Thread: 2002 Acura RSX Type S DONE!

Fellow RSX-S owner representing!

Nice setup! Looks almost exactly like the Japanese 2002 Integra Type R with the factory nav system (the one you CAN'T get in the US), except the LCD faces the correct way in your setup.

You practically read my mind too. That was almost exactly what I was going to do for my setup a few months ago. I changed my mind after I got an Alpine NAV system really cheap off of a friend who bought a TSX (he had it in his Acura CL, and sold it to me since Acura wasn't going to give him anything for it). The only difference was that I was going to:

a) Remove the LCD from the housing and make it look more OEM inside the DIN frame.

b) Have a body shop color match and mix some paint to match the titanium interior trim, make some custom trim pieces for the radio and moonroof/foglight/cruise control panels, and have them paint it.

Now all you need to do is to change your stock shift knob and shifter to a Revo short shifter and Acura aluminum shift knob, and your interior will be complete!

Some other things I would suggest:

1) If that fuse box in the back is a fused distribution block (and you have no fuse at the front near the battery) move the fuses TO THE FRONT OF THE CAR IMMEDIATELY! The fuse box SHOULD NOT be in the back of the car. If you ever get a short in your power wire up front, you could have a fire in the car since the short will take place BEFORE the fuses. If you don't currently have a fuse directly after the battery, and want to keep that fuse box/distribution block near the back, I suggest getting a high-amp circuit breaker (I've got a 150A Stinger breaker: http://www.stingerelectronics.com/web/prods/fans.asp. Works great, and it's relatively short change to get one).

2) Mount the amplifiers, crossover, and Opus to the back of the rear seats. You don't need to make a special amp board to do it. You'll then have extra space in the trunk for cargo, and for (more importantly) a subwoofer. The 5 1/4" Bose subwoofer is a joke.

3) Mount the carputer to the rear wheel well (inside the hatch.. not on the outside of the car. ). In other words, instead of mounting it horizontally against the bottom where it is now, rotate it 90 degrees so it's vertical, and mount it along the wheel well. You'll need to make a bracket for it, but it'll look sweet, not to mention keeping the floor of the trunk clear (just in case you ever need to use the spare).

4) If you haven't done so yet, replace the Bose speakers and tweeters when you get a chance. You won't believe the difference this will make! There's very few things I dislike about my RSX-S... The Bose stereo, speakers, amplifier, subwoofer, and the Michelin MXM-4 tires comprise the list.

Again, these are just suggestions. If you want pictures of how my system is currently set up (AMP, changer, NAV system, sub, etc), just ask. Of course, there's no CarPuter in the car (yet... just waiting for the Nano-ITX to become available).

-Mr.S

Oh yeah.. are those Spoon pedals?

Originally Posted by shrink

Nice job. I'm planning one of these in my 2003 RSX. I'll be PM-ing you once my screen arrives. Is that a Scosche dash kit?

Yup, it's a soche, I bought 2 of them from a guy on ebay for 14 bucks...

Do you have any problems with the xm-pcr after a standby/hibernate?

Nope the XM-PCR has been EXTREMELY solid....

is that a sound blaster MP3+ i see at the bottom of the first pic?

No, it WAS a Sonica, but it didn't like to play well with mediacars new version, so now I'm just running the onboard sound. Which even though, it's only two channel split into 4 at the amp sounds REALLY good.

Do you boot from the USB HD or is there another HD inside the pc case? Is that the opus P/S? I'm confused about the screen. You didn't do any molding/fiberglass to fit it like that?

no theres an internal laptop drive that boots, I just use that for for data storage. it's an opus 90watt inside the morex case, the big silver thing is something I had to take out, it was the original morex PS with a shutdown controller for the external stuff, but wouldn't push the usb drive reliably. the screen is a lilliput, no molding I just used the front half of the case.

In NYC you'd loose that setup the first night

The LCD will slide right out, all I have to do is unplug the power vga and usb... take it inside every night , the PC and USB drive are held down with heavy duty velcro... I load it all up into a back pack and take it inside.

Originally Posted by Mr.Sinister

If that fuse box in the back is a fused distribution block (and you have no fuse at the front near the battery) move the fuses TO THE FRONT OF THE CAR IMMEDIATELY!

DUH?? Of course theres a fuse in the front

Mount the amplifiers, crossover, and Opus to the back of the rear seats. You don't need to make a special amp board to do it. You'll then have extra space in the trunk for cargo, and for (more importantly) a subwoofer. The 5 1/4" Bose subwoofer is a joke.

Bigger plans my friend.... false floor and a fiberglassed sub enclosure, I haven't used that bose POS in two years This will also take care of your number 3.

4) If you haven't done so yet, replace the Bose speakers and tweeters when you get a chance. You won't believe the difference this will make!

All speakers are infiniti reference series (couldn't see shelling out the dough on the kappa series when the reference series still rock)

Oh yeah.. are those Spoon pedals?

