Hi Kaz, thank you very much for your good councils! and, excuses me for my error!
best regard
Alain
Printable View
Hi Kaz,
Can you offer some words of wisdom please to this problem ... http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/testvb/showth...ed=1#post69794
Thank you in advance
regards, Paul
Done, I hope...
Kaz
Hi, all.
Attachment 6760
Finally, my ABS controller for the upgrade has arrived.
I wanted to bring it back with me on the way back from Japan recently but it was out of stock at Honda Japan.
ABS upgrade is so popular among the Japanese owners that quite often, this parts goes out of stock. It’s the same story for the ABS upgrade adaptor loom. It ran out of the stock for the big black/orange AMP connector that connects to the ABS controller and lots of people are waiting for the delivery.
Attachment 6761
Also, I received my spare O2 sensors from US.
It took extra days due to Easter holiday as well as people not familiar with the international shipping.
Although I brought back the header by KSP Engineering with me from Japan, I have a policy of never touching the header/exhaust area without the spare O2 sensors.
Now they are here so I really want to install all of the parts for the header but I just don’t have time and space….
I hope I can install the header and ABS upgrade in time for the Japfest…….
Regards,
Kaz
Just for the record… AT Crank Pulley
After the owner took my Health Check Service, he wanted to replace his Crank Pulley and several other parts so I included them into my regular parts delivery from Japan and US.
His NSX is AT and he kindly allowed me to open the box so that I can take the photos.
Attachment 6762 Attachment 6763 Attachment 6764
AT spec on the Left and MT one on the Right.
From opposite side.
Larger diameter on AT one.
Attachment 6765 Attachment 6766
AT spec from both side.
By the way, you will need different HEX adaptor tool for AT and MT.
HEX 45mm for MT and 50mm for AT.
Kaz
Or, you can keep it if you have other Honda models and willing to work on them. HEX 50mm is common on almost all of other Honda models but some of them require specific depth/height design due to limited space around the pulley.
Kaz
http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135104
Any idea of their meaning Kaz?
Cheers,
AR
Different lettering but similar place
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...ineService.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...ingService.jpg
Hi, Ary.
Yes, I also noticed it long time ago on several NSX engines but can’t remember whether it was on all of the engines or not.
To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to it as it is far more important to focus on the bolts used on the cam holders/holder pipes for me.
In fact, I always mark the numbers #1, 2, 3 ….., 24 or up to 28 next to the bolts to show the torque sequences.
I think the marking on cam holder is grouping them for the oil clearance and accuracy purposes. I’ll ask my master about this as he has far more experience than me.
One thing for sure, it’s from the factory.
Regards,
Kaz
Hi Kaz
I managed to change the oils without too much drama, just one mistake whilst reinstalling the strainer cover I put a smige of copper ease to help with future removal, but reading some other info you have posted I have realised this is a no no since it's aluminium, so I removed it again and replaced with silicon grease hope thats right.
While the car was on jacks, I was trying to decide which is the best thing to do next, I think the driveshafts are high on the list I can't see any splits in the rubber boots but there is lots of old grease around the suspension parts, and turning the wheel you can hear the metallic clunk.
Can you let me know when you can refresh these please, in the meantime I presume I wont harm anything by giving the whole affected area a good clean.
Regards Martyn.
Ah... If you are going to work on the Left side driveshaft, you will need to drain the MTF before removing it. Otherwise, your hair will be covered in that smelly MTF.
From my record, I think it was the left side driveshaft that was leaking, I'm afraid ...
If you can remove the driveshafts and send/bring them to me, I should be able to turn them around within a few days even working on other projects.
I think I have enough driveshaft boot kits in stock for you but I'll double check as I don't want to run out of stock while lots of deliveries are being delayed with recent aerospace drama.
My wife is still in Japan due to her flight being cancelled and because of the long national holiday in Japan during the last week of this month and early May, the earliest flight that she managed to re-book was for the middle of May!
Just in time for Japfest so I have some extra days before I need to clear up all the parts stored in her room.... I want to fit my header and ABS upgrade before Japfest but looks like no time for that ...
