SiRedge

Ancient thread bump . . . Not much has been happening with the car of late - meeting someone rather special, getting engaged and then married will do that I suppose! There aren't any big plans for it for the future either way though, just keep and enjoy it. But I'll throw a couple of pictures up for the hell of it: Taken on a very recent jaunt down to Lake Tekapo, where the car performed perfectly - a pleasure to drive. Good economy too - under 6.5L of 98 dinosaurs per 100km.

Hi guys, been a while. Gave the car a good wash yesterday, then took it out for a drive and some photos: Full album here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskUyiqy

Wednesdays are no good for me, but since I've not been to a meet for quite a long time anyway I wouldn't base it on my opinion. Personal preference would be Thursday.

Sunday lunch time cruise out to Sheffield for a pie, then up through Oxford and around to Rangiora before heading back into town? Anyone up for that? Means I get to satisfy my Sheffield Pie Shop addiction

A gold star goes to forum user chris r, who, out of all the places I'd posted about this issue (even a dedicated Civic / CR-X group on Facebook), was the only one to suggest the coolant temp sensor. Fixing that seems to have nicely fixed the issue. It needed a new dizzy cap and rotor anyway as those items were in sad shape, and plugging the vacuum leak was good too, but it was the new sensor that stopped the stalling. The car's running great now, and for a good price too. Well done to Tower Auto Electrical, and thanks again Chris! I owe you a pint.

In the next week huh. Is that during the week, or this weekend?

Anyone up to much tomorrow afty? SOTMM?

Car is back home . . . for now. A new temp sensor has been sorta bodged in place. It'll do for the time being - essentially, I'm to drive it around this weekend, and see if it faults. If not, then a more permanent adapter for the new temp sensor will be made up and slotted into place, and job's a good 'un. Fingers crossed! Good to have it home anyway though, definitely going for a celebratory hoon tomorrow! Any 03 folks keen for a dort later tomorrow?

Updating this and . . . the car is still in the shop. Sigh. They couldn't work on it for a couple of days because they suddenly got swamped with jobs. They then removed the fast idle valve and intake manifold to have a look. Intake mani was pretty clean, but the fast idle valve was fairly gunked up, so gave that a freshen up and back on the car. They started it and let it run, and it didn't fault, but since they didn't take it for a drive they couldn't be sure it was fixed. So the guy decided to check the coolant temp sensor by unplugging it with the car idling. It immediately replicated the fault, very rough idle (like an old car on too much choke on a cold morning) and didn't want to rev. So they want to replace the sensor as well, just to be sure. The only trouble is finding one - nobody seems to have one to fit, which is a nuisance. Hopefully a simple solution presents itself, I want my car back!

Wednesday nights are usually no good for me, but you can't please all the people etc. Free either weekend though.

Welp . . . it's not fixed. Sigh. Spoke to the auto sparky just before. Vacuum leak is fixed, dizzy cap and rotor replaced, and it's still conking out. The guy says the LED on the ECU isn't working at all, so he can't see if it's throwing a fault code or not. He's checked fuel pressure, which is holding strong at 30psi, even when the idle misbehaves, so it's probably not that. The fact that it only happens in a relatively narrow temperature window means it's probably temp sensor related, but still yet to be determined. Many sigh.

Sup folks. Thoughts on next Chch meet? I should be getting along to some of these, get a bit more active, meet some more folks etc . . .

Just had a chat with the auto sparky. They found a vacuum leak between the vac box and the vac advance unit - fixed that, and it seems to have fixed the fault. They've got a new distributor cap and rotor on the way - they told me the dizzy itself looked fairly serviceable on the whole, with only the rotor and cap obviously needing replacement - the rest looks fine for now which is good news. I'll have new leads thrown on, and hopefully be able to pick it up tomorrow night all going well! The guy was enthusiastic about the condition of the car too, saying it's the tidiest he's seen in a long time. All good news for me, looking forward to having it back again!

Do it! Car is sick, would hoon.

Well . . . the Civic made it into the auto sparky, although not without protest. Half way there, in heavy traffic, and sure enough the engine died. I was just rolling to a stop in the queue of cars, so I let it stop before trying to start it again - fortunately after 10 - 15 seconds of cranking (and giving it plenty of throttle) it started again, but it wasn't happy about it. The engine was running very rough, wouldn't idle smoothly, and I knew if I took my foot off the throttle it'd just die again. So I kept a few revs on the clock and after a few moments it settled down again, and I got to the auto sparky without further incident. Fingers crossed it's easy enough to fix!

