[arudlang]

Hey everyone!

I had a free 1999 CR-V dropped off in my driveway last fall, with just over 300k on the clock. I wasn't sure if I was going to keep it but last week I committed to the extent that I transferred the title and put tabs and insurance on it, so its actually officially mine for the time being.

I don't know what my long-term plan for it is, I daily drive a 2018 Jeep Compass and don't really need another car but it could be a handy dirty-jobs buggy and save some wear/tear and miles on my Compass.

Short term, I need to drive it a little and see exactly what I've got. Put about 10 miles on it so far, starts and drives but mechanically so far I see that the valve cover gasket is puking oil everywhere, the front upper ball joints are bad, and the tires are insanely dangerously bad (probably as a result of the bad ball joints)

The story of getting it for free goes like this, my old man knew the previous owner through work and picked him up when this CR-V of his died and left him stranded on the side of the road. At that point the PO had decided to hop to another beater buggy and asked my father to just haul it to the scrap yard. Rather than the scrap yard, it ended up here as my little project for now...

Pretty sure it died on the road because it was 3 quarts low on oil, a result of the bad valve cover gasket. Pretty silly but according to my father this guy probably couldn't point out a spark plug wire under the hood if you held out a $20 bill and asked him to... Reportedly his MO is to jump from one high mileage beater to the next every few months to a year. His loss, perhaps.

When you actually put OIL in it, it fires right up and runs actually fairly decent for its mileage. It also needed a half a gallon of coolant and a pint of power steering fluid.

Shifts OK the few miles I've driven so far, a good sign (it is the 4 speed auto)

Was pleasantly surprised to learn it was a 99 with the handful of extra horsepower.

It looks like the owners BEFORE the last owner loved this car very much, lot of nice parts replaced. Pretty recent exhaust system that is not very rusty. New spark plugs, wires, and distributor cap it looks like.

This last owner though, did NOT love this car. I've deduced that he apparently lives so hopelessly far down a dirt road that he simply doesn't feel like its worth even trying. Apparently he drove down this same dirt road every day with all four windows down and just let the dust roll, day in and day out, because this is by far the DIRTIEST car I have ever seen. I spent all day yesterday trying to remove just the top layer of dirt. Its all the same type of dirt, and its thicker in the back than the front, hence my theory about the dirt road/windows down every day. His dirt road is also probably why the front ball joints are bad. I'm talking dirt caked 1/16th deep even behind the speaker grills. The headliner has nasty dirt smudges on every square foot. Every inch of the interior was caked with this dirt.

My only reward for spending hours vacuuming and wiping with a rag yesterday was getting down to really beat up, scratched-to-hell plastic everywhere. This was used like a work truck, and I mean like a work truck someone hated.

Oh well, still a free car that runs and drives. I like to tinker. Parts are cheap. Maybe I can make a respectable beater out of it and flip it for a few bucks or keep it around to save on wear/tear on my nicer car. It would be nice to have something like this for hauling my chainsaw, gas and bar oil when helping dad and grandpa cut firewood, or when we are bringing rakes and shovels and such to the annual yard-work party at grandmas, and for deer hunting, etc. We'll see.

This is kind of a worthless post with no initial pictures but I will start a project thread soon and get some photos. Its not exciting right now anyways, just a typical green 99 CR-V, you know what they look like. Super dirty, super neglected. Maybe we'll make something of it, hoping there will be some good advice on the forum.

I know I'll need to check the timing belt and do all the fluids, including the repeated partial fluid swap 3-4 times on the transmission. This is not my first, second, third, or fourth old high mileage beater tinker project. I'm no master mechanic but no stranger to a timing belt service job.

As long as I can get parts shipped in will give me something to play with during this whole ongoing virus stay-at-home stuff...

More to come later (including pics!)

 

[arudlang]

Here's a starter pic:

Moved the worst of the tires (they are all bad) to the spare position, can't believe he was driving on this:

They are all pretty bad rims though:

Interior is slowly cleaning up with a lot of elbow grease:

Still a lot of dirt caked in the driver's seat, need some car shampoo.

 

[arudlang]

Fedex dropped me some fresh rubber this weekend. Four new super-delux-el-cheapo no-name-brand all terrain tires dropped at my door for $280. I don't typically buy off-brand tires but for this non-DD beater everything is on a tight budget to make it into a modest spare car to use for some light soft-roading. Odds are the tires will dry-rot before they could ever get enough miles on them to justify anything more expensive.

