With my continued gas savings I bought this! (1999 Accord LX)

[Xist]

If you are looking for the thread that makes sense, here you go! http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ght-31253.html

Just a couple of pictures and I need to hurry to work!

[Xist]

Are you thanking me for posting less than normal? I hardly wrote anything! Is that what you like about it?

So there I was, waking up in a strange place, wearing strange clothes, with the title and registration of a strange car. It's not the first time. I really get around.

Hail Gallaxhar!

The best I can figure, my brother-in-law bought a Mercedes or BMW, I never care to keep them straight, his wife now drives their 2006 Acura, and since my sister loathes and despises me having something I like, that saves me money, she decided to save me from happiness and financial security:

Since you are such a swell guy, I talked [Sister-in-law] into selling you her late 90's 4 door Honda Accord for dirt cheep but not until September so you'll have plenty of time to say goodbye to your current car.
Do you think you'd be interested? It's been very well taken care of and still looks pretty good

She thinks my Civic is going anywhere?! Hilarious!

I bought the Accord without even looking at it in daylight or touching it, but for $250...

I had wanted to post this with actual pictures of the car, but those still need to wait. The car looked fantastic at night and when I finally drove it--home--it ran well. KBB says it is worth $606 for a trade-in and $1,770 to a private party. It has 41,000 miles fewer than Chorizo, which Kelley values at $1,288.

All of the lights, windows, and doors work. There is a crack in the middle of the windshield going straight up and down. The fan buzzed on three and buzzed very loudly on four, so I removed leaves. I thought the engine bay looked dirty, so I started cleaning it. The oil looked clean, but was a quart low. I was surprised how large the oil puddle was for only sitting twelve hours. It also seemed unusually thick. The rest of the fluids looked fine. The tires were only at 22-25 PSI, so I pumped them up to forty. Sidewall max is forty, but that was already about 65 pumps each on my bike pump. Good enough for now! There are some scratches and one spot of rust. The passenger side of the front bumper is scraped up, the fender is a little dented, and it is attached with wire.

That same part was loose on my Civic on the driver's side. I put a nut, bolt, and would you believe, a fender washer on it and it was good to go.

My immediate plans are to get a parking permit, ask a neighbor if they mind me parking in front of their house because there is not room in front of mine, and only driving it to that one sister's house. Regardless of what may happen, I should still be able to recover what I paid for the car and then some, but everything I have found so far looks like an easy fix.

My other sister visits regularly from California and she said she would pay the insurance if she could borrow it when she is in town. It turns out I was paying for things I did not need, like accident forgiveness. Seriously? I got rid of all of that and rental car reimbursement and am paying $10 a month more than I had been for the Civic alone. I do not have many pictures so far, but I was trying to work on the car, not take selfies.

[Xist]

I did not get good pictures, I have hardly taken any photos of my car, but my sister-in-law hit something and damaged the passenger side of the front bumper. Apparently, she also broke the plastic part that fastens to the fender, and they wired it in place, which did not line up very well. I removed that and put in a nut, bolt, and washer from a set from Walmart, but that was too long, so I bought a shorter one for a quarter from Ace:




I have driven this car far more than I wanted. It was five days before I could get a ride back to get my Civic and then once I had Chorizo back, I turned a corner two blocks from my first client, there was a truck in the middle of the street, I hit the curb, and blew my tire. Curiously, the Civic has a full-sized spare, while the Accord has a donut.

The next day I was driving to see my mom and did not have time to replace the tires, so I drove my Accord, and since it was Labor Day weekend, everyone was fleeing Phoenix; the drive took an hour longer than normal. The return trip took two hours extra!

I got 34.5 MPG over 552.5 miles in a car rated 20/27. I figure I should have gotten 36 without three hours idling.

The car pulled to the right, so I went for an alignment. They called back and said the car did not need an alignment, the two front tires had different tread depth, so they rotated them, and now it pulled to the left.

Who rotates just two tires?

Both tires are 195/65/15s and look pretty new. I think one just has extra tread. They also said a lug nut had been cross-threaded and the stud broke. They said they would replace it for over a hundred dollars. They also said the brakes had been replaced a couple of times, but not the rotors, so those should be changed before they warp. The windshield has a crack right down the center. There are some scratches and rust spots. I do not remember any actual dents, though. The mechanic did not find (or cause) any other problems (that I remember), but he definitely said the wheel stud and the rotors were the only important issues.

Well, it is 4am. I could not sleep and decided to figure out how to replace the stud, but I am sleepy now. Goodnight!

[Xist]

I had a surprising amount of difficulty finding my own thread, but when I have tried to link a build page to the garage entry for my car, saving did not seem to work.

I have had the Accord for over fifteen months and 20,000 miles. She has been pretty good.

I started getting a check engine light every 750 miles or so for a failing catalytic converter. I did a great deal of research. In theory, the original cat lasted seventeen years. Do I want to spend several hundred dollars, a couple of times what I paid for the car, for another part that should last seventeen years, when the longest that I have owned any car is four? Except, the original cat failed at least a couple of years ago, and my brother-in-law replaced it with the cheapest one that he could find, $110--less than I would lose for the core charge.

