Zordrack

Hey guys,

So i got my Civic cherry popped.
And it's been a bit of a ride.

I lost my old ride and "acquired" a 97 DX Coupe MT with 183K miles on it for the cost of fixing an Acura TL that front end collision damage.
So essentially it was free.

However there is quite a laundry list of things to do on this car and i'm looking for a sanity check on my fix list.

Right before i took it over i had the clutch replaced with an Exigy clutch since it was burned up completely.

So far i've replaced the stereo and speakers adding some much needed bluetooth streaming and some decent sound.
I've swapped out the tape deck with the cubby/cup holder from a 99.
Added center console armrest from a junk yard.
Replaced the battery. It was leaking.
Replaced the battery cable terminals. Only thing holding the cables to the binding posts was corrosion.
Replaced the sun visors from junk yard.
Performed an oil and filter change.
Repaired front end damage by straightening out the radiator support, straightening out and re-aligning fender (drivers side door pinched fender) and reattaching bumper after straightening bumper support.
Flipped over the seat belts which had been incorrectly mounted after a repair.
Lost a floor mat.
Lubed door hinges as they were making awful noises every time you opened and closed the door.
Replaced the instrument cluster with a junk yard one that had a tachometer on it since this is my first standard transmission in over a decade and a half.
Replaced headlights with TYC projector beam headlights as i simply couldnt live with the stock lights. I kept catching myself turning them off to make sure they worked.
Which reminds me.
Since i now have individual high and low beam is there a known hack for keeping the low beam on while switching to high without overloading the headlight circuit ?

And since i'm tired of riding in a fishbowl 30% tint (keeping it legal) is on it's way.

Now for the stuff that needs work....

Maintenance was never something that was performed regularly on this vehicle.
Right before i got it it was having serious issues with starting and idle hunting plus CEL was on with a System Lean code.
A bottle of seafoam was run through it and it seemed to clear it up.

I still have fairly crappy gas millage (20 city, 30 highway) and using a bluetooth OBD-2 interface and DashCommand i see that fuel trim is pretty excessive (+10 - +20) under almost all circumstances.

My guess is i either have filthy sensors or filthy injectors/fuel filter or some combination of the above plus aging spark plugs etc.
I know that the fuel pump was replaced not too long ago but i don't see any paperwork on fuel filter or injectors.
It does look like the upstream O2 sensor was replaced recently though.
It's way shinnier than most everything else under the hood

So i already know that i'll be performing a full tuneup.
Spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, distributor rotor, fuel filter and air filter.
Question here is if there's anything else that i should be looking at ?

Also i know that there's at least one oil leak. It looks like the valve cover gasket is leaking on the front passenger side of the engine.
It also looks like there's a leak around the front side of the oil pan gasket and there's clear evidence of the oil pan being hit repeatedly.
There's a fairly deep dent (about an inch deep) on the front lip of the oil pan.

Speaking of oil. Combined leakage/burning, after changing to fully synthetic seems to be about 1 quart per 1000 - 1500 miles. Does this sound normal'ish ?
And yes. I realize the relative futility of asking this question when i have at least one known oil leak

Now for the fun bit, and where i'm really not too sure of where to start.
And please keep in mind that this will be a daily driver and not a racer.

First off it looks like every single piece of rubber on this car is dry rotted.
So every single bushing and boot is way past it's useful life.
Since i know i'll have to replace it all i've been looking at Energy Suspension bushings since they make a master kit (that somehow still doesn't seem to include everything) plus additional mounts like motor mounts.
Is there any reason for me not to go this way or is there a similar set or list of bushings/mounts in rubber from an aftermarket manufacturer like Moog ?

Also. The suspension is gone.
The drivers side rear shock is completely collapsed all other shocks are between dead and dying.
So far i've been looking at replacing the shocks with Koni STR.T while keeping the stock springs.
Is there any reason not to do this ?
Does it sound like a completely insane idea ?
Is there anything else i should be looking at while i'm in there ?
I'm really not looking at lowering it since it's already plenty low for New Orleans roads as it is.
I'm just looking at restoring some semblance of handling to it.

Also along with bushings and suspension all the ball joints i've seen so far are toast so they would be replaced in the same go.

Wheel bearings. I can hear the rear passenger bearing growling at speed so i'm guessing that since they've never been changed and they all have almost 185k miles on them i might as well replace them all.

Breaks.
The breaks are pretty well gone.
The thing is i absolutely hate drum breaks with a passion.
So i've seriously been looking at doing the rear disc break conversion. Especially since i know for a fact that i would have to rip the trailing arm off anyways in order to replace bushings etc.
Again. Is this something that sounds unreasonable ?

Lastly (for the known broken stuff) the CV shafts needs to be replaced. Boots are gone and they've definitely seen better days.
Looking around i saw a whole bunch of CV shafts in the sub $100 range.
Is there any quality difference that people know of in these parts or is it just pick one, anyone and put it on ?

Ohh and the radio antenna has to be replaced. It's filthy and corroded and seems to only provide decent reception during wet weather

I will also be replacing the 14" stock steel wheels with 15" Acura alloys with Honda center caps.
Is there any reason to go bigger like a 16" ?

Now for the wish list.
First off i wanna add HID low beams to the TYC projectors.
Been looking at the Morimoto 35W 4300k.
Anybody have any experience there ?

For the high beams i'll probably leave it with the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra at least for now.

I wanna add fog lights to it.
Been looking at going JDM yellow with Morimoto 35w 3000k HID for those.
Does this sound like it would work or is that complete overkill ?

