Greetings MBWorld.

I've owned my black/black 03 for 1.5 years, and for many reasons not driven it a lot (I travel for work frequently, I have a commuter Civic for my 80 mile round trip to work when I'm home, built a shop, poured a huge -150 yds- driveway, etc, etc...). I love the car, even with its list of issues common to these cars. Its got 150K on it, a reasonable maintenance history, and runs great. Could use a little help cosmetically, but I don't get too wound up about that. If its too nice, then all I do is worry about it getting damaged. With a couple of faults, I am more at ease using the car.

I've been roaming here for a little while, and have made some purchases collecting parts for a major disassemble/upgrade/preventative maintenance operation. I'm hoping to get my answers through the search function, but if I can't find them, I can tell its ok to ask, even if the answer does exist somewhere.

I'm a Boeing AOG (Aircraft On Ground) mechanic, so that's where the travel part comes in- I'm currently in Singapore working on a 787. I'll be doing all of the wrenching myself on the car, and I just completed a 1728 sq ft shop behind my house, with a 2 post lift. I've got the VRP Stage 3 performance package, long tubes, looped fuel rail, billet pulley set, transmission parts (conductor plate, overlap sleeves, etc), complete cooling system, complete suspension/steering parts, BC coil over kit (knowing the airmatic will someday give up), and the complete E63 facelift kit. The intention is to strip the car, and bring it back in one 'event'. Considering even dropping the engine/trans out, and doing all the improvemetns with it on stands on the floor. The lift is a godsend for this kind of project.

Hope all is well with everyone. Strange times out there.... interesting times coming. Old fossil fuel consumers are my escape, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cheers!

 

Good luck on the project, pictures make a thread 1000% more interesting and I am a little bit envious of the 2 post lift haha. Check my signature for my build thread! Even though I have a CLS55, there are a lot of similarities with the E55

 

Project Sounds interesting and sounds like you have a cool job also. Yup post up pics of the progress for sure will make it fun to follow.

 

Awesome car and super cool job!

Welcome to the club!

 

Thanks for the kind words.

The E55 will not come apart for its big 're-do/upgrade' for a while. Its functioning fine, and I have several other projects in line in front of it. I just got my 93 EG hatch (BONE stock cream puff) back together, and the next big one is going to be my 74 Chev truck getting back together and on the road. I've got a fully functioning RB25DET swapped 280Z to make some 'adjustments' to, and a 71 Datsun 510, that is completely blown apart (biggest project). Not to mention a few welding/fab projects to finish the shop- welding table, benches....

Of course don't forget the regular maintenance of the daily's, yard work, etc..... You'll never hear me complain that I'm bored.

I'll get some pics of the shop and projects posted.

Back to scouring through the threads...

 

Oh, and I leave for Sydney, AUS next Friday for almost a month. I'll return home to a freshly painted house, which worked out great. A couple of the things I've had done over the last few years have coincided with me being away- the driveway, sheet rock and paint in the shop, and now the house exterior. I get to see progress through text pics from my wife. She's takes it all in stride, being there while these contractors are doing their thing. I guess being married for 29 years helps?

 

You're super busy I know with work and projects. But please try to do a thread on your build. It’s interesting to see what people are working on.
What is a 1993 EG hatch? Would love to see your square body truck also. I have a 83 C10 myself.

Datsuns sounds cool. Love those cars.

Just curious what state do you live in?

 

A '92-'95 Civic: https://honda-tech.com/articles/hond...reign-supreme/

 

Honda Civics remain very popular till this day. From "ricers" to ecomodding

 

Yeah, retro-modding (to make up a term) them seems to be popular these days.

I'm good friends with a guy that owns a shop and he has a few cars...including a 90's civic that's done to the 9's.

I wonder if it's one of those, "When I was younger, I always wanted one of these...", things. Where now they have enough money to go all out on a Civic which would be much, much less expensive than doing the same on, say, an R32. Modding a 90's Civic probably only costs a reasonable amount of money for a hobby.

I've (briefly) considered buying and modding an older VW GTI. But, I think even if it handled like it was on rails, 150-200hp (even modded) would be very underwhelming.

 

All correct statements. If you are so inclined, those little cars can be made ridiculously fast. How fast do you want go? Depends on how much you’re willing to spend. Not my reason for having them, though. They are just excellent in their original form.

I have owned 5 Civic’s -still have 2 (the 93 and an 04 sedan-my daily), 1 was stolen, recovered, and sold to a friend who is still driving it, and my youngest has managed to destroy the other 2. Both total losses, yet never a scratch on her or anyone else, no tickets, and no insurance claims. Needless to say, she is done with driving anything I own. Her ‘luck’ can’t continue, so I’ve made the call to cut my losses.

Continuing to tick off the tasks that never seem to end, prep everything as necessary before I leave.

I live on Camano Island, in Washington state.

 

I lived on Whidbey, Oak Harbor for a long time. I would fish between Camano Island and Whidbey sometimes.

 

VW Golf Mk1 & MK2 also still very popular in the Netherlands, although I see a lot of JDM interest nowadays. On a dutch Seat forum, we have this guy who engine swapped his Seat Leon Cupra R to a Golf MK2 chassis (+500BHP in such a small car)

 

That's crazy!

 

Thats crazy, but this is MADness

 

Wow. Yeah, I've underestimated what these cars can do.

 

Been a minute…. Odd how quickly a thread can go down a completely different path…. So, BACK to the E55’s, please.

Went to Sydney (which was amazing), came home, and 4 days later left for Narita, Japan. Been home a couple weeks, and while I was in Sydney, I found another 03 E55 in Portland. Contacted the seller, who was as forthcoming as I could have hoped. His history with the car was limited, until he started having issues he had no real experience with.

