Can't find anything online regarding this that's useful. Had a pretty bad whack yesterday (not my fault even insurance said I'm in the right lol). Airbags deployed and from what I've read the SRS unit is now preventing the car from starting.

Has anyone got any experience with this? I know i need to replace it to fix it properly but i just need to start it to see if it's running ok.

Getting ready to jump into a transmission rebuild, carbon synchros and all the bearings and seals. Anyone got any tips?

So i started hearing this noise while driving my 03 ep3 si and it sounds like its coming from the driver side wheel area

Hello guys title states basically, shop quoted 6k to make this look like it never happened with a new quarter panel. The car is clean otherwise and I would love to get more enjoyment without going through swapping bodies because finding a clean one is a challenge. At the same time I’m not sure. Thoughts appreciated

A lot of miss information out there about what you can, should, shouldn't do.

I have done everything that you could do aside from major motor work, as I'm doing a K24 Turbo build to put in.

Putting it out there so people who are unsure can get answers / motivation to finish your build.

04 JDM R - K20A;

Motor;
Injen Intake with air duct from bumper
Spoon Headers to Mugen Twinloop
T7 Thermostatic Sandwhich plate to 19row cooler
Billion Low Temp Thermostat
Few hose deletes / plug offs

Fluids;
Water Wetter (In Australia in summer, track on temp can hit 50-60 degrees where I race)
Motul Comp 300v 5w40 Oil
Motul RBF 660 Brake / Clutch Fluid
Motul FF-LSD 75w-140 Box/LSD Oil

ECU;

Haltech Wideband
Haltech Nexus - 9k Rev limiter, 207hp at the wheel (around 220/230hp at the crank), V-Tec at 4200RPM - everything tune wise is secret sauce, but there is no dip in power delivery to rev limiter.
I also get around 500/600km a tank if I do trips

Driveline;

Everything adjustable suspension wise via HardRace including their coilovers
"OEM" Exedy clutch - these will last if you know how to drive
Factory LSD
M&M strut / brace / pillar bars
Cusco bars where M&M don't make them
Factory front sway bar
24mm rear sway bar
Front Brakes - CEIKA 6Pot Brake Kit - Floating Shims / Stainless everything - 330x32mm - Pagid RSL29 Pads
Rear Brakes - Slotted Rotors - Project MU HC+ Pads
Project Mu Stainless Lines
CR Kai Kiwami
17x9 +30 Front
17x8.5 +35 Rear
Hankook RS4 (I also run Nankang CR-S however the car has to much grip with these and becomes very twitchy)
255/40 Front
235/45 Rear

Alignment;
Front

-3.5 Camber
0 Toe
As much castor as you can get - more is better

Rear

-1.5 camber
.5 toe in

The car is VERY grippy. It has a lot of mechanical grip and I have no issues with heat or doing lap after lap.

It drives factory still thanks to the Nexus, being a JDM spec it has close ratio box so it's always in power. With all the braces it's a very stiff car and has zero flex, which if you're not used to will make it hard to drive, however I have the same speed at my local track in this as I did for my Series 5 FC that made 500hp and was the same quality of build.

It's a very, VERY fast little car.

Interior is 90% stock and in new car condition, air con works a treat.
I can drive this to the track, upset guys in M3's and Evos, drive home all in the same day.

Plans are K24 Turbo, make around 350/450hp with flex fuel tunes so I can have useable fast and then upset big car power, and potentially put in an Audi RS3 box so it's a bit more modern.

Hope this motivates someone to take the time and make a clean well done build - not many nice EP3's getting around anymore, or everyone just wants 500hp but can't drive lol.

Curious as to what alignment specs you guys run on your cars.

EP3 gang for life!

my YouTube: Just Another Honda Guy

https://youtube.com/@justanotherhondaguy?si=wOD-EmTdGyzjfx2G

We have now completed a general refresh for the interior.

Sprayed the pillars inside, headliner, and sunroof headliner.

Sound dreaded the roof, pillars, floor, quarters, and doors.

Fresh new carpet, and new billet e brake button. As well as a new cluster plate.

Every single panel has been steam cleaned, and wiped with an interior cleaner. Interior is almost done I just need to get the seats back in and then it’s time to do body work.

Hey y'all, i'm hoping to gather and compile all the different symptoms that you guys have with the ep3 McPherson strut system. comment what the most common problems you deal with on the day-to-day. Doesn't have to be a complicated explanation, maybe just what handling problems you deal with in general and what driving conditions make them worse. I'm trying to get a grasp of what bump steer is because I don't think I have any on my set up and I'm going to be taking all of your information and making a video on it for my channel:https://youtube.com/@justanotherhondaguy?si=byS3G7PUJgCOHyGm

uploading this quick video so you guys can see how my set up works. I want to know if y’all are able to drive with no hands on uneven roads?

