In fact, last month was my 10 year highschool reunion. Took this picture of my friend and my's cars ten years later, some things never change. And some things do change. Both can be good.
That's great! I have a 2000 LX that I labor to keep in near-mint, stock condition and use it as my daily driver/commuter car. I've been down many of the same rabbit-holes you have chronicled in this thread. Though I could afford a different, newer 'daily' a few times over, I take real pride in keeping it on the road. I'm not sure I'll ever 'sell' it. Maybe give it away, but not sell. No one could come close to offering me what I know it's worth-given that I've gone through every system/assembly/harness/sensor/bolt/component/etc.. on mine and know it inside and out.
Keep us updated every once in awhile!
edit to add: I stumbled on this thread poking around the forums because this weekends project is the entire front suspension & brakes: upper/lower control arms & bushings, strut/springs, ball joints, sway bar end links, inner/out tie rods, discs & pads. Then she'll be good as new! Up front anyway. Next up is the same dance in the rear when I get the time!
It's been quite a year. About this time in 2021 the green Civic I'd fixed up started to struggle again, and I wound up replacing that engine in the spring, and then gave the car away to a family friend that could use it. During all of this, The Mothership was docked at a storage yard.
I tried to get over there every so often and run the engine, but even so by the time I was pulling the car back out of the lot it was clear that rodents had gotten to it. Lots of plastic in the engine bay was chewed up, luckily nothing was gnawed all the way through and the car still ran.
So I've been driving The Mothership again since late August. It's been rough, the engine is clearly struggling, would start to overheat at red lights, and I started having conversations with my friend "It looks like this might be it until I can get to that engine rebuild...."
Then, last week I decided to try replacing the water pump. When I pulled the radiator plug to drain out old coolant, it was dry. Or close to dry, about two cups of nasty brown water dribbled out.
But how?! I've been keeping a pretty close eye on the coolant level since the original radiator gave out a while back!
Oh, I'd been keeping an eye on the coolant level in the reservoir. And it was still full. The water was leaking out and then not getting replaced, possibly because the new radiator's cap is higher pressure than stock (19psi instead of, what, 16psi?).
I'm upset, I really feel like I've let The Mothership down over the past few years, and especially right here.
Deciding to go ahead with the work, I pulled the water pump and timing belt. Both looked better than the lightly used replacements (from the green civic) I was going to swap them for. So they went back in.
Removing the harmonic balancer bolt.
Water pump looks fine.
Timing belt looks fine too.
So it's safe to assume the overheating issues were because there wasn't coolant, not because the pump had failed and wasn't circulating as I had originally expected. Honestly, when the radiator wound up being dry, I should have figured that bit out.
Just to be sure, I went ahead and pulled the coolant o-rings from the pipe behind the thermostat. They looked OK, and I put them back.
I also replaced the thermostat. I wish I hadn't, since it had just been swapped last year, and the one I got from the parts store was a lot chintzier than the one that came out. Oh well.
While I was here, I went ahead and adjusted the valves. Almost all of them were out of spec.
I went back to the parts store and bought new upper and lower radiator hoses, and installed them.
Put on some new spark plug wires.
Changed the oil and filter.
And then threw the car back together.
And it helped! The engine runs much better now. I wonder how much of this was just the valves not closing all the way anymore....
Once the car was back together and running noticeably better, I was on a roll. After driving the green Civic, with a clutch throw of 0.1mm, and my friend's civic for a while, with a 1-inch clutch pedal motion, I could no longer stand The Mothership's meters long pedal motion to operate the clutch. I went in and adjusted it.
I didn't follow any of the specs in the manual, instead just screwing in the master cyliner's piston as far as it would go into the pedal lever. Then I removed the bolts holding the fuse panel above the pedal, moved the panel to get some more room, and removed the clutch switch to swap the lock nut from one side to the other. Then the switch went back in al the way too, and it seated well enough to make contact with the shorter pedal height.
