Bought used Civic EK: feedback wanted on service needs

[ammark19xx]

Hi all. This is my first post in the forum, but I have been searching around the forums quite a bit since I signed up. I've found a lot of good info and resources on taking care of Civics so far so I thought I'd pitch what I had in mind and ask for some feedback.

A brief background: I bought a Honda Civic EK1 (1997) with an automatic transmission and D16Y4 engine, for $4500 from a dealer 3 weeks ago. The ride was quite good which made me choose the EK over the other 95 Accord, Civic EG and a very smooth Camry MCV20R. The Civic had done 169,700+km when I bought it. From all the paperwork in the car, it had been regularly serviced by a Courtney & Patterson Honda in Heidelberg.

However, the last recorded service done on it was a regular service at an Ultra Tune mechanic in February 2007, at 132,000km. Since then the car's service history disappears. The car has plenty of cosmetic blemishes, such as paint dings, broken centre console, clearcoat failure on the roof, and an iffy aftermarket central locking system.

My focus now is specifically on Engine and Transmission maintenance.

i. I've read that I should have the timing belt and water pump replaced as it is : a. 2nd hand, and b. nearing 200,000km. However I dont have the cash for that now, and am aiming to get that done in around 3 months.

ii. When I got the car, I saw the engine oil was dark brown and it felt like it had a lot of suspended particles in it. So I asked the dealer to change the oil and oil filter before I picked it up. I'm not sure if he changed the filter, but he did replace the oil. It is now a dark brown colour still, but pretty fluid without any grub felt in it from the dipstick.

What I'm planning to do: Drain out all engine oil, and flush the engine with 2L of Coles cheapo Motor Oil for 20 min. Then drain that out, replace oil filter and pour in Castrol Magnatec 10W-40 (I trust it from previous use) which I got at discount from Repco. I've got a new magnetic sump plug with a washer to replace the original drain nut.

iii. I'm pretty anal about changing my spark plugs every 50,000km, so I've got 4 new Bosch Super Plus FR7LCX+ pre-gapped for a D16Y4 engine that I'll be putting in with the engine oil change tomorrow.

iv. In 3 weeks time (after my next paycheck) I'm planning to first clean out the throttle body with Nulon Throttle body cleaner as listed in the DIY (I'm a poor student, so I'm going value for money with the additives). After that, I'll replace the fuel filter and then pour in Nulon's Fuel System Cleaner (Trade strength) before my next fillup.

v. Transmission fluid: Now this is what I really want to change very soon. I know how sensitive Honda transmissions are, and I will be buying the OEM tranny fluid from a Honda dealer. I'm just wondering how much 3-4L of the stuff costs generally. What tranny fluid will it likely be, the ATF-Z1? Since its an EK1 from 1997 the manual just says use Dexron III compliant tranny fluid, but I'm ignoring this.

Secondly, on my Corolla in my previous country of residence, we used to drain out the transmission fluid, then unscrew the nuts and take out the whole transmission fluid pan and filter. We'd then wash those with petrol, clean the magnets out and get rid of the iron filings. Once done we'd reseal the pan back on with RTV Silicone Gasket maker. Then we'd refill the tranny fluid with OEM Toyota Type T-IV fluid.

However, reading about the Civics here, everybody just says "replace the fluid" but nothing about the filter. I was wondering after draining out the tranny fluid, would it be wise to take out the pan and cleaning it out with kerosene or methylated spirits? Is there a filter that can be roughly washed with said fluid as well. And if so, can I reseal the pan with RTV silicone gasket maker? Also, is the transmission pan nut the same size as the engine oil sump plug? Then I could replace that too.

