ChristopherCan

Hi everyone,

I just recently bought a 1990 Honda Accord LX manual with 136k miles on it for $2100 here in Tacoma, Washington.

I don't know much about cars but I owned a 94 Accord years ago that served me well.

I'm not a very good manual driver so I'm still trying to get that down.

I mostly just want to get advice on here about how to maintain this vehicle, how to better drive manual, and how to get the best of driving a 90 accord manual.

Let me continue by telling you guys that I just switched the title over today but I haven't been really driving it because I go to school in downtown tacoma where the hills are terribly steep so I have been avoiding driving it and I've been driving my automatic as a daily commuter.

The times I have drove it, it starts right up and goes but about every 10 times of coming to a complete stop the engine dies out on me (because of my lack of experience of shifting into 1st gear and taking off smoothly). A couple of times when I died out the engine wouldn't start right up on me and took a couple of tries before starting back up again.

The next couple things I plan to do before I start to drive it regularly are get it looked at by a mechanic to see if there are any issues and also print out the drivers manual and study it front to back so I can learn as much as I can about the vehicle.

Does anyone know of a good site to print out the manual? Also does anyone have any general guidelines on how to see that I get through the tasks I have set forth?

Thanks,
Christopher

ChristopherCan

So i read the manual front to back last night, it was very informative. Does anyone recommend what potential issues i should look for first? Also the interior has some mold on the rear-right seatbelt and the inside of the car stinks pretty bad. I didnt see in the manual the proper way to remove and clean interior so could someone help with a direction to start that?

ChristopherCan

Let me also mention that when the engine died out like i described in my first post the check engine warning light would turn on.

GhostAccord

The CEL or check engine light will always come on when the engine stalls out!

If you want to check to see it there are any codes stored on the ECU. The manual should show you how to use the self-diagnostics mode to read codes (Paperclip method).



I believe the 2 pin connector is on the drivers side on the CB7 (90-93) Accords.

As far as maintenance goes, do you have any records as to what has been done to the engine and when? Timing belt, valve adjustment, water pump and ignition components?

Best place to start fining basic maintenance information is CB7Tuner.com. There is a great archive of DIY maintenance projects on that forum. As well as a good community of knowledgeable members to help out. You should read through the FAQ's and DIY sections. There is a lot of information to take in but it is all worth while!

As far as the back seat and carpet being wet. might want to check the trunk as well. The rear brake light seals are known to leak after time. As well check the inner fender wells in the rear. They are also known to rust through into the trunk. If someone did a quick cover up with bondo, it will still leak.

Here is what mine looked like when I noticed water in the rear seat.
There was a little rust on the outside of the wheel well. Finding rust bubbles forming under the paint is a good indication that it is rottingt from the inside out.


and here is how bad it was in behind the wheel well trim