Blog Comments

wow, u r just amazing kaz!

Hi, Bob.
Seems like you have received the package.

Hope you can install them very soon.
Please enjoy and use the A/C even in the winter.

Kaz

It’s not so common but I repaired a few dash display/instrument modules for the similar reason.

Alpine Audio Head Unit (it’s not Bose) will fail for the same reason and I repaired some of them in the past.
Nowadays, whenever I install the iPod adaptor such as USA Spec PA11-HON, I always include the head unit service because it could accelerate the head unit failure if the capacitors were already leaking.

I had trouble with burnt track on one of the head unit after the PA11 installation in the past due to leaked capacitors and another owner saw smoke coming out from the head unit after the installation of iPod adaptor. Probably, his capacitors were already leaking.

Any old spec electrolytic aluminium capacitors will leak eventually depending on mainly the operating temperature.
Every year, the technology advances so when I order the new batch of capacitors, I always try to select the cost effective but most reliable ones in stock.

Most of the original capacitors on CCU board were rated at up to 1,000Hr at 105degC.
I’m using the uprated ones and some of them are 5,000Hr+ at this stage.

Kaz

Thanks Kaz for your hard work, I am really pleased you found the fault and repaired it, I guess this is an age related problem like to the CCU board and speaker amps, and hopefully it should be ok now for another 20 years or so.
Does the NSX have any other components that have these leaky type capacitors?

Thank you Kaz. I promise I did try to clean the CTS before posting! Bob

Apologies for the assumption. Great info.

JDM doesn’t use J4A4 series Gbox. Different gear ratio.

Just to be clear.
The snap ring on any Gbox with similar design may fail for a certain reason.
I saw it failed on another Honda (I think it was the GBox from Civic) but it’s just so rare.

Therefore, even your NSX is out of the above ‘snap ring GBox’ range, it could fail but very-very rare and not like the common failure of Main relay.
On the other hand, even if the GBox is in that range, not all of them will fail.

Originally Posted by paulc

........ I have a JDM 1994 model though Sudesh suspects it might be a 1991 model ...........

If your NSX is JDM, that's easy for me to tell the model spec. If you open the bonnet and look at the metal plate in front of the radiator, you will see the Japanese character as ' 車台番号 '. This is your JDM Spec VIN.
You will see lots of numeric digits (i.e. xxx below) after the ' NA1- ' marking and first three digits will tell you the model spec.

NA1-100xxx Sep/90 ---
NA1-110xxx Nov/92 (NSX-R) & May/93 (NSX) ---
NA1-120xxx Feb/94 ---

Therefore, if you don't see NA1-120 on your metal plate, it's not the 94 spec.

Originally Posted by paulc

...... it has started to jump out of first and second gear, not all the time it seems to depend on how you put the gear stick in, not very technical I know. Once again many thanks for your advice.

Paul

Bit worrying comment there....
Popping out of 1st and 2nd gears is one of the most common phenomena with snap ring failure on our NSX.

Unlike ordinary cars, our NSX uses helical gears on all of the main and counter gears including the reverse.
Added to this unique design, the 1st and 2nd main gears are directly cut on the main shaft and thus, the shift folk for 1st and 2nd is on the counter side.
Therefore, if the snap ring is already damaged, it could push the folk out of the position resulting in this common phenomenon.

As NSXGB mentioned, it is best to investigate your snap ring.

It’s easy to check and you can do it without taking the Gbox off the car.

Kaz

Paul. If your gearbox number is within this range: J4A4-1003542 through J4A4-1005978, it is within the known snap ring failure. Might be worth checking to hopefully cancel this off your list.

Info courtesy of NSXPRIME.

Kaz thats brilliant many thanks, I have a JDM 1994 model though Sudesh suspects it might be a 1991 model and it has started to jump out of first and second gear, not all the time it seems to depend on how you put the gear stick in, not very technical I know. Once again many thanks for your advice.

Paul

The snap ring is on the countershaft bearing recess and it is sitting on the shoulder of the transmission case so obviously, it's a GBox off job.
If you want to just check it, you can do so by removing the sealing cap with square recess on it at the side of transmission case.

I’m presuming that you are asking this with the ‘snap ring failure’ issue on very early model NSX in mind.

If that is the case, then replacing the snap ring won’t fix the issue because there is nothing wrong with it.

Because it was informed from Honda as ‘Broken Snap Ring’, several people misunderstood the genuine cause of the issue and thought that there was a problem with the snap ring itself.

The damage to the snap ring was actually caused by the machining issue on the transmission case and thus, you must replace the case.

Unless you are replacing the Gbox as an assy, replacing the transmission case and re-using the shafts, etc will force you to measure and select the correct thickness of thrust shim so not a quick job unless you already have variety of shims in stock.

Then, probably the most time consuming process would be putting back the transmission case in place especially with 5MT box.

Aligning all these shafts to the correct recess on the case side with just two hands…. Not impossible but I won’t do it without the helping hand on 5MT box...
6MT box is much easier.


So, as I don’t know the background of your question, I’m not sure whether I answered your question or not but hope you can get some idea from above.

Kaz

Kaz how easy/difficult is it to change the snap ring.

Regards

Paul

Hi, Paul.

