My Project

[Honda_Boy]

Not really much of an update to the car but I sold my old car's ECU for $90. I plan to run my car by my mechanic's and have him fix this squealing belt (a horrible loud squeal when I start the car).

Now if I can just get the rest of my crap sold I'll be good. I need to get the coilovers off my old car and either sell them or put them on my car (probably sell them cause it'd cost like $200 to install them and I'm not installing them myself). After that I can finally junk my old car's shell.

Also, the dude i sold the ECU too was driving.......... a Horizon Gray Metallic 95 Civic EX Coupe. Luckily it was kinda beat up so I didn't feel so bad seein it. In case ya'll forgot, my old car was a Horizon Gray Metallic 95 Civic EX Coupe.

[Honda_Boy]

Well, my car is goin to the mechanic's Friday. Gonna get the squealing belt(s) fixed and gonna get an MTF change (Manual Transmission Fluid). My car is dangerously low on MTF. Unfortunately it's still gonna leak when it gets changed but it will take a while to get this low again. I have to have my differential replaced to stop the leak but i won't be able to afford that for a long time. It'd cost more than $700 if i just took the car there and had him do it. it'll only cost around $200 if I took the tranny off and took it to him. I'd probably have to grab Jose to help me on that one though. he knows how to drop a tranny on a FWD in the driveway so I'll trust him to help me get it on and off.

[JDoors]

I got out of the biz before having to do heavy work on FWD so I don't know what dropping the diff entails, but if it cost $500 to have someone else do it ... whoa, it's gotta be a toughie. I've done eight-hour jobs in my garage at home using hand tools (one job was JUST a heater core, but the car had to be disassembled to get to it) so it's doable as long as you have the time and patience, so good luck ya'll.

[Honda_Boy]

well, the most of the labor cost for that one does toward dropping the tranny from the car. It's a pain in the @$$ trust me. That's why I plan to have Jose and a few friends help me drop the tranny and carry it to the mechanic for him to change the diff. Of course I plan to have them help me get it back in too.

Well, tomorrow I'm gettin the belts fixed and fresh MTF. Hopefully that will fix my 3rd and 4th grinds or at least make it better. The synchros may be going, I don't know.

[Bubba Bob]

I think it's time to join the Army Reserves and get a new car...

[Honda_Boy]

never gonna join the military (Dad was in the Guard for 28 years and told me not to join anything). And no, I'm not gettin another car. This is a restoration project (that's just weird saying that for a 96 car) and by golly it's gonna get done eventually. Even my dad is wantin me to fix it up cause he likes it too.

What's trippy is this thing impressed a guy (only 16) that drove a 2006 BMW 3-Series with a straight 6 and 6-spd manual. Him and his friend thought the intake and was cool and of course they actually know about cars (BMW's though not Hondas) so what actually impressed them the most was the power to weight ratio.

Actually I kinda wish I had the cash to get a 92-98 Nissan 240SX daily driver or something but if I had that kinda cash, my Civic would be in far better shape. I'd kinda like to have something RWD to play with, that and I absolutely love Kouki S14's (97-98 240SX). Just cause my name is Honda_Boy don't mean I don't like other cars.

[Honda_Boy]

Well, belts fixed. Turns out they were fine. Some bolts were missing from the alternator and that's what was causing the squealing. I dropped off my car this morning expecting to spend $150 or so. Get a call a few hours later (he works fast, faster than any other mechanic I've seen) saying that the belts fixed and it'll cost 60 bucks. Turns out that my car is not at all low on fluid. It is leaking but not enough to account for anything. He said it was full and clean........................then my fear was confirmed. Bad synchros. Dammit, add in the cost of replacing the diff and the synchros, it'd be more cost effective to get another tranny. I may have a bead on a cheap replacement though. There's a guy on TennSpeed selling a complete B16A swap for $1500 .They normally go for $2500 or so with mark up but often times you can get a deal from someone local. So I'm kinda in hopes in talkin him into lettin me get the tranny for $300-400 (the repairs to this one if I take it off the car myself will cost $500-600 probably). Of course, I'd have to borrow from my dad and I can say goodbye to those SiR headlights but still, go before show.

Also, my mechanic is mean. Look what he parked my car next to after he finished.

Now I'm sad.