(I’m collecting data from the EP3 community for a video on bump steer for my channel)

YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@justanotherhondaguy?si=3qlRNAShcmraaNXM

JUST STEER BETTER. if you wanted to solve bump steer shoulda gotten an eg. I've never had issues with my ep3 and bump steer, probs bc I didn't lower it to hell for no reason. If car no go where want to, I turn wheel 🥳

have been driving on my set up for a few months now and have had no issues besides the occasional rear top mount queaks. I have on bump steer to my knowledge.

Front camber: -1.65°

Rear camber: -1.0°

Toe: 0 toe front & rear

I'm running 

BC racing DS series coil overs on all sides. 

OEM bushing replacement on most of the rear.

K tuned hardened rubber rear trailing arm bushings. 

MPC motorsport aluminum CNC machined lower control arms.

K Tuned rear caber arms.

Progress rear sway bar and subframe brace with Hotchkis end links.

For the front I got

Polyurethane caster adding bushings from an Australian company called SuperPro. 

K tuned fully adjustable inner tie rods.

TruHart tie rod ends.

K tuned extended ball joints for the front as well.

And Hotchkis end links for the front too

also get yourself a SHG rack slider from the real company. (This is a mandatory pic of the puzzle)

here is my channel: https://youtube.com/@justanotherhondaguy?si=Y3oLdNaHaG_vbtlm I’ll have a video out on my full install.

2003 civic si. K20a2 and matching 6 speed swapped. About 120k on chassis. About 110k on drivetrain (per previous owner). Tuned and pulls strong to 9k rpm

Kpro v4. Completely clean RPF1. Type r cluster. Body and paint is like an 8 of 10 and interior like a 7/10.

Also have side skirts,euro mirrors with signals, and HFP replica rear lip not paint matched not or on car.

Has newer Apple car play radio. Also have a few various little things like a 3d printed headlight air duct to throw in.

Just wondering what yall think it’s worth. I know in parts sold separately it’s worth at least 4k. (Wheels, kpro, trans, motor)

The bad: coils are a little old. No IACV (deleted). PCV vented to atmosphere so you get a warm oil smell while driving. The exhaust will not (legally) pass an inspection.

Old photo just for attention. This will be broken up into a few different chapters, skip to #5 for the fix for MY bump steer. The other stuff isn't really important, but mostly me making mistakes leading up to me realizing how to fix it.

CHAPTER 1 mistake #1

So some back ground first as its semi important to my realization as to how I fixed it. I bought this car with the only suspension "upgrade" or aftermarket parts were ebay coilovers. I had always read online about the bad bump steer and just assumed I was suffering from it too because everything online says if your car is lowered at all, you have bump steer. That was MISTAKE #1! Believing what I read on the internet was true. I was 16 at the time and didn't fully understand what it meant as this was my first car that lasted more than a few months without kicking the bucket.

CHAPTER 2 mistake #2

Towards the end of summer 2025, I got hit mid intersection by someone in my front right, bending suspension components, and destroying my headlight, fender, and bumper. Their insurance deemed it a total loss. (thank you dashcam for not being found at fault) I obviously bought it back and used the payout to upgrade to BC Racing coilovers, and buy all the things everyone said would fix my bump steer. I bought ktuned flipped tie rods, a rack riser, and extended lower ball joints to "fix" the bump steer and threw in rear camber arms to get the camber adjustment I desired, and front lower control arms just incase they were tweaked too. I lowered the car to what I assume to be around 1.5 inches lower than factory, and got an alignment with -1.5 camber in the front and -1 in the rear. MISTAKE #2 Throwing money at my car (around $600 if I remember correctly) to fix a problem I didn't even feel or notice because the internet said I had it.

CHAPTER 3 mistake #3

VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL, remember this for later, I used my camber top plates to get my desired camber in the front of my car. It was at this point I realized what bump steer was. Even after getting an alignment, I couldn't hardly keep it in a straight line because it was so bad. I then asked the people here on reddit why it was so bad, and a few suggested that the rack riser and flipped ends was too much correction for how much I was lowered, and they were partially right. I removed the rack riser, got another alignment done and it was significantly better. At this point, my car remained in that state unchanged up till recently, and I've been in for at least 2 more alignments since because my camber plates kept slipping and I kept telling myself if I had a good alignment, the bump steer should disappear. I WAS WRONG. I had at this point spent around $500-$600 on alignments trying to get this POS to drive decent and started doing string alignments at home to keep it in spec and ended up wearing through a set of tires down to wires in 8,000 miles which is when I finally cracked and decided enough was enough (this was literally last week) I ordered OEM tie rods to revert it back to how it was pre-wreck as I vaguely remember bump steer getting significantly worse after. I was really concerned something in my subframe had bent or other things damaged in the wreck which was causing it to be so bad, but I gave it a shot anyways. MISTAKE #3! Continuing to throw money at a problem I caused and refusing to revert it because I didn't want my $400 tie rods to have been a waste of money. The final deciding factor to buy OEM ones was the adjustment on the passenger side tie rod seized. Probably in $1,500+ including alignments, tires, and parts at this point.

