Hey there! I am brand new to this site so I hope this is the right place to post this...
Someone gave me this car last March (1 year ago). The people who gave it to me said it had been sitting "for awhile" as another woman owned it and just left it with them and it did not have a battery. Last summer, I put a new battery in it and it started right up on the first try. I was very imprerssed to say the least. I am totally unfamiliar with these fuel-injected cars and have never owned a manual transmission ....my dad always had automatics. I missed 'auto shop for girls' by about one generation and my dad always just wanted me to "watch" when I was a kid and asked to help him fix his cars. (He was an engineer, by the way, and not an auto mechanic.)
So ...I am a complete dummy when it comes to auto mechanics other than checking the radiator/coolant and oil changing and routine minor things like windshield wipers and fuses, etc. I am a pro at changing a tire though. I am however a quick-study and am capable of learning new things and a very very resourceful person.
I had not driven it at all really 'cept round the block (I got it into second gear and also reverse) as I had not had it registered yet so it just sort of sat out back. I washed the car up inside and out last November thinking to try and trade it for a larger vehicle and as soon as I did, it just quite running .....it still turns over and almost catches but doesn't completely start up. I had to learn not to 'pump the fuel peddle' as I guess you don't do that with a fuel-injected vehicle ...oops! I opened the hood and don't recognize anything ...no carburetor that I can identify ( looks like an alien spacecraft to me!). It just does not look like the cars my dad owned as he only would own the big 'ole old seventies throwback 'carburetor engine' models; the ones he could easily work on himself ....all automatic transmission Chysler and Dodge, etc. I had an old Chevy years ago and when I opened the hood the engine just looked so much simpler and my dfad used to joke you could "smuggle half a dozen Irishmen into the country under the hood"; the space around the simple little engine being so vast!
I cannot afford a mechanic and cannot afford to get it towed down to the pricey auto shop (I live in a small mountain resort town; very expensive repairs). I think I could learn to repair it myself and was wondering if anyone had any advice or tips on a good repair book for dummies for this model car or should I go with trying to get the owner's manual ...or both? I am thinking just based on an intuitive guess that it might be the fuel pump ...if it has a fuel pump??? (...just not sure because the fuel injection is such a mystery to me ...). Hope I don't sound too stupid, but I would really like to ghet this car running ...'specially after reading just how great these cars are ....people really seem to love them and they appear to have a long half-life mileage-wise ....This one has 268, 383 miles on it. I hope that I get some helpful repsonses and look forward to learning how to get my little Honda Wagon running again. Also, I imagine I will need to buy a bunch of metric-sized tools as this is a Japanese car ....is that right?
Thanks so much in advance.
-TaosGurrl
Someone gave me this car last March (1 year ago). The people who gave it to me said it had been sitting "for awhile" as another woman owned it and just left it with them and it did not have a battery. Last summer, I put a new battery in it and it started right up on the first try. I was very imprerssed to say the least. I am totally unfamiliar with these fuel-injected cars and have never owned a manual transmission ....my dad always had automatics. I missed 'auto shop for girls' by about one generation and my dad always just wanted me to "watch" when I was a kid and asked to help him fix his cars. (He was an engineer, by the way, and not an auto mechanic.)
So ...I am a complete dummy when it comes to auto mechanics other than checking the radiator/coolant and oil changing and routine minor things like windshield wipers and fuses, etc. I am a pro at changing a tire though. I am however a quick-study and am capable of learning new things and a very very resourceful person.
I had not driven it at all really 'cept round the block (I got it into second gear and also reverse) as I had not had it registered yet so it just sort of sat out back. I washed the car up inside and out last November thinking to try and trade it for a larger vehicle and as soon as I did, it just quite running .....it still turns over and almost catches but doesn't completely start up. I had to learn not to 'pump the fuel peddle' as I guess you don't do that with a fuel-injected vehicle ...oops! I opened the hood and don't recognize anything ...no carburetor that I can identify ( looks like an alien spacecraft to me!). It just does not look like the cars my dad owned as he only would own the big 'ole old seventies throwback 'carburetor engine' models; the ones he could easily work on himself ....all automatic transmission Chysler and Dodge, etc. I had an old Chevy years ago and when I opened the hood the engine just looked so much simpler and my dfad used to joke you could "smuggle half a dozen Irishmen into the country under the hood"; the space around the simple little engine being so vast!
I cannot afford a mechanic and cannot afford to get it towed down to the pricey auto shop (I live in a small mountain resort town; very expensive repairs). I think I could learn to repair it myself and was wondering if anyone had any advice or tips on a good repair book for dummies for this model car or should I go with trying to get the owner's manual ...or both? I am thinking just based on an intuitive guess that it might be the fuel pump ...if it has a fuel pump??? (...just not sure because the fuel injection is such a mystery to me ...). Hope I don't sound too stupid, but I would really like to ghet this car running ...'specially after reading just how great these cars are ....people really seem to love them and they appear to have a long half-life mileage-wise ....This one has 268, 383 miles on it. I hope that I get some helpful repsonses and look forward to learning how to get my little Honda Wagon running again. Also, I imagine I will need to buy a bunch of metric-sized tools as this is a Japanese car ....is that right?
Thanks so much in advance.
-TaosGurrl