Tuesday, August 25, 2009
It seems the universe does not want me to own a Honda.
One of the reasons I haven't updated this blog in a while is trouble the Civic's been causing me. A couple weeks ago, it was a broken crankshaft pulley that made me worried I'd lost the crank too. Yesterday, the Civic got stuck in the middle of a five car pileup.
Luckily, I'm mostly unhurt, the car still runs, and the guy who caused the accident appears to have enough insurance to cover everything. The body shop estimates it's $1,700 to fix the damage if they do the work. Most of the problem seems to be confined to the front and rear bumpers, but the driver's seat is bent as well. I think I'm going to get rid of the Civic for something else... some kind of car that isn't carrying around a trouble magnet in the trunk.
Luckily, I'm mostly unhurt, the car still runs, and the guy who caused the accident appears to have enough insurance to cover everything. The body shop estimates it's $1,700 to fix the damage if they do the work. Most of the problem seems to be confined to the front and rear bumpers, but the driver's seat is bent as well. I think I'm going to get rid of the Civic for something else... some kind of car that isn't carrying around a trouble magnet in the trunk.
Labels: Civic
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Civic Disobedience II: Revenge of the P28
I didn't much like the original Civic Disobedience, and predictably, the sequel wasn't very fun either. But at least this time it was a low budget sequel. It started a week ago when I was leaving work. The engine turned over but wouldn't fire up, and then the Check Engine light came on. Then I smelled smoke. Coming from inside the car. The ECU was giving off a pretty good smoke show. More smoke than the time the Triumph Spitfire had an electrical fire, in fact.
So I unplugged the ECU and drove my truck home (I keep it there for junkyard runs and such). Went to a local junkyard and found a replacement Honda ECU for arund $100, about what they go for on typical Honda forums. I was kind of worried something else had shorted in the wiring and fried the ECU, but it turned out the wiring was fine. An ECU autopsy showed the cause of death seemed to have been a capacitor in the power supply having shorted out. I know what you may have been thinking, but I haven't made any changes to the stock wiring harness other than bypassing a faulty clutch switch. Ok, so I did put an Innovate LC-1 and a digital gauge on the Civic... but I didn't change any of the stock wires to do this. Honda makes it pretty easy to add circuits, as there's several connections on the fuse box put there for add on devices that you can hook up with a spade terminal.
So I unplugged the ECU and drove my truck home (I keep it there for junkyard runs and such). Went to a local junkyard and found a replacement Honda ECU for arund $100, about what they go for on typical Honda forums. I was kind of worried something else had shorted in the wiring and fried the ECU, but it turned out the wiring was fine. An ECU autopsy showed the cause of death seemed to have been a capacitor in the power supply having shorted out. I know what you may have been thinking, but I haven't made any changes to the stock wiring harness other than bypassing a faulty clutch switch. Ok, so I did put an Innovate LC-1 and a digital gauge on the Civic... but I didn't change any of the stock wires to do this. Honda makes it pretty easy to add circuits, as there's several connections on the fuse box put there for add on devices that you can hook up with a spade terminal.
Labels: Civic
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The WheelSkins steering wheel cover
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A while ago, I mentioned I'd ordered a WheelSkins steering wheel cover. Here are some pictures from installing it. Their directions really underestimated how long it would take, thanks largely to a waxed string that wanted to tie itself in knots. It took me three hours to get this sewn on to the wheel. But the results are pretty good - only the way it wraps around the spokes and the riceboy-red inserts give it away that it wasn't a factory item. And it definitely feels a lot better than the worn out factory wheel (chunks of plastic were coming off the top) or the cheap slip on cover I had been using. Note that I'm wearing gloves to install it in the top photo - that thread is murderous on your hands!
The mod on deck is a lighting upgrade kit from Dan Stern Lighting - I'm going to see if I can give the Civic some more lighting power without using HID lights. While HID conversions are the rage in some circles, to get a HID upgrade that actually puts light where you need it instead of throwing out light in semi-random directions is pretty expensive, usually involving grafting factory lights off an Acura of one sort or another into stock housings. I just want more useful light, not gratuitous technology here.
