"The Mothership" - 1998 Civic - Maintenance Log

ctag

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A couple updates from the past few weeks:

Last week of January:
  • Found that the coolant was rusty :(
    • Flushed the radiator with water and ran the car (~3 times). The last flush was mostly clean water.
    • Found that the radiator cap was broken with the relief valve missing.
    • Replaced the radiator cap and filled the radiator with concentrated coolant to make a proper mix.
  • For a nice gentle test drive I drove to Atlanta for a wedding the next day. No issues.
Two days ago (Wednesday) I left my keys locked in my car at work... and the car running. It probably sat idling for about 6 hours total before my parents came to the rescue with a spare key.

The brakes still pulse, so yesterday my roommate helped me pull the front brake rotors and turn them on a brake lathe. No more pulsing while braking! At least for now...

And this weekend I'm planning on changing the oil simply due to the whole "left running all day" thing.
 


ctag

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Changed the oil Saturday at odometer 355,000.
3.5 Qt high-mileage Valvoline synthetic mix and new Bosch Premium 3312 filter.

Sunday I noticed coolant leaking out of the upper radiator hose, so that got replaced.

The car's been doing great lately. I actually suspect heat soaking with with the idiotic 5-hour idle session may have freed up some rings? Cleaned out some carbon? Polished some bearings? Warped the freaking longblock? The engine just feels a little more responsive :what:
 

ctag

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Monday I noticed that my tripmeter wasn't ... metering. I bumped the reset button a few times and then it resumed faithfully ticking away the mileage.

At the fill-up today I wrote down the trip meter and compared it to the odometer:
Trip meter402
Odometer355526
Previous odometer355115
Difference in odometer355526 - 355115 = 411

They don't match. 8km sounds about right for the driving I did before noticing that the meter was still at 0. So my odometer is likely still working even though the trip meter is bugging out.

I also want to see if leaving the engine idling had an obvious affect on MPG, since I do have that data and don't really have compression test data to compare. Below are a couple of samples of KMPG before, and the first datapoint afterwards.
Before: 53.3, 49.9, 52.9, 58.4
Tank where car was left idling for ~5 hours: 45.5
After: 57.2

Looks like there wasn't any immediately obvious damage, at least from this metric.
 


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ctag

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For a couple years now my car's had a belt squeal. It only happens in winter; when the engine is cold it sometimes squeals for about 20 seconds and then the noise goes away.

Yesterday I finally went out and measured the belts. The AC and alternator were loose below spec, so I tightened them to ~100lbs.

Then I unplugged the power steering reservoir and flushed the system with three bottles of Honda PS fluid. It was time.

Hopefully the next few days will confirm that the belt squeal is gone. As an added bonus, I think there was a little squealing during moderate engine load that's also gone now.
 

ctag

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Today was gorgeous outside, so I went out and washed the Civic. As I stepped back to let it dry, the thought occurred to me that soon there won't be enough clearcoat left to even pretend to wax it, so I dug out some old carnuaba wax and went to town scrubbing it into the chipped paint.



Then I looked up the AC test section of the service manual and decided to give it a try. Before I could begin though, I wanted to investigate why the vent selector no longer worked. It's been broken for years and I just left it because the thought of pulling the dash was overwhelming. Turns out all this time the broken part was just next to my foot, and I quickly found the servo and pulled it out of the car.



I tore it down to find that the DC motor inside had a dead spot, but everything else was fine. I tested the motor a few times, cleaned the gears, added new silicone grease, and put it back together.



For a few beautiful seconds I played with the dash buttons and the servo dutifully switched vents... Until it hit the motor's dead spot again and ceased responding. Oh well, re-winding a motor coil is where I draw the line, so I manually turned the dash vents to the setting for the AC test and proceeded.

... But I didn't have a thermometer... And the local grocery store didn't either! Frustrated with the lost time, I pulled out my trusty AMT1001 and made my own thermometer/hygrometer rig.



I jerry rigged up some old gauges to the AC refrigerant lines and then carried out the 10 minute test. At the conclusion I wrote down the results, and then blindly tried filling out the AC chart to the best of my ability.

High side pressure195 - 220 psi
Low side pressure13 - 39 psi
Ambient Temperature20 C
Vent Temperature8 C
Ambient Humidity20 %
Vent Humidity49 %

I'm not sure how to interpret the results, but was surprised to see the temperature actually drop and stay there. I've suspected something is wrong with the AC for a long time now, because usually it will blow cold for a few minutes and then give up.
 