I probably only lowered the pedal by about an inch, but it made a big difference! For 11 years I've been driving this car by lifting up my whole leg, and using my knee/thigh to bring the clutch through the friction zone. Now it's just my ankle, and I feel like I have much more control. I wish I'd done this years ago!
Next I took a look at the catback exhaust. I'm not ready to replace it yet, but it has a leak that's become more and more prominent over the past several years. The bolts holding the exhaust together are so rusted that they'll break, so I decided to attempt an in-situ repair.
I located the break and cleaned it up:
Gathered some necessary material:
And started wrapping
When I was done I let the car idle for about 10 minutes, and then drove another 20. The patch helped a lot with fumes and noise! Here's hoping it holds up.
Not gonna lie, that is quite intuitive. As for the clutch adjustment, this is an absolte necessity to do annually. Especially when I was beating on the Civic hard.
Not gonna lie, that is quite intuitive. As for the clutch adjustment, this is an absolte necessity to do annually. Especially when I was beating on the Civic hard.
I'm not sure which part you're referring to as intuitive.
We started in on the white Miata today. Dragged it out of the back yard and washed it. Once it's fixed up and running the plan is for me to daily it while The Mothership is undergoing a rebuild.
Speaking of rebuilds... I'm considering what circa-2022-ctag actually wants to do.
I've wanted to do a full tear down and engine rebuild on The Mothership since I bought it as a highschool student in 2011. Partly because I want to keep the car for at least another 10 years of reliable daily driving, and partly because I want to put my hands on every piece at some point and really understand what makes a 90's honda tick.
But it's been 11 years now since I first had that dream, and I'm wondering if maybe it isn't in line with my goals anymore. I've driven some fun cars over the past few years, and maybe I want to get a little more oomph out of The Mothership if I go through with all of this work and money. I guess I'm worried that I'll finish the rebuild, and won't have recouped as many ponies as I expected to.
Should I swap the engine? I'm a lot more relaxed about the numbers-matching aspect than I used to be, but I think I'd still like to keep the original engine going... What about a light turbo? Literally just a couple PSI to get up into the ~140 horsepower range? That'd be a whole lot more money and time for not much performance, but it might make the car "fun" enough to keep me and my ridiculously conservative driving habits entertained for the next decade.. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking about it now at least.
100% swap the engine. B20VTEC builds are the rage still and make gobs of horse power. My CRV will be getting the same treatment as well as my Jackson Racing Supercharger
I pulled the engine and trans a few years ago when I blew the automatic. The CRV was my DD so had to get it back up quick. Went to junkyard and pulled a complete engine and trans for $400. They didn't know the difference between FWD and AWD so I snuck out with the AWD and transfer
I hate that junkyard anyhow, they would give me grief everytime I went in there with my tool bag.
Great to hear! How out of spec. were your valves? I'm thinking I may need to do that soon. I only get about ~30 mpg at best (without A/C/ running) out of my D16Y7. I finally completed the full front suspension rebuild, a 4-corner brake job, brake fluid flush and bleed, power steering flush, and replaced all the motor mounts in the past couple weekends. All that did wonders to help the feel of the chassis back to almost 'new' in the front, but you've inspired me to perhaps turn some attention to the top end of the motor.
100% swap the engine. B20VTEC builds are the rage still and make gobs of horse power. My CRV will be getting the same treatment as well as my Jackson Racing Supercharger
I pulled the engine and trans a few years ago when I blew the automatic. The CRV was my DD so had to get it back up quick. Went to junkyard and pulled a complete engine and trans for $400. They didn't know the difference between FWD and AWD so I snuck out with the AWD and transfer
I hate that junkyard anyhow, they would give me grief everytime I went in there with my tool bag.
I think we inhabit different driver realms I'm mostly looking to tinker and make the car reliable and fuel efficient.
