Today at Atelier Kaz - ex-Honda R&D, F1, Indy/CART engineer

Time to flush the ABS.

The owner reported that the area around the ABS reservoir was wet and covered in brake fluid so already knew that there were lots of air inside the accumulator.

He kept exercising the ABS regularly and the system was flushed long time ago but still causing the famous problem so looks like the accumulator has developed pin hole or the solenoid is leaking very slowly over many months.

This will be the last time flushing the classic ABS on this NSX as we already decided to upgrade it to the latest system and already placed the parts order to Japan before the price goes up on Tuesday this week.

As always, cleaned the reservoir.




It's not easy to lock all four wheels on the street and also the locking duration is not long enough so important to manually activate all four solenoids at least once a year.
Pressurised the system and there was not even a tiny bubble coming out from the return port so if there is a leakage from the solenoids, it is really a small one that can only be detected over long period.

Will adjust the fluid level after the test driving session.

Done.






My standard installation method for USA Spec PA11-HON.
Enlarge the existing hole at the bottom case and drill new matching hole on the aluminium cover plate.

Recently, ordered new cover for another owner but it was on back order until mid/end August but still cheap and available so if the owner wants to install different adaptor or at different position, it can be easily returned to the OEM look.

Another quick check using my classic iPod mini and it worked well.



For me, when the Alpine audio head unit and the Bose AMP/Speaker are working as how they should be, the sound quality is good enough for NSX cabin environment even when using the compressed MP3 file as the sound source. Eng and exhaust sound will degrade the mid/low frequency range of the music so just needs bit tweaking.
Happy with it and done.





I haven't installed the left side door card yet but as the thunder storm stopped and wanted to test the dashboard noise under cool condition, went out for the test driving session.
The alignment service won't be done until the new damper/bush/mounting settles so can't comment much but already noticed huge difference even when moving the car off the lift.
No surprise especially after what I saw at the state of the old OEM dampers. All four were dead with almost no damping.


Going over lots of speed hump at dead slow speed is very good in testing the noise inside the cabin and also from the suspension and very pleased with the result.
For this NSX, when the cabin was warm/hot, the defrost panel didn't make much noise even with several serious cracks.
As you can expect from the new Bilstein damper, very firm but nothing uncomfortable and in fact, after the rebound, the car settles much faster now, unlike the dead OEM damper so it feels so much better now when going through the speed hump.


With the new parts, the front rideheight went up 8 – 10mm compared to the time when this NSX arrived at my place. The rear side was almost the same or just a few mm higher.
All four corners will drop slightly over the next several weeks and not months so once settled, time to carry out the alignment session.


For occasional track days and aggressive street driving style, BC Racing coilover kit offers good performance and lowered looks at very reasonable cost.
It has simple adjustment mechanism (just one dial for both damping/rebound) so if you don't have experience in setting up the chassis or the facility setting up the car, good choice for any drivers.
They can also re-valve it to match your spring spec at no extra cost (but takes extra few weeks for the delivery) and you can adjust the height and pre-load at each corners so should cover most of the demands and driving style for non-professional drivers.


Off the shelf Bilstein damper is designed for using the OEM spring and mounting (top hat) with no adjustments.
It only offers the two options (OEM or about 25mm lower) for the rideheight and once installed, not easy to change.
However, because it doesn't have the adjustment mechanism and also targeted specifically for the use of OEM spring and top hat, it's a very good choice for any drivers mainly using their NSX on the street and want to minimise the noise from the aftermarket coilover kits.
Depending on the shape of the track, with OEM spring, DF and setting, you may struggle with the traction during/exit cornering on track.
If you pay the extra and specify the spec, Bilstein or the specialists can re-valve it for you.


There are much more advanced aftermarket kits on the market such as KW V3, Penske kits, etc but you really need good support from the race team, installer, etc in order to maximise its capability.
The driver also needs to provide enough feedback for setting up the chassis and personally, for street driving, it's probably too much.



Not easy to comment on the noise with the left side door card removed and also the road surface was still partially wet from time to time but when driving through the dry area, there was no noise from the dashboard area or in fact, inside the cabin even on rough surface.
The new damper is doing its job properly now so that has huge effect as well.


Without the alignment, cool condition, soft tyre side shoulder, etc, can't really comment on going through many roundabouts but felt much more comfortable than before start of the service but probably my imagination has huge factor in it so will leave it to the owner. For this session, set the tyre pressure at OEM spec of 40/33 psi but please adjust it later for your taste.





Just need to install this window fix it thingy today, put back the door card, final test driving, wash the car and ready to be returned to the owner tomorrow.
Big thank you to Chris at Science of Speed in US for great customer support and really prompt delivery.
The delivery charge was actually cheaper using UPS than that of USPS.
Haven't heard from UPS yet regarding the Customs charge and clearance fee but probably somewhere around GBP20.


Another busy weekend... I need to mower the back garden and take out the chainsaw to prune some of the branches.....


Kaz