Rep Power: 0

I don't really have many car friends to talk to about this, but I got this POS Civic about a year ago that I fell in love with and somehow means a lot to me and I just need to talk about it, even if I'm just shouting into the void.

Anyway here's the story of Vicci, an 02 Civic EM2 EX 5-speed with 270k on the clock, and how she got me back into cars after giving up on the hobby about 8 years ago.

 
Rep Power: 0

Background

My car before the civic was a 2010 Focus SE that was reliable, stock, auto, and boring. She got great mpg's and was reliable as a brick though, and had it been completely paid off and a manual I probably would have kept and modified that car. But after making a new friend who was into cars/drifting and teaching me stick on his old 5-speed volvo, I found new interest in my childhood hobby (cars) and wanted something manual that I could tinker with. Nothing major, just something with a small engine and good mpg that I could slam dirt nasty low so it handles like a go cart. I sold my Focus and found a little manual civic coupe, and although she looked rough she fit the bill. Plus the seller was willing to drive an hour and a half to me so long as I could drive him back, so logistically this worked nicely.

In retrospect, I'm willing to admit that I probably shouldn't have bought this car. The young man met me at a gas station, and being a little meek I didn't take the time to really look the car over before signing the title, exchanging money, and beginning our trip back together. I know I know I did it to myself, and I'm definitely bringing someone with a backbone the next time I purchase a vehicle.

Being visibly queer in rural Wisconsin, I was nervous to meet this young man and spend that amount of time alone with him. Luckily he was harmless enough, but halfway through the drive he asked me if I knew the story of Sodom and Gamora which made me chuckle. Fortunately, the car made it home without any incident, and I could begin tearing into it. Oh, the things I would find…

 
Rep Power: 223

Welcome to the forum!

 
Rep Power: 0

Thank you so much for having me! This forum has already been a fount of knowledge on this platform for me, plus I love seeing some of the awesome ideas and builds that come out of here.

 
Rep Power: 0

Starting Point

Aaaand here she was the day we met. As I mentioned, Vicci is a manual 2002 EM2 EX with a whopping 265k miles that had apparently suffered through a gauntlet of teenage boys modifying her. I didn’t know much about seventh gen Civics, Civics generally, or even Hondas at the time, but I knew people really liked Civics and heard they made a great platform for a lightweight, economical daily and that’s what I want. When I saw the marketplace post, I sorta fell in love with how campy and goofy some of the modifications on this car were. It felt like it was modified on a tight, tight budget in the era of the first few FaF movies. It had:

• A big goofy wing that was beaten to ****
• Autozone tint on the windows that was peeling/ripped in several spots, plus had the ‘shocker’ in the rear window
• Interior trim that had been poorly spray painted twice without stripping the original layer (blue, then black)
• $15 amazon “””””BMW””””” steering wheel, which deleted my cruise, airbag, and clock spring
• Rota’s that had been plasti-dipped grey at some point, which was now peeling and looked like ****. Dented af
• An amazon tachometer with all the wires exposed drilled into the a-pillar trim. A perfect compliment to the factory tachometer, which the car also had
• Ebay lowering springs
• A severe lack of a muffler, to go with the missing bolt on the header to downpipe flange
• Tinted aftermarket headlights so that they work less as headlights
• Hood pins, since it no longer had the hood latch after a front end collision

I’m sure the list went on. She was a hot mess, but so am I. I realize asking a high mileage, poorly maintained, and poorly modified Civic to be both something to lightly tinker with AND a reliable daily is a recipe for disaster. I can’t really explain why I did this other than “sometimes you need to do something stupid to feel anything at all.”

 
Rep Power: 0

Hmmm seems like I'm having some issues posting images from my phone and work computer. I'll have to give it a shot when I get home.

