My sister recently got married and soon after turned 27. She drives a 1995 Honda Accord Lx. This car has 158K and is still in good shape, so I thought I'd replace her broken CD player, broken antenna mast (car wash mishap) and repair her AC with a new AC compressor (universal AC $150 new on ebay) new evaporator and dryer/accumulator.
I found this car for her 6 years ago with 94K. The original owner had done all the maintenance by the book with the Honda dealer.(timing belt service at 90K) Since her purchase my father has done 5k dino oil changes with quaker state and a (yikes) fram oil filter, but NO other maintenance.
After I wired the new radio and installed the antenna mast I noted that the auto trans shifted ok but downshifted a little hard from 2nd to 1st. After much reading I bought 8 quarts of Honda Z1 ATF and did 3 fluid exchanges, and what a difference! The tranny now shifts like new!
Replaced one filthy disgusting air filter with a new one. Chevron with techron fuel system cleaner added to 10 gallons of fuel. Noted that the valve cover was leaking badly. Bought a new oem valve cover kit with spark plug guide seals for my friend to install. I couldnt stop here! Bought new NGK G power plugs, a puralator fuel filter, a puralator PCV valve and new distributor cap and rotor (no new plug wires) Had my friend start on the work and ending up buying new power steering belt and A/C---Alternator belt to replace frayed ones. While I was buying the belts I picked up 5 quarts of Mobil clean 5000 and a puralator classic for 13 bucks to get that stupid fram off the car. My friend installed all of this and adjusted those engine valves too! As my present had ballooned into a much larger cost than I anticipated I got my father to buy some geniune honda coolant, a new thermostat and new radiator cap so we could flush the radiator (its an aftermarket one though, better than the plastic oem honda, the one thing that my father did on the car besides oil changes)For good measure my freind cleaned the throttle body too.
What a difference! This car runs like it has 50K on the clock now! Hopefully the cheap AC compressor will hold up, but so far with PAG 46 oil and "ultra synthetic" artic cool R134A it blows ice cold.
By the way, when my friend had the valve cover opened he said that there was NO sludge or varnish----5K dino changes have paid off! Just wish I could have taken a picture of the valve train for everyone here.
And by the way, good friends are priceless. $200 for the labor!
What do you guys think?
I found this car for her 6 years ago with 94K. The original owner had done all the maintenance by the book with the Honda dealer.(timing belt service at 90K) Since her purchase my father has done 5k dino oil changes with quaker state and a (yikes) fram oil filter, but NO other maintenance.
After I wired the new radio and installed the antenna mast I noted that the auto trans shifted ok but downshifted a little hard from 2nd to 1st. After much reading I bought 8 quarts of Honda Z1 ATF and did 3 fluid exchanges, and what a difference! The tranny now shifts like new!
Replaced one filthy disgusting air filter with a new one. Chevron with techron fuel system cleaner added to 10 gallons of fuel. Noted that the valve cover was leaking badly. Bought a new oem valve cover kit with spark plug guide seals for my friend to install. I couldnt stop here! Bought new NGK G power plugs, a puralator fuel filter, a puralator PCV valve and new distributor cap and rotor (no new plug wires) Had my friend start on the work and ending up buying new power steering belt and A/C---Alternator belt to replace frayed ones. While I was buying the belts I picked up 5 quarts of Mobil clean 5000 and a puralator classic for 13 bucks to get that stupid fram off the car. My friend installed all of this and adjusted those engine valves too! As my present had ballooned into a much larger cost than I anticipated I got my father to buy some geniune honda coolant, a new thermostat and new radiator cap so we could flush the radiator (its an aftermarket one though, better than the plastic oem honda, the one thing that my father did on the car besides oil changes)For good measure my freind cleaned the throttle body too.
What a difference! This car runs like it has 50K on the clock now! Hopefully the cheap AC compressor will hold up, but so far with PAG 46 oil and "ultra synthetic" artic cool R134A it blows ice cold.
By the way, when my friend had the valve cover opened he said that there was NO sludge or varnish----5K dino changes have paid off! Just wish I could have taken a picture of the valve train for everyone here.
And by the way, good friends are priceless. $200 for the labor!
What do you guys think?