Nope Sparco... I also have an AEM CAI, Spoon headers, halo aftermarket lights, Grillcraft 3 piece grill and a DC sports twin canister exhaust. Haven't chipped it yet as I was trying to decide wheather a jackson SC would be worth the money... but it's looking like the HP gains aren't enough to blow 3k... The wheels were upgraded from the factory, I actually haven't seen another RSX with the acura wheels I have on mine (still the same size just a different spoke design). I did have the titanium shifter knob, however I had to use a set of frickin vice grips to get the damn thing off during the last round of installs. After having that for close to 2 years, it'd become kind of scratched up and I actually like the stock shifter better (looks, not feel)

I have a feeling I'll rework the back, but I still like the idea of the false floor/fiberglass sub combo. I'll get some pics up of the rest of the car later. But yeah I'd definately like to see pics of your setup.

Originally Posted by Mr.Sinister

Nice setup! Looks almost exactly like the Japanese 2002 Integra Type R with the factory nav system (the one you CAN'T get in the US), except the LCD faces the correct way in your setup.

You've got me thinking, did they sell the Type R in any countries where the radio bezels would match what we have? If we could find a site like http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org/ that sells parts for foreign Acuras we could get a lcd bezel or something straight from the dealer.... I doubt it would work but a though.

Here are more pictures....
http://www.reardon-logsdon.com/brett/

Originally Posted by lopan

DUH?? Of course theres a fuse in the front

Bigger plans my friend.... false floor and a fiberglassed sub enclosure, I haven't used that bose POS in two years This will also take care of your number 3.

All speakers are infiniti reference series (couldn't see shelling out the dough on the kappa series when the reference series still rock)

Nope Sparco... I also have an AEM CAI, Spoon headers, halo aftermarket lights, Grillcraft 3 piece grill and a DC sports twin canister exhaust. Haven't chipped it yet as I was trying to decide wheather a jackson SC would be worth the money... but it's looking like the HP gains aren't enough to blow 3k... The wheels were upgraded from the factory, I actually haven't seen another RSX with the acura wheels I have on mine (still the same size just a different spoke design). I did have the titanium shifter knob, however I had to use a set of frickin vice grips to get the damn thing off during the last round of installs. After having that for close to 2 years, it'd become kind of scratched up and I actually like the stock shifter better (looks, not feel)

I have a feeling I'll rework the back, but I still like the idea of the false floor/fiberglass sub combo. I'll get some pics up of the rest of the car later. But yeah I'd definately like to see pics of your setup.

Just checking bro! You'd be amazed how many people DON'T put a fuse up front. It's more common than you think. How do I know? That was the first mistake I did on my '94 Eclipse back in the day. hehe

I love the reference series. That's exactly what I have in the doors too (625i's I memory serves me correctly). Only exception is that I have JL Audio Evolution XR-100-CT tweeters in the dash, and a 10" JL Audio W6 sub firing in the hatch. I WANTED a W7, but I'd had to have to buy another amp to do it (current amp couldn't provide enough power).

Humm.. actually, I know what you mean about the shift knob. My aluminum shift knob has some scratches in it too. It's fairly easy to fix though. I use 2000 grit wet or dry sandpaper on it. For the deeper scratches I use 1000 grit, and work my way up. Did you put the knob on yourself or did the dealship put it on? I'm asking because I can take mine off without a problem. The dealer may have put threadlocker on it.

Ahhh.. you got the six spoke wheels (or was that seven spokes... I forget). I almost did that myself, except I couldn't see the point since they were still 16" rims. If they were 17".. I'd have been all over them. Don't get me wrong, I do like how those wheels look on the car. I just wish that they were an inch bigger.

Nice mods BTW. I'm contemplating the JRSC too, but like you, I don't know if it's worth the $3k+ price plus installation. It's not so much the money.. more like I don't know how that will effect our engines, being that they have an 11.1 compression ratio. I think I'll wait until somebody else offers their car as a guinea pig first. Mine's a daily driver (already got 65,000 miles on it in under two years), and I can't afford to be blowing the engine.

I'll get some pics of my setup up here in a short bit.

Originally Posted by lopan

You've got me thinking, did they sell the Type R in any countries where the radio bezels would match what we have? If we could find a site like http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org/ that sells parts for foreign Acuras we could get a lcd bezel or something straight from the dealer.... I doubt it would work but a though.

It probably won't work. Remember, cars in Japan are right-hand drive. I saw a picture of it once, and the plastic trim piece is a mirror image on the US one. In other words, the hazard switch is on the LEFT. You'd have to put it on inside out to attach it, and that'd defeat the whole purpose.

Originally Posted by Mr.Sinister

It probably won't work. Remember, cars in Japan are right-hand drive. I saw a picture of it once, and the plastic trim piece is a mirror image on the US one. In other words, the hazard switch is on the LEFT. You'd have to put it on inside out to attach it, and that'd defeat the whole purpose.

Thats why I'm wondering if they produced it in a country other then Japan, I thought some european countries had the same drive config we had...