Kaz
thanks Kaz I was presuming that the removal of the driveshafts would be quite technical and needed to be done by you, however if you think it's a straightforward operation I can give it a go.Do I need any special tools or sockets etc?
Otherwise I can wait until you have time to squeeze me in.
Hope you can make some time to fit your upgrades to your own car.
Thanks for the reply NSXGB and for the info on the cheap oil the other day.
regards Martyn
Hi, Martyn.
Some advice on removing the drive shaft.
Right side is easy but you may struggle with the Left one.
You can follow the workshop manual but it is best to customise your procedure based on what other services you are carrying out at the same time. Also, you may want to be creative to try different procedure like me but you’ll need some understanding on the chassis structure before doing so.
You will need to loosen the spindle nut holding the driveshaft to the hub.
If it was never removed in the past, you will really going to struggle. There are several techniques to loosen it if it is very tight.
I use 36mm size 1’ impact socket, 1000mm breaker bar with the assist of floor jack while applying full body weight.
In the worst case scenario, I will take the NSX to local HGV garage where it has the huge impact wrench with sub-tank attached to it.
Attachment 6796
You may struggle to slide out the outer joint from the hub if it was never removed in the past. The spindle could get corroded and the outer joint may bond to the hub. If that is the case, you can use hydraulic puller to push it out.
You need to be very careful not to damage any of the oil seals when removing the inner joints. Due to the length of the inner joint on the Left drive shaft, it is so easy to make tiny damage to the seal. However, you can easily replace the seal so not a big problem.
Attachment 6795
As NSXGB mentioned, you need to get hold of the torque wrench which can cover 329Nm.
Regards,
Kaz
Thanks Kaz
I will try to get a workshop manual and read a bit more.
If i don't feel brave enough could you pm me to let me know when you could do it.
Regards Martyn
Back to the subject of marking on the cam shaft holder....
Spoke with my master (yes, he does exists) and although he didn’t have the definite answer, he also agreed that the marking looked to be something to do with the grouping.
As camshaft rotates at high rpm, it requires high accuracy to be held with true circle and level at the engine head and cam holders for the entire length of the camshaft.
For this reason, the cam holders are pre-machined to a slightly smaller diameter and then tightened to the head at the specified torque. Then, it will go through the line boring process to create true circle and level to accommodate the camshaft.
Because of this, the cam holders and the engine head have to be treated as a set and thus, you won’t find replacement parts just for the cam holder on the parts list. You must buy the engine head as a set.
Obviously, after the line boring process, the cam holders need to be removed from the head in order to install the cam shaft.
Therefore, we think that the marking was used to group the cam holders to the specific engine head or something else.
Again, it’s just a guess so could be completely wrong…
Regards,
Kaz
Hi, all.
Recently, I was helping another member here with his heavily modified NSX.
Originally, it was planned for 2 weeks service but at the end, it turned into 4 weeks marathon session with lots of overtime but I’m glad that I managed to work on this NSX from the safety point of view.
Because of the long delay, my apology for many owners waiting for my services and Health check but as I can only work on NSX during my spare time on a private/friend basis, I will appreciate your patience as I would like to keep the same level of service for everyone.
1. Drive shaft
Attachment 6800 Attachment 6804
During the Health Check Service, it was quite obvious that both driveshafts required overhaul especially on the right side inner joint. The boot was already split and loosing grease. They were also making some noise.
The grease inside the right side inner joint was black showing that the grease was already broken down.
Attachment 6805
When I started to work on the right side outer joint, straight away, I felt something wrong with it.
I simply couldn’t even disassemble it. After briefly cleaning the joint for inspection, this was what I found. One of the roller was cracked and deformed the internal wall of the outer joint and thus, impossible to separate the spider/roller from the housing.
The metal inside the joint is specifically hardened to cope with the high torque of our NSX so it won’t break like this under normal condition. Before the current owner bought this NSX, it was used on track many times so possibly it hit something and locked the wheel while the clutch was still engaged with high torque from the engine.