These are 215/75R15, the smallest you can get these tires. Should make for a beefy look.

Since the tires will be nice I figured its worth a minimum effort to hit the rims with the wire grinders and a little rustoleum rusty metal primer, and eventually a couple top coats of some black rattle-can enamel. There isn't much rust on the car itself so no reason the rims can't look decent from 20 feet away. At least this way if something major blows up in the next few hundred miles and I scrap the car I will have a decent set of rims and tires to post on facebook marketplace 😁

I got the upper control arms replaced so I'm hoping thats the end of the issue with the tires wearing unevenly. I hate to spend any extra money on it but I'm wondering if it will also need an alignment just to be sure. Not sure anyone will want to put this beat up car on their alignment rack but its free to ask...

I see I have one bad sway bar end link up front and one bad one in the back. Given that I only plan to use this as a spare car for light duties on short local trips and hopefully a significant amount of light off-roading on the local trails, I'm thinking I will just disconnect both sway bars for now. I know it will handle a little funny but the extra articulation off road will be nice and really nobody will ever be driving it but me. If I end up selling it I will throw some new links on so I don't have to have dreams about the next owner putting it in the ditch swerving around a deer. I've done that sort of thing before, had an s10 with a full-spool rear end and it was a) not a daily driver and b) something I understood to drive very carefully. When I sold the s10 I took the locker kit out and put the spider gears back in.

That primer takes ages to dry and harden completely and I'm contemplating sanding and doing a second coat, so I'm guessing the car will remain on jackstands most of the week. Hope the neighbor's ankle-biting dog doesn't go playing under it 🙄

I've found the upper radiator hose to be leaking which makes me feel better about why I had to add antifreeze to it back when I got it. Easy fix, I'll get those on order but those too will likely keep me off the road since everything is shipping so slowly these days. Oh well, I have many other projects around here to play with. I would like to get through these initial basics and just be able to drive this one around a little bit though.

I'll keep chipping away at it and probably post back here kinda like a dedicated project and update thread. Cheers!

 

[arudlang]

Did you create an account just to share some kind words of encouragement? 😄

Thank you! Interested to see what your project is that you mentioned.

I'm feeling obligated to put in some better effort to keep the project going and document it nicely. How about a little video of a test drive?

Fair warning, I look like a caveman since with all this virus stuff and working from home I lack the motivation to trim my beard and I'm not able to go out for something as trivial as a haircut

This video is from last week so its a little behind, I've already replaced the upper control arms and the second coat of primer is drying on the rims as I type. I've also changed the oil/oil filter and fuel filter since this video was taken.

Not much else I can do at the moment the weather has turned a little sour and the primer I had lying around is a variety that takes a very long time to cure. I'm actually a bit worried that it will never really "harden" within a reasonable time frame before the neighbors start to wonder if the car will ever come off jackstands... It probably needs a week, I can give it about one more day here and then the paint needs to go on, and then off to the shop for tire installation.

If the top coats of paint don't seal in the primer too badly it can continue to cure sitting in the driveway. I won't be driving it until I get the radiator hoses replaced and those won't get here until Sunday at the soonest. I guess I'll have time to do yard work instead.

Anyways...

 

[arudlang]

Sprayed the rims with some black metallic today, quite a hack job but still better looking than they were. Tomorrow I'll probably have the shop across the street mount and balance the new tires, then I can clean up any paint damage from that and get them back on the car.

 

[arudlang]

Great guys at the local shop got my tires mounted. Took a fair number of weights to get some of them balanced but should be good enough for this buggy. I would hardly care at all except that we do live right off of a 70 MPH highway so it won't be uncommon to have this car up to a pretty good clip even for local errands. Some vibration at high speed is totally acceptable for this car, on our newer ones I am a lot pickier.

Just need to touch up some spots on the rim from mounting and installing weights with a little more paint and I can probably mount them up. Weather is pretty crazy here right now though so it might get put off a day or two, we'll see. We keep going from sunshine to snow to sunshine then rain, then snow, then sun again... spring in Minnesota.

 

[arudlang]

Well, as usual two steps forwards and two steps back.

New tires and painted wheels are on. Had to hammer back the pinch seam to have passable tread clearance on the back tires but no big deal otherwise.

