My 2002 RSX Type-S [2 Year Update]

[sentra_dude]

^^^^Wow I really like the final result. 

It's called ''3M Headlight Lens Restoration System'' right? I must to do it on my two sister's cars : Acura 1.7EL & Nissan Altima SE.

My best buddy is a Regional Director for Carquest so I can get all parts & products for super cheap price. 

 

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with it, I keep looking back at the car now, hahah. Yeah, that's the one. Have fun doing two cars! But seriously, as you've seen it does actually work.

The result looks good. What cause the fogginess? Cause the other light looks perfect.

Thanks, the fogginess is supposedly caused by smog, chemicals in road grime, and sunlight... I'm not really sure why it has only affected one headlight though. It's half the work for me so that's nice, but it is weird. Maybe there is some kind of protective clear-coat-like finish that wore off one of the headlights and that's why it became foggy, I really don't know. I do see a lot of early RSXs with this problem though, and it's usually both headlights. And the other side, like you say, is literally perfect.

[spanky]

looks awesome dude!

could it have had moisture in it or something? over a long period of time?

[sentra_dude]

looks awesome dude!

could it have had moisture in it or something? over a long period of time?

There is some minor moisture on the inside of the lens, but I don't think it caused the yellowing/fogging since it was on the outside, but I don't know.

[ARMAN]

before and after result is pretty good, polishing it with too high speed drills easely "burn" the plastic, did you polish by hand?

[sentra_dude]

before and after result is pretty good, polishing it with too high speed drills easely "burn" the plastic, did you polish by hand?

I used a cordless drill with 350 or 600 RPM (low & high spd), they recommeneded using one with 1200 to 1600 RPM. I'm kind of glad I didn't use a higher speed one so I didn't "burn" the plastic. It may have taken less time with a higher speed one, but for a beginner a slower drill does the job nicely.

[Slusbe]

Did the 3M kit only have polish, or did it have some sort of wax to put on afterwards? I think part of the thing that prevents headlights from fogging/yellowing is a stock coating that filters UV. I've heard that headlights will yellow quicker once that coating is gone. Then again, your coating may have already been gone for some reason, hence the initial fogginess

[sentra_dude]

Did the 3M kit only have polish, or did it have some sort of wax to put on afterwards? I think part of the thing that prevents headlights from fogging/yellowing is a stock coating that filters UV. I've heard that headlights will yellow quicker once that coating is gone. Then again, your coating may have already been gone for some reason, hence the initial fogginess

It had several different sandpaper grits with a wax as the final finisher. I think if there was a coating it's been long gone with how yellow the lens was. I'm guessing it will fog up in a year or so and I'll have to do it again, hopefully it will last longer than that though.

[Slusbe]

Ah ok. Well here's to hoping that it will last a long time.

Apparently you can get plastic sealants for UV protection (according to this site). Might be good to look into.

[sentra_dude]

Ah ok. Well here's to hoping that it will last a long time.

Apparently you can get plastic sealants for UV protection (according to this site). Might be good to look into.

Interesting, I might try and pick some up at the local car parts store. Thanks Slusbe.

[zot09]

Wow, your headlight looks much better 

[Slusbe]

Interesting, I might try and pick some up at the local car parts store. Thanks Slusbe.

NP. Oh, and if I didn't say already, I agree with zot09 - your headlight looks fantastic now

[sentra_dude]

Thanks guys! 

[sentra_dude]

Time for another update on ownership. Tomorrow will be 2 years since I bought the RSX, but as I'll be gone tomorrow I'll do the update one day early.   Thankfully the miles have been pilling on a little bit slower this last year than in the first year I had the car. In the first 6 months I put nearly 9,000 miles (14,500 km) on it, but in the last year and a half I've only put another 10,000 miles (16,200 km) or so on it. Fuel efficiency has seen a nice little bump as well, no thanks to my hard driving, and rather because so much of my time is spent driving on the interstate. At least it's a pretty good highway cruiser. I finally discovered that my RSX has this thing called a C-D changer so even though I'm not as up to date as the cool kids with their ipods, I at least can listen to lots of music during long drives. The brakes just started squealing a few days ago so I think it might be time for some new pads and the starter is acting up occasionally...so more stuff to spend money on!  

Here are the numbers from the last two years:
19,084.3 miles / 30713.2 km
616.1 gallons / 2332.2 liters
Overall mpg=30.9 mpg / 7.5 l/100km

A few notes on driving: I wish this little high-revving motor had some more low end torque as it really requires at least one, maybe two, down-shifts for decent passing on the highway (and I wish vtec was lower).  Too much body lean! It's not a lot, but after getting pretty comfortable with the car and pushing it pretty hard on deserted on-ramps and such you notice it does have some noticeable body lean. Otherwise, I'm still loving the engine and the seemingly endless revs it has, the classy interior, sporty handling, large trunk, economy, and the small overall size of the car.  