Also, i want to replace all remaining lights with LEDs.
Primarily from the standpoint that they'll last a lot longer. Plus it would be a cool little mod to pull off.
Been looking at LEDs from superbrightleds.com but i'm worried that they might not be bright enough. Especially the rear lights for tail and brake lights.
Does anybody have any experiences there ?

Another thing at the top of my list is an auto dimming rear view mirror.
Having been used to vehicles with this it irks me every time i end up looking into the headlights of the guy behind me.
So the plan is to rip out the stock mirror and replace it with a **** mirror with map lights, compass and external temperature sensor.
Go big or go home right ?
My question is, since this mounts to the windshield and not the roof does anybody have experience with the reliability of gluing that on yourself ?

I also wanna try and bring it a bit out of the DX space by adding power windows, power mirrors and power locks.
My questions here revolves mainly around the power locks.
I would prefer getting keyless entry working. But is the best way to do that to try and port the keyless entry/alarm system from a junk yard donor or to buy an after market alarm and simply hook that up to the power locks ?

Also looking at adding heating filaments to the external mirror glass and running it off of the rear window defrost circuit.
Does this sound doable without overloading the circuit or should i go a different route ?

Long term i would also like to add power steering but i cant help but thinking that it would probably make more sense to add that as i'm rebuilding the suspension.
Comments thoughts etc ?

For the pure fluff i would like to add thermal and sound insulation (in that order) to the whole car.
Anybody have any experiences with this or recommendations regarding which brand to go ?

Also in the fluff department i've been toying with the idea of doing an Acura seat swap.

And finally i've been toying with the idea of setting up a two tone internal LED lightning tied to the headlights and the dome light.
Keeping one set of strips dimmed and slaved to the headlights for internal night illumination while another set of white strips with no dimming is tied to the dome light/door switch for general illumination.
To that i would also add trips under the door sills to light up the ground when opening the door as well as a Honda ghost light in the doors. Coz why not when you've already gone this far ?
This being a DX that also means adding lighting to the trunk.
Anybody knows if i can simply add the trunk lid switch from a different model to pull this off ?

Anyways. That's my story so far.
It's a bit much, but the car was essentially free so i figured i might as well spend the money on fixing her up.

Any thoughts, comments, questions, rants, flames etc ?
They will all be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys

ezone

Holy wall of words! At least it's in paragraphs, thanks!


Not enough data to go on yet for me.
Vacuum leaks? Cruise vac hose came off?
Stuck IAC valve?

Do an alcohol/fuel check?
Ethanol causes trims to rise...
restricted injectors can too.

Do the tune up stuff and see if it gets better?

See that it is NTK or DENSO.
TIMING BELT!

For the mileage, sure. Not unreasonable IMO. Just keep up with it.


Suspension, brakes, etc., I deal with OEM. Can't tell you about aftermarket.

axles, hit or miss. Aftermarket can be dirt cheap so expect crap --and be amazed if you don't. Hope you get some that don't clack right away. $49.95 does actually work good once in a while LOL

Glue: 3M or Loctite. Plan on redoing it every couple years just in case LOL
Visit a professional auto glass shop like Glass Specialty and ask what they use.


Adding power everything, probably find a donor car to rob doors and stuff. Wiring is another issue, as almost every original thing that old is rotten and breaking off in the door jamb area. DIY wire harness?

Zordrack

Hah yeah that really was a little wordy. But i wanted to be complete
Thank you very much for actually reading through it.

No cruise control on this one, although that is a faaar down the list of priorities add that i would like to do.

As for vacuum leaks i'm guessing i would find most when i do the valve cover gasket ?
On that note though. Would it make sense to simply start replacing hoses and gaskets on the principle that they've probably exceeded their useful life ?

I was planning to clean the IAC valve at the same time i did the valve cover.
I initially suspected that to be the cause of the hard starting and idle hunting, but honestly put it on the backafter the seafoam seemed to clear those problems up.

Not sure what an Ethanol fuel check is.
Can you explain ?

Also. Is there any way to clean old injectors without pouring tons of chemicals (like seafoam) through the fuel system potentially causing other problems ?

Will try to verify brand of O2 sensor and change if not appropriate.

As for the timing belt is this something your average person, capable of following directions and a Haynes manual, could perform ?
I don't have access to a lift or shop and resort to doing all of my work in the parking lot of my apartment building.
And yes. People do look at me weird for that

Creating a couple of stub door wiring harness' shouldn't be that problematic.
I would rate my electrical skills higher than my mechanical ones.

Thanks again for your comments.
This has very much been a learning experience.

ezone

I can't really read. I just hum along and fake it.

Not sure how that sort of job would allow you to pinpoint any vacuum leaks.

Not to me. Randomly replacing parts is no way to diagnose a problem for me.


Are any of the hoses hardened and brittle? Are hoses a problem?
IAC sticking is probably the most common idle issue.

Ok, drive it and see how it acts. If the issues persist, it probably needs a different kind of love. Post back if there's still problems.

Checking a fuel sample for alcohol content. If there is an unusually high percentage of alcohol in the fuel for whatever reason, that might explain high fuel trims.

I just threw it out because it's a somewhat common to me, I live in the corn belt, 99% of the gas here is some % Ethanol, people sometimes grab the cheapest pump at the gas station without looking at what it is, some gas stations get tanks contaminated, etc....

It's not really hard to do the check if you know how.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2143193_test...l-content.html



Ultrasonic cleaning? Backflush?

Youtube search for 'DIY injector clean' gave me these




Not a big deal unless it's a problem.

Search for 6th gen timing belt DIY tutorial threads here, see if it's within your capabilities?

Check your owners manual, I think it might say 5yr/60k intervals for the timing belt. (can't remember, didn't research)



HTH