Labels: Civic
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Wheel Skins: How did they do that?
The steering wheel on the Civic is not in the best of shape. I had put a cheap parts store steering wheel cover on it, but that's falling apart now. So I decided that rather than buying a new wheel, I'd get a good quality cover. I'd heard good things about the leather covers from Wheel Skins (actually, one of their resellers, who had it drop shipped). So I ordered one of their covers last Saturday. It arrived today.
What really shocked me? This was a custom cover! Or at least it would seem to be, as it's a two tone cover, and you can pick out the separate colors, the size, which of the sections have perforations and which ones don't, etc. It seems like there are too many combinations for a company to keep these in stock. Or are they? Wheel Skins shipped this out on Monday, the next business day after I ordered. I'm wondering how they pulled that off. I can think of a few possibilities.
What really shocked me? This was a custom cover! Or at least it would seem to be, as it's a two tone cover, and you can pick out the separate colors, the size, which of the sections have perforations and which ones don't, etc. It seems like there are too many combinations for a company to keep these in stock. Or are they? Wheel Skins shipped this out on Monday, the next business day after I ordered. I'm wondering how they pulled that off. I can think of a few possibilities.
- I was lucky and they had that exact size, color combination, and perforations on the shelf, ready to ship.
- Wheel Skins keeps almost every combination that you could order in stock and ready to go.
- The steering wheel covers are cut to length and stitched together as soon as they get the order, and they're just very fast about it. Gives "just in time manufacturing" a whole new meaning.
Labels: Civic
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Civic disobedience
I'm tempted to get another Spitfire so I'd have a reliable daily driver.
Just kidding, but the Civic has been really getting on my nerves lately. Today I had one of the mounting ears crack off the starter. OK, so I had been horsing around with some things that might have made the engine kick back a little when I cranked it once, but it was quite a shock to turn the key and hear the starter spinning freely. Sounded sort of like a vacuum cleaner. Luckily Honda starters are somewhat like (stock) slant six starters in that you can just unbolt it without even lifting the car up and drop a new one in.
But last week I managed to discover that the Civic had been the victim of a crazy previous owner (not the guy I bought it from, but whoever had it before him, apparently) who had managed to inflict a hack job brake repair that's up there with the lamp cord wiring in the Spitfire I used to have. He gets a special prize for managing to make a creative hack job look like the car left the factory that way - right up until you start checking measurements.
About a week ago, the car started making a clunking / clicking noise from the front end. I was kind of sick of wrenching on it (in addition to the radiator and head gasket, I'd also had to deal with a burst heater hose and some other minor nuisances too trivial to post here). So I dropped it off at the Goodyear - Gemini Auto Service in Conyers, Georgia. Ray and the other mechanics deserve a big commendation for putting up with what the problem turned out to be and getting the car back on the road as quickly as they did.
When you hear that it was a clicking from the front end, you're probably thinking, "CV joint," right? Me too. Well, they found the CV joints were perfectly fine. The clicking sound was coming from the brakes, and they found a couple other things so they wanted to do a complete brake job. I said fine.
A couple hours later, Ray called me back and said that they had a problem: The parts they'd ordered only fit on one side of the car. It turns out that the Civic had been in an accident, and somebody rebuilt the suspension with parts they'd found in a junkyard. My Civic is an EX, and the one in the junkyard was a DX. Not too many people pay attention to those letters, so it would be reasonable to think that the parts fit, right? Wrong. My Civic had brakes on one side that were almost a whole inch larger than the brakes on the other side. None of the parts, not even the spindle, matched up between a DX and an EX. How it was able to drive without pulling to one side, I don't know. (And the same goes for why Honda didn't just make the larger brakes standard instead of having to design two separate parts.)
At least it's back to normal now.