A coworker was telling me this week about how he bought a brand new WRX and Jeep, and then gutted both and built them up for horsepower. That kind of thing just blows my mind, not my scene at all.
Great to hear! How out of spec. were your valves? I'm thinking I may need to do that soon. I only get about ~30 mpg at best (without A/C/ running) out of my D16Y7. I finally completed the full front suspension rebuild, a 4-corner brake job, brake fluid flush and bleed, power steering flush, and replaced all the motor mounts in the past couple weekends. All that did wonders to help the feel of the chassis back to almost 'new' in the front, but you've inspired me to perhaps turn some attention to the top end of the motor.
Most of the valves were just a little out, maybe 0.03mm, but enough that I couldn't easily slide the feeler gauge under. Two or so were further out.
Nice work on the suspension!
I think we inhabit different driver realms I'm mostly looking to tinker and make the car reliable and fuel efficient.
A coworker was telling me this week about how he bought a brand new WRX and Jeep, and then gutted both and built them up for horsepower. That kind of thing just blows my mind, not my scene at all.
Never in my right mind would I purchase a new car just to waste the warranty. But once that warranty is out and the loan (if it has one) has to be paid off. Ill never modify a car again, that I actually owe money on. Worst decision someone can make.
First, let's recap a little. Remember when I drove to Atlanta and back? Well I also hit a curb while trying to text my roommate. An obvious lesson to learn? Absolutely.
On the way back to Huntsville I could feel the car shake a little, and so when I got home I re-balanced the wheel and the vibration stopped. Figured the wheel had gotten bent a little, but not visibly.
Then, in November I had the car in at the dealership for an airbag recall. They swapped the steering wheel airbag out for a new one, did an inspection, and sent me on my way.
I was pretty pleased with the good report card from the dealer.
And then, last night I got to attend a fancy-pantsy dinner event where a family friend was honored with an award. Venue was this convention center on top of the mountain next to Huntsville. On the drive to the event, I noticed the steering was being weird. The steering wheel kept wanting to pull a little, but to different sides sometimes. I made a note to ask Travis for help doing an alignment.
Well, on the way out of the venue, the mothership's wheel fell off in their driveway. Skidded a good ways on the control arm too.
So then I had to sit there and wait for a tow truck as all of these people I'd just met slowly navigated their Lexus's around my stalled vehicle. It was, perhaps, a little bit embarrassing.
But Greg the tow truck driver got there very quickly and had us back down the mountain in no time.
Travis and I took a look at the wheel, and figured that the lower ball joint had failed, and then the CV axle was just ripped out by the hub assembly moving. Shouldn't be that difficult to fix, but for a while I was at a loss as to the why. That ball joint was replaced in the last three years, there's no way it should have gone bad like this. Of course, this morning we remembered the curb-strike and pieced it together with the ball joint failure. Not a random occurrence!
Very lucky not at highway speeds for sure. When you stated the steering was wobbly left and right randomly. I was literally going to say check the wheel bearing assembly for play and all the suspension joints & bushings with a prybar. This method would find anything fubar.
Then I finished reading up and saw the broken ball-joint.
Got the car back together during the evenings of December 13-15. Luckily, I had spare CV axles in the garage, and found everything else I needed at local auto shops.
Once the wheel pulled away, the CV axle disassembled itself:
It looked like the proper approach was going to involve replacing a little more than just the toasted ball joint and CV axle, so I decided to go ahead and do the replacements to both sides, to keep things more balanced maintenance-wise.
Pulled both knuckles:
While we were here, it seemed like a good time to replace the wheel bearings, which Travis has suspected were going bad for some time now and causing some of my trouble with brake rotors warping easily. New bearing pressed in:
New hubs installed too:
New ball joints:
Damage to the inside of the wheel:
January 4th the new brake rotors and pads were installed. StopTech drilled & slotted rotors with ceramic pads.
The dust boot on the front passenger caliper is torn:
I'm mostly looking to tinker and make the car reliable and fuel efficient.