In general, when reversing the gear sound is quite audible but doesnt seem to sound ugly or out of the ordinary. When driving on the streets with a smooth, light acceleration, the first gear shifts up smoothly, but then the car seems to drive for a bit longer in 2nd gear. It needs to rev to about 2900rpm before it shifts up to 3rd, and when it does there is a slight thump that I feel. Otherwise the car drives fine in 3rd and 4th gear without any perceptible issues.

vi. Prior to handing over the car, the dealer got RWC done, and along with engine oil change, topped up the brake fluid and inspected the PS fluid. I've looked at the PS fluid and the quantity level is fine. The PS colour is not like soy sauce, its more sesame oil blonde in colour. The steering in its own right is quite smooth and soft, so I'm not inclined to touching it now.

vii. Repco is offering a $79 radiator servicing with coolant replacement, and I was thinking of pursuing that. However I do want to use the OEM Honda anti-freeze so I dont know if Repco would be game with that. More importantly I'd do the coolant replacement myself, but if it needed flushing with a hose running water through I cant do that due to water restriction issues and my landlord. However I am game to using aftermarket radiator flushing additives that claim to rinse out aluminium filings from inside the radiator tubes. Is this a good idea or should I just do a simple coolant drain and change?

I'd really appreciate you guys pitching your thoughts in on these points.

[Grayfox]

When i got my honda accord, i bought the engine oil and oil filter and got a mechanic to do the job which cost me $20 but the oil and filter i got on sale at supercheap when they had a oil+filter deal going. and it cost about $50 so $70 for an oilchange where i supplyed the parts was good an cheap in my view.

I also bought some spark plugs powersteering fulid and a seringe to pull out the old powersteering oil.

Doing things like spark plugs or powersteering oil yourslef will save you the labour fee. so you can get the timing belt changed.

As for the flush i cant answer that for you, as i have never needed to do it.

[grifty]

transmission oil was about $60-70 from honda (peter warren). But i believe they have some new tranmission oil which i believe is better at cold temps.

Also hondas do not have a pan that you can remove or a filter that you can change on the transmission.

Honda power steering oil looks like engine oil (goldish blonde colour) so thats fine.

Is there a reason you need to do a coolant flush? is the water brown and has signs of rust? if the water is still a good colour with no signs of rust then i would just dump the old stuff and put new honda coolant.

[ammark19xx]

Is there a reason you need to do a coolant flush? is the water brown and has signs of rust? if the water is still a good colour with no signs of rust then i would just dump the old stuff and put new honda coolant.

Not particularly. It looks pretty clear green like any other coolant with no visible sign of rust. Just thought of changing it as good maintenance practice since for all that I know the coolant could be more than 4 years old. I think I'll leave the present coolant in there till my next oil change. But would using an aftermarket additive to get "suspended aluminium filings" out (as the additives tend to claim) be advisable?

[grifty]

well i have tried the radiator flush fluid before and it has not caused any harm. So it is safe to use it if you wish to.

[ammark19xx]

Thanks grifty, I'll do that for the radiator next time. Currently I was just able to change the spark plugs myself. Despite lifting up the civic on axle stands, I did not have the right socket wrench to open up the engine oil drain nut. Will have to try with a spanner.

More worryingly the spider type wheel wrench just did not fit the nuts on my CSA wheels when I tried to remove the front left tyre. Each wheel has 3 nuts of the same size that none of the wheel wrench heads would lock to, and a 4th nut that is different, in the shape of an oversized torx nut. Any advice on dealing with this would be greatly appreciated.

Otherwise I had a fine day yesterday polishing and waxing my car (and my buddy's Mazda 3). The Adriatic Blue Pearl on my Civic was heavily oxidised, and had turned into a dull solid deep blue colour. As supercheap autos is having a sale, my buddy and I got the $30 rockwell polisher, and I used 2 coats of Meguiars ultimate compound on my car. The dirt, grime and oxidation was removed very well and the colour returned to a gleaming gel-like blue. Then put on a layer of Meguiars deep crystal polish (on sale for $19) for the glaze to really come out. Covered it with Turtle Wax super hard shell. The roof's clearcoat failure was cut through very hard by the compound. It cut through the paint and spread it out over the white clearcoat patches and turned it into a light ash-blue colour. Topped that with one layer of polish, and 2 layers of turtle wax for weather proofing's sake. This morning the car was covered with tiny bubbles of dew drops all over, thanks to the wax. Previously without the protection, the dew wouldnt bead, and instead spread across the body and then evaporate through the day. I'm happy with the results from all the buffing, polishing and waxing.