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Hello to everyone, I've just joined the forums for some advice and help. Here's my story;

For many years, since learning to drive in fact, I have driven classic cars. By classic, I mean 1960s Morris Minors specifically. Recently I had to trade in my 1966 Morris Traveller for a newer car, because I simply couldn't afford the TLC and cosmetic restoration it so badly needed. Thankfully it had gone to a good home where it will be restored and enjoyed. I'm still heartbroken at this, but that's life - I drive nearly a hundred miles a day to work and it was killing the old boy.
In return, I got a 1997 Honda Civic, R-reg (I'm in the UK). It's about the most modern thing I've ever driven, and although it's a great little car, I really need some help with the basics! So far I've managed to find out where to put the oil, but that's about it - I know it sounds stupid, but older cars were a lot simpler. I also don't know anything about the tyre pressure, type of tyres, how to check the brake fluid, what brake fluid to use, where to put the coolant, what coolant to use, etc. These are things I knew how to do on the Morris, and could probably take a good guess at on this Honda, but I don't want to take chances with my only means of transportation!
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thankyou all for reading.

 
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tire pressure should be on the label inside the driver door body near the latch. tires should have all the basic info etched into the rubber. brake fluid cap tells you also what fluid to use, and coolant should prolly use the honda stuff that is a typeII long life. otherwise i would recommend finding a service manual cause everything will be explained in there.

 
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Thanks, currently searching for onr of those on eBay.

 
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Welcome Sir. If you can't find the service manual on eBay, you can order a new paper manual for $70 US or so at www.helminc.com.

Helm also has 3 and 30 day access subscriptions available for their online service information, specs and maintenance procedures, but the printed factory service manual is the way to go, if you plan on doing work yourself.

There's also a Haynes manual available, which is cheaper than the factory service manual, has lots of good pictures and covers generally everything you need to know for standard upkeep.

I definately agree with gearbox though, everything you need to know, basics-wise, will be in one of those manuals. I'd look up the specs if I had the info, but Ive got a different year civic.

They're great cars though. One of my family members put 300k miles on his civic before going to a company car, and the civic was still running strong.

 
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You can also download the electronic version of that from here:

96-00 Honda Civic Service Manual

Save you a few bucks anyway. It's a 70MB zip file and should help you out.

Other than that, welcome to the site!

 
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Thankyou very much for that, downloading now and warming up the printer. I've just been out and checked all the fluids and everything seems up to a good level, max or just under. I must say, the car drives beautifully and I'm quite surprised that I like the styling - I usually don't like the way modern cars look, but this one seems rather nice.
Oh yes, I'm not a sir, I'm a she!

 
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Mind the leg humpers then. We don't get many girls on the site.

 
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No problem, I'm used to it, being into LARP, RPGs, etc - very single-male dominated areas of life! A swift kick in the nads usually suffices.

 
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^ Ha..

Post pics for the car if possible?

 
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Substitute face for nads in this pic then:

 
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welcome! post pics of the morris'?