Just kidding, but the Civic has been really getting on my nerves lately. Today I had one of the mounting ears crack off the starter. OK, so I had been horsing around with some things that might have made the engine kick back a little when I cranked it once, but it was quite a shock to turn the key and hear the starter spinning freely. Sounded sort of like a vacuum cleaner. Luckily Honda starters are somewhat like (stock) slant six starters in that you can just unbolt it without even lifting the car up and drop a new one in.
But last week I managed to discover that the Civic had been the victim of a crazy previous owner (not the guy I bought it from, but whoever had it before him, apparently) who had managed to inflict a hack job brake repair that's up there with the lamp cord wiring in the Spitfire I used to have. He gets a special prize for managing to make a creative hack job look like the car left the factory that way - right up until you start checking measurements.
About a week ago, the car started making a clunking / clicking noise from the front end. I was kind of sick of wrenching on it (in addition to the radiator and head gasket, I'd also had to deal with a burst heater hose and some other minor nuisances too trivial to post here). So I dropped it off at the Goodyear - Gemini Auto Service in Conyers, Georgia. Ray and the other mechanics deserve a big commendation for putting up with what the problem turned out to be and getting the car back on the road as quickly as they did.
When you hear that it was a clicking from the front end, you're probably thinking, "CV joint," right? Me too. Well, they found the CV joints were perfectly fine. The clicking sound was coming from the brakes, and they found a couple other things so they wanted to do a complete brake job. I said fine.
A couple hours later, Ray called me back and said that they had a problem: The parts they'd ordered only fit on one side of the car. It turns out that the Civic had been in an accident, and somebody rebuilt the suspension with parts they'd found in a junkyard. My Civic is an EX, and the one in the junkyard was a DX. Not too many people pay attention to those letters, so it would be reasonable to think that the parts fit, right? Wrong. My Civic had brakes on one side that were almost a whole inch larger than the brakes on the other side. None of the parts, not even the spindle, matched up between a DX and an EX. How it was able to drive without pulling to one side, I don't know. (And the same goes for why Honda didn't just make the larger brakes standard instead of having to design two separate parts.)
At least it's back to normal now.
Labels: Civic
Monday, October 27, 2008
A Civic update
The Civic is back on the road. It turned out the stock radiator tanks had started leaking. I am not 100% sure if I had misdiagnosed the head gasket or if the head gasket blew and caused a marginal radiator to start leaking. The stock radiator in a Honda Civic is an aluminum center section bonded to plastic end tanks. I hate this design. There's no way to repair one of these when it leaks, and it's way too easy for them to spring a leak. Now I don't like spending excessive amounts of money, but I also don't like replacing a part with a design defect with one that has the same flaw. I understand there is one fairly inexpensive parts store radiator that is all aluminum, but I decided to go all out, drive down to Summit Racing, and pick up a new Fluidyne aluminum radiator for the Civic.
You may be wondering how it fits. The answer is, "Pretty well." All the mounting tabs line up and it does drop in. There are a couple of slightly weird "gotchas" that can make for extra trips to the parts store, though. For one thing, the hose barbs are a slightly larger outer diameter. If you try to put old hoses over them, they won't fit. New hoses are a stretch but you can put them in. And don't reuse the stock corbin clamps - you'll need to get a set of conventional hose clamps to clear the barbs on the hoses. You also won't be able to reuse the stock radiator cap - not really a gotcha as Fluidyne includes one, but if you even need to buy a new cap, you can't go to the parts store and ask for a stock replacement. All in all it's a pretty good fit.
This radiator wasn't cheap, and it's definitely overdoing things for a stock Civic. If I ever decide to throw a supercharger or turbo kit on it, though, at least I'll have enough cooling power to handle it. I don't really know if I ever will do such a thing, but it's nice to be prepared.
