egthomas

i just thought of something helpful for other people with car problems like myself. i wanted to post an FIY about all the problems ive had so far with my car and how i fixed them, for anyone out there that is also having the same problems as me. and im gonna keep it plain and simple.there was a variety of things that happend to my 1994 honda civic dx with a 1995 d16z6 si motor.

1st problem. my car would be overheating if i only went 10 miles. there was a leak around the back of the engine throught a ripped hose, so i cut the hose back, and put it back on with the clamp securely holding the hose. then my car didnt overheat for a while. then i had another leak, it was on the water neck housing. apparently, the gasket (from being old) wheni took it off
the gasket just fell apart. so i figured it didnt really need another one. so i drove like that, and again it started to overheat. so i went down to napa and got a universal gasket. its just a square piece of gasket and you cut it out whatever shape you want it in. although i recomend using high temp gasket for the uni gasket is only temporary.

so, when your car overheats, check if there are any leaks. if theres smoke from the engine, then that means that there is some liquid driping down your motor and burning in the exhaust. if the smoke is white/gray, its most likely antifreeze.

2nd problem. one day i decided to change the spark plugs. so i took out the old ones. and put the new ones back on. put the wires back on and ever since i did that, my car was running as if i was drviving one of those 5hp go-karts. it was like this for a long time just parked. until i didnt have a clue to what to do. i know i made a big mistake by taking it to the mechanic,
but i did. he charged me $120 to analyze whats wrong with the car. he said to fix, would be around $500 dollars. he said i needed a new wire harness and a new distributor. sometihing about the injectors not pushing gas, or some bull. took it home, didnt know what to do. and a friend came up to me and asked mewhat was wrong with it. i told him and he asked aobu the timing, i said
that it was good. he asked about the compression. i told him, all around 150. then he asked about the firirng orders. i really didnt know about that so he asked to see a repair manual that i had laying around and we looked up firing orders. there was two diagrams. we went according to the first diagram. the car turned on and sounded better. then we went to the seecond diagram,
when we finished puting the spark wires on, i turned on the car and the car sounded as if it was asleep all winter and finally woke up. the car was runing great.

so ifyour car is really boggy, and feels like a go-kart, before you go spending money on a timing laser gun, or even the mechanic, check your firing orders, and the position of your distributor. that has a big impact in all the power of your car.

3rd problem. when i bought the car, i noticed that the brake hose (soft) was just dangling there. didnt pay attention to it at all. as i was going down my drive way(gravel) the other day, i pushed the brakes. and only one wheel was braking. the passenger had lost hydraulic pressure. so i went to the local pick n pull and i got a brake hose. everything was going good untill the 10m
nut that attaches the hard hose to the soft hose stripped. i had no clue to what to do, and a friend suggested some vice grips. sure enough that did the job even though thta nut was like a perfect circle all the way around. connected the other hose, tightened it, and not i have both my front wheels stopping me.

another thing that i found out, if your brake light comes on, doesnt neseseraly mean that your e-brake is stuck. it just means that your either, low on brake fluid or there is a ground thats not touching good somewere. search on Honda-tech and someone will know a lof about that.

4th problem. i was drivng about 3 hours from where i live. i took off around 10.30pm. so about half way there, im driving and suddenly my oil light comes on. i smeled burning so i pulled over witht the quickness. i immidietly thought that i need oil, that my car leaked it out somehow. i came to this conclusion becuse i needed a new oil pan gasket. so i got a ride to the local store
and bought 4qts of oil. i filled it up, and my oil light was gone. i was driving back again, untill i noticed that when i looked back there, my car was covering the whole 4lane road with black smoke. obviously, there was too much oil so it was burning it. i came back the next day to pick it up, i brought a 17mm to get some oil out. when i was draining it, there was huge globs of
oil. it looked like black gum. just pouring out in big chunks. turns out, that when an engine gets too hot, it burns the oil, and also my intake had a little whole from were dirt was going into the engine. combined, it makes nasty, chunky oil. drained it all out, bought more AGAIN and filled it. the car was still smoking but not as bad, i drove it until it had burnt up the rest
of the oil and there was no smoke coming out.

so just because you get an oil light, doesnt mean that you have no oil. it could mean that. but it also means that you need a tune up.

so far thats what ive had to deal with, and for some reason, i look forward to more problems. . . . .