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ctag

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Bought new windshield wiper arms and motor, and a new vent selector servo. Cost a pretty penny :???:

The windshield wiper parts are waiting for the existing stuff to break further before I install them. I went out when the servo arrived and installed it. Now I have vent selection! Right in time for me to not need defrosting anymore... The servo still struggles, so I'm trying to limit usage until I can tear the whole selector box out of the dash and do an overhaul on it.
 

Johnp410

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Looking good bud. Your thorough, that's for sure lol I've done my clutch, axles, and the associated cylinders, since we last spoke. I did my valve cover gasket, plugs and wires last Sunday, and painted the valve cover. Oh and lower ball joints. I've got a pacesetter header I need to paint, then I can finish my exhaust, but I'm scared it's going to sound like , i got a cheap muffler (dc sports). I also need to replace my front driverside wheel bearing and hub, just ordered a trunk latch (that crapped out on me last week). I'm probably putting my truck on the road after all that, parking the Civic and looking into rebuilding the engine and/or doing a swap. But my truck needs attention, I just hope it doesn't take forever for the DMV to reopen.

How you making out in this covid weather?
Hope all is well.
 

ctag

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Looking good bud. Your thorough, that's for sure lol I've done my clutch, axles, and the associated cylinders, since we last spoke. I did my valve cover gasket, plugs and wires last Sunday, and painted the valve cover. Oh and lower ball joints. I've got a pacesetter header I need to paint, then I can finish my exhaust, but I'm scared it's going to sound like , i got a cheap muffler (dc sports). I also need to replace my front driverside wheel bearing and hub, just ordered a trunk latch (that crapped out on me last week). I'm probably putting my truck on the road after all that, parking the Civic and looking into rebuilding the engine and/or doing a swap. But my truck needs attention, I just hope it doesn't take forever for the DMV to reopen.

How you making out in this covid weather?
Hope all is well.
Nice work! You gotta post that stuff in your build thread!

Don't stress about the exhaust, if it doesn't work for you sell it and try something else :rocker:

Working from home has actually been pretty busy, but I totally love saving 2 hours a day not commuting. COVID-19 is causing one of my roommates to move back home for the summer since all the internships dried up, so I'm losing money. Other than that things are OK, and I feel fortunate things are the way they are here.

With summer looming on the horizon, I decided to buy myself something:
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With any luck it'll help keep my back from getting as sweaty in hot weather. Time will tell :roll:
 

Johnp410

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Nice work! You gotta post that stuff in your build thread!

Don't stress about the exhaust, if it doesn't work for you sell it and try something else :rocker:

Working from home has actually been pretty busy, but I totally love saving 2 hours a day not commuting. COVID-19 is causing one of my roommates to move back home for the summer since all the internships dried up, so I'm losing money. Other than that things are OK, and I feel fortunate things are the way they are here.

With summer looming on the horizon, I decided to buy myself something:
View attachment 30747

With any luck it'll help keep my back from getting as sweaty in hot weather. Time will tell :roll:
Fortunate to be able to work still. In the same boat, but it looks more and more like we might close for 2 weeks. Strange times were living in.
Where'd you score the seat cover? Is it meant to massage your back? I mean to post on my thread, but get side tracked lol for instance the day I done the clutch kit and axles, I started by taking a picture of all the parts on my hood, after getting her on the lift, I was ashamed to show any pictures of under her skirt. The oil leakage, shift linkages rusty, which I'm trying to find replacements for those if you know of any, I'd greatly appreciate it.
I do have a couple pics of the valve cover though. Im proud of that, could have been better had I not done it outside, I tried to keep it covered after each coat, but didn't a 100% of the time, it looks good though. As far as the muffler I have, I'm thinking about returning it, and putting that $60 towards a $300 catback I seen by yonaka. Right now I just have a universal fart can (DC sports), I still need the midpipe, the yonaka would be $100 more than what I planned on spending, but a better investment I think.
 

ctag

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Fortunate to be able to work still. In the same boat, but it looks more and more like we might close for 2 weeks. Strange times were living in.
Where'd you score the seat cover? Is it meant to massage your back? I mean to post on my thread, but get side tracked lol for instance the day I done the clutch kit and axles, I started by taking a picture of all the parts on my hood, after getting her on the lift, I was ashamed to show any pictures of under her skirt. The oil leakage, shift linkages rusty, which I'm trying to find replacements for those if you know of any, I'd greatly appreciate it.
I do have a couple pics of the valve cover though. Im proud of that, could have been better had I not done it outside, I tried to keep it covered after each coat, but didn't a 100% of the time, it looks good though. As far as the muffler I have, I'm thinking about returning it, and putting that $60 towards a $300 catback I seen by yonaka. Right now I just have a universal fart can (DC sports), I still need the midpipe, the yonaka would be $100 more than what I planned on spending, but a better investment I think.
Glad to hear you're doing OK. I hope that 2-week shutdown doesn't mess things up too much for you :(
I know what you mean about pictures once you get started haha. I don't know the best place to find a replacement shift linkage :???: Do you have a pick-a-part junkyard near you? That'd be a good place to check first. I wish I had some better advice on the exhaust, but I don't have any experience with the brands yet.