Luckily, I had spare right driveshaft so just replaced it. I’m glad to find this now.
If the damage got worse while on the motorway, you never know what will happen…
Interesting enough, while I was replacing this drive shaft, I received an email from another owner. He was on track and felt something wrong so stopped his NSX at the side of the course. While he was pushing his NSX to move it, some sort of greasy square parts fell out from the bottom. He pushed a little further and another one fell out. They were indeed, the rollers from the driveshaft.
Unfortunately, due to the geometry, the driveshaft is one of the weakest point on our NSX and requires regular maintenance especially if you have aftermarket header, lowered rideheight, wide spacer or wide tread tyres.
Attachment 6808 Attachment 6809
If you track your NSX or use track day tyres, this is a MUST service item.
Attachment 6811 Attachment 6812 Attachment 6807
Although it is a time consuming process, I always inspect even the internal wall of each rollers. This will require planting of hundreds of pin bearings with the new grease but you won’t be able to inspect the state of the roller unless you disassemble it.
2. Bolts seized to the bush
As our NSX is getting old, it is quite common to find some of the suspension bolts seized to the metal collar of rubber bush. There is a know-how to deal with this kind of situation but on this NSX, there were three bolts seized to the bush and later I found that one of them was actually cross-threaded and already nearly sheered off.
Attachment 6814
By the way, this is what happens when the bolt has corroded. The new one at the top and completely corroded one at the bottom. The corrosion will fatten the diameter of the bolt and it will simply bond heavily to the metal collar of the bush.
Attachment 6813 Attachment 6815
Because of this, it is important to remove all of the alignment bolts and nuts to apply thin coat of silicone grease just before visiting the alignment platform. If you manage to find the corrosion at its early stage, you can gently remove just the surface corrosion and re-use the bolt.
I used to test many suspension systems on NSX for R&D projects so for me, it is quite normal to deal with damaged suspension bolts and threads using helicoil, spark erosion, etc.
This NSX seemed to be used as a track day car and with the extra heat combined with the moisture/salt in the air, most of the bolts and nuts were corroded and making the service very difficult.
Attachment 6817 Attachment 6816
Due to the previous damage and the state of other parts, it was decided to replace the rear beam.
I always feel hornored to be able to work with the owner who is allowing me with extra time and also the great support from the members on this forum and even the ex-owners.
I would like to say special thank you to one of the member here for providing me with his spare rear beam and another ex-owner for his generous offer even while he was out of UK.
3. MTF strainer
Before removing the Left side driveshaft, you must drain the MTF/ATF. Whenever I drain the MTF, I always check the MTF strainer/filter near the drain plug.
This will provide me with some sort of feedback on the state of gbox as well as how it was used in the past.
It is quite normal to see some metal powder/dust inside the strainer.
Attachment 6818 Attachment 6819
However, on this NSX, there were several metal particles came out from there. I drove this NSX to/from the alignment place later and didn’t feel any issues on shifting so probably the damage was done in the past. Not many people (including Honda) inspects and cleans the MTF strainer at the time of MTF service.
This gbox must have been already overhauled as it has aftermarket LSD. Still, it is good to tell the owner about the findings as he may want to look into the gbox service in the long term future.
4. Header
Being as a race engineer, I’m very interested in the design and material of each component.
Quite often, with the aftermarket headers for NSX, it was designed without any thoughts for the service work on the car after the installation.
Attachment 6820
Sometimes, you find that you can't remove a certain bolt due to the layout of the header.
This is quite important point for engine area service like timing belt as you want maximum space when tilting the engine. On some of the headers, it won’t provide you with enough space around the edge of oil pan and front engine mount.
5. Alignment
Before going to the alignment place, all of the adjusters were checked as well as applied the silicone grease as mentioned above.
Attachment 6822
Once again, the caster adjuster was seized on both front sides so it was not possible to adjust them but the result came out not too bad at the end.
Attachment 6821
This NSX was heavily modified with lowered rideheight and wide spacers so factory setup was no use and thus, used the customised setup considering the owner’s driving style.