 
Rep Power: 0

 
Rep Power: 0

Holy stromboli it worked, we're back in business babyyyy

 
Rep Power: 0

Now that you can see her, a few things to note: it has pretty righteous hail damage, as well as clear front AND rear end damage, rust starting on the rockers and wheel wells, and a shattered windshield. I couldn't tell from the pictures in the post, and because I'm kinda shy and a push over he wanted me to sign the title right away and kinda rushed me so I didn't give it the best inspection. It just seemed to run fairly well, and even if it was ugly I found it charming. But no doubt I got taken for a ride, even with how little I paid. Stick around to find out how!

The last picture in the above set is a close up shot of my power steering pump. I hadn't noticed this fine bit of craftsmanship until I got her home and started digging in. Concerning as it was, it had somehow done well enough for a four hour road trip as it was (whatever exactly "it" would turn out to be). Surely a bad omen on things to come.

 
Rep Power: 0

Well, I can't upload the video for it bc the file is way too big but the worm gear clamp mystery was the first thing I dug into after christening it with an oil change. I got it on jack stands to get under and take a peek, and put together a story of what had happened: a ham-fisted young mechanic before me had broken off the alternator belt tensioner adjustment bolt, and had instead used an extra long bolt on something else with a stack of washers as a mount for a CHAIN OF WORM GEAR CLAMPS to hook to the power steering pump, holding tension on the alternator belt. Amazing. I quite easily extracted the old bolt, and very gracefully the young man had ziptied the factory bolt bracket to the assembly in the hopes that someday it might be repaired and I replaced the broken hardware and got it working as from oem. Immediately, the electronics all started working way better so I can only assume the chain-o-clamps wasn't cutting it for putting tension on the belt, allowing slippage.

Next up, something fun and cheap as a reward for fixing that mess. The car came with some really beaten up hella-yella aftermarket fogs that didn't work that I kinda liked the look of, and figured I could find a cheap kit from ebay that would cut it.


With the bumper off to replace the old units, I got a good look at the front end damage. Ugly af, but it's all in one piece. It was at this point that I figured two things: I will surely be this car's last owner, and I'm sure she'll never drive 100% straight. Best case scenario is she eventually retires from daily duty and becomes a track rat in her twilight years. But for now she's going to be road worthy.

Next, I took off all the wheels and inspected the suspension. They had no name red painted lowering springs with original front shocks and old Koni's in the back. They didn't feel good, but they weren't blown so they would do for now. All four sway bar links were shot, and two were completely separated so I replaced those and the car immediately felt 100% better. The control arms were old and bushings were on their last legs, so I would replace those one set at a time. One gave me quite the challenge, but I'll get to that later.

 
Rep Power: 0

As the months went on, I clean a few things up like replacing all the burnt dash bulbs (peep the horrid blue dash -- that would also eventually get stripped over the year), removing the black paint from the gas door, and finding some clear lens headlights from ebay that have been holding up pretty well so far. Of course had to get the classic civic rear lower control arm/brace combo, so I went brushed aluminum to match the car's color pallet. Also deleted the wing, it was just too much for my taste. Evidence that this car was modified in the early Fast & Furious era.

 
Rep Power: 0

This is the end result of an absolute mess I got myself into. Perhaps the end result of hubris in the face of the sublime power of Midwestern rust.

Originally, I was just going to perform a simple FLCA replacement to get some new bushings and un-rusted arms in there. Mevotech's Supreme line uses solid rubber bushings instead of ones with gaps like oem and firm up the ride ever so slightly compared to stock -- decent budget upgrade. However, while trying to separate the ball joint from the LCA, the ball joint ITSELF separated. That is, the ball dislocated itself by breaking the socket. Oh dear. Not only was I not prepared with parts and tools for a normal ball joint job, but because I was in the middle of a different job when the joint broke I was kinda out of order in my steps. To remove the ball joint from the knuckle, the only way would have been to separate the axle from the knuckle to fit a C-clamp type press to press it out. However, because I hadn't loosened the axle nut before hand while everything was stable, the amount of free movement in the remaining assembly was too much to hold still for me to get any real torque on the nut. This left me with no real way to remove the axle, and so I was unable to remove the ball joint.