Those seat covers are sold as "massage" cushions, but I'm hoping it'll provide a bit of air between me and the back of the seat.
 

Johnp410

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Glad to hear you're doing OK. I hope that 2-week shutdown doesn't mess things up too much for you :(
I know what you mean about pictures once you get started haha. I don't know the best place to find a replacement shift linkage :???: Do you have a pick-a-part junkyard near you? That'd be a good place to check first. I wish I had some better advice on the exhaust, but I don't have any experience with the brands yet.

Those seat covers are sold as "massage" cushions, but I'm hoping it'll provide a bit of air between me and the back of the seat.
Well if we do shut down, we supposedly have the payroll bailout money, so we'd get paid. I really just wish this mess would go away wishful thinking.
I got a pace setter header (exhaust manifold) looking at the yonaka catback, it's $289 but doesn't sound bad, some folks on here frown on yonaka, but I was thinking about painting everything. Working on the header now.
30839
That's just primer. Took awhile to get the protective paint off, but I got it. Acetone works pretty well, then just take a red scuff pad (360) to it, to scratch it up a bit so the primer adheres better. Using a ceramic paint after that. I'm seriously thinking about, doing my wheels, brake upgrade, then parking her for awhile. I want to rebuild the motor for turbo. While getting my Chevy on the road, I can make the Civic my project car.
 

Johnp410

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Nice work :thumbs up

Hmmm, civic project car :mrgreen:
Thanks, since that pic I've put several coats of ceramic paint (black) on. And I might have found a different exhaust. It's a Megan Racing Cat Back. Granted I'm not racing. The car is slow lol
 

ctag

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It's been a minute haha.

Engine leaks oil pretty regularly now. Always some drips under it after parking. And the two driver side tires keep deflating. And the brakes are making noise and jerking again.

Makes me miss the car after it got all that fix-up love a few years back :mrgreen:

Took both rear wheels off and got down to the brake shoes.
31008

I thought the issue would be the left hand side, but the right hand shoes were bad
31009
31010

Looks like that rear shoe has been jamming or tilting when the brakes are applied.

I bought replacement shoes and went to install them. In doing so I found that if I held the shoes together side-by-side they would thud dully and then clink together if I swapped them around. Turns out the manufacturing quality is so bad that the little metal tabs that contact the wheel hub only extend past the brake material on one side, which makes the shoes directional. I think that's what was wrong on the old ones, that rear one was rocking on the brake pad, and not sliding on the metal tabs... Or something.

31011

Then I had the drums turned at a shop. The drum from the tilted right side had almost an entire millimeter of more metal on it, so I swapped them left-right when I went to reinstall them, just in case that wasn't caused by the weird pad.

No more brake issues for now. Hoping it stays that way for a while.

Front tire's existing plug was leaking air... I punched the plug in and put a new one in. Fixed for now...
Rear tire had a screw in it. Plugged it too. Good to go :beer:
 

ctag

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Went ahead and bought some cheapo new tires since the front tire's plug messed up the sidewall a bit.
And while I was at it, decided to just throw on the 5-spoke wheels that were laying around.

I'm happy with it so far :what:
31014

They're 15's, while my old steelies were 14-inch.
The tires are "Ohtsu FP7000 All- Season Radial Tire-195/55R15 85V" that were selling for $54/each.
 
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ctag

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I do like the new wheels, but I'm still thinking about those Si wheels.. I got spoiled by that blue Del Sol haha.

About a month ago the passenger window stopped working. I suspect the door-jamb wires again. Need to go back and look at the posts from the driver window and see if I bought enough pins to do both doors.

And a couple weeks ago I drove an hour down to Birmingham to pick my sister up from the airport and then we drove east to drop her off. On the way back I pulled over to manually apply 12V and adjust the passenger window.. And noticed the car started overheating. Sure enough, the top of the radiator was cracked:

31035

Luckily I made it another 30 miles and was able to drop her off. As long as I was going about 50 mph the temperature stayed reasonable. But once I turned northward to go back home I hit lower speed limits and quickly had to pull over again.

31036

At this point I was about 90 miles from home, and rather than keep playing chicken with blowing the engine up, I decided to just eek into the AAA towing range and call for a tow.