6. Main Relay
Another 'MUST' maintenance item on our NSX.
Attachment 6825 Attachment 6823 Attachment 6824
The one on this car was from very early 1995 and the replacement new one from late 2009.
Although the owner was not feeling any issues (yet), I always strongly recommend all owners to replace it as a preventative measure.
There were several members here stranded or failed to start the engine at the most inconvenient timing.
There were several failure reported even on the later models including 2001 and 2002 ones so you are not alone.
One NSX actually failed to start up while taking my Health Check Service :eek:.
Install the new one and re-solder the old one and keep it on the car. It will be used for emergency spare for you and possibly, you may be able to rescue another owner in the future.
7. Clutch Master and Slave Cylinder
During the Health Check service, it was noticed that the master cylinder was leaking.
Attachment 6826 Attachment 6827
The leakage was so bad that I decided to remove the carpet and give a good leaning.
You don’t want to leave the brake fluid under the carpet and on the metal floor. The leakage from the master will result in brake fluid into the cabin under the clutch pedal.
Attachment 6829
And it is always best to replace the Master and Slave as a pair because they are always operated at the same time. Also, replace the hose at the same time.
If you are doing this as a DIY project, one tip for you.
Attachment 6828
Unlike the brake master cylinder, it is not so difficult to get rid of the air inside the clutch master so bench bleeding won't save you a lot. Still, if you have a spare brake pipe, it will save you a little amount of fluid by carrying out the bench bleed first.
Attachment 6830
Before installing the Slave Cylinder, position it like this and bleed the hydraulic system by keeping the bleeder screw upwards. It saves your fluid and time.
Make sure to open the bleeder wide enough otherwise, you will be shooting the new piston into the air. Half turn is enough.
Unlike the brake bleeding procedure, you don’t need to worry too much about the air getting back to the system when releasing the pedal. Due to the geometry of the clutch pedal and the piston ratio of the master and slave, the clutch pedal will stay at the floor. You will need to lift it by your hand. Once there are no more air bubbles coming out of the bleeder, close the bleeder before lifting the pedal and repeat it a few times and you are done.
Remember to apply good quality high temp grease at the saddle of clutch folk where the slave piston/plunger sits otherwise it will create squeaking noise in the future.
Kaz
Thanks (again) for taking the time to document your findings and work.
Looking forward to my health check (although I'm feeling nervious about what you may find given the age and mileage!)
Keep up the great work:)
8. ABS and brake bleeding
Attachment 6831
Once again, it’s time for the ABS service.
Looks like the previous owner(s) were activating the ABS regularly as none of the four solenoids were sticky. They were all operating fine which was a good news.
Attachment 6832
Still, the system was full of air and initially, the pump motor didn’t sound well so flushed it several times. It started to sound normal after 3rd flush.
Attachment 6833 Attachment 6834
Each solenoid was flushed using the proper 090 size pins and the fluid was replaced before moving to the next solenoid. Quite often, people just replace the fluid inside the ABS reservoir without flushing all four solenoids.
Without this process, there is no gurantee that all of your solenoids are healthy. Also, you will be mixing the new fluid with the old one which is stored behind the solenoid valve.
Attachment 6835 Attachment 6836 Attachment 6837
This NSX has Brembo system on the Front so requires extra time due to the two bleeder screws per corner. I use pressure bleeding process so no big drama for me.
It was recommended to the owner to have the Brembo calliper serviced as they require frequent maintenance than the normal ones. They don’t have dust boot at the entry of the piston so regular maintenance is a must item.
Also, the bleeder screws were heavily corroded and over-torqued in the past so it was best to replace them.
As the owner was planning some upgrade to the rear calliper in the near future, it was agreed to just bleed the system on this occasion.
Attachment 6838
The original fluid inside the reservoir was very dirty so glad to replace it now.
Regardless of the mileage, it is recommended to replace the fluid at least once a year as brake reservoir is not a sealed container.