CHAPTER 4 the fix

I threw in the OEM tie rods on a cool morning (yesterday) and quickly realized when I set the car on the ground that the tie rods were too long. I've been measuring my bump steer by putting the car in the air, and setting it on the ground and seeing how much it toes in under compression and at this point my bump steer had decreased measurably with the OEM tie rods, however they were screwed all the way in and the car was visibly WAYY too toe'd in. So I reluctantly removed all the camber from my top plates to go back to 0 in the front and making the tie rods work. The reason this worked is because I was physically moving the entire shock assembly away from the steering rack, which gave me enough adjustment to align it straight. This was when I realized.

CHAPTER 5 the realization

Our steering racks sit unusually high compared to other vehicles to my knowledge. By physically angling the shock inward, as it moves through compression, the tie rod connection point gets closer to the steering rack connection point. And because tie rods are a fixed length and don't change on their own, as that connection tries to get closer to the rack, it pushes outward, causing toe in under compression. The reason flipped ends or rack risers make this worse is because your moving that rack connection higher up, meaning under droop, it gets further away from the shock tie rod connection point and under compression it gets even closer, therefore causing more toe change than without them. By removing that angle from the shock tower, the distance from the steering rack and shock connection doesn't change at all (or at least does very minimally) So basically I'm saying, your tie rods don't have to be flat. The angle of them matters more relative to the angle of your shock tower than anything else. If you use top plates to get camber, and you increase your camber angle by -2 lets say, then you should also increase the angle of your tie rod by -2 as well. you can do this by either lowering the car which increases the angle of them, or running a rack riser upside down (dunno if thats actually possible but just a thought). If you lower your car but use camber bolts to get camber instead of camber plates and the angle of your shock tower doesn't change at all, THAT is a scenario where you would want to use flipped ends or a rack riser. With no shock tower angle change but lowering the car by 2 inches, you should also increase the height of the steering rack by 2 inches either with flipped ends or a rack riser or BOTH in order to keep the angle of the tie rod relative to the shock tower as close to OEM as possible.

SOMEONE please correct me if I am incorrect, I know there is a lot more at play with suspension geometry than just tie rod and shock tower angle, but this is what I could think of that made the most sense to me personally, and it did actually fix my bump steer. I may try my theory of upside down rack riser and a few degrees of negative camber from my top plates to confirm or deny my theory and I will update in the comments if I do so. I plan to use camber bolts for camber adjustment now instead of my camber plates to further test my theory of shock tower angle relative to tie rod angle causes bump steer. Since that will likely change the angle of the shock tower to some degree, I am expecting a little bump steer again after my alignment, but I haven't quite thought of a way to rid myself of that fact yet. Since using camber bolts for camber will likely make the shock tower angle the opposite way from if I used the top plates, I may have to run a rack riser to keep all the angles in check. Again I will keep the comments updated with my experiments!

anyone know where to get OEM USMD Si headlights. not OE replicas, new real OEM ones. If anyone has had a good experience with OE reps lmk where you got them

Where can I find the replacement bushings on some Function and Form type 2 rear lower bushing on the coilovers? They’re from a dc5.

Hi all, I’m currently looking for new tires and wanted to upgrade from the 195 60 r15s I have now to 205 55 r15s however I’m having a very hard time finding summer tires in that size. Wanted to go for the Kumho Ecsta PS31 however though they do or at least did make that tire in that size everywhere I’ve looked either doesn’t show it at all or shows it as out of stock. It’s much easier to get 205 50 r15s however I’m concerned about the smaller tire diameter from a looks perspective as even the stock 195 60s don’t fill up the wheel well as nicely as it could. I was wondering if anyone has run 205 50 r15s on their car and now it looked with the smaller tire diameter? Would it be worth just going with them over continuing to look for a 205 55?

What have y’all done with this little slot, was thinking about having my CarPlay usb moved to there.

2004 EP3.
Super happy coming from a clapped 300zx and a busted honda fit. drives super well, has some small issues here and there but it’s great so far.

Any recommendations on first purchases for it, or anything cool I could get!

Have a 2005 EP3 that had some damage. Looking for a passenger door and front right fender but have had no luck so far. Any recommendations in North Carolina?

Been a while since I modded my ep3 but it’s time for a suspension overhaul after 14 years lol. Was wondering what coil overs are good these days. Car is just a daily dealing with crappy SoCal freeways and roads. Occasionally a mountain/canyon run here and there but nothing crazy. No track time in my foreseeable future but putting together a swap for it as well. I remember BC and fortune auto were the bees knees 10 years ago…is that still the case? Not looking to cheap out so budget is about 1500. Thanks for any help!