AAA gave me "high priority" since there's no road shoulder, and 3 hours later a tow truck arrived. Fortunately I had a camp chair and my kindle, so I just hung out in the grass by the road.

About 7 hours since making the call for a tow, both myself and the Mothership were back home:
31037

This car has been remarkably reliable over the past decade of ownership, and that made having a breakdown feel notable. I do wish I could have taken this summer to go through and do all of the preventative maintenance and rebuilding that I've been daydreaming about for the past ten years, but I've gotten into some commitments that are keeping me busy. Hopefully an 11th year rebuild will be just as good!
 
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ctag

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Threw a spare radiator in the civic and it's back up and running again. :rocker:

Instead of just going ahead and fixing the passenger door window, I went and tinkered with the AC again for some reason. As if a 23 year old compressor will magically start working right :what:

Started by getting my roommate's help locating and attaching gauges. The low side valve appeared to be leaking, so we used one of those "airlock chamber" tools to replace it.. And the replacement appears to be leaking slowly too. Anyway, both sides read about 190psi, which we thought was pretty high. Went to turn on the AC with the engine running and.. nothing. AC compressor won't engage. We test the relay, and then confirm 12V at the little plastic connector by the radiator. It has 12V, so looks like the compressor is shot.

After some searching I learn about the thermal cutoff protector, and went back out to test that. It appear to work fine: 0.1 ohm connectivity. Tested the clutch coil and it came back 3.4 ohm, which is in spec from the service manual. Next I cleared the power steering pump away from the top of the compressor, and then wired in a bench power supply to the compressor clutch coil. Set it to 12V and it started pulling 3.8 amps (which is appropriate for 3.4 ohm coil resistance). At first it looked like the clutch was totally dead, but after some fiddling I noticed that it was actually engaging but seemed pretty weak.

I tried measuring the clearance, but couldn't tell if I was performing the measurement correctly or not.
31040

So I gave up and brought the compressor up to the top of the engine bay to take the clutch assembly apart.

31044

It looks to me like the clutch material is pretty much worn through.

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To compensate I removed one of the two shims that space it out:
31043

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And then cleaned the clutch faces and put it back together. Now when testing with the bench power supply the clutch grabs hard. I put the compressor back on the engine and reattached the belt.

Next I took a look at the AC radiator at the front of the engine bay. About 50% of the fins were bent sideways and likely blocking all or most airflow. I took a dental pick and manually straightened most of them out:
31046

Then I washed it in AC condenser cleaner:
31047

With that out of the way I tried doing the factory AC test again. Set the idle to 1500rpm and left the AC running for 10 minutes with a thermometer/humidity sensor by the vent. Here are the results:

31048

If I filled out that chart right (and I have no reason to suspect that I did) then it looks like the system is low on refrigerant. I tried putting a little more in, but didn't notice any real difference in the cold air coming out of the vents.

So that concludes the AC adventure for today. I have something good enough to manage condensation when it rains, but not strong enough to keep the car cool on an Alabama summer day.
 

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Update from the last post: the AC is actually pretty useful! It's true that the air isn't as cold as I'd like it to be, but the system now works consistently and does a great job of dehumidifying the cabin. That's a real benefit here in Alabama! Only a couple days after that last post I had to drive about an hour in the rain with a few passengers in the car, and thanks to the AC it wasn't totally miserable! :thumbs up

And I did get around to fixing the passenger window wires a few days later as well.
31058

Yup, same cause as the driver side. I guess it was just time to do this resoldering job.
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Cleaned up and ready for some new pins!
31060

I recalled having left over pins from doing the driver side previously, but it turns out the second pack was the wrong type, and wouldn't work. That left me with just 4 leftover new pins. I set to work refurbishing 6 existing ones and re-crimping them to new wires.
31061

After a couple hours of cleaning, bending, and soldering, the new (and old) pins were installed and ready to go. I really didn't want to be bothered to do the color-coding tape thing that I used on the driver side, but wound up not being able to see up the sleeve to the original wire colors. So I begrudgingly broke out the colored tapes.
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Everything seemed to go pretty well until the last bit of assembly. Whether due to an exhaustion of "gumption" or a real appiphany of ownership, I found myself quite frustrated with how poorly the spliced wires fit back into the sleeve. They tangled, and pulled hard against each other while plugging the pins into the connector. I finished the assembly and was pretty sure that the pins will soon break again due to the strain, and wondered for a few minutes if I shouldn't be browsing for a more modern vehicle.

It's late evening at this point, but the harness is assembled and ready for the fender to go back on.
31063


Luckily that passed and I was able to go test drive and enjoy having control of the passenger window once again!
 


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