Buying EP Civic Type-R
Discussion
To anybody who has one, or hasn't or knows something i should!
I'm looking to buy an EP CIvic Type-R very soon. Plenty on here for sale. Is there anything i should look out for. Any technical/mechanical/electrical problems? I'm guessing my main look out should be for accident/repaired damage.
On the whole i know the engines are rock solid.
Anything i should know bout ownership - high oil consumption etc?
What is the service intervals on the EP Type-R
Thanks All
Adam
I'm looking to buy an EP CIvic Type-R very soon. Plenty on here for sale. Is there anything i should look out for. Any technical/mechanical/electrical problems? I'm guessing my main look out should be for accident/repaired damage.
On the whole i know the engines are rock solid.
Anything i should know bout ownership - high oil consumption etc?
What is the service intervals on the EP Type-R
Thanks All
Adam
Check for any issues with the steering rack. It's a known trouble point and many cars require new racks and/or electronic control units that go with them.
Check that the rear suspension is OK. A large batch of cars were sent from the factory with wrongly setup rear arms giving the wrong camber. Check the VIN with Honda to see if the car was affected and if it had the work done if it was. Cars with this issue tend to eat the inner section of tread on the rear tyres very quickly.
Second gear can be notchy when the car's cold.
Listen for loose front anti roll bars (you'll hear it clunking when hitting bumps, especially under some steering lock).
Check the electric headlight levelling mechanism as this can fail.
With regards to the engine- it is rock solid, but only if it's been looked after. Any oil starvation will lead to a destroyed engine fairly quickly. It's easy to over rev on downchanges, too. Make sure the car has a perfect service history.
There are plenty of cars about, so be fussy.
Check that the rear suspension is OK. A large batch of cars were sent from the factory with wrongly setup rear arms giving the wrong camber. Check the VIN with Honda to see if the car was affected and if it had the work done if it was. Cars with this issue tend to eat the inner section of tread on the rear tyres very quickly.
Second gear can be notchy when the car's cold.
Listen for loose front anti roll bars (you'll hear it clunking when hitting bumps, especially under some steering lock).
Check the electric headlight levelling mechanism as this can fail.
With regards to the engine- it is rock solid, but only if it's been looked after. Any oil starvation will lead to a destroyed engine fairly quickly. It's easy to over rev on downchanges, too. Make sure the car has a perfect service history.
There are plenty of cars about, so be fussy.
Edited by 10 Pence Short on Thursday 22 February 15:01
All sound advice from 10 pence short 
Steering racks & front suspension in general is a particular one since it can get expensive quite quickly. Mine had 2 and half a front suspension in 3 years (thankfully under warranty) - racks were, I was led to believe, £1000 plus labour.
The other things to watch out for are some alarms can go wonky and if the gearbox doesn't feel great once it's warm, walk away - due to the revvy nature they can take a bit of a pounding and would again be expensive to fix. If you are getting an older one with a few miles on then check if clutch has been changed - up to £500 if required.
I don't know what your budget is but try and get one that's less than 3 years old and go for a main dealer car if you can. This will give you a warranty and the chance to extend it (was @ £400 per year). If I had my time again I would have paid the extra.
Service intervals started off at 12k and then increased slightly to 12.5k with the revised model. Stick with whatever the car started off with.
Check the oil when you look round and when you buy, check it religiously. As long as you don't abuse it to a silly degree then the engine should be a rock. Oil consumption is a funny one since some use a fair bit and others (like mine) hardly use any - 0.5 litres or so was all mine used between services. Apparently this could be down to how it was run in.
Steering racks & front suspension in general is a particular one since it can get expensive quite quickly. Mine had 2 and half a front suspension in 3 years (thankfully under warranty) - racks were, I was led to believe, £1000 plus labour.
The other things to watch out for are some alarms can go wonky and if the gearbox doesn't feel great once it's warm, walk away - due to the revvy nature they can take a bit of a pounding and would again be expensive to fix. If you are getting an older one with a few miles on then check if clutch has been changed - up to £500 if required.
I don't know what your budget is but try and get one that's less than 3 years old and go for a main dealer car if you can. This will give you a warranty and the chance to extend it (was @ £400 per year). If I had my time again I would have paid the extra.
Service intervals started off at 12k and then increased slightly to 12.5k with the revised model. Stick with whatever the car started off with.
Check the oil when you look round and when you buy, check it religiously. As long as you don't abuse it to a silly degree then the engine should be a rock. Oil consumption is a funny one since some use a fair bit and others (like mine) hardly use any - 0.5 litres or so was all mine used between services. Apparently this could be down to how it was run in.
Edited by D1MAC on Thursday 22 February 21:53
seen an '02 plate with 101k on the clock. test drove it and it was mint - fHsh. i couldn't believe how well the engine felt at over 100k. had had clutch done and cambelt too. wasn't a honda dealer, but a small independent, he offered to throw in 12 months warranty on parts and labour, done at Honda Norwich. he wanted 7400. my only concern was selling it on in 3 years with potentially 120-140k on it. i walked away as there are better value/lower milers on here. what would u have paid?
Nothing like that - way too much. The 52 plate I traded in (with a little over 60k on the clock) was on the block for £8.3k at a non Honda main dealer (so call it circa £8k as a real price). That would be around £8.5k with a 3rd party warranty. I don't know what your budget is but try and get it up to this level or better if you can.
There are far too many around to be paying that price for something with 100k+ miles, even if it's a Honda.
There are far too many around to be paying that price for something with 100k+ miles, even if it's a Honda.
10 Pence did have a particularily bad experience with his! He is infamous on the owners club forums.
My personal experience over nearly 3 years has been great. No problems whatsoever. As said the only real issues are oil starvation if poorly maintaned so I would check all the above but pay attention to the owner (if buying privately). Do they treat the engine carefully from cold / abuse the clutch. I would also check the oil levels to make sure they have been keeping it topped up.
Jim
My personal experience over nearly 3 years has been great. No problems whatsoever. As said the only real issues are oil starvation if poorly maintaned so I would check all the above but pay attention to the owner (if buying privately). Do they treat the engine carefully from cold / abuse the clutch. I would also check the oil levels to make sure they have been keeping it topped up.
Jim
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