Since this was quickly getting expensive with buying tools and parts and leaving me without a car, I thought long and hard and decided on the following: I would leave the strut, knuckle, ball joint (or at least 1/2 of it), AND axle all attached, unbolt the strut from the top, remove the axle from the trans, and replace the whole **** with parts from RockAuto (shouts out, shameless shilling for the cheap parts GOAT). It was a long shot and a big job, but being a home mechanic and fighting with this for two weeks left me without any other options. And it worked! New pre-loaded knuckle, axle, LCA, and ball joint on the passenger side. I ran out of budget to replace the front shocks at the time, so I took an angle grinder to the shock-to-knuckle bolts to free it and reuse it for the time being.


Post-repair test drive and shakedown on some midwestern backroads went very well, everything felt very tight and rode very smoothly without noises (some noises were even gone). I was a little worried about all the new components all being correct spec and assembled and torqued correctly, but I took my time and followed the manual, and things turned out great. A little gumption and thinking outside the box combined with going slowly really did the trick in the end. Good learning experience for me as an amateur mechanic.

 
Rep Power: 223

Good work dude

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks again! I know it's not the most desirable platform or example of a 7g civic even, but for someone who loves cars and doesn't have much money to do all sorts of crazy building it's been great. Dudette, btw hahaha.

I don't expect anyone to actually read through all this, so buckle up for some exhaustive writing about a box-of-rats Civic purely for my own enjoyment.

 
Rep Power: 0

In between the more interesting projects I'd tackled up to this point, I did a bunch of more minor projects in-between. Here they are:

• Stripped paint from interior plastics. Absolutely grueling process, I probably should have just replaced w junkyard parts.
• Fixed downpipe leak
• New plugs
• New valve cover gasket
• Valve adjustment
• Replaced some shifter bushings with delrin
• Got the power door locks working! Vicci is an EX so I knew it came with it, so I bought a remote and programmed it to the car. It worked... for the passenger side. Replaced the lock actuator and got both working properly.
• Replaced steering wheel with oem junkyard unit + clockspring, restoring my air bag (something I really wanted as my daily commuter), cruise control, and auto-cancelling turn signals
• Replaced and rattlecan color matched ps. side mirror. 6/10 paint job, looks fine from 10 ft. and 80% better than the bashed one that was on it.
• Slapped a cheap ebay muffler on it. She was missing from the resonator back when I got it and already wasn't terribly loud, so I wanted to quiet it down even more to civilize it.

Here's T-Bone next to a bunch of our stupid projects:


Around the start of summer 2025, I had noticed my car seemed to be running hotter than it liked (having owned and ridden the hell out of several old air cooled UJM's I was familiar with the feeling). After inspecting, I found that my radiator fan wasn't coming on at any point. With the factory dummy temp gauge I couldn't tell how hot it was getting, but it never got hot enough for the gauge to rise past the middle of the normal range. After reading some about it, I checked a few things and decided to replace both the coolant temp sensors and it fixed my issue. I could tell immediately that the car was much more happy in traffic once fully warmed up or after some spirited driving.

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay it's time to address these wheels. They are 16x7 Rota GT3's, and as I mentioned earlier in my posts they were beaten to hell by the time I got them, were very poorly plastidipped grey (peeling quite badly by this point), and were wrapped in absolutely trash tires. Not knowing if Vicci would last long enough to be worth it and also being a broke bitch, replacing the wheels wasn't in the cards quite yet. However, tires are a safety item and make a massive difference in handling, so I decided to get new 205/50R16 Faulken Ziex ze950's on them and I'd give repainting them a shot. The tires got good reviews online for a budget daily enthusiast tire and were in budget, and I really don't care much about these reps. Alright, let's see what's under the plastidip:



OOF.
So here's what was underneath. Unfortunately because I didn't have a spare set of wheels to use while painting and I had to drive around restocking on painting supplies as I went, I painted them one at time over the next few weeks, rocking mismatched grey and red wheels the whole time. Now to each their own, but I think the red is hideous on this car so that was painful hahaha. Anyway, here's the finished product:



