I’m on the lookout for some suggestions for inexpensive modifications that I can carry out to my 2009 PRHT. Since buying it in January 2019, I’ve had the following done:
New brakes fitted
Fluids changed
New oil and air filters
New tyres
Refurb and powder coated wheels
Tracking
Undersealed
I’m planning on getting coilovers fitted next year, and at some point I would like to get the seats and steering wheel re-covered. In the meantime I’m thinking about some inexpensive changes I can make, which will mainly be aesthetic. Some have already been done, and others are on the way;
Silver covers for seat hoops (or whatever they are called).
New door speakers
Stubby aerial from cravenspeed
Door bushings from cravenspeed
Any other suggestions that you could make would be most welcome. Fwiw, although I like some of the chrome accessories that feels like a never ending task - their are so many!
Wire the electric windows into the 12v socket so they work on acc rather than ignition. Very handy for those times you have forgotten to wind the windows up or are waiting for someone and don’t want to keep turning the ignition on and off.
Line the glove box with foam to stop things rattling around in there.
Change the dipstick. The original cylindrical dipstick is pants. Yours might already have one, the newer ones were flat and considerably easier to read especially with clean oil. Annoying it still picks up oil from it’s own tube as you remove it to look though.
Not so cheap but still good value:
ARBs from an RX8. I have the yellow spots and they transformed the car. Cost about £70 quid on ebay for a secondhand set. You will need the bushes too
Bonnet struts. An unnecessary mod really. Not really that much of a chore to put the little stick thing in the little hole but it is pleasing the way the bonner raises on it’s own once you undo the secondary latch.
A replacement coolant expansion tank. I have the davefab one and it does tidy things up in the under bonnet area plus I have removed the possibility [however remote] of the original cracking and ruinging the engine.
Tagged this thread…to watch with intent for my own 2.0 Sport…
After picking up a 2nd set of 17" alloys that I had refurbed to as new condition, replacing the dipstick for the flat one, swapped the suspension all round for Bilsteins and OEM springs from an NC that had covered only 30k miles, mine 100k (that in itself has made a MASSIVE difference to the ride), popped on a stumpy carbon fibre aerial, had it Hunter Geometry aligned. Changed the engine oil filter and diff fluid. It’s going in this week for brake and clutch fluid replacement and a set of Brembo pads all round.
New sway bars are next on the list - I’ve heard very good news about SuperPro branded ARB’s and I’ve seen them in the flesh, they look substantial and the price is fair too.
ARB’s a good shout - keeping an eye on eBay. The dipstick has a pretty flat profile so might be a later one. Hadn’t thought about the door window electrics - will look into that this week.
The expansion tank looks great - but probably a little outside budget right now.
I’ve ordered a fairly large pack of sound deadening material for the doors when I fit the new speakers, so may place the leftover in the boot.
Thanks - will have a look at scuttle grommets in the morning. I’ve noticed that the variable intermittent wiper stall often comes up in lists of mods - does it make a real difference?
Day to day not really, but the one day in the month that you get caught in those really annoying “cant make its mind up” on/off showers, the intermittent stalk does make things that bit less annoying!
About 3 weeks ago my wife said that the floor on the passenger side was wet. When I checked a couple of days later, there was no sign of water and nor has there been subsequently. I’m now wondering if it was the scuttle grommets?
Do them anyway if they aren’t leaking now they will in the future.
If she noticed the wet exactly where her feet go it’s a safe bet it’s those grommets.
When I pulled the glovebox to get to the dash trim I could clearly see water tracking marks from the grommets. I had already replaced them but it seems a quick way to check if this is the cause of the leak.
One of the biggest improvements you can make is to adjust the clutch pedal so that the bite point isn’t somewhere in the carpet, as seems pretty normal with these cars.
Another simple, cheap thing to do is to replace dull yellow incandescent bulbs with sparkling white led bulbs for number plates, side lights, reversing lights etc.
My wheel centres were in poor condition and I was able to get really nice new ones on Wish for little money.
Is the clutch pedal easy to adjust? As you say, it’s incredibly low - it took weeks for me to adapt when I got the car.
As per elsewhere on this forum, I removed the chrome M from the wheel centre caps and then painted them red to match the calipers, before refitting the M. Looks pretty good.
Clutch pedal adjustment…see the video below. It’s an easy one to do, not an easy one to get to. Contortionist springs to mind and as mentioned in the vid you only need maybe a half turn on the adjuster. I adjusted it a little went for a drive and then tweaked a little more, backed it off or take it up a little more.
Soundproofing is a bit hit and miss. I used a load and apart from having a heavier door I can’t really tell you if the sound is better than before. It probably sounds better at a standstill but once you get moving the noise from the rest of the car overwhelms any benefit in my ears. It’s expensive so use it sparingly. No not tricky, just stick it to bits that vibrate.
As Mick suggests, It would be really simple if access were not so bloomin’ awkward.
I adjusted mine as I would a motorcycle clutch, ie to screw the adjuster in with my fingers until I could feel it tighten up as the free play was all taken up, then I backed off a turn to get free play again and tightened the lock-nut. Worked perfectly.
If you have long arms, I would suggest doing it from lying on the driver’s seat. If not, you are probably best off doing it from the footwell. I did it from the seat and don’t have long arms but I had to work with my fingertips and my left arm and hand. It would be a real bonus to be left-handed as well as having long arms.