Managed to remove all the end links front and back first while they were easier to reach. With no anti-sway bars it handles like a 6-ton caddy but my wife doesn't think that cornering is a priority, so no green light on fifty bucks for some new end links and bushings for now. The rear one probably couldn't even tell that its gone but the annoying thing about the front bar is it can't be removed without a bunch more work so its just zip-tied up in a silly fashion underneath, and I don't really want to leave it that way. The rear one had a nice spot to swing it out of the way still in its bushings but not so lucky with the front, if left in the bushings the lower control arms would smack it and you can't swing it up out of the way without hitting the tie rods. Oh well, it really isn't the priority right now.

Went to go for a test drive and I fully expected it to be a titch slower off the line with the larger, heavier tires but it was SUUUUUPER SLOOOOOWWWWW, no pep at all. It was quickly apparent that something was wrong, even though all the usual dead giveaways were disabled or burnt out...

What I mean is, the previous owner put black tape over the check engine light so I don't get that tell-tale, and the indicator light for regular D/D4/Drive also either doesn't work or has been removed... if the D4 light DID work, it would be flashing I'm pretty sure...

Super. P1768 was actually set when the car was first unloaded into my driveway, I cleared it without looking it up because it was one of many codes and I wanted to see what would actually come back after putting in oil and some basic things.

P1298 I'm not even concerned with right now. There may be a short somewhere or something but I've only seen that once when I used the headlights, I'll circle back to it later.

I'm much more concerned about the transmission code and it driving around in limp mode. If I clear the codes it will drive fine for a while, but eventually it trips P1768 again and goes into limp. I knew the transmission fluid was looking bad/brown/burnt but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

P1768 (in this car) seems to relate to"Transmission Shift Control Lockup Solenoid". I have a Chilton manual on its way but in the meantime making due with the internet, which will confuse you with Acura version of the same code that is not quite the same problem.

I tested the resistance on the solenoid pair that was easy to get to up top, 13.3 ohms and 13.5, from what I have heard that is within spec but I won't know for certain until my Chilton's book from Ebay gets here middle of this week.

I tested the solenoids with a jumper from 12v+, the left/passenger side one clicked right away. The one on the right/driver's side didn't really start clicking until after hitting it a few times with the 12v jumper, and even then didn't seem to "click" as strong as the other one. Hmmmm.

Well, I should order up a new solenoid pair but thing being a budget rig as it is I'm already toeing a fine line having gone in for new tires and now transmission problems rearing its ugly head. This all happened the very first time my wife joined me for a test ride so she is not impressed and not eager to spend any money on parts when the entire transmission could be too far gone.

I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a few jugs of Valvoline MaxLife in town this week, change out a good 9-12 quarts and then pull that solenoid pair and see if hopefully
1) it has the gasket with the little mesh screens, and hope they are blatantly gunked up and easily cleaned, and
2) bench test the solenoids some more and try to clean them up and get them both firing reliably.

Since the ohms check out on both of them (based on what one guy in a youtube video said was within spec...), I'm banking on finding dirty mesh screens and doing a little cleaning and then hopefully they will continue to work provided I get lots of good clean fluid swapped in. Fingers crossed.

I know it could be too little too late for the torque converter or the clutch packs, not so much from the 51 miles I've put on it so far but knowing that it had that code when I got it means no telling how long the previous owner was driving it with this issue. If the clutch packs are disintegrating then it probably won't last long, and then we will have to face the difficult decision of upping our investment for a replacement transmission or a rebuild. I'm crossing my fingers that there are still some miles to be wrung out of it with new fluid and cleaned mesh screens but hard to say at this point.

I also discovered (but am not dealing with right now) that the cv boots are both torn on the rear driver's side axle, and the passenger side doesn't look like they will last much longer. Not even going to touch those unless the transmission does a complete 180 with some fresh fluid and such. Another chunk of $$$... I've done the "just the boots" before on other cars, and it stinks and I said "never again I'll just order the whole axle assemblies"... Well I don't know in this case... dollars vs time. Oh well, another day's problem, transmission first otherwise all else is moot.

I changed the upper and lower radiator hoses so no more leaking coolant and got some fresh coolant in there. Pretty sure the upper hose was only leaking because the valve cover kept leaking oil on it causing the rubber to swell and weaken. That problem is gnawing away on the heater hose right next to it as well but it will have to hang in there for now.

Not sure when I will get out to search for the fluid, most places have outrageous shipping times on it right now but I am also going to pay out the nose to get it in town. Time vs money again. At least I can feel like I'm supporting the tiny local parts shop if I pay 30% above internet price for 3 gallons...

Will the transmission come back to life or will the project grind to a halt? To be continued!

