jvr

So, this car (in sig line) has 178k miles on it, and the maintenance was done religiously until 100k. After that, my sister had the car and God knows what was done to it... The oil was like 1.5qts low when I got it from her.

Here's what I've done so far:

-oil/filter change last spring
- replaced starter last spring (old one went bad)
- replaced valve cover gasket, upper and lower spark plug tube seals, did a valve adjustment, replaced spark plugs w/ NGKs (last summer)
- replaced manual tranny fluid with Honda OEM fluid (helped immensely with shifter not wanting to go into first/reverse easily)
- replaced pcv valve and grommet (old one was stuck and full of gunk)
- cleaned out engine air filter (didn't seem very dirty so I didn't replace it)

The above was all done either last spring or summer. Then I got a CEL in September and the car Sat in my driveway until a few weeks ago (i was being lazy and just got a motorcycle so I didn't even attempt to fix it)

This month, I've done the following (in order):

- scanned DTC memory, found o2 sensor fault, tested o2 sensor and found it was bad, replaced o2 sensor with a Denso sensor, reset ecu: no more CEL, car runs fine.
-replaced battery, tested starter and alternator: all tested good.
- rotated tires
- added BG Quick Clean to oil, ran engine for 15min, drained oil, replaced oil/filter.
- inspected everything, found worn swaybar endlink bushings, torn CV boot/PS rack boot/tie-rod end boot along with some upper ball joints in need of some love.
- removed FITV, cleaned it and tightened up the white valve body
- removed IACV, cleaned with carb cleaner
- cleaned throttle body/butterfly valve as best I could with carb cleaner and a toothbrush.
- started it up, it ran and idled fine (idle was a bit low though)
- ran 1/2 bottle of seafoam through the intake (half via the brake vacuum booster line and half via pcv hose). At the end I added juuust barely enough to kill the engine, let it sit 5 min, then started it up to a poof of smoke and drove it around to burn off the remaining seafoam and loose deposits. Ran fine afterwards.
- did the procedure for setting BASE idle to 550rpm with iacv unplugged and service connector jumpered. Reset ecu: idle is now correct.
- replaced distributor cap and rotor (no issues led me to do this, they were just old and the contacts didn't look good). Tested the spark plug wires for resistance: all were in spec so I didn't replace them. Reset ecu again as I wasn't sure if this was required after doing the dizzy cap/rotor.
- replaced the turn signal assemblies/sockets/bulbs in the front bumper (one was missing and the other cracked and nonfunctional)

That's it. Now, what parts do you think I should replace as preventative maintenance? I was thinking about doing the EGR port cleaning, but other than that I'm unsure what should be done. Obviously I should do the boots I mentioned and the ball joints, and I need to do the dizzy internal oil seal to stop a slight internal leak, but what else? The tires and brakes are good. Should I do a brake fluid exchange and power steering flush? Does the clutch share fluid with the brake system or is that separate, and if so should I change that fluid as well? What about the fuel filter: how long do those last typically (years/miles)? What other jobs can you think of that my car may benefit from (gaskets/seals, fluids, elbow grease jobs, etc)? I'd really like to keep this car going for another few years, so any advice is appreciated.

Edit: one more thing, when doing the fitv/iacv cleaning I noticed that the evap canister purge valve solenoid connector was unplugged. Not sure who did it or when: unless I somehow bumped it just right when taking out the intake, it must've been unplugged for years. It never caused a CEL or anything, but assuming it WAS unplugged for a long time, what potential problems could that cause? Could the evap canister be useless now since it was never purged, or could that potentially cause other issues that I should look into?

belairbrian

Didn't see 2 things

When was the last coolant change?
have you inspected the brakes?

jvr

Last year I drained the coolant from the radiator only and replaced it, other than that I'm not sure when it was done last. You think I should flush the whole system? What's the procedure for flushing the cooling system as opposed to just draining and refilling? Would I fill it with water, bleed/run the system, then drain and fill with coolant? Or is there some additive I can run through the system prior to draining it to clean it out? I'm aware that I would need to drain/bleed the block as well, I was just lazy and only did the radiator last year. I actually have access to some coolant test strips at work so I can test the coolant and see if it's still any good.

As for the brakes, I checked the front pads when rotating the tires and they're like 7mm... The front rotors looked okay too. As for the rear drums, I tried to peek into the inspection port behind the drum but I couldn't see the shoes in the window. Maybe I could see them if I use a small mirror? I was in a rush when doing this inspection so I didn't spend any more time trying to check the shoes. Let's say the shoes have enough thickness left: do I need to adjust them ever? I know some shoes are self-adjusting... Are these like that or is there an adjustment I should check?

Assuming the brake shoes/pads are good, should I probably do a brake fluid exchange? I read that the correct order for this car is right-rear, left-front, left-rear, then right-front, is that correct? Can I use DOT 4, or so called "DOT 3/4" fluid since I'm replacing it all, or would it have to be DOT 3 only?

Thanks for the help.