Ghostly Goings On - over the moon

[Ghosty]

2 hours ago, loserone said:

I do not understand how that is a straight swap

EG Civics are massively overvalued, ones in a similar spec to that one go for about £2250 on Marketplace. I paid £500 less. 

The difference in insurance premiums was barely more than the admin fee too... 
 

[Fraz]

My brother had one of those preludes and I absolutely loved it! His was an atomic but I bet they shift in manual too! 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 9/17/2021 at 6:43 PM, LightBulbFun said:

 

not one of these then? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optare_MetroCity

aww LOL

No; that's an Optare Atrocity... 😁Check out where the Steering Box is! 😱

[HMC]

That’s  a lovely ‘lude. I also think the back story is fantastic- I’d love to be still driving (and a coupe as well!) aged 99.

Is there much giffer damage?

[Ghosty]

35 minutes ago, HMC said:

That’s  a lovely ‘lude. I also think the back story is fantastic- I’d love to be still driving (and a coupe as well!) aged 99.

Is there much giffer damage?

One corner has a badly touched up scuff, there's a dent in the leading edge of the bonnet, and some ripples down the rear quarter on the driver's side. Mostly intact, though the steering wheel was absolutely hanging: 



One rather interesting feature I've found is that the cruise control moves the accelerator pedal(!), and that there is a sensor above the brake pedal that turns the cruise off - you don't have to brake at all to turn it off, just wave your foot in front of the pedal. Really nice feature and saves you unintentionally brake checking people. 

[J-T]

Did they actually make any manual preludes? I know loads of giffers bought them and I sort of understand it if you just spec a 2.0 (like the previous gen one I had that became a bit of a forum bike). But why would spec the VTI - gutless below about 6000rpm like all hondas - as an auto? Did the salesmen get extra commission convincing octogenarians that the VTI was ‘top of the range’ (a la van den plas) so should be a slush?

[High Jetter]

The first ones could definitely be had in manual flavour, not sure about the later incarnations.

[Liggle]

They made manuals of all gen Preludes. The H22 engines VTEC engagement was a bit lower than the B series VTEC’s, they were torquey as Honda’s go so not that gutless as an auto.

[Ghosty]

10 minutes ago, J-T said:

gutless below about 6000rpm like all hondas

This isn't true IMO, especially of autos which are well spaced and have a very short first gear. The 'gutless' ones are usually manual D16s or F20s with weird gear ratios, like my old Civic Aerodeck where 4th served no purpose other than overtaking on motorways, and 5th was too short so it felt like it wanted to shift into a sixth gear that wasn't there. 

The 2.0 auto is a lively thing with a lot of low end torque, and the 2.2VTi is a bit less torquey, but very very smooth and not overworked - it just cruises along until you put your foot down, and you get kickdown and VTEC in short order. It makes for an easy going GT car IMO. As Liggle said the H22 has a low VTEC engagement - the redline is lower too, only 8k rather than the usual DOHC VTEC 9k. 

Also, yes, manual Preludes were always available, they're rare as they've all been driven to death by now - the manuals that are left tend to be in poor shape. There are a couple of ropey manual fifth gen VTis on eBay for around 3k.

In terms of the fifth gen, I think 2.2 autos exist because the standard equipment level on the 2.0 was so poor - steel wheels, 130hp SOHC non-VTEC, plastic steering wheel, leccy windows, sunroof and mirrors, and aircon. That's your lot - and you can get all that in a mid-range Civic and still have 125bhp - and VTEC. Yes, there were a couple of editions towards the end of the cars life (2000 Sport and Motegi) but these only added alloys and a spoiler, maybe some side skirts. Nothing much inside. 
Also, interior colour was directly tied to paint choice and in the 2.0i, a lot of colours including green and blue had a horrible sandstone beige interior. Honda weren't the type to custom spec a car for you either. 

the VTis came with more stuff - cruise, leather steering wheel, alloys as standard, and most importantly better interiors - a lot more of the paint options on the VTI came with black interiors as it was more sporty. 

