My '17 Civic Si "Miss Vicky"

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RickTheWelder

RickTheWelder

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That was a fun install!
I'm very impressed with the job Wilwood did putting this kit together. Everything fit excellently well making it a relative breeze to install. The drivers side took a few assembly/disassembly tries to get all the shim spacing right before everything was lock-tite'd together.

The only thing that I found troublesome was the wheel fitment. Wilwood and twostepperformance both state that a thin (3-5mm I believe) wheel spacer is required if you want to keep using your stock Honda wheels. Although this isn't TECHNICALLY incorrect, there is a problem with that statement.
The brake kit uses a "universal" rotor, drilled for 2 bolt patterns and requiring a hub centric ring for correct mounting. This is where the 3-5mm spacer creates a problem.
My HFP wheels just brushed the front of the rotor, requiring a spacer but by using the hub centric ring and the slightly thicker rotors it does not leave enough hub protruding to catch the hub of the wheel.
The result is that your wheels are left hanging on the vehicle's wheel studs rather than the center bore of the hub. If you plan on doing any spirited/track driving (why else would you buy these brakes?) you may encounter problems if the wheel studs decide they can't hold the spinning mass of the wheel and shear off.

The solution? Why, thicker wheel spacers of course!
After some homework, I decided to purchase some H&R 15mm studded spacers.
Honda Civic 10th gen My '17 Civic Si "Miss Vicky" hur-spurverbreiterung-drm_1161

They have a hub centric lip machined into the spacer which allows the weight of the wheel to be safely supported and takes the stress off the studs.

Now, I've never been a fan or supporter of wheel spacers - but - I have to say, once these were bolted on it totally changed the loom and stance of the car. Who knew that 15mm would make such a huge difference in the way the car presented itself? Not me, that's who. I think I need another pair for the rear to even things out. Check out this offset difference between front and rear:
Honda Civic 10th gen My '17 Civic Si "Miss Vicky" 20190525_184419


Anyway, back to the brakes - the line kit is also a required add-on as the factory flex lines are incompatible with the wilwood fittings. Wilwood provides a 90° that is NPT on one end and JIC (by the looks of it) on the other. I added some teflon tape and sealing goop (loctite 567 sealant to be exact) to the NPT side to ensure a good seal. As I mention in the vid, if manufactured correctly NPT thread will seal on itself but with a mass production run, some extra insurance won't hurt. Just be sure to keep the sealant away from the end of the fitting to avoid introducing it into the braking system.

Once the SS lines replaced the OEM ones, it was just a matter of bleeding the system and begin the bedding process.


What good would new brakes be if they aren't faced correctly to the rotors? Well, no good at all really. A braking system is only as good as its contact area. The more surface area, the better. The details of the bedding process are available online but the gist of it involves a series of acceleration and deceleration to heat cycle the pads and rotors. I ventured out at night to a closed industrial park nearby which provided me some empty straightaways in order to work everything in. Although specified in the instructions, the amount of smoke and stink coming off the brakes was a little nerve wracking.

After I completed all the cycles and allowed the brakes to cool to ambient temp (make sure you don't keep your foot on the brake pedal during that part) I checked the rotor and found a nice, even wear pattern across the whole surface with no blotchy areas - if there's evidence of heat scorching or powder coating remaining, you'll need to get the rotors machined and start again.
Honda Civic 10th gen My '17 Civic Si "Miss Vicky" 15608694478174143418416943174788
 
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RickTheWelder

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Great news guys!
Episode 10 of Rick's Garage is now up and available on YouTube!



More details to follow!
 
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RickTheWelder

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Not a huge update on this one but probably the easiest upgrade so far! Mind you, I'd expect no less being that all the suspension components are factory Honda parts so there's no reason to expect they wouldn't be a perfect fit.

I've heard a lot of hate for factory "upgrades" -
"The manufacturer should have installed them at the factory." and
"A sub-trim is just a cash grab."

