Hello, I am new to these forums, so if any of these questions have been asked/answered, forgive me, but I did not find them in the search.

I recently got a 1996 Civic EX, and while I'm no enthusiast or ricer, I often do my own repairs and maintenance on vehicles. This one's got almost 175k miles though, so things are bound to break.

PROBLEM #1: Rack and Pinion Boots

I don't know if its me or what, but no one on this earth has boots to fit my rack and pinion unit. Everywhere I go, they either don't have 'em at all, or have a different size. I checked Advance, AutoZone, NAPA, and RockAuto.com. The only place I haven't tried yet is right from Honda, but the nearest dealership is well out of my way, so I haven't had a chance to go there yet.

The problem seems to be that while the old one I took off of mine measures ~46mm in diameter on the inside wide opening, everywhere I check seems to only carry them with a ~40mm opening, which is just barely too small to fit. I tried squeezing them on, but it just won't work.

Has anyone else ever had this problem, or do they run pretty standard?

I can only imagine that at some point in the car's history the rack and pinion was replaced with one using a different size, but until its hard to say since there is no record. Where would I even determine whether it is original or not? I don't want to end up replacing the whole unit just because I can't find simple boots, so what else can I do?

PROBLEM #2

I just installed an AEM short ram intake (just for a little boost, nothing fancy) but ran into one small problem. I'll post a picture below, but one of the small hoses that comes from the intake to the engine does not sit well or tightly at all. It seems very loose and slides in and out easily.

1. What is this hose called and what is it's function? (excuse my ignorance)
2. Is it ok for it to be that loose? It was very tight on the stock intake, so I'm assuming it shouldn't be loose. How would I best get a tight fit?

Pic:


I'm sure over the course of time I'll have some more problems/questions, but thats it for now.

Thanks in advance--I've already found lots of information on the site, so keep up the good work!

 

O'reilly auto parts has them, not sure if you have them in florida

and that piece that goes into your intake is not that important. You can actually take them off if you want.

 

The boots I really don't know except to say try every single store you can and good luck with that. The hose that connects is basically the breather for your valve cover if it's the one that attatches right to the top left corner where your valve cover is...as the prev. poster stated...it's really not THAT important. A lot of people will remove that hose and put one of those breather filters on it and plug up the hole on the intake and call it a day...personally I figure they put it in the intake for a reason and I like it that way so I would suggest going to one of your local auto parts stores and buying a new rubber gromet what has a smaller hole in the middle or try to put like a drain pipe through it...one that has a flange at the end...best example I can think of is one of those little drains that you put on the back of window unit air conditioners that helps keep the water from resting in the trays. If you could get one of those and pop it through the gromet you have on there...then affix the hose overtop of that it should seal fairly well. Hope this helps.

 

You can order parts from Honda online, on majestichonda.com and then clicking on Parts. Prices are lower than directly from your local dealer, but they do rape you on shipping, so plan on everything you may need so that its worth it.

Welcome to the forum, use the search function often and enjoy!

 

Thanks for the advice--I will leave the hose as it is.

I do not have O'Reilly anywhere within 100 miles of me, and the majestichonda site did not list boots at all. I guess I'll just have to keep hunting for them.

Thanks!

 

That can't be. You can build an entire car from the parts on there. Have a second look under another criteria. It HAS to be there!