About 3-4 months ago I purchased a 95 Honda Prelude VTEC with 94k on the clock. It ran like a champ and still runs good but has a few issues I'd like to address.

BACKGROUND INFO: Right now the car has 97k on it. I'm not the most knowlegable car guy, I know the basics but thats IT. I don't know how to diagnos or fix complicated problems. Now that that's out of the way - I admit, I drive the car pretty hard. I usually go out on the weekends and hit the highway looking for people to race. I shift at around 7200RPM (right before redline). Also, I've redlined once or twice while burning out.

PROBLEMS: The idle is a LITTLE (I mean LITTLE) bit rougher than it was when I first purchased the car. I hear a knock periodically that lasts about 5-10 seconds. The knock isn't very loud or violent but enough for me to notice. Also periodically, the car will shake (for about a second or two). Neither of these seem to be effecting performance, but I'd like to be getting the maximum performance out of my car and I want it to run 100%. As mentioned before, there is almost 100k on the clock. I don't believe the previous owner changed the timing belt (which from what I hear should usually be replaced at close to 100k). Are there any other maintenance procedures I should perform on my car to get it running 100%, no knocks or rough idles?

I know that there are hundres of moving parts that could be the cause of my problem, and it would be very hard for all of you to diagnos the problem without hearing/seeing. Any advice is appreciated, sorry for the long post. Thanks!

 

bump

 

ok lets say I bought the prelude instead of you
list of things I would do/replace

-replace timing belt
-replace water pump
-do valve adjustment
-change coil every 3000km(use 10W30 oil)
-replace spark plugs and wires(gap correctly)

also adjust your distributor and advance/retard the setting to the ideal way you want your motor to run.

That should solve your problem and help your car run much better
bart

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr.RHTuner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok lets say I bought the prelude instead of you
list of things I would do/replace

-replace timing belt
-replace water pump
-do valve adjustment
-change coil every 3000km(use 10W30 oil)
-replace spark plugs and wires(gap correctly)

also adjust your distributor and advance/retard the setting to the ideal way you want your motor to run.

That should solve your problem and help your car run much better
bart</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks a lot man, I'll check out the timing belt and water pump. What should I look for when looking at these? The previous owner had put in Denso Iradium spark plugs and a Nology Hotwire ignition wire system about 1500mi before I bought the car (so only about 6k mi on them). The oil was changed approximately 1500mi ago. If the timing belt and water pump look good, how would I go about doing a valve adjustment/what am I adjusting them to, etc? Thanks again, and sorry for my newbyness

 

Do not guess with the t-belt , if your not sure replace it ASAP, Try not to rag your motor, take it to a reputable shop and have them inspect the belt and if you do put on a new belt replace the waterpump because it is there anyways. If your belt breaks you could destroy the motor, but at the very least you will bend some valves

 

The noise is becoming more apparrent, and instead of only knocking for 5 sec on and off it knocks more frequently. I was snooping around the engine and I noticed the air filter was off! Somehow it must've worked its way off lower casing. I super glued it to the lower casing (bad idea?) and clamped it back onto the intake . I checked the oil and it was right at the MIN mark so I added some Mobil 1 until it was about half way above the MIN. Then I checked the coolant fluids, LOW. The fluid was way below the MIN mark in the reserve tank but I don't have "Genuine Honda Antifreeze/Coolant". Is this really necessary? The manual says the cooling system contains many aluminum components which can corrode if an improper antifreeze is used. Where can I pick up some of this Honda Coolant? The little coolant that was left in the reserve tank was brown and looked dirty.. I'm assuming this isn't normal. How should a newb (myself) go about this situation? I'm wondering how long my air filter was off and if anything worked its way into my engine. Should I do a compression check? How about the knock, what should I do about that?

 

Honestly, I'd just take it to a shop and have them look at it. At our shop, We'll tell you whats wrong before we even attempt to fix it. See if you can do that. Also, No, You dont need to use "Genuine" Honda Anything. Sure, Its an okay Idea, but not a must.