hazman
08-09-2011, 06:37 PM
Hi Everyone,
I am the new owner of R11 NSX (as of 2 months ago), and following some great advice from this forum, thought I'd give everyone an update on progress so far.
I saw the car, early in the summer, on sale on autotrader for £25k. It's a Charlotte Green, 1996 NSX-T manual 3.0. I went down to see it and it was by no means perfect, but seemed pretty genuine, with no signs of uneducated 'tinkering'! Over the course of several months, the asking price fell quite heavily until I felt it was at a level that was worth a punt.
Despite the following points that I knew about, I bought it, at what I hope was a good price! - time will tell!
1) Blowing back box causing drone in the cabin between 2-3k RPM
2) Smoke coming from engine bay after a run :eek:
3) Taking an age to get up to operating temperature
4) Climate control fan giving all or nothing
5) Stereo not sounding as good as a BOSE system should
To solve 1) following research and advice from here, I bought one of Ary's 'zero drone' back boxes. Big thanks to Ary for going the extra mile to get it to the garage on time! Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any pics of it before mounting. Whilst at it, decided to replace the headers with DC Sports versions from Dali (Pictured). 1033710338
Luckily I didn't have the same problem that I subsequently discovered some others have had in their dealings with Mark Johnson (MD of Dali). I also bought new OEM gaskets, rubber hangers and O2 sensors for the exhaust system, Transistor for the blower, Thermostat - all from the USA. 10339
For reference, anyone choosing to change headers, my mechanic (very capable, but no previous dealings with an NSX), said it took 1.5hrs to change the rear bank headers, and 5.5hrs for the front bank, which I didn't think was too bad. He did say that it would have been much more difficult/impossible without a high lift though.
The change is like night and day, Ary's exhaust is spot on - it looks better than OEM, is as refined at low rpm as OEM, but sounds better at higher revs. Really pleased. And the headers dramatically improve response, and probably power (without rolling road, difficult to judge really!)10336
2) Was caused by a slight oil leak on the rear bank cylinders. The car had been layed up for a good few months whilst for sale - we suspect that oil had acculmulated and was burning off during the test drives. Mechanic advised to avoid disturbing any seals and leave alone, Since the oil burnt off, I've had no further problem and oil level and pressure remains normal.
3) Thermostat change fixed this - now warms up nice and quickly
4) Unfortunately, changing the transistor didn't work, so the CCU board is with Kaz now - hopefully that will do the trick.
5) Centre speaker not working, so sent the underfloor Bose unit off to Kaz, for some of his magic. Will tackle door speakers at another date as they are working OK for now.
Since buying it another couple of issues have come to light, which someone may be able to help with:
When unlocking with the remote, the car sometimes keeps trying to unlock itself; clicking for 7-10 seconds after the button is pressed. Suspect a sticky relay somewhere - any idea where this might be found?
When starting (intermittently, and always when cold) the engine sometimes turns over approx. twice as long as would be normal, before catching. It always does catch, idles smoothly, and has never stalled, so sounds unlike the main relay issue that others have suffered?
All of the above are pretty minor faults really, and am really enjoying this car - especially the noise! Coming from an S2000, the pace and refinement of the NSX are much better. Overall am very chuffed with my purchase!
Once I get everything fixed, will give it a good polish up, and post some more photos. Thanks everyone, for the warm welcome, and useful advice thus far.
I am the new owner of R11 NSX (as of 2 months ago), and following some great advice from this forum, thought I'd give everyone an update on progress so far.
I saw the car, early in the summer, on sale on autotrader for £25k. It's a Charlotte Green, 1996 NSX-T manual 3.0. I went down to see it and it was by no means perfect, but seemed pretty genuine, with no signs of uneducated 'tinkering'! Over the course of several months, the asking price fell quite heavily until I felt it was at a level that was worth a punt.
Despite the following points that I knew about, I bought it, at what I hope was a good price! - time will tell!
1) Blowing back box causing drone in the cabin between 2-3k RPM
2) Smoke coming from engine bay after a run :eek:
3) Taking an age to get up to operating temperature
4) Climate control fan giving all or nothing
5) Stereo not sounding as good as a BOSE system should
To solve 1) following research and advice from here, I bought one of Ary's 'zero drone' back boxes. Big thanks to Ary for going the extra mile to get it to the garage on time! Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any pics of it before mounting. Whilst at it, decided to replace the headers with DC Sports versions from Dali (Pictured). 1033710338
Luckily I didn't have the same problem that I subsequently discovered some others have had in their dealings with Mark Johnson (MD of Dali). I also bought new OEM gaskets, rubber hangers and O2 sensors for the exhaust system, Transistor for the blower, Thermostat - all from the USA. 10339
For reference, anyone choosing to change headers, my mechanic (very capable, but no previous dealings with an NSX), said it took 1.5hrs to change the rear bank headers, and 5.5hrs for the front bank, which I didn't think was too bad. He did say that it would have been much more difficult/impossible without a high lift though.
The change is like night and day, Ary's exhaust is spot on - it looks better than OEM, is as refined at low rpm as OEM, but sounds better at higher revs. Really pleased. And the headers dramatically improve response, and probably power (without rolling road, difficult to judge really!)10336
2) Was caused by a slight oil leak on the rear bank cylinders. The car had been layed up for a good few months whilst for sale - we suspect that oil had acculmulated and was burning off during the test drives. Mechanic advised to avoid disturbing any seals and leave alone, Since the oil burnt off, I've had no further problem and oil level and pressure remains normal.
3) Thermostat change fixed this - now warms up nice and quickly
4) Unfortunately, changing the transistor didn't work, so the CCU board is with Kaz now - hopefully that will do the trick.
5) Centre speaker not working, so sent the underfloor Bose unit off to Kaz, for some of his magic. Will tackle door speakers at another date as they are working OK for now.
Since buying it another couple of issues have come to light, which someone may be able to help with:
When unlocking with the remote, the car sometimes keeps trying to unlock itself; clicking for 7-10 seconds after the button is pressed. Suspect a sticky relay somewhere - any idea where this might be found?
When starting (intermittently, and always when cold) the engine sometimes turns over approx. twice as long as would be normal, before catching. It always does catch, idles smoothly, and has never stalled, so sounds unlike the main relay issue that others have suffered?
All of the above are pretty minor faults really, and am really enjoying this car - especially the noise! Coming from an S2000, the pace and refinement of the NSX are much better. Overall am very chuffed with my purchase!
Once I get everything fixed, will give it a good polish up, and post some more photos. Thanks everyone, for the warm welcome, and useful advice thus far.