Rep Power: 0

Bought my first car, an 02 civic in september of last year with 269k miles for 500$, neighbor had it sitting in their garage for a little over two years. It needed a new power steering belt, alternator, and brakes. I had the belt and the alternator changed, but im still procrastinating on the brakes because as far as I can tell they aren't horrible yet. A month after driving it I look down at the temperature gauge see that its completely on H, I never really was a car person but I knew this was bad so I pulled over and turns out headgaskets blown. So after I fix the headgasket I didnt do much to my car for a while until I decided to swap out the stock air intake for a K&M Cold Air intake. And now today I just had the stock exhaust replaced with a catback. The car sounds pretty good, and I'm happy with where I have it but I'm looking to put some more money into it. I know it still has a few problems, namely a bad throw-out bearing and the clutch probably needs to be replaced. Do you guys have any recommendations on things I could do to it?


I'll include some pics later, writing this up while its dark out atm.

 
Rep Power: 513

modding is all about personal taste, really. So, for us to help you out, what do you see as the endgame for your modding journey?

Also, when you got the HD changed, was the timing belt and water pump changed out, too? If not, do you know when they last got changed?

 
Rep Power: 0

No as far as I can tell they both havent been changed out. Is that something that I'd be able to do in my garage? I've got plenty of tools.

 
Rep Power: 127

You can more or less take apart the car with a 10 and 12mm. As long as you have a good socket set, breaker bar and the crank pulley removal tool, you'll be fine.

 
Rep Power: 223

Throw out bearing noise might actually be the input shaft bearing. Does the noise stop when you put the clutch in?

 
Rep Power: 513

on top of what chezboat said, yeah, for the most part, the car can be taken apart with a 10 and 12mm. Timing belt and water pump require a few more sizes, particularly a 19mm for the crank pulley bolt (use impact rated stuff -- I've snapped the head off a 1/2" extension messing with this bolt). You'll also need to at least rent a crank pulley holding tool since that thing is on with about 180ft-lb torque. 14mm to take off the driver's side motor mount, too. Otherwise, everything else is 10 or 12mm. Grab yourself a haynes manual for like $30 if you plan on keeping this car and want to work on it yourself

truer words have never been spoken. lol

 
Rep Power: 0

Yeah the noise stops when I push the clutch in. Also as for my endgame, I just want to improve performance in general. I'm not entirely sure how to do that, but maybe it's a better idea to do some maintenance like you guys are saying.


Edit: Heres some pictures.

 
Rep Power: 127

Budget's another thing. You'll need a decent amount of cash to get any notable performance out of a 7th gen. Mac and Rice are the guys to talk to about that. Handling is where you can make the 7th gen shine.

Financially speaking, you're better off finding a different car if you want performance. A good turbo kit will cost in the neighbourhood of $3000, with the K-swap being roughly the same. The best bet would be something like an RSX, EP3, or Integra. If you still want a sedan, then the K24 accord is great.

You have a nice car. I'd get some suspension and a good wheel/tire setup then enjoy it for what it is: a reliable, nimble daily driver that'll still get you near 40mpg.

 
Rep Power: 223

that's input shaft bearing, need to take the trans apart to fix it

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for the information! I have plenty of free time on my hands so I think I'll get to work on fixing it. I already had plans on getting some 17" wheels and new tires onto it, is doing the suspension feasible in my garage? Same goes for taking apart the transmission. I've got four thousand I can put into it, don't really care about buying a new car anytime soon.

 
Rep Power: 513

First thing I ever did to my 7thgen, as a very inexperienced 18 year old, was swap springs. Very doable in a driveway

 
Rep Power: 127

Oh yeah, definitely. As long as you have a decent amount of space, it should be easy.

Not sure if I'd dump 4k into this, but K-swap is definitely the way to go if that's where you wanna put your money.