Highly modded, neon green wrap (very nicely done-just not my color choice), new wheels and tires(wheels also not my type, but they’re fine), tons of new parts. Seller was concerned he was getting oil/water co-mingling, did the top end, replaced everything, and felt he did not stop it. I was looking for an engine to rebuild for my original car, for when I pull it down for the whole VRP parts catalogue collection, but I’ve struggled to locate a viable candidate. Plus, the prices were unreasonable, for something I would need to roll the dice on, and then ship. This car is a runner, but after I got it home, I will not call it a driver. With all the mods, ECU and TCU tune, pulley, TB, long tubes, injectors, etc, I can’t begin to guess what the issues are. Odd shifting behavior, lumpy misfire, drivetrain vibration. Most everything else seems ok. Keyless Go and door locks won’t function properly, can’t get the aftermarket stereo to connect to my phone, and I’m sure there will be a laundry list of other things I’ll discover. At this point, I do not feel like the oil and water are an issue. After 2 full heat cycles, there is only minimal moisture under the fill cap, as in nothing I would not expect to see from any engine, and the water shows no signs of an oil slick. I will do the combustion analysis for the coolant, just for piece of mind.

So, I’ll be living in the search function, mining the site for any info I can to decode what is in this car. I’m going back and forth with which direction to go. So much invested already, the car is in beautiful condition, under 100K, its the pewter/silver under the wrap, interior is in very nice condition. Has all the CF pieces-spoilers, rear window spoiler, side skirts, mirrors, rear diffuser…..

At this point, it will sit, with a couple battery tenders, waiting…..

I need to find out how to post pics. Strangely, I am a computer Luddite……

Input welcome!

Cheers guys.

 

Hope all enjoyed their time with family and friends over the Holiday. For the first time since I've been traveling for The Co.(12.5 years), I will be home for BOTH Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Rare indeed.

Both my E55's have battery drain issues, and so when I leave town, they are disconnected, and put on tender's. I took the green monster out for a heat cycle/battery 'top off' for the winter, and had my first real smoker/burnout in it. WOW. Rolled smoke for about 400ft. I think I may have irritated a few drivers, because they had to stop and wait for the WALL of smoke to clear.... Oops. Being neon green, I can't say this car is 'forgettable'..... I took it home fairly quickly, and put it away in the shop. Still has its shuddering drive train (I believe trans/TC settings-it supposedly's got a tune on it) issues, but seems to be running better. After it cooled, I pulled the caps, and have the same results- minor paste under the oil cap, and no evidence of any oil in the coolant. Dipped the oil, and its clean and clear.

I was able to clear a bunch of codes, but many were not 'clear-able', I'm assuming due to the mods. Don't get me wrong, there were tons of interior things that were coding, but without a bunch of research, they'll just exist. I was able to reset the head unit, but the stereo will need further attention. Some peoples idea of acceptable work doesn't match mine- Go figure. Oddly, the color is growing on me, and prioritizing the wrap removal has fallen down the 'need to do' list.

Knocking out other projects to create the space for the other cars (and truck) to get their turns. My 74 square body is a rolling frame, with the cab and bed on their respective wheeled carts/dolly's. Planning to get the 4X chassis back to the house when I return before Xmas. Need a truck, and this one will fit my needs perfectly, as long as I'm above ground.

Loving the input on this forum. MKUltra's TCU tuner and Blue tops for the black car are on the list. Tutorials for other tasks always at the ready.

Merry Christmas to all!

 

Low battery conditions will set a bunch of codes for many of the various controllers. Tenders should keep them charged and ready for you the next time you use the car, but if any of the controllers don't go to sleep after the car has been shut off then the entire network stays awake and the current draw is much more than any tender can handle. Items added like aftermarket radios can keep the network awake. Worth looking at if you don't know the specifics of one or both MB.

 

Thank you, machild. Excellent answer, and with both cars having aftermarket systems, it seems the most likely reason. What I failed to mention is that if I'm going to be away for extended periods, I disconnect the battery. In these situations, I'm more interested in preserving the battery itself.

Came home from North Carolina on the 22nd, and was off until the 3rd. Was not able to spend as much time in the shop as I would have liked (never do), with all that 'holiday/family' stuff and all. I was able to bring the Blazer chassis home, and began stripping it. Drive train is out, engine has found a new home, and I'm drilling out the rivets for the needed cross members and spring mounts. I'll be hitting another stopping point today, though. Going to the UK tomorrow for 6+ weeks for some repairs and mods. I go through this constantly- pre-plan for required oil changes, do them, put things away, get to good stopping points on everything, clean up everything, prep the homestead for my being gone, etc.... Last step is putting the black E55 back inside, and doing the 'sleep' task, described above. With the truck project, shop space is becoming an issue. Amazing how large a vehicle can become, when you turn it into an 'exploded-view' version.

Always lurking, trying to soak up info into this 'limited-hard-drive-space' brain. The struggle is real.

 

Back from the UK. Tossed the charger on the black car (Green Machine is still dormant), fired it up to put it outside. I again pulled the cables and left the charger on it to give it a little more love. Was putting everything away, and was afraid it might rain, so I unplugged the charger, and left it in the trunk, with the battery still disconnected- I've used the key several times so I wasn't concerned about this. Came out to get everything re-sorted, and the trunk latch handle is loose. Key does nothing. Now I've got a disconnected battery in a trunk that won't open with the key, because the latch handle won't/doesn't 'engage'. I've searched about getting power back to the car in several different processes, so I'm not afraid of that, but what are the odds that THIS is the time it decides to act up? with power, should I expect the release to function properly?

I've done the search, but this condition wasn't clearly listed.

Anyway- hope everyone and their 'pride and joy's' are doing well.