Recent content by edunnett

I would suggest you get a Honda Shop manual ($28 from dealer) and it's much more complete than Chilton or Haynes. Follow their techniques for testing the EGR system.

I recently acquired an '86 Civic Wagon that I'm trying to restore to some past or new glory and two of it's biggest interior problems are the carpet and the headliner. I think I found a place to buy replacement floor carpet and jute from but would welcome any tried-and-true suggestions. My...

Oh God! YOu must have a vacuum hose wiring diagram! It should be on the underside of the hood of your car. If you don't have one get a manual specific to your car. For the plugs, a manual will show you firing order and how the plugs correspond to the disty. A photo of someone elses car won't...

I'd recommend reading a shop manual - you want to releive pressure on the fuel system before doing this and that process may differ car to car. On my carbureted civic, I have to only pop the fuel filler open to releive pressure and clamp the fuel hoses to keep them from leaking too much. But for...

I just installed an aftermarket radiator in my '86 Civic Wagon. I bought it from radiator.com. The radiator plus next day delivery (it was actually at my doorstep within 16 hours!) was $127. The wagon (with A/C) leaves only a tight squeeze to slip the radiators passed. It was a pain but doable...

I don't think mufflers or anything back of the cat effect performance. I'd be shocked if the muffler was your culprit.

what about the plug wires? at least they are a cheap thing to try.

How many miles are on the car? Do you have the owners manual? In the owners manual it should have the maintanance schedule. Elissa

POST MORTEM: SYMPTOM: engine temperature gauge showed near (up to 80%) Hot during long steep uphill climbs. SOLUTION: new radiator installed, brought the high range down to 60% going up same hills. PROFESSIONAL ANALYSIS: took car to a honda specialist today who measured the temp when the...

But my point about water boiling at a LOW temp and freezing at a HIGH temp is this: do you want YOUR car's water/cooling system freezing at 32F or boiling at 212F? NO. Thus, the freezing temp of water alone is too high and the boiling temp is too low. Dextron and Glycol Ethanol (or whatever the...

Coolant actually reduces water's ability to cool an engine. Water is the best coolant there is. However, water freezes at high temperatures, boils at low temperatures, and is prone to rust and corrosion. Thus Coolant/Antifreeze is added - it raises the boiling point (from 212 to up to around 270...

Over the weekend I spent 20 hours bleeding air and burping air out of the system after installing a new radiator and filling with clean fresh coolant (the fifth time I've put clean coolant and burped the thing in the last two weeks!) . I did as thourough a job at it as a person can do. If air is...

Thanks for the post. The thermo is new and I'm confident in the sensor reading - it's not erratic but very predictable. Since it doesn't seem to be getting too hot any more but just being variable, I'm focusing on non-cooling system related factors. Until the heat rises again, I'm crossing head...

Yes, I should have mentioned that. I did a very thourough job of letting air from the system. I bled it as I filled it until no bubbles came out the bleed valve. Then I ran the engine with the radiator cap off until the fan went on 3 times and left it sitting there for about 20 hours while I...

Good news. Bad news. Good news: I installed a new radiator over the weekend and it has greatly releived how hot the engine gets going up hills! Even the mother of all hills: a 10-15% grade that continues for about 3 miles, right after a 2 mile hill at 5% grade. Bad news: I still notice the...