You may be wondering how it fits. The answer is, "Pretty well." All the mounting tabs line up and it does drop in. There are a couple of slightly weird "gotchas" that can make for extra trips to the parts store, though. For one thing, the hose barbs are a slightly larger outer diameter. If you try to put old hoses over them, they won't fit. New hoses are a stretch but you can put them in. And don't reuse the stock corbin clamps - you'll need to get a set of conventional hose clamps to clear the barbs on the hoses. You also won't be able to reuse the stock radiator cap - not really a gotcha as Fluidyne includes one, but if you even need to buy a new cap, you can't go to the parts store and ask for a stock replacement. All in all it's a pretty good fit.
This radiator wasn't cheap, and it's definitely overdoing things for a stock Civic. If I ever decide to throw a supercharger or turbo kit on it, though, at least I'll have enough cooling power to handle it. I don't really know if I ever will do such a thing, but it's nice to be prepared.
Labels: Civic
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Blew a head gasket on the Civic... (and how to set a '95 Civic motor to top dead center)
So today I'll be seeing if I can change that out. One thing I've learned while working on this car is that if the manual calls for doing something that looks impossible, there's often a little secret to how you can accomplish it. And the task is easy if you know the secret, impossible otherwise. For example, the directions for removing the head call for setting the #1 piston to TDC. Now, it looks like it's almost impossible to turn the crankshaft with the engine in the car - the pulley is practically up against the inner fender, no good way to grab it or get a wrench on it when you look the engine compartment.
Well, here's the secret. Take a 17 mm socket and put it on an extension bar. Now, look at the plastic lining the driver's side front fenderwell. There will be a cutout in the plastic that looks like a six pointed star. Stick the socket in through this and you can get it on the crank bolt to rotate the crank.
Well, here's the secret. Take a 17 mm socket and put it on an extension bar. Now, look at the plastic lining the driver's side front fenderwell. There will be a cutout in the plastic that looks like a six pointed star. Stick the socket in through this and you can get it on the crank bolt to rotate the crank.
Labels: Civic
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Autocross pictures of the Civic
Perry Bennet snapped a few pictures of my Civic at an autocross last Saturday, including this action shot. You can see more pictures in this gallery.
Labels: Civic
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Still no Dart updates, but you may find this interesting...
Laysons has been known in the Mopar community for hard to find parts at hard to swallow prices. Well, it seems the police busted them at Chryslers at Carlisle for as of yet unknown charges. I doubt many Mopar fans will cry over having been denied the chance to buy overpriced weatherstripping.
Speaking of weatherstripping, the driver's side window seal on the Civic came apart today, binding up the window. I've cut part of the offending seal away and will try to get a new one from the Honda dealer next week. I'm not aware of any Honda restoration shops out there just yet.
Speaking of weatherstripping, the driver's side window seal on the Civic came apart today, binding up the window. I've cut part of the offending seal away and will try to get a new one from the Honda dealer next week. I'm not aware of any Honda restoration shops out there just yet.
Labels: Civic, Dodge Dart, The Automotive Industry
Ordered a factory service manual for the Civic
It's kind of become standard procedure for me whenever I buy a new vehicle: I just went and bought a factory service manual for my Civic. This time I ordered it online from the publisher, Helm Inc. Right now the only motor vehicle I own that I don't have a factory service manual on is the Dodge Ram, and a manual for one would cost more than what I paid for the truck anyway...
Labels: Civic
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Not again!
I can't believe this: On July 4th, the Civic had a second valve stem failure, exactly a week after the last episode. This one very nearly snapped in half. And this time, my wife was along with me, so we had to call a friend to give us a ride home.
I'm planning to have the remaining two valve stems replaced, but I've also ordered a complete new wheel and tire set from Edge Racing. An overreaction? Well, sort of, but not quite. It currently has a set of "Warrior" tires on it. Finding information about these tires is pretty difficult, as even places that sell Warrior tires don't say much about who makes them. But I did turn up this article which identifies the manufacturer as Shanghai Michelin Warrior Tire Co., and they are definitely marked as "Made in China." They have full tread, but they have about as much grip as you'd get by wrapping your rims in strips of bacon. Slamming on the (non-ABS) brakes can be scary as the Worrier, er, Warrior tires let go way too easily. So I'm replacing the rubber. And the alloy wheels? Ok, that's just a luxury, but I felt like upgrading.
