Joy Machine - Any joy? bought it.

[dave21478]

Sister needs a new car. On a bombsite car lot not too far away is a 2000 model 5 door ChuckleWagon Joy Machine HRV at a price that isnt too offensive. 160K kilometers, so about 100K miles.

 

Brother in Law and I had a shifty round it and it seems ok - no rot to speak of, some carpark rash down the sides and some loose bits of trim here and there, but nothing horrible. Faded plastic headlights which will need repolished, but I can do that easy enough.

 

The place seems to be a "sold as seen, dont like it? piss off" kind of place, but they are very busy and have a fast turnover of stock.

 

Anyway, the car has the ABS warning light on. Could be just a sensor, but I suppose could also be catastrophic failure of the pump or ECU. Is there a common problem with them?

 

Its a 4x4 version and seems to be a fulltime all wheel drive affair - prop and rear diff present and correct, so it must have either a diff or viscous coupling in or on the back of the transfer box? If its a VCU, is it a destruct-o-matic thing like a Freelander that needs all four tyres the same or it kills the transfer box? because this was running a mixed bag of mediocre brands.

Is there an easy way to check that the 4x4 system is actually working and not just freewheeling?

Anything else I should be looking for?

 

It drove fine but was running on vapour so I didnt want to drive it too far. We stalled it once and had to push start the fucker as the battery was flat, but by the time we got back from the short test drive it would restart off the key so seems to be charging ok.

It starts up and purrs away very quietly. Clutch was feather-light. It was no ball of fire, but trotted along quite nicely.

 I quite liked it - lots of space inside, basic but functional dash, even the aircon seemed to work.

 

EDIT - its an HRV, not a CRV. get the facts right, dave.

 

Like this, but silver.

[Christine]

well built, poor fuel consumption , no issues at all though . Nice to drive, but could pull a higher ratio diff though !  4x4 a bit crap anyway !! Tyre man said yesterday not an issue by only putting on 2 new ones , and although the handbook mentions wheel rotation,  i dont think its critical ,

[Guest Lord Sward]

I sold loads of them without a pick of bother.

[twosmoke300]

It has clutch packs in the rear diff - no vcu . Reliable system just needs an occasional fluid flush / change . Rusty brake pipes and these days rust full stop is what to look for .

As mentioned above they are quite juicy

[Christine]

What you do to yellow headlights is: Get a lint free cloth , saturated in cellulose thinners , quickly wipe over the headlights......then STOP !.  ( Dont re do it until its all evaporated and rehardened , or the rag will pick up melted plastic.) They then look new again   

[Stanky]

What you do to yellow headlights is: Get a lint free cloth , saturated in cellulose thinners , quickly wipe over the headlights......then STOP !.  ( Dont re do it until its all evaporated and rehardened , or the rag will pick up melted plastic.) They then look new again   

 

This may be stupid question fodder, but does this work? One of the Saab headlights is all discoloured and I've been looking at £25 headlight resto kits but the reviews seem very mixed. A wipe of cellulose thinners followed by a squirt of clear lacquer seems to be capable of doing the job for about £10. Does it last?

 

(also, sorry for the hijack)

[RoadworkUK]

Uno, Inexplicably, I've always quite fancied one of these in three-door flavour. Seems like completely robust and non-hateable motoring device.

 

From back when Hondas were really quite nice looking conveyances.

[Christine]

This may be stupid question fodder, but does this work? One of the Saab headlights is all discoloured and I've been looking at £25 headlight resto kits but the reviews seem very mixed. A wipe of cellulose thinners followed by a squirt of clear lacquer seems to be capable of doing the job for about £10. Does it last?

 

(also, sorry for the hijack)

My Hrv lights were an advisory on a previous mot , they were dreadful . I saw it on interweb and tried it and it works,instantly , but i didn't clearcoat... Still clear as new ones..

[Stanky]

Awesome, thanks Christine!

 

I'll head over to Wilko and get a little bottle of thinners and see how I get on, AS top tip.

[Christine]

Awesome, thanks Christine!

 

I'll head over to Wilko and get a little bottle of thinners and see how I get on, AS top tip.

big bottle .. saturated !

Don't stop mid wipe ... Wipe it  fast and leave it . if its not cleared ,wait before doing it again .

[Robson3022]

Just put a note through someone's door about one of these!! Good stuff to know there pretty bomb proof!

[brownnova]

I've always quite fancied one of these in three-door flavour.

Glad its not just me!! It would need to be in a garish colour for me... Maybe the purple or the yellow!

[egg]

HRV article on Petrolblog recently...

 

http://petrolblog.com/2015/07/honda-hr-v-bubblewrap-ashtrays-and-joy/

[For Fiats Sake]

I was keen on the three door flavour but was put off by high tax and fuel consumption, plus the interior isn't that nice.