The frame rate on any communication protocols over OBD-II port will randomly vary within the protocol spec so the update rate on a certain PID (Parameter ID) is not consistent. Also, the comm. speed is not fast enough (depending on what you want) so you can’t use it for any timing critical control.

This is why you need external sensors, emulator, logger, software , etc for detailed timing related tuning.
Initially, you will need to break into the CPU socket and use emulator to understand what is happening with each control module.

Sometimes, it’s quicker and easier to understand some of the output by using oscilloscope due to high sampling rate that can’t be achieved through the OBD-II protocol.

The difficulty in tuning the later model is around the DBW, idle control + LEV.
While non-DBW ECU software is almost fully analysed by the aftermarket ECU companies, I don’t think it is the same for some of the areas on the DBW model. For example, the idle control, LEV and so on.

Still, the information over OBD-II port is useful to understand the 'tendency' of the certain sensor output and PIDs by using the user friendly software.
Some of the software/hardware is quite user friendly so good for even non-technical oriented owners.
Ofcourse, having extra knowledge on your specific vehicle will also help in understanding a certain issue. For example, there are three coolant temperature sensors on our NSX but not many owners know which one is used for fuel timer control.


From the software point of view, reading and erasing the error code is just a basic.
You can log the PID while you are driving and play it back after stopped driving.

If used with video and GPS features on the mobile device, some of the software will even let you not only log the PIDs but also record the video coverage while you are driving.
Then, you can play it back with the PID displayed in the foreground while the video in the background.
If you have enabled the GPS, it will even show your movement on the Google map. Scary…

Kaz

Hi Kaz,

Does this simply allow for easier reading of error codes, or does it allow you any tuning capability for the ECU?

My understanding is that the OBDII version on the 3.2 are not easy to tune?

regards, Paul

I heard that one time, it was GBP1 = JPY1,000 long-long time ago.

More than 30 years ago when I was in UK, I think it was about JPY500.

A few years ago, it was JPY200.

Now, it’s around JPY125…..

The tendency doesn’t seem to change…
Not great for us buying the parts from Japan...


Kaz

The Japanese Yen was weakened 4-5% by the Japanese Government yesterday, resulting in the pound buying 127 instead of 122. In one day, this has already slipped back to under 126.....

Dear Kaz,

Thank you for the information and taking a break when you get too tired / cold / hungry to do your best work sounds like a very wise policy!

Originally Posted by greenberet

....... On another topic: it’s good to read that the acetone/ATF mixture worked its magic on the tie rods overnight. If it’s OK to ask - did you apply it once and then let it sit over night while the acetone evaporated and the ATF penetrated, did you build some kind of container around the tie rod to keep it immersed in the acetone/ATF solution, did you stay up overnight to keep applying the mixture every hour (hopefully not), or did you do something else?

Hi, greenberet.

I didn't make any special container but applied it every hour during the day while I was working on other areas.
I think I applied it 5 - 6 times before leaving it overnight.

Not sure whether leaving it overnight helped or not and possibly, it was ready by the time I applied it so many times over many hours but just too tired to give it a try on that day....

I have my own policy of taking break or even stop working once I get too tired or when it is time to eat.

When I used to look after lots of boys and girls, they started to make mistake when they were too tired or tried to skip dinner when we were extremely busy.
Based on this, I set the rule to stop working and take break or dinner at proper time and then go back to work after that.
Also, this will reduces the chance of getting injured by mistake.

As I operate on alone these days, needs to be very careful.....

Kaz

Booking status
Will be updated regularly.

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Kaz

Having seen the video of KSP, the source of the noise is different between the manual and electric steering rack. It has been around 10k km since I've had a new part inserted in my rack and it's still quite and working And: still no play in it. I'll inspect it over the winter season a little bit further.
I was informed that the manual rack is discontinued in the USA, you can't order it anymore, not very nice.

Dear Kaz,

Thank you for the video and yes, KSP Engineering and goldNSX replace completely different bushings.

For the manual steering gear boxes Honda sells lots of replacement parts for the driver’s side but they don’t sell the bushing that goes between the rack (part #10 in the picture below) and the body of the steering gear box (part #1) on the passenger’s side (where the red circle is).



When that bushing wears the rack develops play on the passenger’s side that you can hear and feel. goldNSX took some videos. If it gets really bad it sounds like this when you turn the steering wheel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkfFnEyuyww and like this when you push up and down on the end of the rack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkfFnEyuyww.

I replaced my manual steering gear box with a new OEM unit before the play got to be as large as it is in the videos. However, goldNSX and a friend have developed a bushing that allows you to replace just the part that wears instead of the entire manual steering gear box. I believe they took an NSX steering gear box to EMPA (the Swiss national materials science laboratory) to determine the best material for a bushing in that location in regards to materials compatibility, friction, wear, etc. Then they had the bushing machined and now they sell it and also offer to install it if desired.

My replacement steering gear box is also slowly starting to develop play on the passenger’s side and before I replace the entire thing again, I think I’m going to try replacing just the bushing instead.

On another topic: it’s good to read that the acetone/ATF mixture worked its magic on the tie rods overnight. If it’s OK to ask - did you apply it once and then let it sit over night while the acetone evaporated and the ATF penetrated, did you build some kind of container around the tie rod to keep it immersed in the acetone/ATF solution, did you stay up overnight to keep applying the mixture every hour (hopefully not), or did you do something else?