September 9th, 2026 - A Rough Season But A Positive One

 September 9th, 2026 - A Rough Season But A Positive One

I'm not going to lie. I've been struggling to find my passion again since Bonzai's death. I'm not afraid to say that. The people who get it will understand, and those who don't will not. She was the reason I paused working on my CR-X for almost a year. 

About 5 days after she passed, I went out to do some work on the CR-X, just swapping the K&N out for the HAMP filter so the K&N could be cleaned. 

I just couldn't handle it. 

With every turn of the wrench, I kept thinking about how the only reason I'm doing this is because she is gone... but I kept at it. I started by putting my tools away and straightening up the garage. For some reason, that didn't seem to bother me as much. Eventually, I moved on to doing something small for the CR-X every day or every other day to maintain consistency. Over time, things became easier and by mid-August, I was able to work on my CR-X for the better part of a whole day - and it felt good. Felt good to be 'back', as it were.

I started the journey back a couple weeks after I removed the K&N filter. I cleaned it twice since it was it was dreadfully dirty. I added air to the CR-X tires one afternoon while cleaning the garage. A few days after that, I set up a small desk in the spare room in the basement so I could have somewhere to rebuild the climate control and work on the EACV refresh. 

Back in March, I had picked up a set of EF7 seats. They'd been stored in a shed and were a little dirty, so I cleaned them thoroughly and added some cheap black seat covers to cover some of the small rips and tears they have. 

I removed the driver's seat and swapped the JDM seat rails from the EF7 driver seat for the Canadian seat rails currently installed on the EF8 seat. The Canadian seat rails move further back than the JDM ones (no rear seats in Canada), allowing for some extra leg room. 

With the EF7 driver's seat was installed, I took the CR-X off the dollies and out for a quick bath and a run around the block to shake the cobwebs off. No matter how many times I drive her, no matter how long in between runs, she never lets me down and is always pure joy. 

When I returned from the wash and mini-cruise, I backed into the garage and removed the EF8 passenger seat. With the seat out, it would make it easier to work on my next round of projects.

Emergency Brake Handle 

Like almost every other CR-X emergency brake handle, mine has turned a lovely shade of green over the years. I bought a replacement e-brake assembly from Honda back in December of 2005 (that's not a typo, I've actually had it for 21 years and never installed it). I don't know why I was reluctant to install it. 

A fellow CR-X enthusiast, Paul Moloney even sent me a Rover handle which can be used on the CR-X as well, and I never got around to installing that one either. 

With the passenger seat removed, and an upcoming brake upgrade planned (Powerstop slotted/drilled rotors/pads, and Endless brake lines), now just seemed like the right time. 

I already knew how to replace the handle, but I watched a few YouTube videos nevertheness. I just wanted to make sure there weren't any steps I didn't know about or anticipate. I measured the clicks to full engagement and measured the position of the adjustment nut before I started. ChatGPT helped me determine that white lithium grease should be used on 2 spots on the new handle, and then I reinstalled.

I got 8 clicks of before engagement just eyeballing it, and was within 5mm of the proper measurement for the adjustment nut. I tightened it up just a little more since it needed an adjustment before I started. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Speaker Replacement

The speakers in my CR-X are the same ones that came with the car when it was imported 21 years ago. I don't know how old they were when installed but ChatGPT says the models were from 1997 and 2000.

Rear speakers - Pioneer TS-E1670: Released in Japan in March 1997

Front speakers - Alpine STE-162J: Released in Japan in May 2000

Also, according to ChatGPT, the older 1997 Pioneer speakers were actually the somewhat higher-tier speakers of the two models. 

Earlier this year, in February, I picked up a pair of JBL Stage3 627 speakers on sale from Amazon.

I removed the passenger's side door speaker that housed the Alpines, and tried putting the JBL into the speaker bracket/pod housing. 

Sadly it didn't fit; the cage of the speaker cone was too large for the bracket. The JBL is much larger than the cage on the Alpine speaker that was in there.

I grabbed a spare front speaker bracket I had in my inventory and verified where it was getting hung up and that I couldn't easily Dremel the troublesome spots out. I know there's folks out there 3D printing replacement brackets (rings) to install oversized speakers into the doors, but I was hesitant because I wanted some better moisture protection for them. 

I chose to try and work with what I have, and opted to check out whether the Pioneers would fit the front speaker brackets/pod housings. I removed one of the rear Pioneers and as luck would have it, it fit the front bracket like a glove. Problem solved.

