, even though the "after" should look the exact same. I've been following two resources for the job. The first is this YouTube video, which I think is well-made:

The second is the Haynes book. An American publication, there's no EK9-specific instruction, but it's all pretty similar.

There's not too much to see but disassembly has gone well - no seized fasteners. The accessory belts, timing belt, tensioner, water pump, cam seals, crank seal have all come out. The belt, pump, and tensioner look nearly new, but I'll sleep better knowing it's all fresh. I've taken the opportunity while the coolant is drained to also replace the lower radiator hose and replace the thermostat.

The upper hose looks okay...

But is not okay. That's the source of my coolant leak, a pinhole in the rubber. I expect a few more items like this to pop up as I start putting miles on the car, since it has not covered much ground in the past few years.

While the car was in the air, I finally got a look at the emissions conversion work. I am pleased to report that the cat butchery is the extent of it - the header and Spoon B-pipe are unscathed. I will swap the 5Zigen header back in at some point and see if I can get a bit more sound out of it.

Here's how she sits at the moment, disassembly complete and waiting on parts. In theory I will receive everything this week and I can button it all up before I fly to China for work in a couple weeks' time.

More exciting items in the mail: Comptech / CT engineering ice box intake; Hondash plug-in; braided brake hoses. Stay tuned!

 

[R1PPU]

If you want the factory service manual, let me know and I can email you a copy (DM me your email address). Much better than the Haynes manuals!

 

[magnus_drives]

If you want the factory service manual, let me know and I can email you a copy (DM me your email address). Much better than the Haynes manuals!

Thank you! I’ll send a PM.