[J-T]

I was being daft - I realise there were manuals I just don’t understand the proliferation of autos. 
Maybe the displacement helps the prelude being 2.2 but the EP3 civic type r I had was just frustrating to drive unless you were caning it as below 5/6000rpm it felt flat as a fart. I just can’t imagine combining that with an auto box improving matters. Looks a good trade anyways.

There’s an old fella opposite me that has a very clean looking gen 4 as a daily and an immaculate, garaged, green gen 5 for best. I’ve only seen the gen 5 in the open once. I bet they’re both autos!

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, J-T said:

I just don’t understand the proliferation of autos. 

As you said earlier, it's the giffer factor. Also, they can blame the car when they end up parked half-way through a shop window.

[Ghosty]

The mystery Saab has been revealed:

 

D'oh. 

 

9-3 Vector Sport TiD. 

MOT checker says 9 months MOT, and 170k. 

 

Is it worth 1k? Not sure. 

[Dave_Q]

Ebay sold prices say not, maybe 7-800.

Probably needs to be 500 quid if you are meant to be making anything on it

[Ghosty]

Yeah, there's no chance of me shifting it for more than 1k - the mileage is just too high and there are far too many available on less miles. It's manual too so I dread to think of the state of the clutch.

[cort1977]

On 9/20/2021 at 10:02 PM, High Jetter said:

As you said earlier, it's the giffer factor. Also, they can blame the car when they end up parked half-way through a shop window.

UnINTenTionAl aCCeLRatiON is a thing.  Do UR oWn rEEseARch.

[twosmoke300]

Love those preludes , Is the gearbox ok? Not honda's strongest hour those boxes unfortunately .

[Ghosty]

5 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

Love those preludes , Is the gearbox ok? Not honda's strongest hour those boxes unfortunately .

heard a lot of that. It's spot on, doesn't slip or anything. Car's had an easy life I think 

 

[Ghosty]

The Prelude has rotational wheels on it, but they're on wrong. I'll just swap two of them over. 

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. 

[Sham]

There's something not quite right there..... 

[Ghosty]

Now I'm in the boot removing the parking sensors. Found the red key cable tied to the wiring loom 😀

[twosmoke300]

Where it should be ! 
I take it you know never to use it unless you are actually coding keys ?

[Ghosty]

35 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

Where it should be ! 
I take it you know never to use it unless you are actually coding keys ?

yeah, the car shits itself if you try and start it with it. 

[twosmoke300]

Sure does ! Dealers were told to put them where you found them to stop customers using them 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Why, oh why, would they include a key, a key which fits in the ignition, that causes the car to "shit itself" if used?

[Ghosty]

So, parking sensors out and the back of the car looks a bit better as the sensors were attached to the rear light lenses (??) with sticky pads. 

There is a clunking noise from the rear that I also investigated, but there aren't any knackered bushes so as I originally suspected, I probably need new dampers. The handling isn't quite right so this would make sense. I also suspect a wheel bearing needs doing, but I'm not sure which. 

A new hub is actually less work than replacing the fucked wheel studs (which I'm pretty sure were carelessly mullered with an impact gun - the wheelnuts are very wobbly until seated), so I'll be fitting one of those at some point.

The rotational wheels are now on right, and I gave the car a polish: 

 

looks well, but if you look at the rear quarter you can see the giffer damage. 

[hairnet]

blue da ba dee

them studs made me go eek

 

[Ghosty]

Well the hubs are the same as CRV parts and aren't that expensive, so it'll be fine. 

 

Junkman and I went to look at a car for him this morning, and he's bought it. 

However the seller also had this to dispose of, for 'less than £1000':

 

2.0 20v auto. She said she'd had it from new (!!). It's not had an MOT for 7 years... Looks pretty tidy all things considered. 

 

Tempted...

[Fumbler]

Yes buy is saloon very nice.

Have you bought it yet?

[DoctorRetro]

Where's the Metro?!

[Ghosty]

3 hours ago, DoctorRetro said:

Where's the Metro?!

Les ended up busy on Saturday so we postponed. The fuel situation doesn't help matters either.