I just bought my 1st Honda, a '91 Accord EX, 5 speed, with 188K on the odo. It's a little rusty and has been sitting for a year but the interior is very good and it runs good. I thought it may have had a shelled trans or something but when I inquired about it the guy said he "just never got around to selling it" after they bought a newer car. It needs some TLC and there are a few things that don't work. The list of "casualties" include:

Brakes need replaced, I assumed that before I even asked about the car. Piece of cake.

Stripped oil drain plug. Do I have to drop the pan to repair and how bad a job is dropping the pan ? I know some US cars had repair kits available to do in car.

AC leaks and needs a recharge. Spotted a leaking O-ring at compressor, will start there. Anybody done an R134 conversion ?

Gas door release broken. How bad a job is this?

Gas door broken. No brainer. (I hope.)

Noise in right front suspension at low speed when going over bumps. Spotted a bad sway bar bushing, I'll try that first.

The biggy - it starts and runs good MOST of the time but every so often it starts hard and runs rough then dies. I'll do the normal tune up and filter routine but I heard mention of a Fuel Injection relay problem on these. Should I be looking at that ?

Everything else seems to be OK and I am going to replace the timing belt just to be safe. I'm an old Chevy/Pontiac guy from way back but I have owned a Datsun 4WD, Toyota 4WD and Isuzu (Chevy LUV) 2WD pickup. I would buy another Toyota and let's just leave it at that. My sister has had 3 Accord's and the 1st 2 went well over 300K before getting totalled in accidents, she just got #3 last year. I got this one cheap to use as a winter beater but so far I really like driving it and am already considering fixing the rust and repainting it. Usually I just fix the mechanicals on work cars and drive 'em into the ground but I like the way this car feels. It may be a "keeper".

I signed up at another Honda forum 3 days ago and asked this same questions, so far no one has even acknowledged my existence. I don't expect everybody to answer all of my questions but if you could give me a clue on some of this stuff it would be a big help. I've spun a wrench or 2 in my day so I'm not "mechanically challenged" but never on one of these I could use some "guidance". Thanks in advance.

"Hippie" (Not anymore, but that's what they called me back in the day.)

 

Hello and Welcome to Honda-Tech/

My advice is to buy a Helms manual for it. For around $15 you can find one at autozone/advance autoparts......


Good luck

 

Autozone doesnt sell Helms. They sell Hayens.

 

Sorry, my bad. Hayens are not as good as Helms but will definitelly give you a direction to go by.

 

good job. welcome to the Accord life. Welcome to Honda Tech. A hint on preventing rust: is it on the rear wheel well? on the rear quarter where the bumper matches up? That's the first place on most Honda's that the metal cancer hits. Clean out behind the fender liner - a lot of crap collects in there. But if its already rusting then I would move on to damage control.

You don't seem all that performance oriented but i have to mention the V6/Wagon rotor caliper upgrade. Do a search of Honda-Tech for it. Its cool.

If its just the O ring and maybe some hoses and a recharge then the conversion really ain't worth it. But if you have to start looking at replacing the compressor then maybe...

Depends... what's broken? The handle? The cable? Is it frozen or just loose? The difficulty of the repair of course depends on where it broken.

1. Trace the cable and find out where its busted.

2. Either rig it up or find a junk yard. There's plenty 4th gen accords.

How slow? Maybe a wheel bearing (but that may be a differen type of noise). Sway bar bushing sounds like a good start.

Sounds just like some other people's problems in which the relay was the cause. Again try a search.

definately

 

Not performance oriented ? You just don't know me yet, I was saving those for my next post ! I'm a "child" of the musclecar era, anything with less that 10.5 to compression and a 300 HP 327 CI was your Grandma's car . If it has a motor and wheels then it MUST get modified, even if it's just a little bit.

A Hayne's manual was with the car but in my "excitement" I left it in the bed of my PU Sunday night and we got a "gully washer". It is about 15 lbs. of paper mache right now . I'll try to hunt up a Helm. I've already been checking out exhaust systems but as I will be driving this daily in sub-zero weather I don't think a cold air induction kit is practical. How much would a K & N in the stock air box help and is there anything I can do to help the stock air box while retaining some preheating for cold (and I mean COLD ) weather driving ? Doesn't sound like a cam swap for a daily driver on these is too practical either. Not much bang for the buck, or am I wrong ? Plus I don't want to bust the bank, I have to save some toy money to build the 406 small block for my '62 Impala.

I have to drive 56 miles daily on twisty, hilly 2 laneswith some city and interstate so low and mid range throttle response and power is important but I want to retain some gas mileage as well. I'm all ears. Thanks guys for the response.