Hey guys,

My mom works at Carmax, so I went in and got an '05 CRV 5spd AWD. I love the car, it is a lot of fun to drive, especially considering I moved to this from my CRX. However, I have a few questions, maybe someone in here has had similar experience:

1) The parking brake lever is a little loose, when not engaged, so when I start from a stop in 1st gear it will fall back a little bit, not enough to engage the parking brake but enough to turn the parking brake light on the dash on. It's not hurting anything, but it is annoying when the light catches your attention everytime. Anybody have a quick fix that could tighten it up a little bit to share with me?

2) Every once in a while, the car stumbles upon start up. It happens maybe once a week as I am jumping in and out of my car during the course of the workday. It will stumble and then fire after aout 5 seconds at the longest of cranking. I have never had an instance where it does not fire, but I reported it to Carmax just to be safe. But, of course, when I took it in so a mechanic could look at it it did not do it for them. Like I said, it does not happened every once in a while. I am wondering if, perhaps, a tune-up may be in order? So plugs, wires, dizzy cap and rotor, fuel filter? Carmax does not provide any documentation of service performed by the previous owner, so I cannot tell when, or if, it ever had a tune up. But it runs pretty darn well. Just the occasional start-up stumble.

I have done a lot of work on my CRX over the years, so I am mechanically inclined. Just wondering if there is anything I could, or should, be looking into to help eliminate that stumbling. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Brian

 

You've got a K24a1 in there, Coil Over Plug. Spark plugs for this beast are Iridium, usually don't require changing til aft 50-100k miles. I did mine the other week and am pretty sure they were the OE plugs with 154K miles on them. $45 is a bit steep for 4 plugs, you can also run cheap copper core wires if you choose, NGK's will run you less than $15 for the set.

Run the Iridiums if you don't want to change/gap plugs every 10-15k. It is a good habit to always bring preventative maintenance up to standard if you have no running history.

As far as the Fuel Filter, an easy way to check: cycle the key to the on positing for 3-5sec, 2-3 times before trying to start the engine. If your hard to start fault goes away, then its likely a weak pump/clogged filter. Replace if needed.

 

Great post! Glad I looked.
DaveL

 

Note the 2005 doesn't have an inline filter like previous models just the strainer/sock on the fuel pump itself.

 

Okay, so the "Coil Over Plug." What is this? Is this something I should be checking? So based on your post, I should do the following:

1) Replace the spark plugs, get iridium plugs just to spec it. Should I replace the plugs/cap/rotor anything else?

2) Check the fuel filter.

Is that right?

The hard to start happens maybe once every fifty times I start the car. I visit doctors for work, and I am in and out of the car. I start the car at least fifteen times in a work day. It usually happens when the motor is warm. But if I was to sit there and just turn the car on and off over and I could not tell you when it would hard start, it just happens randomly. So I can't really try the filter issue. Does that make sense?

I asked Carmax for maintenance records and, of course, they do not have them. They get a lot of their cars at auction, so it would be hard to say what kind of information the cars came with, previous owner history, etc. I have looked at the maintenance schedule in the owners manual and it looks like at 82k miles I am not really close to a tune up date. What do you guys think? Thanks in advance.