The paint is maybe a 6.5/10. I really took my time with taping, prepping, sanding, and used 2x base, 4/5x color, and 3x clear coats. I'm a pretty novice painter and was working with rattle cans and painting outdoors so there are certainly plenty of imperfections. But mostly they have a decent gloss, good coverage, and look 90% better than when I got it. Not my first time painting wheels, but every time I do it I learn a lot and get a little better. I also wanted to try the wing out again to see what I thought after a while, but I decided I was right and didn't like it still and would soon take it back off.

 
Rep Power: 0

Another list of in-between projects I worked on around the same time that I don't have pictures for:

• Replaced cabin air filter (didn't have one when I got it, surprise surprise)
• Degreased engine bay
• Removed crusty cheap tint from all but quarter windows. I learned a hard lesson with the rear window, however: I didn't realize the defroster lines were painted on to the outside of the glass instead of inbedded between layers, and while I went at it with a razor COMPLETELY DESTROYED THE LINES. Now my rear defrost doesn't work at all :'( good to know in the future, I suppose.
• Energy poly motor mount inserts
• Replaced missing wheel well plastics and undertray. Being a daily driver in Wisconsin, you want as much snow and salt protection as you can get.
• Replaced missing radio/compartment mounting hardware to get everything secure once again.
• Re-vinyl'd door window trim
• Replaced an ABS sensor
• Performed DIY seat wobble fix (shout out to Gearbox)
• LED interior, license plate, and trunk lights
• Color matched the outside shell of rear view mirror and the surround for the grill. Did not do a good job on the grill hahaha peeled the tape too late and the edges are really rough, plus the clear has oxidized much worse than the rest of the painting I've done. I'll have to redo that sometime.

 
Rep Power: 0

Monroe had a serious closeout sale on oem spec shocks on rockauto at the time, so I scooped up all four corners for like $50. I wanted to get sport shocks eventually, but figured this would help immensely in the mean time. And they did! Crazy good deal. That's also my AC accumulator (I think). It was the last part of the oem AC system still in the engine bay. The boys that owned Vicci before me had ripped out or destroyed most of the oem lines, compressor, and condenser, so I just finished the job to clean things up. Oh well, not every car can have AC I guess.

I didn't take any pictures for this, but I also replaced my front discs, pads, and calipers with oe spec stuff as well as new fluid at some point before all this. The old units were burnt, thin, leaking and seized. Super cheap on this car, and god did it make a difference. As with most things I've replaced in the car, my main goal (while this car is a daily driver) has been to make the vital systems of this car work as oem intended, while upgrading/modifying little things along the way to hopefully improve it's capabilities a little when I want to go rip around back roads.

Another thing I didn't take pictures of was my steering overhaul. New inner and outer tie rods, plus the Jackspania steering rack riser and slider upgrade to help reduce bump steer (she's lowered, after all). Of course, fluid change at this point too. Another night and day difference. I think at this point in the build, things are beginning to go from life support to tuning a little bit, and with every shake down test I can feel this car becoming smoother, less crashy, quieter, and healthier. It steers better, generally feels less vague when I'm throwing it around corners, and the grip has increased dramatically compared to when I got it (with bald, rotten tires, bad alignment, essentially disconnected sway bars, bad struts, bad bushings, bad tie rods, and bump steer galore). It's still not sorted at all, but it feels good to wake this thing back up.

