jena_blondie

I own 1993 Honda Del Sol Si. I am pretty bad when it comes to fixing things on my car. If you can, please explain to me how I can remove the left front fender (driver side). It is that fender panel right over the left front wheel.
Someone backed into it and I will be getting a new one soon to replace it.
I want to know how I can take if off. Please tell me where the screws are.
It will be great if you can include some pictures of the screw locations, but anything will be greatly appreciated.


Btw, when should I change the timing belt on this car? Currently, it has 86,000 miles on it.

One more, I lowered the car by like 1.5~2.0 inches, both front and back about a year ago. I can see the inner side of the all tires wearing out. Do you think just getting an alignment will fix the problem? I have a $40 Brake Plus coupon for all wheel "thrust" alignment. Do you think this will do?

b16binside

you can search to find the locations or pick up a haynes service manual on the del sol at autozone or oreilys

you need to align it yes that should have been done after lowering the car, a front and rear camber kit should be strongly considered as well.

jena_blondie

Do you have a pic of this page, removing the fender?

Someone from this forum that if you lower less than 2 inches, cambers are not needed...hmmm

del sol noob

theres five screws the one visible in the engine those are 3 one in the door jam and one were the side skirt goes um ill be taking mine off today and ill take pics to show you if youd like

HCivExoo

ok first question: I don't have pics i am sure some one on here does though and can help you more with that. but pop the hood you are going to have to take the bumber and the headlight on that side off. all along the top there should be a couple bolts. open the driver door and there is going to be atleast one or two at the top and bottom of the fender. also around where the headlight is there is going to be a couple. i don't know del sol's all that well but you just have to look around and make sure you get them all before you start yanking, and if you have to yank then you missed one.

next question: 90,000 miles is considered the point to change timing belts for the 90's and 2000 year models. so if ti has never been changed i would go ahead and plan on doing that very soon.

Next question: your tires are going to bald on the inside whether you get an allignment or not unless you have camber kits for the front and rear. if you search there are many other questions and information about this. basically when you lower a car the suspension geometry is changed so the top of the tires leans in towards the middle of the car. to fix this you have to extend the upper control arms (on that year and make) to correct the geometry. camber kits are widely avaliable for your car and if you contact your local or prefered aftermarket dealer i am sure they can help you find something to fit your budget and needs. i believe you can fix the rear with the simple washer method, but the front you will need to replace the control arms with a set that has a movable ball joint. once you have the necissary items installed you can go and get that allignment and they can completly correct all your allignment problems and stop that excessive tire wear.

some people say that you don't HAVE to get a camber kit but i still strongly recomend it. otherwise you are still going to have more than normal tire wear and are going to wish you didn't have to buy new tires every year or two ro three times a year depending on how you drive and what the car is used for.
hope that helps

hannslebo

I am going to change my profile name to a females and pretend im a girl on here and get answers like that ^^^^^^^^^ ha

jena_blondie

That will be great. I will check back later for your pics..Thnks.

jena_blondie

Errr...camber thing..I wanted to avoid all that stuff..that's why I lowered it less than 2 inches. I guess I have to consider installing cambers. Btw, is there a way to check your timing belt from the hood to see it has worned out? If it looks okay, I don't want to change it..

jena_blondie

Your are kidding right?

NN4S

Installing camber correction parts is the only way you'll get your tires to wear evenly once you've made drastic changes (over 1/2") to the ride height by altering the suspension. The inward/outward tilt of the wheel will have to be eliminated to within at least a degree of vertical for the tires to wear evenly across the tread.

You don't want to check your timing belt- you should've been keeping an eye on it at regular intervals anyway for uneven wear, cracking, etc. The belt needs to be changed at a set interval (most likely mentioned in the owner's manual, definitely in any service manual for it) to prevent the chance of catastrophic damage to the engine due to failure while you're driving the car. The environment the timing belt runs in is hard on the rubber, so it's better to change it a little ahead of time than to push it and hope that it won't fail and strand you at the worst possible time. Some folks get extremely lucky in this department, but it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to timing belts!

