[Theguywhobea]

Yes, you are wise to replace that coolant pipe. It is commonly rusty. A SEARCH of the Gen3 area will bring up some info.

Perhaps someone can chime in regards the part number diffrence. The online Honda dealers sites DO say if there is a difference for the various points of manufacture.

HondaPartsCheap says both your part #s for the water passage will fit, and I would get the 'higher' number.

Thank you for the info, I did a brief search before making this post but I guess I used the wrong search terms as I didn't find much. I'll keep searching!

 

[Theguywhobea]

The typical Honda dealer websites are difficult to use for searching parts. You’re going to find it under the engine section, and then the water hose subsection. It’s called a “heater pipe”. A number of people have been annoyed about it, because it’s been on the Honda galactic back order list for a while now. You might have to search multiple sources nationwide to find one.

Yeah that's what I have noticed. I did call Bernadi's part department to verify with them and they said they had that part number in stock locally so I guess that's where I'm going to go. Really sucks that it looks like I'll have to pull the intake. Is this a particularly difficult job? My worst nightmare is trying to take off the intake and rounding off a nut or braking a stud...

 

[Theguywhobea]

Finally go to doing this job this weekend. Bernardi did infact have the pipe and the o-ring. Needed to replace my radiator as well so I did that at the same time. A lot of guides don't tell you to, but the Honda Shop manual does say to remove the upper bulk head (bar where the hood prop attaches too) and I definitely think it's worth it even though it's not that much fun to remove.

Started off with braking all 4 of the radiator fan shroud bolts as customary

Pressed on and got everything else out of the way. Drained the coolant for a while, disconnected the trans cooler lines, ECT sensor. And of course the "quick disconnect" on the lower radiator hose was stuck on so I just took the hose off and pulled the whole radiator out.

Next up was removing the intake. Not as bad as I was expecting, with everything out of the way you can reach all the bolts and don't have to take the throttle body off as some people do. Just follow the shop manual. Got it off, and for 122k I think the intake is looking nice and clean!!

And here's a shot of the dumbest shit I've seen so far on a Honda, the crusty old heater pipe:

Leaking from two places so it really needed to be done. Unfortunately like everyone else the pipe broke off in the thermostat water outlet. Tried to pull it out with a seal puller, and of course it broke the water outlet neck... Thought maybe I could use some high temp super glue and get it sealed back up! Did that, let it set for two hours, put it all back together, slapped the intake back on, put the new radiator in, put all the supports back in and went to fill the radiator.

Started out well, however soon it started to leak from the water outlet... Looks like the crack was a lot bigger than I thought... 4pm on a Saturday so dealer parts counters are all closed! Luckily they had an after market one at Orielly's down the street so I picked that up, and then the next day ended up picking up a new thermostat as well since the OE thermostat bolts weren't so much as bolts and more as chunks of rust.

Tore the whole front down again, replace the outlet and thermostat, put it all back together, filled it up, and NO LEAKS!!! Ran the car for a while, heat came on like normal, fans came on, sounded good, and no check engine lights!

I think across two days this took me a total of 12 hours, so not a quick job by any means, but I'm a relative noob at mechanics, so as they say, "If I can do it, you can do it"

Can't wait to do this again when the starter goes!

 

[Theguywhobea]

Wow the rust! So is this car in a north eastern area that uses tons of salt on the roads? That does not look like fun especially dealing with all the rusted bolts etc.

Yep, this car has lived most of it's life in Western Massachusetts and Vermont! Very fun to work on here in New England.

 

[Theguywhobea]

You should also check for this problem.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/automobiles-recall-honda-canada-consumers-buy-back-1.5080925

https://community.cartalk.com/t/cr-v-frame-stiffener-recall-in-canada-but-not-u-s/178615

Yeah I have seen this before. Not 100% sure how to check for this. I've visually inspected the frame and while it has some surface rust none of it looks like it's rotting away.