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Hey, Folks!

I'm recently retired and new owner of an old 2004 Honda Civic, having never had one before, so consider myself pretty much a newbie regarding these cars, although I did buy one for my son as his first car a decade ago and know what to look for in terms of common issues and solutions.

This car I salvaged from my nephew because it had so many issues he didn't dare put it up for sale and I was able to fix them all and give it a second life.

Fixing things is something I've done all my life (I ran my own problem-solving business in the construction industry and still do on a part-time basis) so it was easy for me to get the car roadworthy again and it was a welcome relief from the last two years facing the biggest tragedy of my life, the loss of my wife to cancer, so I developed a genuine fondness for this "little car that could".

I first got the driver door to open and lock (nephew used to get in through the passenger door with a pair of vise grips), get the hood open (car wouldn't start and release cable was stuck), repaired the rust damage around the rear wheel wells and got the DRL to work again (I resoldered the relay PCBs and removed the jerry-rigged High Beam wire that had been installed as a fix), brakes were replaced (drilled rotors are a stupid idea in the salt belt) and parking brake were stuck (purged years of crud accumulated in the cable sleeves), and made the headlights work decently again (removed the yellow oxidation with an abrasive), fixing the clear coat issue on the roof (I sanded and repainted it), among other things.

I still have to fix a small oil seepage from the timing belt area (probably a worn main or camshaft seal) and to finally get the evap system to work right (and get rid of that check engine light) and am planning to polish my windshield surface to get the scratches down to minimize glare and help these old eyes cope at night.

Regarding Night Visibility, I've been looking for the past year for LED headlights that will actually work in DRL mode, but after days and days of research over the past year, I haven't been able to find a single one that truly works in DRL mode (= with reduced intensity in that mode) and have tired asking the same question over again to Chinese vendors who obviously don't understand that DRLs should run at a low intensity so as to not blind other drivers. So I sure hope you guys may be able to give me some advice to resolve this problem that doesn't involve hacking the car apart!

Looking forward to get to know you guys better!

Old Faithful, in the boonies North of Montreal

 
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welcome!
lots of issues for sure...
no HID that works as true DRL, sorry... Notice that all HID from factory have high beams that are not HID that are used as DRL.

 
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Welcome! Quite a bit of work you put into her. Post up some pics! We'd love to see it
make sure you spray some UV protective clear coat on those headlights or at least constantly maintain them (wax/uv protective sealants, etc)

 
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Thanks for the warm welcome guys!

I was afraid someone would say that! The number of LEDs I investigated that claimed to work in DRL mode is enough to turn my head around several times...
I guess that would leave no other option but to modify the DRL system, like some other people have said, to have separate lights specific for that function...

But I was hoping there existed an intelligent driver that would be able to detect the feed voltage and based on that, drive the led using PWM to 1/4 intensity... Like a Voltage to PWM converter, that would get 6V in and feed the bulb 12V at 1/4 on, 3/4 off at around 10KHz or so, similar to what is done for cheap LED flashlights...

I used a special abrasive paste designed for plastics and a buffer... It needs to be redone every 6 months or so to stay really clean, but it's easy enough and quick to do and works great if you don't stay too long in one place (you can melt plastic if you're not careful)

For the other stuff it's pretty common I guess but if I see something particularly interesting I sure will post it, I've documented most of my work 🙂

Here's a couple of pictures for now showing my version of the DRL Relay Resolder Fix, basically I increased the size of the solder pads to give better support to the relays and so, minimize the strain on the pads and, using lead-based solder, hopefully permanently resolve the issue

2004 Honda Civic DRL Relay before repair - showing relay solder pads cracks and some of the pads being scratched to increase solder size

2004 Honda Civic DRL Relay after Increasing the Relay Solder Pad Size and Resoldering Them with lead based solder (cracks in solder joints are usually caused by manufacturers switching to low lead alloys due to environmental regulations)

 
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Welcome! Good work 👍

 
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?!? Hey, wait a moment.
2004 have the high beams separate from the low beams.
HID is only for low beams. There is no such thing as high beams HID anywhere.

 
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Yeah... Like I said, I'm looking for L E Ds, not H I Ds 😄
Also, in the old days I was looking for Bi-Xenons, but that was for my Landcruiser that has an H4 bulb with two filaments - they had an HID bulb that featured a shutter for low beam that was moved out of the way with a solenoid for high beam use... Perhaps things have changed, it's been many years since I've looked at headlight upgrades.

Here's a picture of what was preventing my font door lock from working... Guess what it is 😄

Guess what was causing the front door lock to be inoperative when I got the car 😉

 
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ouch, sorry, looks like i can't read... my brain somehow went into HID's somehow...