A quick snap from today:

[danidmas]

That's not a bad fuel consumption. My Meriva, with a 1.7 turbo-diesel engine... never goes below 6.2 l/100km

[sentra_dude]

Time for another update. With the cold weather the starter started (ha) grinding again (from my understanding the gear that drives the fly-wheel was not retracting quickly enough so it'd grind momentarily after the engine caught, the cold making the problem worse). The problem had been very intermittent and had disappeared altogether after I replaced the battery, but then returned.  Because of my crazy schedule and being gone for 4 day stretches at a time taking my car into the mechanic is not simple! Anyways, I finally took it in, and of course they found something else wrong.  Apparently the knock sensor was basically just barely holding on and even a slight touch would break it (it has to be removed in the starter changing process) so that also had to be replaced.  Total bill including an oil change (ouch!):
$488
Anyways, the starter doesn't grind on start anymore! Yeah! It was a terrible cringe inducing noise, thank god it's not there, but I'm still scared it's going to come back, please don't!     

Oh yeah, and all the work I put into restoring the driver's side headlight to clarity, all for naught!  Not even one year later (I polished the headlight back in April) and it's already noticeably worse than the other side. It's not as bad as before, but it's well on it's way.


Haha, I forgot to add that for the first time I drove in some real snow (sort of) and it was in the RSX.  Yeah, I'm from a warm place. I've had a bit of experience driving in snowy places, but those times roads have always been plowed and salted. Anywho, Atlanta got around 4-5" of snow on last Sunday night while I happened to be driving to work (a day early as it were to presumably to escape the snow ), and holy shit it was not fun. Mainly because it took me over twice as long as usual to make the drive, and it was only snow over the last half of my drive! It was a fucking nightmare, mainly because I was terrified some retard was going to crash into me. People in Atlanta flip out when it snows and have no idea of how to drive. Cars were at 45 degree angles to traffic, spinning tires like mad, in ditches, on the shoulder, etc. And this was after 30 minutes of snow fall! I was absolutely white knuckles for a solid hour in a 0-5mph traffic jam that some idiot would hit me. I figured out how to drive in the snow without spinning my tires wildly and skidding everywhere after maybe 5 minutes but many did not...

Once I finally made it through the worst of the traffic jam it was just me and a few other cars on a 5-6 lane wide interstate with no visible lane markings and very little traction, so you can imagine some people were going 5mph and others 40mph. One guy next to me in an SUV, he had it floored, just cruising along at about 20-25mph with the rear tires spinning like crazy. I guess he figured that's how you are supposed to drive in snow. Lots of people seemed to think spinning your wheels as fast as possible was the key to good traction. 

After the first night parts of interstates proceeded to be closed for days because Atlanta, a city of 5 million+ that gets snow usually once or twice a year, has something like 9 snow plows for the whole metro area (I heard around 14,000 miles of roads too).  This whole fiasco lasted until this weekend. Schools throughout Atlanta were closed all week for the snow and ice. Granted we did get some more snow and freezing rain and temps didn't go above freezing for 4 days but still! My apartment complex didn't even bother to salt any of the roads/sidewalks or clear any snow...leading to black ice everywhere.

Thankfully the RSX and I escaped this episode without any damage!

A short road trip I took with the RSX to an aviation museum:

[ZfrkS62]

One thing you learn about freeway driving in snow, is that lane markings mean nothing. Just find a clear line and stick to it. People will fall in behind you and if they want to go skidding around you, that's their problem. Just remember to point and laugh when you see them in the ditch later.

I've battle snow and ice in both my cars AND my girlfriend's car. It's not fun when in traffic but if you're able to do a few e-brake turns, it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys (whatever that means).

[sentra_dude]

Well, a bit of an update. I've finally moved out of the boring ass suburbs to Midtown (section of downtown Atlanta) and I can now take Atlanta's public transport (MARTA) directly to the airport. So now my RSX is getting lots of time to rest. And rest in a nice cozy parking garage out of the sun and rain! Between taking MARTA to work and having tons of stuff within easy walking distance I've driven my RSX a TOTAL of 380 miles since the end of January.


Piedmont Park this weekend, a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment:  

[Schwalbe]

^^^^Wow only 380 miles. You should put a licence plate in front of your car saying your other vehicule is an CRJ or ATR. 
 
 

[sentra_dude]

^^^^Wow only 380 miles. You should put a licence plate in front of your car saying your other vehicule is an CRJ or ATR. 
 
 

LOL!