Lude Generation

Hi Peeps,

So, as some of you will be aware, @thebusofwoe (Chris) and I went & picked me up a new Lude today.

All told, it's a really nice car. The engine seems reasonably strong, and definitely has more to give once some servicing & tuning have been done. I will go into more detail when I start a profile thread.

There are however a few problems..

We (Chris) had to change the distributor as the old one was knackered. This got the car running & fixed the problem of it cutting out when warm. However, shortly into the journey home the engine management light came on as soon as vtec engaged. We pulled in not long after to get fuel & Chris pulled the code. It was code 15 - which points to the distributor.

Now, is this a more detrimental problem which caused the old distributor to fail, or a residual from the fixed problem that can be cleared by resetting the ECU? As far as I'm aware, the engine management light had not illuminated prior to us changing the distributor..but I can confirm this if necessary.

Coincidentally, I will be replacing the ECU with a spare 'Spoon chipped' P13 I picked up this morning to see if that solves the problem. I'll get that done tomorrow afternoon.

Or, could advancing/retarding the dizzy slightly sort things out? It runs fine as it is, so appears to be fitted correctly I'd say..

Any ideas on this problem?

And secondly, a bit more detrimental..the handling was extremely 'wallowy' and 'wandery' on the way back. So when we arrived back at home, we checked over the suspension & components, and found that the O/S/R wheel is pushed back into the arch by about an inch. Presumably caused by some sort of heavy impact.

This obviously throws out the geometry by quite a bit, accounting for the above symptoms.

This most likely points to the lower suspension arm being bent (or something else - which Chris will confirm).

Can anyone think of what else it might be, before I buy some replacement parts?

Here are a few dodgy dark pics of the wheel comparison & car..

N/S/R (normal)


O/S/R (bent)


Lude Front


Lude Back


Any ideas or comments would be appreciated, as this is now my new 'daily', and needs to be safe & reliable.

Cheers, Andy.

First thought? That shouldn't have an MOT with the wheel like that!

Only way to find out what's wrong with it, is to get under it and have a good poke about.

Yeah, bloody good point Iain! It's got 11 months MOT!

Might have happened since getting an MOT, of course.

you didn't do an edd on your way home, without noticing did you?

No, the chap (Ben) (who will be viewing this thread) owned the car for 8 years, and says it didn't happen during his ownership..

I'm not sure how you could drive the car for 8 years as it is though & not notice..it's clearly not right to drive.

Looking underneath the car at what I could see was, we'll nothing conclusive . This is a good motor tbh, motor is strong and it's in pretty good nick . Just a few teething problems . I have advised Andy to purchase a replacement lower arm and a trailing arm. This is the only things that could affect a wheel in this way, agree? . The wheel toe looked ok and so did the camber. Just pushed back a bit (In fact a lot ). Was a good day mate We shall sort out a time to do the ignition timing and sort the valve clearances for you

I'd say you can only try clearing the codes and seeing if it comes back before you start considering anything else.

Did it start performing differently when the engine light came on? And did Vtec actually engage?

And with regards to the rear wheel, I'd say it can only be the lower arm. I has the same thing with my project lude when I first bought it, except it was the front. The bottom arm was the bent one...

And yea not right. Just responds real weird to steering input

NafemanNathan wrote:I'd say you can only try clearing the codes and seeing if it comes back before you start considering anything else.

Did it start performing differently when the engine light came on? And did Vtec actually engage?

And with regards to the rear wheel, I'd say it can only be the lower arm. I has the same thing with my project lude when I first bought it, except it was the front. The bottom arm was the bent one...

Sh1tt that's pretty bent!!

I imagine Andy's will be as bent. This was mine...



Similar to Andy's.