2002 Honda Civic Coupe LX 5spd Build Thread

[Christian]

Thanks Xist,

I should have clarified in my post, the leak is coming from the steering rack rubber boot. It appears that nothing should be damaged by the leak, but I appreciate the heads-up. I didn't really consider how much damage the fluid itself could cause.

Originally Posted by Xist

Even if your power steering leak is small, I recommend at least figuring out from where it is leaking and where the fluid is landing.

A power steering leak ruined the rack and pinion and alternator belt in my Prelude, and apparently the alternator died when the belt snapped.
An oil leak in the Accord ruined the distributor, starter, spark plugs, wires, and caused misfires.
An oil leak in this Camry ruined a hose and a seal.
Unless a leak is on the bottom and will only ruin the ground it will probably cause other components to fail.

[Xist]

I searched for "green and purple metal" and found this reddit post asking what this treatment is called:

People argued whether it was anodization of titanium nitride, but someone said it was "Neo chrome" and I found these:


The description just says it is polished: Silverware Set,20-Piece Stainless Steel Flatware Set,Tableware Set,Dinnerware Set Service for 4 (Rainbow Multicolor）

Someone commented "You can do this by heating metal and putting poppyseed oil on it."
Hmmm... heat and oil...

[Xist]

A friend used to say that Murphy's Law should be renamed in my honor.

Thanks?

So, if it can go wrong for me, it will, and if it can damage something else, it will.

[Christian]

I think you're on the right track with heat, but I'm not sure if oil would be the culprit, the plugs were dry and had no fouling. Maybe I'm biased because I really don't want to believe that my engine has any issues with rings, pistons, cylinders, etc.

I'm assuming the shell is made of steel, and I found a diagram of different colours that can be achieved through different temperatures when heat-treating steel.

[Christian]

Originally Posted by EcoCivic

Nice, glad to hear you are making progress!

Are you sure the power steering rack itself is leaking? I never saw one of these racks leak, but the steel return pipe coming from the rack rusted out on both my 7th gens, so I'd try to pinpoint exactly where it's leaking from before condemning the entire rack. But if the rack ends up having to be replaced anyways, that would be a great time to upgrade to EPS.

From what I can see on the pictures, those spark plugs look fine to me. I have no explanation for the purple look one of the spark plugs has, maybe it came from a different batch or something. If there was a problem with something like a clogged fuel injector causing an excessively lean air/fuel ratio, I'd expect to see that on the ground strap and electrode area rather than on the outside.

I'm not positive, I just know all the fluid is pooling in the rubber boot on the steering rack. The EPS conversion definitely sounds more tempting now haha, but may prove to be a major headache, as this is my only car right now, and I'm positive the conversion would not go smoothly for me.

Yea the plug colours are very strange, I'm assuming they're all part of the same batch as they all have the same model numbers, but I have no way to be certain

I need to do some digging around and figure out what my best course of action is to get this power steering fixed/replaced for as little as possible. Deleting the system sounds nice and cheap, but considering this car is used mainly for city driving, it may be a major PITA when parking and maneuvering at low speeds.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Subscribed! I haven't been as active on Ecomodder as of late but it's always good to see another Civic build.

On my Insight, doing engine off coasting around town meant the difference between 50 mpg and 75 mpg in city traffic. Now my Prius C does that automatically and still gets 75 mpg!

The Insight had EPS though so I didn't lose steering with engine off. Coasting is huge, and even coasting in neutral in my old Civic and minimizing brake usage when I could helped a lot.

What tire pressure are you running? If most of your driving is around town, increased tire pressure will help more than aeromods.

Running a 80% grille block in the winter helped warm up a ton although I did have to dial it back to around 50% in the summer. Like others have said, most of your low MPG is due to idling around town and the warm up process.

Nice score on the lightweight wheels!

[Christian]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

Subscribed! I haven't been as active on Ecomodder as of late but it's always good to see another Civic build.

On my Insight, doing engine off coasting around town meant the difference between 50 mpg and 75 mpg in city traffic. Now my Prius C does that automatically and still gets 75 mpg!

The Insight had EPS though so I didn't lose steering with engine off. Coasting is huge, and even coasting in neutral in my old Civic and minimizing brake usage when I could helped a lot.

What tire pressure are you running? If most of your driving is around town, increased tire pressure will help more than aeromods.

Running a 80% grille block in the winter helped warm up a ton although I did have to dial it back to around 50% in the summer. Like others have said, most of your low MPG is due to idling around town and the warm up process.

Nice score on the lightweight wheels!

Wow, that's a huge increase, I am tempted to do some EOC, but I have a lot of hills and traffic on my short trips. I'm worried about the loss of brake assist more than the loss of power steering, but I will keep this in mind when on empty side streets. Recently, I have been doing much more coasting in neutral, which I believe has helped in my improved fuel economy. It's hard to confirm though, as the road conditions and outside temperature have improved so much.

I'm only doing 35psi, as my winter tires are recommended for 30psi, but once the weather improves and I can put my new lightweight wheels and tires on, I'll definitely be running higher pressure.

I have recently acquired 4 medium-sized coroplast signs, so the next item on my list will be making a grille block. I'm thinking I'll start with a full upper grille block and eventually a ~30% lower grille block. I need to find some vinyl wrap though, because the signs are bright yellow...

[Ecky]

I would always run ~44-48psi in my winter tires - they seemed to cut through the snow better.

You don't entirely lose power brakes when EOC, there's a check valve going to the brake booster. You typically get 6-8 solid hard stops before the vacuum assist starts to fade, and it's gradual, so you can feel it and bump start the engine.

[Christian]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I would always run ~44-48psi in my winter tires - they seemed to cut through the snow better.

You don't entirely lose power brakes when EOC, there's a check valve going to the brake booster. You typically get 6-8 solid hard stops before the vacuum assist starts to fade, and it's gradual, so you can feel it and bump start the engine.

Thanks Ecky, that's good to know, I assumed that I would only get like 1-2 good brakes before I lost power, but I definitely will have to try it out. I'd love to install a killswitch for EOC, but lack the willingness to mess with any wiring in the car.

I've thought about trying 40psi with these tires, but I'm going to wait until I put my lightweight tires on sometime in the next month.

[Xist]

NoD converted his power rack to manual.
I needed to remove my power steering pump when I replaced my alternator and I never put it back.
I looked into properly converting it--I believe that you loop some lines--when my dad passed away and I had far too much else going on.

Members made vacuum reservoirs.
A big container...to hold vacuum!