9. Coolant Hoses, header tank, thermostat, etc.
At the end of the track session, it is important to carry out cool down lap, ideally for a complete lap distance. Same treatment was applied for the safety and medical cars that I used to track every two weeks or so for one of the race category.
Attachment 6851
Looks like this NSX was being used a lot on the track but possibly, without enough cool down lap as some of the coolant hoses were really cooked.
Attachment 6853 Attachment 6854 Attachment 6855
So, it was recommended to replace all of the hoses including the header tank, cap, hose clamps and so on.
This NSX is NA1 DBW MT model so there is no EACV and thus, we need to select the right combination of the hoses and clamps for each models.
For our NSX, you will need to order different combination of coolant system parts depending on the NA1/NA2, DBW/Non-DBW, AT/MT, RHD/LHD and so on.
Attachment 6852
Recently, Honda changed the bottle design of its Type-2 coolant.
It now holds a little bit more extra coolant as well.
Although it says 5L on the bottle, it used to contain about 5.4L but now it comes with 5.5L of coolant.
For NA1 MT, you will need full 16.5L.
Although the thermostat was not stuck open, the rubber sealing was already deteriorated and partially missing.
Attachment 6856 Attachment 6858
The rubber gasket was already starting to leak and thus resulted in lots of corrosion around the thermostat housing and cover.
Attachment 6857 Attachment 6859
Before installing the new thermostat, the area was cleaned and polished to make good sealing.
The header tank was also very tired and started to crack at several places and about to leak. The cap was also replaced with new one.
Attachment 6860
After time consuming process, new hoses and several other parts were installed and it’s now time for the vacuum test and coolant feed. Kept the system under vacuum for 5min to confirm that there is no leak and then the coolant was fed through the vacuum tool.
After that, the engine was started to pressurise the system for one final check and then left the car overnight to check the coolant level.
10. Air Con Climate Control Unit (CCU) and Cabin temperature sensor
Considering the age of the car, there were some question marks on the A/C CCU so it was decided to refurbish it together with the cabin temperature sensor as it was making annoying noise.
Attachment 6861 Attachment 6862 Attachment 6863
As expected, lots of capacitors were already leaking and causing lots of damage to the board. Had to repair several pads and tracks after cleaning all the leaked acid.
Attachment 6864 Attachment 6865
Cabin Temperature sensor was full of dirt and once it was overhauled, there was no more noise.
There seemed to be an issue with the power transistor at the blower fan motor so that will be the next service item for the future.
11. HID repair
Just when I thought I was ready to return this NSX to the owner, I found that the left side headlight dip beam was dead.
Previous owner(s) installed the aftermarket HID conversion system and the burner was simply dead. However, the installation was not beautiful and even the current owner experienced intermittent issues in the past.
Normally, I’m happy to repair the existing looms and re-install the system but for this one, I recommended the owner to take out all of the looms/connectors and replace them with the new system.
Attachment 6866 Attachment 6867 Attachment 6868
The installation was so bad that many looms were already squashed and the terminals were very rusty due to poor water proof. Some of the original terminals were modified in a wrong way resulted in poor connection.
Because of this, although I had new spare HID burner, I didn’t want to use it on a un-reliable system.
Attachment 6869 Attachment 6870
I decided to give up my old used burner to the owner and modified the burner loom to accomodate the specific connector from the dead burner.
After long delay, finally I managed to wash this NSX and returned it to the owner with Photo CD to show what was done over the last 4 weeks.
Currently, I’m working on NA2 face lifted MT NSX for several services including the timing belt, water pump and so on.
I'm aiming to return this NSX in time for Japfest and then I can start thinking about the installation of the new headers on my NSX…
No time for the ABS upgrade before Japfest though....
Another happy owner.
Regards,
Kaz
Hi, all.
Over the past few days, I was carrying out my Health Check service for some of the owners as well as supporting lots of other owners through PM and email.
During this short period, I found 2 NSXs with Crank Pulley about to fail when they visited my place and also there was another one that I found through the email support.
One of them was very low mileage (below 50k miles) 95 model and it has been serviced regularly at main dealer so once again, regardless of the mileage, please make sure to replace the crank pulley at the time of timing belt service.