Picked the Civic up again from Honda this evening. The clutch works again, excellent. Drove home and it didn't conk out . . . but probably more because I didn't let it than anything else! Anyway, got home no problem. Adjusted the warm idle screw up a little bit as it was a bit low - it mightn't make any difference, but it can't hurt. It's going into the auto sparkie on Monday for them to take a look at it. I'll have the dizzy reconditioned, and might as well get them to have a butchers at the alternator while it's in there. Not going to be cheap, but there's no alternator-tive.

Yeah. I think the main issue is the vac advance unit - other bits aren't too difficult to find. Rotors are cheap, you can get new ignitors . . . but you can't get new vac advance units, or even seem to be able to find a decent 2nd hand item. It's frustrating as hell. I've booked it into an auto sparky on Monday, one Honda recommended. When I chatted to the guy about it he sounded like he knew his stuff - even used to own one of these, so hopefully it can be solved without too much pain!

Strongs don't tend to keep anything for cars much older than about 10 years old - when Honda phoned them asking if they had a clutch cable for a 1986 Civic they burst out laughing. And then it turned out they did have one lying around - go figure. But yeah, Strongs very rarely have anything for cars this old. This is much more difficult with these than it sounds, and much more work. I know a few people who have done this, and it isn't easy or straightforward. I would very much like to avoid this if I can. Dizzys are fairly common between newer Hondas and readily available, yes, but that's not the case with these as far as I'm aware. From what I've been able to glean so far the dizzy on my car is unique to browntop DOHC injected ZCs, which was only produced for about 3 years. The CRX Si and Integra of the same era used them as well, but other than those, that's it. Both of those models are also quite rare now. The problem is these cars don't use an OBD system, so any later dizzy that's OBD compatible won't play nice - at least, that's my knowledge on the subject. If anyone knows otherwise I'm more than happy to be corrected!!

Welp . . . Can't get any parts ever for this thing. Dizzy is tired out and has to be replaced or refurbished. Honda can't / won't, so it'll be up to an auto sparky to give me some kind of solution. Stall issue could also be caused by coolant temp sensor, and that part is no longer available - Honda also say they can't find any aftermarket part there either. So, long story short . . . Honda fixed the clutch cable and nothing else. Dunno how I'm going to solve the rest of these issues.

So, a little update. Clutch cable replaced, no trouble there, so the car is driveable again. However . . . it's also had a little issue lately I've wanted to have looked at. The car starts fine and runs normal. As it warms up and the temperature gauge on the dash is approaching normal, but only in a narrow temperature window, the car won't hold idle - the engine stops. This tends to happen when pulling up to a set of lights when the car is getting close to operating temperature - stop at the lights, gearbox in neutral, clutch out, the revs just drop off and the engine stops. When this happens it isn't easy to get started again - it usually needs several attempts before it will catch. Ironically, it quite often does this at the intersection of Montreal and St Asaph Streets - right outside Honda. Must be a sign. If the car isn't warmed up yet, it doesn't do it. If it's warmed up past that stage, closer to and up to operating temperature, it doesn't do it either. It's only in that narrow temperature window and only if the car is asked to idle. I can sometimes tell it's in that window if it's a bit hesitant or slightly jerky in gear at lower rpm, like if the oxygen sensor isn't quite right or something. Anyway, I've wanted to have it fixed because I can't really drive it to work like that - it keeps conking out at the same roundabout or set of lights and I wind up with people stuck behind me honking their horns - not ideal. Anyway, a mate of mine mentioned distributor. Uh oh, I thought, here we go. Anyway, Honda has taken a look at it for me, and it's pretty tired out. The ignitor and rotor are pretty well had it, and the vacuum advance unit is no better. Realistically, short of a brand new dizzy, the whole thing ought to be rebuilt / reconditioned. The trouble is, parts are quite expensive, if they can be found at all, and I'm tight for cash. Anyone got any connections? No guaratee this will solve the issue, but it's going to have to be done . . .

Does the fan only bolt up one way? To my entirely unprofessional untrained eye it looks like the blades are scalloped slightly and it would be more effective the other way around . . . Chances of getting a WOF in time?

Pretty sure it was only the clutch cable giving up, but still, not the best.

I had some rust work done on my car at CMR panel and paint on Walker Street. Pete's the guy you want to talk to there - genuine good guy and was happy to discuss 'payment options' when I brought my car in. He didn't have it long and the work was done to a high standard even though it was a value option - he'll do concourse too if you ask him. Definitely recommend him.

Damn, would be keen to meet some OSers but I'm out tonight.

I must get myself along to another meet. Not going to Ruapuna tomorrow as it's a run day at Steam Scene (model railway at McLean's Island), but should come out of hiding for future meets - need to get more social haha.