Charlie Moua said:
My Q:
1) what would you look for in a used MSP?
Check Vacume Line T between By Pass Valve and Wastegate. This is the most common place to put a manual boost controler. This T should be a yellowish plastic if it's stock with a single, unsplit line going to the wastegate.
Vacume line at wastegate connection - Stock one has a plastic 90 degree elbow
Drive it around - when under boost abouve 3500 RPM do you hear a high-pitched wistling sound? If so, request they pull off the heat shield over the turbo and check the exhaust manifold for a crack. A common problem is a crack running the verticle length fo the exhaust manifold right in the middle. Mine was fixed under warrenty, but happened before 50K miles.
Check exhaust pipeing, especially where the J pipe connects to the S pipe and the O2 sensor to see if it has been removed. See if an aftermarket exhaust has previously been installed.
Look for Oil Leaks around turbo
Look for transmission oil leaks around transmission housing. (particularly around the drainage bolts)
Check the master cylinder for any damage. A lot of FMIC kits throttle body pipes hit the master cylinder and this is one way to see if the stock pipes have always been in.
Check interior of rims for dents (probably fine if there is no curb rash)
Get wheel lock key
Make sure the stereo sub woofer and amp are in the trunk
Service records from reputable shop or at least purchase records of quality parts if the owner does maintenace themselves.
Charlie Moua said:
2) what should I expect to pay?
12.5K-15K is reasonale depending on area.
Charlie Moua said:
3) is a MSP good to have for 4-6+ years? (long term cost of fix/replace parts)
Feb 06 will mark 3 years for me. I'm at 47K miles now with 1 big accident but no major service repairs. Accident (2 years ago) caused 12K in damage, but the car drives perfect now.
Only service items I've had:
- stereo replaced once
- Rear suspension bushings replaced twice (self) - bout to have them replaced again along with fronts
- Cracked exhaust manifold. Probably ran that way for about 1.5 years thinking it was just the turbo spool. Finally took the heat shield off to polish it and found the crack.
- I upgraded the front motor mount and found the stock one to be pretty torn up. i suspect my rear one is torn up now too.
Charlie Moua said:
4) why is that MSP have lower resale value?
It dropped off a ton the first year and has slowly gone back up. In 04 people were only getting 10K in trade ins and purchasing them used for around 12. Now that the market knows what the car is, prices have leveled off closer to an average 14K
Charlie Moua said:
5) is there a way to find out if a MSP had it's LSD fail & replaced already?
I suspect only service records will tell.
Charlie Moua said:
6) how is your insurance on the MSP? compareable to Civic Si & Integra GSR? or not that bad?
I'm 28 with a pretty clean record. With 1 car and two drivers my insurance (full coverage) was about 2K a year. ~175 a month
Charlie Moua said:
1) when you do a compression test on the motor (warm) what kind of psi should you get?
I don't know for sure on this. Do a search here. I thought it was in around 180 but don't quote me.
Charlie Moua said:
2) what type of oil do you reccomend, reg or syn?
... i've always used syn on my honda... but each motor & car is different
I've used Synthetic - Royal Purple and Mobile 1 (5w30 and 10w30). I prefer the mobile 1 10w30. Royal purple is good for the first 1K but breaks down too fast I think. I notice a rougher ride after about 1.5K miles but it smooths out again after an oil change.
I've heard mixed things about transmission oil. Seems like A LOT of the guys who have had a broken LSD have run synthetic fluid in there. A friend of mine had that happen, then after getting that fixed lost his entire tranny to leaking fluid. He suspected the synthetic fluid was the issue.
I just replaced mine 2 weeks ago with Mobil1 75W90 synthetic and today at luch smelled oil. Went underneath and found my tranny seems to be leaking from the drain and re-fill bolt. Probably just didn't tighten them down enough. After re-tightening them tomorrow if the leaks don't stop I'll be switching back to a non synthetic oil.
Charlie Moua said:
3) what RPM are you at in 5th gear when going 70mph?
Around 3k rpms
Charlie Moua said:
4) does the car come with factory installed Alarm? is that part of the warentee?
Yes - it is part of the stock warentee. Should be part of the new one for you if warrenty is transferrable.
Charlie Moua said:
5) how much more would a FMIC help in terms of NOT performance BUT added reliablity?
Not much, the MSP is tuned for reliability, not performance. If you keep it stock, you don't need an FMIC. YOu could upgrade the side mount intercooler for much cheaper if you wanted the extra insurance.
Charlie Moua said:
6) would you reccomend to get the ECU re-flashed by dealership? would it help out with getting better MPG?
If you car keeping the car stock, yes I would recommend it. If you ever plan to raise the boost over 8psi you'll need an EMS system to control timing to be safe. If you don't get the flash, the general consencous seems to be 10-12 psi during the summer is ok.
I'm unflashed and have run 10 psi int he summer (with all supporting mods) and been fine. I now run around 8psi daily.
Charlie Moua said:
7) how long do owners usally let their car cool off for after reg driving?
I simply don't get into boost the last mile or so from my house. Plenty of time for the oil to cycle through the turbo. If I've been runnign it really hard I'll give it till the fan turns off (usually about 45 seconds), but most days I just do the driving cool down method. I do change my oil every 3K miles though. 47K miles and still runnign strong.
Good luck
