97 civic CX long issues and thoughts

[ghostwalker]

Hey guys (and girls),

It's been a long time since I've posted and I thought I would share thoughts about my civic and ask a question or two.

Let's see I've rebuilt most of the braking system (rotors, calipers,and pads :4 wheel discs from an Integra). Given it a tune up with better stuff (NSK wires and plugs, brass cap and rotor, and K+N panel filter).

The previous owner never met a screw, nut, or bolt he didn't feel a burning desire to overtorque. Including the screw holding the plastic ignition rotor on the distributer which took a dremel and hammer and punch to get loose.

My next project will be replacing both window regulators when i finally get the right part Advanced Auto special ordered one that would have required modifing the door to work. Nope not gonna happen.

Between work and fixing broken stuff on the car i haven't made any eco mods but because of the vehicle choice I regularly enjoy passing gas stations without stopping. Although i do grin at the SUV owners I see there . I put a full tank in it somewhere between every 3 or 4 weeks.

The Good:

Gas mileage (3 to 4 times that of the mustang it replaced. Most of my driving is city)
Handles like it's on rails (it might be lowered anyone know the stock ride height?)
With the brakes fixed stopping is ridiculous (2300 lb car plus the 4 wheel discs)
Comfy interior for my 6'2" 300 lb body
AC and heat that kick butt (this is a first for me in a long time)
It's ....peppy (not fast not trying to throw you out the back window but enjoyably peppy after the tune up).

The Bad

For some reason It stalls when coming to a stop unless you have climate control blowing (doesn't matter hot or cold). It's not a fluke and seems to happen after engine warm up. Anyone been though this one? i considered bumping the idle up but if it's fixable another way i would prefer to do it right.

Still haven't come up with an answer for the slushy (factory) shifter. Although I have somewhat adapted to it.

I've considered mounting an extra spring under the clutch pedal since it's slushy as well. (anyone ever try something like this?)


overall it's a great little car that I'm slowly growing love (the tune up helped). Although I do feel the occasional pang for V8 torque and acceleration.

I'm seriously considering fabbing a rear seat delete supposedly the stock seat is 50 lbs. Lmao I saw one for sale that cost like $300 and saved 3 lbs. I want to make it look like a factory delete though not a hack job. I've been looking at the honda performance world for some weight reduction and it's pretty funny. All the wet carbon fiber reinforced with e-glas. You'd be better off with woven cloth and epoxy resin. Anyway cheers all-GW

[ghostwalker]

goggle Opera Performance Honda S2000 for some extreme vehicle weight loss it's geared toward racing but that much reduction should seriously help us city drivers on FE.-GW

[piers.singer]

If the vehicle stalls without the climate control on then my immediate suspicion would be and electrical gremlin, unless it's belt-driven in which case it could be influencing engine load in some way. I have no knowledge of the car though so I can only guess.

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by ghostwalker

Still haven't come up with an answer for the slushy (factory) shifter. Although I have somewhat adapted to it.

Your new best friend.

Energy Suspension 16-1102G Energy Suspension Shifter Bushings for Acura/Honda

[ghostwalker]

thank you jedi i'll be ordering the kit soon

[PaleMelanesian]

Suspension clearance: I can fit three fingers (index, middle, ring) between the top of the wheel and the body on the left front wheel.

Rear disc brakes? That's not OEM. I suspect the suspension was modded at the same time.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by ghostwalker

(it might be lowered anyone know the stock ride height?)

The 1996-2000 Honda shop manual lists 5.9" if I recall correctly. BTW, I posted a link to a free full copy of this 1400+ page manual on this site. Search it and enjoy.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by ghostwalker

I'm seriously considering fabbing a rear seat delete supposedly the stock seat is 50 lbs. Lmao I saw one for sale that cost like $300 and saved 3 lbs. I want to make it look like a factory delete though not a hack job. I've been looking at the honda performance world for some weight reduction and it's pretty funny. All the wet carbon fiber reinforced with e-glas. You'd be better off with woven cloth and epoxy resin. Anyway cheers all-GW

I did the hack delete of the seat. I do not record a weight for that part alone, but it was part of a 100lb delete. Your figure sounds close. It is a hack job. But my goal was to take out weight and re-purpose the back end to take garden and home repair supplies more easily, as well as construction waste runs to the dump. If you learn of a good seat source, or make one, I would love to see pics and a how to, because it would be fun to have a seat option available again on demand.

