I have a 1998 Honda Civic LX w/ the base 1/6 L. I bought the NGK recommended OEM plugs and I put them in with a little anti-seize on them. I torqued them to 25 foot lbs with my 1/2" torque wrench. I don't have a 3/8" one.

Question: Was 25 foot lbs too much torque or will I be okay???? The car started right up and it didn't sound like it was misfiring at all. If 25 foot lbs was too much would I be able to loosen them up and torque them to 20 foot lbs and still be okay?

I am putting new brake pads and rotors on the front and I was wondering what brake brand people recommend for my car. I believe the car's OEM pads were organic pads. I don't want to spend a lot of money as I only paid $3500 for the car so I really just need it to stop. It is mostly a town car, but I do make the occasional half hour trips to see friends and 2 hour drives back home to see my parents. NAPA has Tru-Stop pads for like $18. Will I be okay with these? Anyone experience tru-stop brakes?

 

As far as your brakes just head to autozone and get generic pads and duralast rotors.

Good fluid and you'll be fine.

 

spark plugs - i just tighten by hand until it doesn't turn anymore, and then maybe a little bit more like 1/2 turn.....i think the correct torque is like around 17ft./lbs? It's not much.

brakes - like stated above, autozone has duralast rotors and pads that should be fine for you. I have them on my car and braking is good.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EJ8mike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">spark plugs - i just tighten by hand until it doesn't turn anymore, and then maybe a little bit more like 1/2 turn.....i think the correct torque is like around 17ft./lbs? It's not much.

brakes - like stated above, autozone has duralast rotors and pads that should be fine for you. I have them on my car and braking is good. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I have the duralast rotors up front paired with hawk hps pads and works great. If you trying to save money napa isn't the place to go. They do have good quality parts but its a tad more expensive then kragen or autozone. Going to cheap isn't good to bro, keep that in mind.

 

I went to NAPA and went ahead and got the good stuff. I went with the cast iron noise dampering rotors which were $40 a piece, but they are the exact match to the OEM rotors and not made of the cheap steel material that the $20 ones are made out of. I could of went with the cheaper ones which were $20 a piece, but I wanted to go ahead and get the good stuff. I went with the Ceramic pads which were $50 but they come with a lifetime guarantee. Which i was told as long as I don't wear them down to the "squeaker" I can bring them in and get them replaced for free. I've heard that Ceramic pads don't really wear down much so I'm going to just check them every 15,000 miles and when I notice they are getting pretty thin I'll just take them in and get them replaced for free. I just have to make sure I don't lose the receipt. All in all I spent about twice as much as I would have if I went with the cheap stuff, but I think these brakes in the end will last a lot longer. I put 50 miles on the brakes today and it brakes 100 times better and the annoying shimmy is gone. The car has 120,000 miles on it and I'm pretty sure that the rotors were the orginal rotors. They were getting pretty thin. And the one had rusted to the hub. It rusted to the point that I had to use a huge 2 jaw gear puller to get it off. That kind of eliminates the whole floating disc brakes when it is rusted to the hub. I also did NOT put those screws back in. They were a major pain in the *** to get out and they serve no real purpose other than to hold the disc in place while you put the brakes on, so I left them out. I also stripped two of them trying to get them out so I really couldn't have put them back in anyways. So all in all I spent $150 on the brakes but hey thats still about $75 cheaper then having a shop do it. Plus it's is all brand new stuff and not just turned rotors and I really enjoy working on my car especially when it works. Just last month I replaced the front suspension on my 98 exploder. I put 4 new ball joints, replaced all the control arm bushings (i had to have a shop press the old ones out and new ones in for $10 each - well worth it), replaced the sway bar links, and the tie rod ends. Over all it cost a lot to do but the suspension is so much quieter now and it rides so much better. All I know is I do not plan to remove and replace a torsion bar anytime soon. Those things are so hard to put back in.

As far as the spark plugs. I did torque them to 25lbs, but I drove about 50-60 miles on them so far and it seems to be running just fine. I probably shouldn't have torqued them that tight, but 25 lbs really isn't "that" tight. I put anti-seize on the threads so all in all I think it will be just fine.

Now I get to look forward to the doing rear shoes and drums at some point in the near future. I've never done drum brakes before, but I can't wait to learn.

Thanks for the info guys and wish some of ya could of been with me when I went out to bed my new brakes. You get some pretty weird looks when you go from 35 mph to 5 mph 4-6 times in a row and then 45-0 3 times.

Thanks!

 

I just put in Hawk HP Plus pads (the step up from the street HPS) and Autozone Duralast rotors on, $21.95/ea (#3295 the 10.4" brakes). With the exception that one of the rotors was bad (excessive runout caused steering wheel shimmy, luckily I had 2 spares). Brakes very well, kinda noisy pads, but the initial bite is wonderful, even better when warmed up slightly. I do have braided lines and ATE Blue fluid; definately made a diff in pedal feel.

And yes, people look at you weird when you are doing a bunch of 45-5 braking. With the Hawk HP+, you have to do six 60-5 stops, and then six more from 80-5. The smell and sound was golden. =P

 

for tigthening plugs, i go until i feel a little resistance, then another 1/4-1/2 turn. they dont need much and it doesnt take a whole lot to strip the threads.

 

I went ahead and re-torqued my spark plugs to 18 ft lbs. It started right up and ran fine. I feel a lot more comfortable with them at 18 ft lbs then I did at 25 ft lbs. So thanks everyone. Also the person who had the car before me had champion spark plugs in and the gap was worn down to like .060. Not sure why anyone would run champion plugs when the NGK ones are only $2 a piece. $2 a spark plug is so cheap. At that price I think anyone can afford to change their plugs every 20,000 miles. Thanks guys.

 

thanks for the infor..i just bought the spark plugs today
and going to replace them when i get home from work today
i was thinking of 18lbs too
thanks people
and NGK rocks