NSX Health Check Service

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Time for another compression check.
Once again, spending hours on valve clearance adjustment paid off. The compression for all six cyl were within 2psi window. When the car was delivered, #6 cyl showed quite big difference from other cyl but now it is really close to others.

IGN Coil installed and torqued to the spec.

Applied silicone grease to the new rubber seal on the IGN Coil cover. Must items to be replaced.
Please apply silicone grease at least once a year in the future especially at the rear bank in order to prevent misfire caused by moisture getting to the base of IGN coil body.


I may need to add small amount of extra coolant but for now, the Engine room is done.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Cleaned and inspected the drive shaft joint. Normal wear was observed.
As seen on many NSX, the spider at the outboard joint was very loose making clicking noise. I could move it with my fingers.
During the refurbishment process, the spline will be staked so that the spider has to be pressed into the shaft to prevent future noise.

Painting the joints and white marker on the shaft.

Refurbishing the rollers. Another long hours planting these tiny pin bearings…. Not great when it's so cold and loosing the sense of finger. I had to bring them inside the room for this occasion. I promissed that I won't make any stain on the carpet....

Nearly done.

Kaz

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

As seen on many NSX, some of the rollers were showing the sign of scorching due to the grease got broken down. The scorching on this NSX is at very early stage and not too bad at all compared to other NSX. Very good timing to refurbish the driveshaft preventing further damages.

All six rollers refurbished with new grease.

Re-building the joint.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

So, something looked like this is now refurbished into these.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Time to install the driveshaft.


The wheel speed sensor was cleaned and looked in very good condition.

Driveshaft installed and the spindle nut was torqued to the spec and staked to lock it.


Time to re-assemble the suspension arms. Applied silicone grease on all of the bolt body.
Torqued them under 1G condition.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

The original oil filter looked fairly new but to be replaced.

As a normal procedure, I just filled up the new filter with the eng oil before the installation.

Before start of the service, the owner kindly informed me that he was told from the garage during the previous service that the oil drain bolt was cross threaded. Not the first time to hear this kind of story and in fact, I had to repair the thread or even replace the oil pan on many NSX in the past.

On inspection, it was quite bad but not to the level that I must replace the oil pan.


Therefore, while draining the Eng oil, re-threaded the bolt hole to prevent leaving the debris inside the pan. As you can imagine, my hand and floor were covered in hot oil but cat sand did great job in absorbing it.

The bolt was replaced by the garage previously but double checked the thread.

You can extract bit more oil from the top side by suction pump.

Fired up the engine, checked around the car for any leakage and the oil pressure and adjusted the oil level later on.

As reported by many owners with early model NSX, the oil pressure sender unit may need replacing in the future. The pressure gauge inside the dash was sometimes showing only around 0.5kgf/cm2 and on other occasions about 2.0kgf/cm2 at idle. This sensor is different from the one used for low oil pressure warning and can be replaced without taking the valve cover off.


So, all of the mechanical services are done.

Just need to wait for the snow to clear before I can carry out the test driving session and wash the car.

In the mean time, the photo CD and the service log book report will be created in time for the collection of the NSX.

I just hope the road condition around my area will improve quickly…

There are two packages from Japan sitting at my local delivery depo since Monday and they are still not delivered…

Another package from US is somewhere at the Heathrow Airport and another one from different courier company was scheduled to be delivered today but then re-scheduled for unknown future….

I need these packages fairly soon….

Regards,
Kaz

[WhyOne?]

Astonishing work (and documentation) Kaz!

This must be a record for the amount of work carried out on an NSX in a single visit!

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, WhyOne.
Thank you for the kind message.

The amount of work was not too bad compared to other NSX in the past.

In fact, as the owner was kind enough to follow my recommendation of combining several services in one go, it saved some of the cost and time for both of us.

For example, it makes sense to replace all of the coolant hoses at the time of TB/WP service while the coolant is drained and if the hoses are not replaced for many years.

Taking the Right drive shaft out for overhaul provides extra room when dealing with the two coolant hoses at the Eng oil cooler base and also for TB service.
I normally spend 1.5 – 2.0Hr just for replacing these two hoses during the standard cooling system service.


By the way, for those visiting this thread, I just started posting in the ‘Blog’ section as well.
Link to my Blog: Today at Atelier Kaz - NSX Enthusiast

The frame and format are kept very simple and it won’t look like other major Blog service.

Please feel free to leave any comments (negative/positive) there as one of the key feature of the Blog is the interactive tool and without the input from you, we are not utilising the benefit of this new feature enabled in the new style NSXCB.

Kaz

[goldnsx]

Kaz, do you grease the piston and cylinder bore completely on the front ones or just the seal? The SM states the second and to use brake fluid instead of grease. On the rear ones it says to grease.

Thanks for your opinion.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, goldnsx.

I don’t use silicone grease but apply tiny amount of silicone oil compound on the outer surface of the piston on both the Front and Rear ones. I learnt this long time ago.

I don't apply anything on the calliper cylinder apart from brake fluid.

I do use silicone grease at the groove of the piston where the dust boot rubber sits.

Hope following description will give you better picture.

If you put the piston on the desk with the open end facing upwards and look at it from the side, the top section including the groove for the dust boot is coated in silicone grease.
Below the groove, it is covered in very thin silicone oil compound.


Even if you didn’t apply the silicone oil compound on the surface of the pistons, it will be covered by it once installed into the calliper because all of the seals (Front/Rear) are covered in compound any way.


I don’t use brake fluid on the piston surface as I don’t follow the procedure described in the manual when installing the pistons into the calliper.


Instead, I apply it on the calliper cylinder and seals or I should say, I have to use lots of brake fluid to flush the calliper after washing them thoroughly so it is covered in brake fluid any way.

Again, during the process, the piston surface will be covered in brake fluid as you need to either push or rotate them into the calliper where the seals (and cylinders) are covered in brake fluid and compound.



Very interesting difference between English and Japanese manual.
I normally use Japanese manual so didn’t know the difference that you mentioned and yes indeed, it states to apply silicone grease only on the Rear piston during the re-assembly process.

Also, in the English manual, there is nothing mentioned about the silicone compound or other grease and only the silicone grease is shown.


In Japanese manual, it shows the diagram for BOTH the Front and Rear calliper to apply the following grease/compound/fluid.

Brake fluid to the piston outer surface and calliper cylinder wall.
Shinetsu Chemical KS62M (silicone oil compound) to the seal.
Shinetsu Chemical G40M (silicone grease) to the lip/seal of the dust boot.
Cosmo rubber grease to the outer/inner surface of the dust boot except for the lip/seal.
Nippon Grease Niglube RM to the Rear Calliper parking brake Mechanism (needle roller bearing, shaft, shaft rubber cover, rod pocket)
Etc,etc, etc....

There are lots of other instructions but I think above is enough for your question.


Interesting enough, in Japanese manual, it doesn’t say anything about applying silicone grease on the REAR piston surface when installing it to the calliper.


I think the reason for applying it only on the rear piston is due to the way it is installed to the calliper.
You need to rotate it rather than to push it so the grease/compound will provide extra support for reducing the friction.


I have never tried applying silicone grease instead of compound to the seal or piston where it has the direct contact to the brake fluid inside the calliper.

I have a feeling that silicone oil compound is more friendly to the seal/brake fluid than the silicone grease but not confident on this.

I just keep following my standard procedure that worked for me for many years unless the manufacture changes the grease/compound/components materials.

Hope this will help.

Regards,
Kaz