 
Rep Power: 223

Suspension is definitely doable in the driveway/garage. Trans is depending on your confidence/experience. You could pull the trans yourself and bring it to a shop to get rebuilt. It would save you a fair bit compared to having the shop pull it. Put in a new clutch while the trans is out

 
Rep Power: 0

Yeah sounds good. Are there any particular suspensions that are recommended? I also just placed the order for new wheels and tires.

 
Rep Power: 513

I had a great experience with tein coilovers (Tein SS-P) on my 2002. Started to have a small bit of failure on the top hat right before I got rid of the car 13-14 years after installing 'em. The new version of those coilovers (tein street advance) are considerably cheaper. If you don't want to go full coilover setup, Tokico HP struts and springs with a moderate drop (like.. 1.5ish at most?) are a good alternative.

Front upper strut bar is great bang for your buck. If you can find a single-piece (neuspeed was popular back in the mid 2000s) for about $100, you're solid. Might have to dig around to find ones that'll fit around the intake pipe though. It tightens up a bit of the slop in steering (mostly noticeable in quick lane change type scenarios).

RSX 19mm rear sway bar is a direct bolt on, but highly recommend you upgrade the endlinks to some beefier ones.

Camber kit to save your tires. SPC is the go-to for most people. Rear, it's an adjustable upper arm. Front, either camber plate (sometimes comes with coilovers or available from the manufacturer of the coilovers) or adjustable crash bolt. I ran the camber plates, and they were stupid easy. Loosen 4 bolts and adjust away.

What wheels and tires you go with?

edit: if you wanna be super cool and get a short shifter, revo technica makes a great one. Lowers the **** by like.. 1 inch or so and shortens the throw by like 20-30%. Had a gen 1 non-adjustable in my 2002 and I loved it. The current model is adjustable, so that's kinda cool. Upgrade the shifter base bushings to solid aluminum ones to take some of the shifting slop out, too. Dunno how much they run for these days, but ran me about $100 back in 2004.

edit 2: the shifter is $90 on ebay. Apparently they integrated the shifter bushings into the base design, so disregard that part.

 
Rep Power: 0

hi, if its ok to join in. I'm trace. I bought my 02 civic manual tranny coupe Em2 for $240.00 and let me tell mon, i spend more on it than what i paid for the car. The first think i had to replaced was the head gasket and yes,with no idea or experience of what i was doing. I got god advice from some guys on here and mechanics at part stores. I replaced the head gasket but it was aftermarket and used one stone to kill a few birds, i mean i just go ahead and have the head resurface, new valve stem seal, replaced one bend valve remove replaced all rings around the pistons,cleaned the EGR valve passage and replaced the intake manifold gasket to. Then i started to hear the sound coming from the engine area not really sure what it was so do my YouTube search and it was the same thing that you are talking about input sharf baring that was bad so i replaced all baring from honda in my area and i shocks,struts, tie rod ends, ball joins front contrl arms upper rear control arms, replaced the the whole clutch. And flywheel.i remake the whoe car.if you going to do the job,i recommen that you watch some v

 
Rep Power: 0

What exhaust system specifically do u have?

 
Rep Power: 0

nothing fancy, just some cheap e-bay exhaust. ill link it below.

I wouldn't recommend this one, it's got a pretty bad drone when you're driving, doesn't bother me that much but can't say the same for you.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-01-05-H...72.m2749.l2649

 
Rep Power: 513

2.5" is huge for the d17. Prolly got a lot of low end torque loss there, huh? 2.25" is a good size for the d17 as a max, 60mm (2.36") in some cases, like the apex'i ws-ii exhaust. Not a straight through muffler like the n1 style, but great sound and performance with a chambered muffler. I had zero drone in my 2002, and I had a full exhaust setup from the header back

 
Rep Power: 0

yeah cheaped out on the exhaust, if i get rich off of crypto or something ill look into a proper exhaust if i still have the car, was looking to buy a used wrx so might just save my money anyways