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay, I'll have to think hard about what I all got at the junkyard over the months. Here are some of the highlights:

• Steering wheel
• Cruise buttons
• Clockspring
• Factory spare jack (mine was missing)
• Trunk carpet (mine was missing)
• Oem rear mudguards (still looking for the fronts, my ebay ones are trash)
• Windshield trim
• Door weather stripping (turned out my door was a little bent in the upper corner from an attempted break in, so some of the sound/leakage was fixed by just reeeeefin on the corner of the doorto bend it back hahaha whatcha gonna do)
• Aftermarket thick gauge ground strap
• Oem gas cap
• Oem spoiler
• Rear bumper
• Oem shift boot & bezel (mine was a nasty aftermarket one, plus painted and scratched)
• Oem shfit ****, for the winter when I don't want any metal lol
  
  Good shot of the wheel and shift boot, plus all the paint stripping I've done. Yes, the floral wrap is loud. Idrc haha I love it, it's cute

 
Rep Power: 0

ANOTHER big list of things I did in the meantime without taking pictures:

• Adjustable RUCA's from Mevotech. Another Supreme line banger; rubber bushings, but adds adjustability for rear camber. Months later and they still feel great.
• JVC door speakers
• Re-threaded a valve cover bolt hole. I learned how soft aluminum was and over tightened one, stripping it and allowing oil seepage near it. Helicoil and a Honda Resource yt vid later, and I fixed it and the leak it caused very nerve wracking to perform, honestly
• Replaced VTEC solenoid gasket and screen, fixed another leak.
• Replaced a couple evap valves trying to chase an evap leak cel, which this fixed
• Speedfactory hd shifter detent springs, feel great
• Trans fluid flush. Gotta love and care for my sweet tranny <3
• Front strut tower brace, ebay
• SS clutch line. Only replaced because the one that was on it wasn't oem, but really nasty looking, hand-bent hard line
• New clutch master cylinder, mine was squeaking like crazy
• Coolant flush
• Driver side motor mount replacement
• New up- and downstream O2 sensors

Things to note in the engine bay: no AC lines, bent to hell rad support, hood pins ran through said rad support (believe me it's on the to-do list to fix), variety of exhaust manifold bolts that miraculously don't cause any leaks, and a continuous chain of grounds from dr side strut tower > valve cover > ps side strut tower > battery > engine near thermostat > rad support > alternator shell. That last one is an obsessive pursuit of good charging and strong electronics in this vehicle. It just makes EVERYTHING work better. The things I've noticed improved since adding all upgraded grounds: headlight brightness, throttle response, battery cold-cranking (again, Wisconsin commuter car bonus), radio and audio quality, and I'm sure more. Very worth the total of ~$50 of thicker gauge ground straps from rockauto (if I keep name dropping, I'm hoping they'll let me have my own car sticker).

Axle boot on the side I didn't replace was torn, but still had plenty of grease, so I opted to rebuild the axle. Cool learning experience, I feel confident doing it again. I know a lot of people say reconditioning oem parts can be better than buying aftermarket in some cases, and I tend to agree.

Megan Racing RS Shocks! CarID was having a crazy sale, so I scooped these up and they feel WICKED better than the Monroe oe spec's. My car is approaching what I had hoped having a lowered civic would be like :')

Oh, and I did an okay job color matching the spoiler. I'm going to have a shop paint the bumper eventually, but for now the mismatch is almost charming. And that brings up to today! I started getting a P0420 the other week, so I'm replacing the cat and trying to make it fit with the stainless ebay 2.5" catback. Wish me luck, and I'm sure there will be more to come. It's been a good first year with it.

 
Rep Power: 0

I feel so bad for not seeing this thread earlier!

Looks like you have a clear vision. I'm looking forward to seeing this thing get buttoned up.

As a supporter of Drive Deviant, know that there are safe people in the scene, so don't get discouraged by the old heads.

 
Rep Power: 367

wow, it is getting much better, nice!
unsure of light output for those headlights, read on morimoto retrofit if you need more light.
car-part.com to check nearby scrapyards (should have given this long ago)

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks, me too finding other deviants helped me get back into cars, something I thought was no longer "for" me.

Thanks! Hahaha I wasn't quite sure what you meant at first, but after looking back at the pictures I posted I see what you're seeing. Don't worry, I just happen to have my headlights turned off for all the pictures I posted by coincidence. When they're on, they are quite bright and provide excellent night-time visibility.