I completely agree with both of the above statements. Of what I understand the HFP kit was made available for the 2018 year and up. That tells me that my dissatisfaction with the suspension of the "base" Si was felt by owners of the 2016 and '17 years. It was the customer and review feedback that prompted Honda to make the HFP sub-trim available but I think at a minimum, the mechanical components should've been made standard equipment.
Obviously there would've been a price bump - and for that reason, I'm glad it wasn't made standard equipment.
As mentioned in the vid, I had a chance to buy an HFP-equipped Si but the margin between the two vehicles (approx $8000 CDN) was much too steep to justify the better suspension. If Honda tacked that much of a markup on the Si's price tag it would make the trim a very hard sell.

Regardless why Honda made the upgraded suspension available, I'm glad they did. I think this will be a good hybrid between daily driver and weekend warrior track car.

Stay tuned!
 
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Honda Civic 10th gen My '17 Civic Si "Miss Vicky" LSt


Rick's garage episode 11 is online and available for viewing!



If you like what you see, leave a like and subscribe!

More details to follow!
 
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RickTheWelder

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I can now understand why a lot of guys opt to only upgrade the rear swaybar instead of the pair.

The rear swaybar was a breeze to remove - the hardest part was raising the car and putting it on jackstands.

The front however ... *hold on, i need to remove the whole WHAT to get the front swaybar out?!?! That's right - for those of you who don't already know, the whole front subframe has to be removed to access the front swaybar. Some genius at Honda decided to locate it underneath the steering rack! Thanks Honda.
As extensive as it sounds - and may look in the video, it's not really all that terrible. The minimum amount of disassembly is as follows:
Swaybar endlinks (duh)
Steering rack to steering column
Steering rack electrical
Tie rod ends
Front pipe (exhaust)
Rear motor mount
Lower balljoints
A couple of misc brackets under the car

And that's it! Definitely a time/labour intensive job but I'm hoping the end result will be worth it.
 


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RickTheWelder

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Part 2 of Miss Vicky's swaybar upgrade is available on YouTube!

 
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RickTheWelder

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Episode 13 of Rick's Garage is now available on YouTube!

It's time for the transmission to come out!

 
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RickTheWelder

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Great news everyone!
Episode 14 of Rick's Garage is now available to watch on YouTube!



This episode finishes up Phase One and all the running gear upgrades! Only a matter of time until Phase Two begins!
 
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RickTheWelder

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Good and bad news folks!
The good news is that episode 15 of Rick's Garage is now available on YouTube!



The not so good news is that my new Spec clutch doesn't work properly!! She won't engage in any gear!
Will Miss Vicky ever roll again under her own power?!?

Yes - yes of course she will. Gotta love the added dramatic effect, right?
Details to follow!
 
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RickTheWelder

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Great news guys! Episode 17 of Rick's Garage is now available on YouTube!

What's that? I missed episode 16? I wouldn't think of it! Episode 16 was a special guest episode starring my buddy's VW - but now we're back to the land of the rising sun with episode 17.

We're taking a look back on how the 2 piece Wilwood rotors are assembled and wired up for safety!

 


Lagos

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Good job on the videos but I think that you would get more views if you specified what car you were working on in the video description.
 
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RickTheWelder

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Good job on the videos but I think that you would get more views if you specified what car you were working on in the video description.
Does the description of the video affect search results differently than video tags?
 

Lagos

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Does the description of the video affect search results differently than video tags?
I don't know, but searching for "10th gen civic x clutch install" pulls up a lot of videos that have those terms in the title, and not your excellent video on the topic. Even if it did come up in the results, I wouldn't know to click on it because I wouldn't think it was related to my car based on your generic title.

Just a tip. You have good content. I'm sure more people would be interested if it was more obvious to find.
 
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RickTheWelder

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Hope everyone had a good holiday and great New Year! After some hard work and trying to learn a new editing program, episode 18 of Rick's Garage is now available!

Phase 2 has begun and I'm starting it off with the install of 27Won's CAI

 
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RickTheWelder

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Hello everyone! I received a question/comment requesting a follow-up comparison review on the HFP suspension I installed on Miss Vicky and the factory Si suspension that was on the car when I purchased it!

Sponsored

 


 


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