Sadly, when I removed the rear passenger's side Pioneer speaker, the female spade connector fell off. I didn't pull too hard or anything, it was like it was loose or something. Upon further examination, the wiring was not twisted and the crimping job done was quite poor. It was done so poorly that I didn't have to use a new connector to re-attach it. I simply twisted the wire, slid the same connector back on and crimped it properly. I re-crimped the other 3 connectors for the rear speakers to make sure the connectors were fastened tightly before continuing. Good thing I did, most were in a similar state as that first one and likely would have fallen off eventually too.

The next challenge was that the aftermarket rear speaker brackets, which came on my car from Japan, were only drilled for 3 speaker holes, similar to the OE Honda ones. Again, back to the spare parts inventory to find the spare set of OEM rear speaker brackets I bought at a junkyard back in the Fall of 2018. 

As luck would have it, they were drilled for the 4 bolt pattern of the new JBLs, and the holes were still wide enough for the JBLs. The only problem was the mounting holes were far too wide to use regular self-tapping screws in them. A bolt, nut and washer set up could have worked but that meant that every time I wanted to remove the rear speakers, I would need to remove the rear brackets. Not a show-stopper, but I knew there had to be a better way.

That night, while laying in bed trying to get to sleep, it dawned on me. Riv-Nuts. They would allow me to use small enough machine screws to go through the speaker mounting holes, would allow for installation/removal of the speakers without needing to take off the brackets, and I already have the tool to install them from back when I did the signal covers on the front Mugen/ViS front bumper. 

The next day, I measured everything up and ordered another set of Riv-Nuts and machine screws in the sizes I needed for the rear brackets. For good measure, I also ordered some low-strength (purple) Loctite to make sure the vibrations of the speakers wouldn't back the machine screws out. 

When Amazon arrived a few days later, assembly of the Riv-Nuts, and rear speakers into the OEM rear brackets went off without a hitch, except for some spilt Loctite making my desk look like Grimace had been doing some very nasty things to himself. Installation into the CR-X was smooth, and I popped the Pioneers into the front doors and tested the stereo. 

I'm very happy with the results.

Broken Heater Controls and Block off Plate

When I removed my broken Auto AirCon controller to replace it back in 2023, little did I know that 3 years later I would still not have a replacement installed. 

When I removed the controller the first time, I had noticed that the heat just pumps out non-stop without at least the fan switch (in the "Off" position) and the temperature control dial connected (dialed to max cooling). Not much fun when you only drive in the summer haha. 

In anticipation of the climate control rebuild, I had removed the 3D printed block off plate and pulled those pieces out in early 2025, before we had received Bonzai's cancer diagnosis. 

Back in they went, and I replaced the block off plate. 

I figure that I won't be getting the replacement 3D printed climate control panel ready in time for the remainder of the 2026 driving season so I might as well have the car look somewhat decent in the meantime. 

De-shit-ification

A major turning point came in August. The Village Honda show and shine was happening on August 22nd, and I decided to go for the 2nd year in a row without my CR-X. For the second year in a row, I went only as a spectator. 

I didn't stay very long and didn't speak to anyone or even take any photos. It was a very smoky day due to the wildfires in BC and Washington State and my lungs were not happy. One positive thing that came out of this was that I started to feel like I wanted to put my CR-X back to a better condition and maybe take her to a show and shine or meet before the end of the season. This was a big switch from the man who couldn't bear to be in the garage earlier this Spring. 

I raided my parts bins and started gathering pieces to re-install. I started with the easy-to-install MR5 lug nut covers, swapped my used shift knob for the new OEM one, popped my dash switches back in and reinstalled the LED flare. Some quick wins.

Next up, I replaced the budget Momo steering wheel ($23 wheel and $17 horn button) with the Honda Access Momo wheel. It had been so long since I'd installed it the last time, I had to refer to my own blog post to jog my memory.

I installed my rear license plate on the Mugen rear bumper and used my Aomori replica license plate seal from Import Bible. Up front, I reinstalled the jikō-shiki license plate and tilt frame as well as the Verno grill emblem. 

Interior-wise, I re-glued the rubber gasket on the rear interior panel. The previous owner in Japan had tried gluing it but the adhesive they used wasn't good enough and it finally let go. I used some 3M weather-stripping adhesive and reinstalled it after the glue set in a couple of days. 

Finally, I popped in the Honda Access cargo tray for the trunk and the CR-X was almost all set for the show and shine - just some detailing left on the list.

Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.