 

[arudlang]

I'm with you on the worm gear clamps but that's all I had on hand, and with the whole virus thing I am not shopping out and about much. My local small town parts store does not carry the spring-style clamps and I have not been able to find a good source for them online (Ok I admit, if its not on amazon I didn't look that hard, but I DID look on amazon pretty carefully and only found like two options that cost a fortune for one or two clamps...)

Weirdly, the bottom hose had nice spring clamps and just the upper hose had the geared clamps. My guess is the previous owner swapped to the gear clamps thinking he could "fix" the leak on the upper hose by tightening the life out of them. Luckily he only did that to the engine-side hose which is aluminum, but it was definitely over-tightened by someone poking at it previously.

Thousands of people get by with the geared clamps, not my favorite but they work if you don't over-tighten and check them once in a while, after putting on stiff new hoses they usually can be snugged up a half a turn or two after a few heat/cool cycles of driving around and then they settle in and are mostly OK.

I only spent about 25 bucks on the new hoses so spending 16 dollars for a couple spring clamps I couldn't justify on this budget project. Spring clamps are definitely my first choice when given the option though

-------------------

I have three gallons of transmission fluid now so as soon as I get a chance I can start shuffling new fluid in and I think I will pull the solenoids and clean them and their screens after the fresh fluid is in so they have less chance of plugging up again right away.

Weather still all over the place here, sunshine to snow and then sunshine with snow, below freezing... the weekend forecast looking much nicer so it might wait till Saturday.

 

[arudlang]

Will the bigger tire fit in the spare location?

Thats a good question. I didn't bother buying a new tire for the spare, I can roll a short few miles at low speed with the slightly smaller one if I have to and I carry patch/plug kits to avoid that as much as possible.

Where there is a will there is always a way, whether that would mean making a custom bracket to hold the spare another inch or two higher is about all it should take if it doesn't clear the bumper. As long as there is about an inch of extra room under the current spare it will probably squeeze in?

 

[arudlang]

@TheGrinch welcome to the party, we should be able to keep our clunkers going with a little work! I bought a Chiltons and regular honda service manuals so if you need any info looked up let me know.

The suspension noise could be many things I had that too and in my case it turned out to be the sway bar end links. Pretty cheap replacements available on rock auto but they can be a PITA to remove the old ones 😁 good luck!

 

[arudlang]

After about a month of letting the car function as a stationary storage bin, I finally took an hour to put in the new "clutch pressure control solenoid" to hopefully make it mobile again.

The little thing is kind of a pain to reach:

The new one has a small metal mesh screen built into the gasket that the old one did not have (old solenoid pictured here

I replaced the air filter with a $5 cheapie I got from walmart as the air box went back in, and even put a new nut on the oil pan stud that was mysteriously missing one on a corner that I noticed...

Why the oil pan would be missing a nut... I don't even want to know. This poor thing was clearly worked on by much bigger hacks than me before I got ahold of it.

Oh well, I went on a 15 mile test drive and although I will say it has fooled me before for up to 100 miles at a time... so far so good (knock on wood!)

The transmission shifts smooth, no error codes, and it even seems to be properly locking up the torque converter on the highway. Time (more miles, really) will tell if this holds as the solution to the main stalling issue I was having. I hope it will because I really need to drop off my primary daily driver to get some cosmetic bumper damaged fixed but I'll be kinda relying on this CRV while the other car is in the shop for who knows how many days.

My wife is really hoping it will stay running decently for a while too since its the only car we have with the convenient separate-opening hatch glass. We live near many lakes but the closest ones are still 1 mile away and we want to jam our paddle boards in the back to make the short trip to the water without using a trailer.

I still have a number of outstanding to-do items like new sway bar end links and I have to do something with the rear CV axles and their bad boots but hopefully I can get a few short local trips out of it first without the stalling/transmission issues. Fingers crossed!

 

[arudlang]

Well, the transmission is shifting fine and giving no issues that way still but I found out last night at about 11 PM and 10 miles from my house that my random issues are far from over.

We loaded up our paddle boards and met up with a friend at the lake, had a good paddle and then went back to the friend's house for some pizza and movie. All seemed good until we went to leave late at night... turn the key and it would fire up, and a second later it would die. Back to its old tricks again. After a few restarts it ran long enough to make it out of the driveway and about 200 yards down the road, stalled out. Another couple restarts, it ran enough to limp it home but had occasional gauge dropouts and near-stall conditions.

