onacouch

I bought my '95 del Sol Si on Dec 12th 2005 at 87,650 miles and I couldn't be happier with it. It was a nice breath of fresh air after driving around in a ****-box '92 Accord with 200k miles and spending enough on repairs equivalent to a standard monthly car-payment.

The del Sol is beautiful as it was garaged at work and home and I bought it from the original owner that had documentation of all work done at a Honda dealership. The retail sticker was even included and what sealed the deal for me was that this original owner was a woman in her 50's. Since she was older she had a friend sell it for her, she felt uncomfortable test driving with potential buyers. Her friend happened to be my girlfriend's dad, so you can imagine how quickly I was able to ****** this gem up.

Well, theres my spiele, onto (somewhat) mechanical stuff:

I've noticed that sometimes while sitting at a red light I can hear a creeky-rattly noise near my head. I figured out it is the roof piece making the noise and if I remove and reapply the roof the noise stops only to come back a few weeks down the line. Do any of you other 'Sol owners experience this? I don't know the roof-habit of the original owner (she probably didn't go topless much as she was older) but I've only taken it off (and driven around topless) no more than 5 times, all of the stripping looks great, I don't know what else to do. Do any of you have a solution?

My biggest complaint on the car is that it's a bumpy ride, I am sometimes forced to come to near-complete stops depending on some speed-bumps. I know I shouldn't be complaining as it's a small car and very low, but what are my options other than sticking a pillow under my ***?

Recently I have come across an idling problem. 2 days ago I installed AEM's cold air intake with the bypass valve (I live in Florida) and changed the oil at a friend's house. Before we installed the bypass valve I used a vacuum (my lungs) to test the device. It was considerably harder to blow air out through the valve than it was to suck in, so I'm confident that the valve is working correctly. Is there a possibility that a sensor needs to adapt to the change? The first time I changed the oil I had Pep Boys do it, I also had them change the spark plugs and replace the distributer cap (all services of which I will never pay someone else to do ever again). After the service I noticed the car would idle back and forth between 750 and 1100 RPM. After two days it started idling normally at 800 before I even had a chance to take it back.

Anyways, now it idles between 900 and 1100 at the first red light I come to. I've inspected and reinspected the cold air intake work and everything is tight and looks good. I just recently parked at Best Buy to buy something and was only in there for maybe 10-15 minutes and when I came out and started it up the temp was in the middle and the tachometer rested at 750 RPM, then sporadically idled at every other stop on the way home. When I came home I sat in my driveway for nearly three minutes before it rested at an idle of 900RPM, a lot higher than my 750-800 regular. Any ideas?

And lastly, I'm not that big on performance, I am more interested in gas mileage. Don't get me wrong, added performance is appreciated but it isn't my number one concern. Can any of you suggest a mod that will pay for itself in the long run?

Whew, thank you for reading my long-winded post and I appreciate all of your replies.

onacouch

Any advice, questions, comments, concerns, objections?