Ownership Verified: - Night Riders Other New Car (Never Would Guess)

[The Night Rider]

If you saw my BMW E34 "post your car" thread than this one may be a little surprising, (my first Honda, honestly).

1989 Honda CRX
- 138,000 Km
- 5 speed manual
- 1500cc, SOHC 16v (103HP)
- Dual carbs (Don't laugh, carbs are for men)
- Moderately lowered on springs
- Double wishbone front (unlike 1st gen CRX)
- Roughly 950Kg?

Here it is:

I wonder if its blasphemy for a BMW owner/enthusiast to also own a Honda. Basically I wanted a cheap interesting car that was really light weight and wouldn't be too bad on maintenance. If you haven't driven a light weight car before I suggest it, its an amazing experience.

So it is in pretty good condition for the age (maybe mint condition considering it's an old Honda lol). Everything I can think of works including the AC which is nice. The damn indicator stalk is broken (still functional) so need to get a replacement, I am not sure if Honda still make parts? Maybe have to see if it's the same as the Civic.

I only plan on removing the stickers, and once tires are worn out just replacing the wheels with something more to my taste (still 15"). Also car is not perfect it needs some maintenance to bring it up to standards, I'll post that stuff later on with proof of ownership.

 

[LeVeL]

Excellent!!!

 

[The Night Rider]

Thanks LeVel, I think its a pretty cool car too.

So while washing it I found the water passage/gutter in the rear wheel well was completely packed with stones and grit. This is the better side:

So I cleaned them out, luckily no rust:

This is what i cleaned out from one side:

Another minor problem was that the front mud guards would touch the road on moderate and large dips in the road, I think they looked okay but I couldn't leave them on:

Oh and here is quick proof of ownership, Sorry I know it is overexposed and hard to read. It seems whenever I take interior pics the sun comes out (not a bad thing):

If anyone wants better proof I can do another picture later.

 

[Der Stig]

Very cool! That's in better condition than 90% of the CRXs on this side of Atlantic.

 

[DanRoM]

There is nothing wrong with owning a first gen CRX. Unless you mount an overly big exhaust, like many owners did back in the 90s.

Great car!

 

[Hbriz]

Very nice and looks to be in good original condition. CRXes are cool little cars, I really like them apart from the unfortunate image problems.

 

[loose_unit]

Sometimes I miss the over abundance of good condition Japanese cars in New Zealand Great buy!

 

[prizrak]

That is one surprisingly clean CRX and one of the few FWD cars I even like, congrats!

 

[The Night Rider]

Thanks everyone, yeah it quite clean. I'm surprised that even the transmission synchros are all working well, none of those unpleasant grinds. The car definitely avoided the path of any distasteful owners (I'm the fourth owner by the way).

It does have age related wear such as checking in paint on the bumpers and stress/fracture lines on the plastic rear lights but considering it is 26 years old... not bad.

I've always felt a little ~ towards FWD's, but whatever, I find it interesting enough in other ways to enjoy. These gen 1 and 2 CRX over here are getting kind of hard to find now as well, don't see them around much which makes it cooler to own.

 

[samulis]

Cool buy! If it didnt have carb's I'd be shouting the need for 1.6 V-tecKick'dYo. But carb's rule.

 

[thomas]

These used to be EVERYWHERE 15 years ago.. nowadays they are rarer than 911s.


(That may also be down to my location though)

 

[The Night Rider]

Alright today I completed the first bit of work/fixing up to this car.

The indicator stalk was broken at the base and although it would work it really was annoying and ugly looking. Plus if it broke during driving it could be a little risky.

I went to the local junk yard and luckily found the right part (It was on a Honda City I think):

This is the broken part, the previous owner tried to fix it using epoxy or something:

Simple to remove:

All done and working nicely:

I also removed a bunch of cables which the previous owner had installed for a sub in the boot. I might at some point install better speakers, but I don't want a sub.

 

[Anesthesia]

Looks great! Rust free and unmolested. A better example for sure.

You mentioned 1.5 with dual carbs, that wouldn't happen to be a D15B? It's rare to have a 1.5 engine that wasn't equipped with a double point fuel injection. I would imagine that setup could produce better numbers than the dpfi most of them came with. The spot where you dug all that crap out is a known rust spot. The lip gathers all sorts of things there that end up making holes. Though looking at your surroundings this might not be an issue. The issue with the mud guards I resolved by cutting a few centimeters off the bottom. Not having them will more than likely cause a rust problem in the long run.

 

[The Night Rider]

Thanks.

Yes it is a D15b. To be honest I don't think the dual carb setup is too rare where I live because I've seen a few around, most people tend to hate them because of their complexity (many, many vacuum lines for emissions purposes). I was a little worried about them as I've never had a carb engine before but they are great so far, even starts up faster than any car I've owned.

Regarding the rust, it really isn't that much of a problem where I live (car is also garaged). However, I am probably going to be removing and cleaning the wheel wells and sills and applying a coating to prevent rust. I did a similar thing on my E34 which involved taking off the fenders etc. I may try to create some kind of cover that protects that area from direct water which can screw in like the original guard.

 

[Anesthesia]

Thanks.

Yes it is a D15b. To be honest I don't think the dual carb setup is too rare where I live

That's the key isn't it. Might not be rare in your parts but globally it is. Same as the 4wd sedan. Rare everywhere - we had loads of them. If you're checking places for rust, I suggest taking a look under the rear bumper if you have the motivation. That's an other place for rust, as are the plastic trims around the bottom.

I live in a rust loving climate... I've seen rust.

 

[ScarFace88]

They made a 4WD sedan? I thought only the Wagon got the 4WD system.

 

[Anesthesia]

They made a 4WD sedan? I thought only the Wagon got the 4WD system.

They did, in very limited numbers. Though it feels like we got most of them. We on the other hand didn't get the wagon at all.

 

[public]

There were 4WD 4dr saloons available of the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sunny, Mazda 323 and the Civic in the '80s, perhaps to offer Subaru Leone buyers an alternative? Then there was the Daihatsu Applause as well, am I forgetting something still?

 

[MWF]

Great little car. I owned a 1988 1.6i 16v one in the same colour. Wish I still had it actually.

-

 

[The Night Rider]

Thanks, I think it is nice having one medium sized comfortable car and one small lightweight one.

Anyway the previous owner had no proof of the timing belt being done so I changed it myself. There wasn't anything difficult about it, just took more time necessary as its my first time on a FWD (I'm more used to working on bimmers).

Genuine Honda parts of course:

Quick pic of the old belt (turns out it had been changed along with the tensioner, but whoever did it did not change the water pump):