98civdx

you dont need a camber kit. just get it aligned, TOE is what kills your tires, unless your runing a very soft compound tire, then you will a camber kit.

im lowerd over 3 inches, and i have only a very slight ware in the rear only, and when i say slight you can bearly see it,
there are guys runing 3 plus degrees of camber with normal tire ware,

op is it only the inside of tire? im guess you never got the car aligned after you lowerd it?

jena_blondie

no...... and i regret...lol

Vindicator9000

I've been running 2.5 degrees of camber for over a year and 10,000 miles, and my tires still look brand new.

Original Poster: yes, you'll need a camber kit on a lowered car to get the absolute longest tire life possible. However, if all of the rest of the alignment (toe and caster) is zeroed out, you should get several years of wear out of tires, even with a little bit of camber.

You should be getting an alignment about once a year regardless, or you're likely to have occasional tire wear issues regardless of whether you're lowered.

EVERYONE who says that you must have a camber kit on a lowered car or you will kill your tires is 100% wrong. I promise. Lots of us run a little camber. Lots of cars run a little bit of camber from the factory. It's normal. It doesn't kill tires. It wears them a little bit faster, but you should still get 3-4 years out of a set with no problems.


Sorry, can't really help you on the fender... I've never taken one off of a Honda.

sde780

You DO NOT need a camber kit. There are people lowered 3+in with the toe zeroed out with very even tire wear. However, when you lower your car you need to get an alignment because it throws your toe off.

As for the fender, there are bolts along it in the engine bay, one where the door closes, and should be one or two inside the side skirt.

Pics of said blondie

civic_r87111

LMFAO...... that is y I had to read this thread and c what all was said.

I would love to c this^ How many miles do u have on the tires? When I was lowered 3" my car ATE front tires, I could get maybe 10k miles out of a set at best. I have an extreamly hard time believing guys r running 10k+ with little wear without camber kits.

TunerN00b

I got 32k miles out of my last set of Toyo Proxes 4 tires, running -4*/-1.3* front/rear camber. Tires wore perfectly evenly all the way across the tread face, through their entire life.

Its easy to do, just have the toe set to 0* (not close, actually get to 0), and regularly have the toe re-aligned.

Though, I can't count how many times I've had the car in a shop and the manager come over and say "Damn dude, we need to sell you a camber kit for the front.", to which I'd reply "I have one. How do you think I got that much camber up there? Measure the tread depth, tell me that they're wearing unevenly." And they would measure, and looked shocked, and stop talking.

zcar4me

'Tis true. Toe is what really eats tires. Both my Z and my eg are dropped. I'm not sure of the camber #'s on the civic, but my Z has almost 3 degrees in front and a little over 2 in the back. Granted, they do wear more on the inside, but nothing drastic. My tires, especially on the civic, last forever. (forever=thousands of miles)

EL Vap133

Usually it says to replace your timing belt about every 90,000 miles but I would change it sooner. On my old 97 Integra, the timing belt went out at 76k miles, I got lucky that there was no damage done.

burningrex

Shhhhh.... here you go

http://www.spoonertuner.com/manuals?...9&Redirected=Y

Vindicator9000

My car:


No pics of the tread, but I have over 10K miles on yokohama Avid H4Ss with no noticeable camber wear.

And a little camber goes a long way to positively affecting handling characteristics. The trick is that you HAVE to keep the toe zeroed, because toe+a little camber will kill tires quick.

burningrex

yep he is right^ setting your toe to Zero makes a big difference in your tire wear on a lowered honda!

98civdx

THATS TOE NOT CAMBER!! toe will kill your tires very fast,

there is no way camber alone will do that to tiress unless your runing a very soft compound

i have the cheepass falken ziex 512s 10-12k on them

geneeunit

those tires aren't actually that bad..

civic_r87111

Well WTF the guys at the damn alignment shop suk ba77s then around here.. I can't c the proof in the pic at all but ok. I'll have to start doing my own alignments then!! I was under the impression that my alignment was 0* toe with only some sik camber, don't remember the #'s tho. That was back in the day when I was running some cheap ol nangkangs too so. Like I said tho, I want to c it so I will try it my self on the race car.

98civdx

didnt mean they were bad, but yes your correct, for the price, they are some pretty good tires, im actully suprised by how well they held up, and they did great in the snow storm we had last year.