My brother-in-law also did not determine why the original one failed. Some people insist they simply wear out, and it is entirely possible to hit a rock or otherwise damage it, but generally they fail because the engine runs rich and the cat overheats, or the engine burns oil, and the additives clog up the CC, although Gumby says zinc was removed in 2010 to preserve cats.

Google neither confirms nor denies Gumby's statement: https://mobiloil.com/en/faq/ask-our-...rom-motor-oils

I do not know when my sister-in-law (or her husband) replaced the timing belt, but I wanted to do it at 180k, so that I knew that it was good, but now I am at 185k, and while I have found the cheapest supplier for each OEM part, I have not ordered them yet.

I do not like the Honda FSM
My car burns about half a quart per thousand miles. My research says a bad PCV valve is the most likely culprit. I replaced that Saturday and wonder if it is the single easiest repair. It took me twenty-five seconds and most of that was fumbling with pliers. It was so easy I got it on video!

A shop very well might charge $75 - 100 for a repair that took me 25 seconds. I bought the genuine part from Amazon for $22. The old one rattled like it was supposed to. I have not checked my oil since.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ter-35570.html

Instead of replacing my cat, California98Civic helped me acid wash it, and the CEL stayed off for 5,012 miles. I want to try acid washing again once I have fixed the burning oil.

In that thread, California98Civic recommended wet and dry compression tests. I started doing that tonight, but it got dark too quickly. I tested one cylinder and it seemed to read 150+ PSI, but it dropped far too quickly.

That is not encouraging, but I cannot find much information on what that might mean.

Two people voted for an OEM timing belt and four recommended Gates. Everyone says the Gates belts are great, but many people report problems with other components they package in the kit. The consensus is that if it is good enough for Gates, isn't it good enough for me?

I have never used them.

Which timing belt (kit) should I purchase (survey) 99 Accord

The highway patrol ordered me to replace my windshield and I started wondering of using my phone for proof of insurance was prudent:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...rds-35643.html

This actually happened back in July, before the rest of this drama; the front passenger tire blew and damaged my fender, resonator, headlight, wiring, and bumper, but I replaced them for under $200. As soon as I fixed my car and tried to leave town [for a new job] a van rear-ended me on the freeway. I thought the bumper only needed to be sanded down and repainted, but the other driver replaced the cover and painted it for me. I had difficulty believing there was not more damage to my car, that could have easily been horrible. Neither of us were injured, but the front bumper and grill of the van were damaged.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...mum-35333.html

The new fender started rubbing on the door like on the driver's side of my Civic, which was already damaged when I bought the car. I stopped using the passenger door until I straightened it on Saturday and cleaned leaves out of the squirrel cage again.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by Xist

I had a surprising amount of difficulty finding my own thread, but when I have tried to link a build page to the garage entry for my car, saving did not seem to work.

You have to copy and paste the thread ID, not the full URL into the garage entry. In your case it is 34255. I already added it to your garage for you.

[Xist]

Oh, so when it asks for my thread ID, I need to not give it the URL? Who thought of that?!

Thank you so much! Now I have my Civic's repair thread linked in its garage entry!

I tested the compression today and got 150 - 162 in each cylinder. I tried getting video of the 150 cylinder because it was dropping and should have been higher before I saw it, but for some reason, my phone would not take video, but it did on Saturday. Maybe it would hold pressure with a wet test.

Page 2-2 http://www.gvrdeu.org/Honda%20FSM/Ac...ccord%20SM.pdf

Does anyone have any suggestions for getting grease out of the upholstery in my armrest?

[Xist]

That is the longest that I have continually driven a car! I had my first car for about four years, from 150 - 222k. I have driven this car from 170 - 218k, so just over half as much, but I hardly drove her at all at first. Then I blew the head gasket in my Civic over two years ago, ever-so-slowly replaced it, changed the heater core, the new one leaked, so I removed the dash again, but haven't redone it again.

My Accord is worse for wear, but she is still going!

This was the best $250 that I ever spent!

[2016 Versa]

Originally Posted by Xist

This was the best $250 that I ever spent!

The best $500. I ever spent on a vehicle was in 1993 on an '88 Ford Escort Pony. It had 146K miles and would consistently get 40+ mpg. I drove it until about 2011 or 2012 and retired it with 518K miles. When I retired it it used/leaked a quite a bit of oil but was still running on the original engine that had never been rebuilt. The compression was still 145-155 psi across all the cylinders.

[Xist]

Dad bought a 1989 Escort Pony new. I bent the frame and he finally replaced it with 350k.

Meanwhile, Mom's 88 Taurus constantly died.

[Xist]

I finally pulled off the Gorilla Tape:

I sprayed at least a cup of L.A.'s Totally Awesome Cleaner

I managed to hose off some, but not all of the dirt.

When I looked up how to remove Gorilla Tape I only found how to remove the residue.

Hopefully it is easy.