I'm planning to have the remaining two valve stems replaced, but I've also ordered a complete new wheel and tire set from Edge Racing. An overreaction? Well, sort of, but not quite. It currently has a set of "Warrior" tires on it. Finding information about these tires is pretty difficult, as even places that sell Warrior tires don't say much about who makes them. But I did turn up this article which identifies the manufacturer as Shanghai Michelin Warrior Tire Co., and they are definitely marked as "Made in China." They have full tread, but they have about as much grip as you'd get by wrapping your rims in strips of bacon. Slamming on the (non-ABS) brakes can be scary as the Worrier, er, Warrior tires let go way too easily. So I'm replacing the rubber. And the alloy wheels? Ok, that's just a luxury, but I felt like upgrading.
Labels: Civic
Saturday, June 28, 2008
A rather crazy flat tire story
It turns out the Civic had one surprise in it. I suspect it's the fault of the dealership that sold the car to the previous owner - the previous owner and I had speculated that the Civic may have been water damaged as it had new carpeting and a lot of interior shampooing done to it. But it's in good mechanical shape so I'm not worried about the water damage and it looks to have been professionally repaired for the most part. Except this.
I had a flat tire on the way home from work yesterday. That would normally have been pretty routine, but when I pulled over I found out that the Civic's jack was missing. The tire iron was there although badly rusted like it had been sitting underwater. So I called my wife and asked if she could bring the floor jack. A helpful couple pulled over in a Bronco to help, but they had a truck jack that couldn't go under the Honda.
Once my wife arrived, I got the flat tire off, only to find out that the spare tire was on a five lug wheel and the Honda's wheels are four lug. Looks like a dealer had the spare tire either go missing or get badly rusted, and grabbed a random spare tire to cover things up.
I had a flat tire on the way home from work yesterday. That would normally have been pretty routine, but when I pulled over I found out that the Civic's jack was missing. The tire iron was there although badly rusted like it had been sitting underwater. So I called my wife and asked if she could bring the floor jack. A helpful couple pulled over in a Bronco to help, but they had a truck jack that couldn't go under the Honda.
Once my wife arrived, I got the flat tire off, only to find out that the spare tire was on a five lug wheel and the Honda's wheels are four lug. Looks like a dealer had the spare tire either go missing or get badly rusted, and grabbed a random spare tire to cover things up.
Labels: Civic
Thursday, June 26, 2008
I know some of my readers aren't going to like this...
But when I picked out a replacement for the Corvette, I ended up chosing a '95 Honda Civic. I got a low mileage one at a price I couldn't pass up. This car's the right tool for the job, when the job is getting me to work 40 miles and back.
Will this Civic end up modified? You've probably noticed my daily drivers usually don't have mods on them, but I may have to do something to compensate for the shock of going from a Corvette to a Civic. The first area I hit may be, believe it or not, the suspension. Sure, it's lighter than a Corvette and in some ways seems to react more quickly. But it also feels mushy and has a huge amount of body roll compared to the Corvette. Perhaps some good shocks and sway bars will clean that up.
Sometime down the line, I may need to do something about the drawback it has that Civics are so noted for, not making any torque. But on a Civic, torque's a lot more expensive than handling...
Will this Civic end up modified? You've probably noticed my daily drivers usually don't have mods on them, but I may have to do something to compensate for the shock of going from a Corvette to a Civic. The first area I hit may be, believe it or not, the suspension. Sure, it's lighter than a Corvette and in some ways seems to react more quickly. But it also feels mushy and has a huge amount of body roll compared to the Corvette. Perhaps some good shocks and sway bars will clean that up.
Sometime down the line, I may need to do something about the drawback it has that Civics are so noted for, not making any torque. But on a Civic, torque's a lot more expensive than handling...
Labels: Civic