[SiC]

Tough cars mechanically - proper Hondas. Also like proper Hondas/jap cars, watch out for rust on them at this sort of age.

 

Yellow lights can be very effectively restored with toothpaste and a brush. Cheap stuff is the best!

[egg]

Sorry for hijack - but meguiars headlight restoration kit improved my Fusion no end...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I like the 'joy machine' sticker that these had on the number plate plinth. Often used to think about buying one for whatever miserable crock I was driving at the time

[dollywobbler]

They're on my possible purchase list for sure, especially now I've rekindled my Honda love.

[SiC]

They do seem to get around alright in the mud/snow:

4x4'ing in a Honda does seem to involve revving the begesus out of it. I guess VTEC and all the power+torque is in the top end. Maybe why the Hondas off-road got a bad rep from the journos? Too used to diesel/toqurey v8s to pull them up hills at low revs.

[dollywobbler]

Hopefully the HR-V is better than this.

 

[dave21478]

Thanks for the input everyone. We decided to buy it so sister and I collected today.

No collection photos because 1 - it was lashing down and 2 - I wasnt in the mood, and 3 - its a silver HRV...not really classic autoshite interesting thread material..

 

 

I was a little wary at first, its a 45 minute drive home on shitty wee twisty roads, but even on a semi-slick set of mismatched WhoFlungDungs it grips like a bastard! Very impressive.

 

The tightwad garage hadnt put any more pez in it so the guage was still on the stop with the orange light on. In a strange car this makes me enxios as I have no idea how much might be left so I had taken down a jerrycan so I slopped 10 litres in and we were off.

First hurdle, wipers were completely useless. They turned out to be missing the entire rubber lip, just the flat bit left to smear everything to fuck. I considered driving Ace Ventura style with my head out the window at one point, but leaving them off soon meant rain saturated the screen and gave a rather distorted but passable view. I stopped at the first supermarket and chucked another 25 euros of pez into it and bought a pair of wipers.

Obviously it wouldnt restart; I think the battery might be gubbed. I had brought cables though so jumped it off the C2 and away home.

 

Its super smooth, comfortable, surefooted and confidence-inspiring. The 4x4 system seems to work as it should as I tried to provoke it out of some very wet junctions but it just grips and goes. Clutch is feather-light so I was a bit "grandad" with high revs and clutch slip when required to be sure of not stalling to prevent more faff with jump leads at traffic lights. Its a very different mode of driving to the Freelander which has bags more torque (turbodizzler, innit) where this thing is more revvy and a bit wimpy at low RPM.

 

On the road it trotts along nicely. Its no ball of fire, but then I realised I was shifting at about 4k. Keeping your foot in up to higher RPM sees it take off nicely.

 

I will put a decent charger on he battery and see if it can be revived, then give it a service and stuff.

 

Verdict - Lovely. I really like it. Its a pity it wont tow my big trailer as I would prefer it over the Shitlander any day of the week.

[Christine]

Yesterday I bought a set of 205 60 16 winters  on ebay for £3.75 !!!  That's joy!! 

[UltraWomble]

I like the 3 door versions and have been looking at these for a cheap council tax buy - I wonder if the spoiler comes off to lob a roof rack on as it would be ace to rock up to the canoe club in one, preferably that orangy-gold colour they did.

[Christine]

I has just come back from Tesco and who'd i see in there? The MOT tester    

 ..and if you want a black HRV 3 door he has one  for sale £ 600 . I told him to stick it on here  anyway..probably has 12 months mot too!!

[conkerman]

Does it have the shower?

 

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

[twosmoke300]

Shower was an option on the crv

[For Fiats Sake]

I has just come back from Tesco and who'd i see in there? The MOT tester  

 ..and if you want a black HRV 3 door he has one  for sale £ 600 . I told him to stick it on here  anyway..probably has 12 months mot too!!

I'd be interested at that priceQ

 

Who and where is your MOT man?

[Christine]

kent sussex border He showed me pics on a phone . It was black , with  black back windows , 18 inch wheels and some stone chips on the drivers door , but it looked straight  enough . I'll tell him to get it on here ..he's not heard of Autoshite ..

[face]

I like these.

 

A mate got a new one back in the day and the only issue he had was it wouldn't start one morning. I gave him a lift to and from work and when he got home it started OK and was fine after that.

 

A bit 'clangy' and sparse inside, but pretty decent overall.

[Christine]

It  appears you can rush the ecu if you start and switch off straight away . I did this after changing plugs and the bugger didn't start the next morning .. Mrs christine comes storming in...I went out and turned on ignition waited a few seconds and started no bother at all.