Edited September 29, 2007 by Honda_Boy

[JDoors]

You know ... It's not unheard of for a set of car keys to work in a different car. You should have tried them in that other one. Just a shot in the dark. "Hey, I didn't know!"

[Honda_Boy]

Well, I didn't have my old Honda's key with me....... well I haven't had it with me in a year. I've had the hatch a year now and yes, this thread is over a year old.

[Bubba Bob]

Bah, who needs syncrhos anyway? Just learn how to double shift and your good to go...

really though... Air Gaurd? 6 week boot camp Dont even have to work up a sweat.

[Honda_Boy]

Bought some crap today. Got me some more Mobil 1 5W-30, a Wix Filter, some oil plug rings, and some Trico wiper blades. Gonna change my oil later this week. Gotta go to my brother's house and get my ramps back from him and he's in Mississippi right with his "training" or whatever for work (claims adjuster....... yeah I don't really get it). I went ahead and swapped the blades earlier. My old NAPA ones (which were actually made by Trico) were starting to suck. I guess cause they were on the car for about 9-10 months. These new blades are trippy lookin. They are a new design that's supposed to be more aerodynamic and wipe better cause of this kick butt lookin blade rail.

These were what my old blades were only they were labeled NAPA Exact Fit

Trico Exact Fit

And this is what I bought without even looking at them (they were the only Tricos I saw at O'Reilly's)

Trico Innovision

I'm also talking to a guy about buying his transmission. He wants to trade for B18C1 transmission (94-01 DC2 Integra GSR) but I asked him to buy it. He said he would do it if it were enough to buy a GSR transmission. Once we figure out how cheap he can get it, I might buy his B16A2 tranny (the same one I have, from a 99-00 EM1 Civic Si). I'll buy his and give him mine to use until he gets the GSR one he wants. His is perfect shape and shifts perfectly he says. Mine has a bad diff and bad synchros, grinds 3rd and 4th but works well enough for him to use until he gets the one he wants.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Honda_Boy

[JDoors]

Innovision® is the wiper blade of tomorrow - available today!

Their ad copy's not exactly innovative, that's for sure.

I've come to the conclusion it's better to religiously change blades twice a year than to pay any attention whatsoever to what brand you use. ANY blade will work for six months.

Ok, no, that's not true. I tried those "tri-" blades when they first came out and they almost killed me. During a blizzard they did not work. My theory; each of the three wiping surfaces gets only one-third of the pressure exerted from the arm, meaning, none exerts enough pressure to do anything. They just skip over whatever's on the glass. Like snow. And ice. Heck, even heavy rain defeated those suckers.

[Honda_Boy]

I performed two oil changes today. First I changed the oil in my car then I changed the oil in my friend's 1989 Integra LS Automatic. Mobil 1 5W-30 and a Wix filter for mine then some cheap Havoline 10W-30 and a cheap Purolator filter for his. Neither car showed an oil light and neither exploded on the test runs so I'm sure they are fine.

I had to take my CF Lip off to get it on the ramps. The ramps just couldn't fit with the lip on. I'm gonna get a new lip soon though cause my CF one is heavily damaged. I'm either gonna get a Urethane Mugen Style lip or an SiR lip (JDM OEM) to replace the CF Mugen Style lip. I'm gonna be gettin new genuine SiR headlights soon too. Maybe in a month or so.

Edited October 29, 2007 by Honda_Boy

[Honda_Boy]

Not a real update on the ride but I did shine her up today gettin her ready for Import Alliance Fall 2007. I'll have a crap ton of pictures after Sunday.

[Honda_Boy]

Well, didn't take any pics at IA. None of my batteries had any power. Turns out the charger I was using was bad. I thought the batteries were bad. I went out last night and bought new Energizer e2 rechargeables and chraged them over night. Put em, in turned the camera on and got a low battery warning so no pics. Pulled out another charger and popped in the new ones. Less than 2 hours they were fully charged and ready to rock. Popped the old ones in (Kodak), less than 2 hours later, fully charged...........man now I'm mad. I'm charging one more set (the ones that originally came with the good charger) and seein if they still hold a charge after not being used for 2 years. If they do, then I have 12 good batteries to use in my camera now. I think I'll carry it with me now since I have at least 8 good batteries. 2 should be good enough to fill the card up once or twice.