BTW, a person could make cloth/resin fenders an such with only moderate difficulty if you used the factory parts for a mold, no? Would be significantly lighter, no?

[ghostwalker]

hmmm...I'll split this up

palemelanesian
nope brakes weren't stock the previous owner swapped them from a 99 integra I had to replace them because the car sat for a year and a half while he was deployed. Now that they're fixed I love them.
finger measurement might very a bit I lift steel all day at work and mine are rather thick.

California
nice FE!
shop manual ....sweet
the the rear seat stuff I was talking about in that magazine was a delete. The thing that was so funny to me was you spend $300, lose the ability to carry rear passengers, and save 3lbs of weight. I do have to admit it did look nice but so does the original backseat and I think i would rather drag the 3lbs then spend the $300 for it. There was a lot of plywood in it. If I fabbed my own I was thinking more along the lines of aluminium panels with lightning holes. Covered in color-matched carpet to the interior like if the factory did a 2 seater. I don't know if I will do it sunken for extra cargo and reduced weight or even with the hatch area for a better look.

Splashing 101
making a fiberglas part by creating a mold from an original part is called splashing. It sounds simple but the devil is in the details
1. shrinkage- a part cast from this style of mold will be smaller then the original. epoxy resins shrink less then polyester but they do shrink.
2. lockins- all those channels and lips on car body parts that are no problem in sheetmetal can be a real pain when you're trying to make a mold or cast a part. They can lock the mold onto the original part to where you can't get it off with messing up one of them. To avoid that you have to make a multipart mold and come up with a method of aligning them while making the mold and realigning for casting the part. The worse your alignment the more patching and sanding you will have to do. If it's truly bad then your unlikely to ever get a part that looks worth a damn.
3.mold release- If anyone is going to try this method make sure to polish your mold with a good wax like carnuba and use a mold release like PVA(polyvinyl alcohol).
4. resources-There's a couple of decent books of making fiberglas car parts (I have one by John A. Willis), if you google chavants modeling clay they have some videos on fiberglas molding (you can substitute wood, bondo, plaster for clay you just have to use rougher tools like sanders. Probably the best book I've ever seen on mold making is thurston james's "the prop builders molding and casting handbook." If you want to get your feet wet with mold making start there and if your going to to do fiberglas use use a good epoxy resin (try a boat supply place) polyester sucks.
I use these as references since I learned how to do most of this stuff as an aircraft structural mechanic and as an industrial model maker.
5. cloth- spend the extra money for a tight weave fiberglas cloth. Something like a nice 5 ounce and cross lay (30 or 45 degrees) layers it so the so the threads of 2 layers aren't in line with each other.
6. Use a respirator rated for resins and good latex or vinyl gloves

I've seen some pretty rough looking wheel arch covers on this site (sorry guys) that would probably look nice if they were done in glas. Making nice curves ,I believe, is much easier in it then in most other materials.

What I was ranting about in my original post was that "dry carbon fiber" does save a lot of weight because it's pre-preg with exactly the correct amount of resin and it's ALL carbon. Say same strength at 15% of the weight of the original part. What they were selling was one layer of carbon backed up with fiberglas (random fiber mat at that read: crap glass) for like $700 for a hood. Their part weighed half as much as the original and you had to dig for that info. My contention is a woven cloth/ epoxy resin could be made just as strong if not stronger at the same weight. I made a 1/2 inch thick seat ring like this for a prototype and we couldn't destroy it with a 10 lb sledge. Also since it would be all the same material it would swell and shrink with temp changes better and be less likely to delaminate. I think they're just taking advantage of kids who hear "carbon fiber" and reach for their wallets without checking the details and I think it's sad.

okay I'm done ranting thanks for the input guys I'll tape the ride height soon-GW

[California98Civic]

Wow, man. That post is an education. Thanks.