It is not included in the standard Honda service in UK.
In Japan, this parts is a ‘MUST’ item to be replaced during the timing belt service among the NSX specialists.
In US, some of the owners are using the metal shield behind the pulley to protect the timing belt and the plastic cover from being damaged but it won’t stop the pulley from failing so as far as I know, very few owners are using it in Japan.
Attachment 6937
To check the crank puley, it is best to lift the car up and wiggle the weight balancer to feel for any movement.
You should not feel any movement at all at the balancer when it is tightly bonded to the pulley.
You can do a quick check as well but please note that it is best to feel it than visual inspection.
Please click on the photo to get enlarged image.
Attachment 6936
When you look at the crank pulley from this axis, the outer pulley and the balancer will be parallel.
Attachment 6933
When the balancer started to dislocate itself from the pulley, you can feel the wiggle if you can touch it but also you will notice some angle/not parallel at the balancer against the pulley.
Attachment 6934 Attachment 6935
As in my post #245 within this thread, MT and AT uses different crank pulley model so please order the correct one for your NSX.
13811-PR7-A02: For MT GBP348.02+VAT from HUK
13811-PR7-A11: For AT GBP347.93+VAT from HUK
It’s not a cheap parts but it's an insurance for many years ahead and you should be able to save a lot by ordering it through our NSXCB vendor vtecdirect or from US or Japan.
The cost for worst case of crank pulley failure would be in the order of 1,000s any way...
Regards,
Kaz
Hi, all.
In March, I was in Japan for a while for business meetings and I brought back many parts with me for some of the owners as well as for my NSX.
This week, I decided to install the ABS upgrade kit and the aftermarket headers from KSP Engineering Japan.
1. ABS upgrade
It was a good timing as my brake fluid was about one year old and time to be replaced along with the ABS flushing.
During my visit to Japan, I was lucky enough to compare several different spec NSXs.
After comparing the old and new ABS on the same day at skid pad and down slope covered in snow, I can comfortably say that the latest ABS should be on all of the NSX.
This latest ABS module is nothing special compared to the ones on most of the modern production cars with ABS. You can find the same/similar ABS module on lots of them and it’s just the software setup being different.
This means that the old ABS is simply not up to the modern technology and in my personal opinion, there is a big design issue with the original ABS.
After the ABS was activated a few times, it will loose the stand-by pressure inside the accumulator and the ABS pump will kick in to restore the lost pressure.
If the ABS pump was triggered while the driver was applying the brake and locked the wheels, there is not enough pressure to kick back the brake pedal and thus, the tyres would be continuously locked unless the driver was able to manually lift the brake pedal for a while.
As you can imagine, most of the time, the ABS would be triggered under panic situation and it would be very difficult for most of the drivers to release the brake pedal under this condition.
If you have the opportunity to test the old and new ABS on a long-long down slope covered in snow or at the skid pad, you will find out the huge difference immediately.
During the test session with the old ABS, even it was well serviced and in perfect working order, the ABS pump kept operating for ages with the brake pedal to the floor with no kick back and the car was sliding down the slope with no steer as the tyres were all locked. You would need to release the brake pedal to act as a human ABS.
With the latest ABS, nothing like above happened and it was just so comfortable applying the brake under the same condition while turning the car through the down slope corner.
For me, the latest ABS is like the investment for the future. With the latest ABS, I may be able to stop my NSX before hitting something whereas with the old one, I will pray for the luck but probably end up with hitting the object.
So, started to work on my NSX…
Attachment 6977
The bulky and heavy original ABS system VS the new one.
Quite surprised with the weight of the old system when I tried to remove it out of the front compartment. The new ABS is very simple and light. The wiring is also very simple as the controller is now integrated into one package with the ABS modulator.
Attachment 6978 Attachment 6979
The most time consuming part is the removal and installation of the brake pipes. It's like dealing with lots of spaghetti.
Attachment 6980 Attachment 6981
With the new ABS, there is a Proportioning Valve for the Rear brake pressure.