Got my Tennspeed.net stickers while I was there and trying to decide where to put them I got 2 so I'm thinkin either top center of rear windshield and driver side upper corner of the front windshield at an angle (to match my I :heart: my Honda sticker) or going down the back side of my rear side windows.

[JDoors]

Nothing much to do with your ongoing project, but you brought it up so: I hate rechargeable batteries. They suck.

[bozodog]

Battery University

[JDoors]

Battery University

Good source, but for the scientific errata I already knew the pertinent stuff about Ni-Cads. They still suck.

Apparently, if you have the correct type of charger/discharger, you can successfully recondition them to varying degrees, but what equipment that inlcudes a charger HAS the correct type of charge/discharge cyles? Even if I had the necessary unit, connecting the dozen or so various types of cells would be a hassle. Or at least more of a hassle than buying disposables in bulk when they're on sale.

[bozodog]

I agree with you, JD. The alkaline also last much longer with a long drain. Lithium-ion seems to be the answer, but they die on the shelf. So you can't buy a backup for use a year or two from now. (like for a camera)

No maintenance needed. Loses capacity due to aging whether used or not.

[Honda_Boy]

Pic of my car at the meet that my friend took.

Ok that's actually my friend Danny's car. Only other guy there with a Midori Green Civic. I think we both own the only 2 in the state and we both live in the same town. Here's mine

Ok I just now noticed you can see Danny moving his car in the background of this pic. A Twofor. 2 Midori hatches in one pic.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Honda_Boy

[JDoors]

I was gonna say, "You sure did a lot of work recently!"

They both look good.

[Honda_Boy]

OK, so I found out today, I don't have a Carbon Fiber Replica Mugen lip on my car like I had always thought. I found out after looking at pics and asking other people on Honda-Tech, I actually have a Carbon Fiber Replica J's Racing Lip which apparently is pretty rare. J's Racing is another Japanese performance company like Mugen, Jun Racing, Buddy Club, and Spoon Sports, each of which have their own aero designs and engine part designs (such as cams, cam gears, valve trains, etc.). I think it's pretty cool since people say they don't see J's racing lips very often. I just might be the only person in Tennessee with a carbon replica J's Racing lip on a 96-98 civic.

[Honda_Boy]

Finally got around to fixin my power outlet in my car. The wiring was for some reason split with them reattached poorly with poor taping that was coming off. There was also a blown fuse so I'm assuming the wiring touched each other and blew the fuse. I added a length of wire in between the separated pieces to make it easier to wire and taped them up better then I replaced the fuse and all is good.

Now why you might ask am I just now fixing this? Cause I got a frickin TomTom for Christmas!!!!! Ha, I love it. I'm navigationally challenged. My dad is a good navigator and my brother got that from him but my mom has no clue where the hell she's going and I got that from her. So my parents got me a TomTom so I won't have trouble finding all my car meets and other things.

And since I had the center console out of the car, I decided to change the shift boot. I have 3. One that came with this car, one from a 99 Civic Si, and one from my old car. Well both the 96 and 99 ones had holes and tears and the 99 one just didn't look that great with a my old 95's shift knob. The 95 one however had no tears and looked better (was shorter so not so much was crammed down in the thing). I pulled it off of it's frame and pulled the 96 boot off it's frame. I swapped frames and put the 95 on the 96 frame into my car and threw the 99 Si one out.

I'm also about to change my back up lights since they are really dull. The ones out of my 95 are hyper white and much brighter so I'll put them in.

[JDoors]

I hear ya on navigation. I used to be lost-lost-lost. Not sure what happened or when, I think it was just an attitude change, but now I never "feel" lost. Whatever road I'm on will eventually lead to a major road and I'll get back on track. It also helps that the Explorer has a compass (wow, compared to a TomTom that's embarrassingling low tech, isn't it?). At least with that I know which WAY I'm going: You know the feeling, you're on some road going generally in the direction you want to go, the road curves here and there, and now you have NO idea if you're still headed in the right direction.

Not your problem any more!

Got a before-and-after pic of the shift boot?

I've always MEANT to get halogen backup bulbs. One of my (minor) pet peeves: Inadequate backup lighting.

[Honda_Boy]

turns out the back up lights in the 96-00 is totally different than the 92-95 ones so I'm just gonna have to buy new ones.

I'll a pick of the new boot soon, I already have a before pic.

Edited December 26, 2007 by Honda_Boy