I'm not sure whether this points to the ignition switch itself (seems very jankety when you turn the key), or the ignition control module, or maybe a crankshaft position sensor, etc. I currently have no error codes for a crank sensor or anything else which makes me suspect the ignition switch or ICM but I'm not sure. Going to take a bunch more $$$ to keep trying more parts and see if we can get it to behave. In the meantime I guess its a storage unit again.

Its too bad because that separate-opening rear hatch glass is perfect for the purpose intended, easily chuck the boards back there and no cares about wet or sand when we go to leave.

 

[arudlang]

I'd like to see it if you ever make a spare tire bracket for your bigger tires! I'm curious what it will look like since you will have to make the tire clear the glass as well as the bumper.

I feel like the spare would probably squeeze on their without modification but I'm not certain of it. If I am ever rotating the tires or pulling one to do some brake work or similar I will zip the regular size spare off and give it a quick try for you.

-----------------------

I ended up ordering an ignition "switch" (just the electronics part, not the whole lock cylinder assembly) for $30 so here's to hoping another fistful of dollars and a couple more hours of tinkering will lead to some increased reliability. I also sprung the $55 for a basic remote start kit with lock/hatch buttons on the fob. I received the car with nothing but a single all-metal key, I don't know if it ever had a remote fob for locking/unlocking the doors but if it ever did its long since ended up in a landfill or someone's junk drawer, so I will try to get that lock/unlock working to make it more convenient and then the remote start portion will be easy since I will have those wires in-hand anyways changing that ignition switch.

Remote start is pretty nice here in northern Minnesota when winter rolls around. In the cities they have laws against idling but the fact is you cannot drive anywhere until your windshield is clear, and if its fogged/iced up on the inside you have no choice but to wait for the defroster to do its work no matter how you feel about idling an engine and burning extra fossil fuels. I prefer to wait out the defrosting process from inside the house or office

 

[arudlang]

Thanks for the info guys! Much appreciated.

The replacement ignition switch assembly came Friday so I reached up and just unplugged the original one without removing it, and jammed the connectors of the new one in so I could test it out a little. I didn't have time to take the dash apart to actually install it, plus I am still waiting on the remote start kit in the mail and going to do those both at the same time.

I've made a couple short local trips so far without any issues, I just use the tip of the key to turn the switch assembly and start it up then I put the key in the lock cylinder to unlock the steering wheel 😁 It might stay that way through the 4th of july week, I have better things to do than wrestle with this like sitting out at the lake but before too long I'll get this new switch assembly properly installed with the remote start wires patched in.

 

[arudlang]

More than a year later, you may be wondering "Is that car still going? Does he still have it?"

The answer is yes and yes. I apologize for the hiatus, I pretty much got the car working to the point shown in the previous post and ever since then I've just been using it, with no issues. Granted, I have only been driving it all of a couple times per month to take recycling out or for hunting or other dirty jobs, haven't hardly put any substantial miles on since last post, but it still just starts up and goes even when I let it sit for a couple weeks.

My cousin asked if he could buy it off me for his first car. I told him he'd be better off finding something in a little better shape. It's one thing to occasionally putz it around up here in the sticks, down in the cities where he lives I don't think it would last one week of daily driving. Hard to say for sure though. Then there is still a long list of little issues..

I've been working from home a lot lately and long story short decided to sell my 2017 daily driver Jeep and just make this old CRV my main car for... however much longer its wiling to go. I typically only leave the house a handful of times per week, usually on optional trips where if the car doesn't want to go then I can usually stay home without issue. I don't go more than 10 miles in any direction from my home in this car. We still have our 2020 Jeep that my wife is driving, that is all we use for road trips and general transportation when we are both going somewhere together. "Why have two Jeeps with payments?" I figure I can save about $400 a month if we go down to one Jeep and just see how far this CRV gets me for those days I have somewhere to be.

I can hear you guys already:

Indeed, it might not end well. It might blow up after a week of gentle local driving, but then again it might just keep on truckin. Worst that can happen is I need to find another decent beater without a payment for a few thousand, and I'd still come out ahead compared to making payments to finish the 14k I owe on the 2017 Jeep. If this CRV just lasts through the end of the chip shortage I'm sure that will be good enough. Gives me time to save for some other fun new car.

I've got a to-do list to get this thing into daily-driver condition, though.

I've still been turning the replacement ignition switch with a screwdriver... time to put that where it belongs at the bottom of the ignition lock cylinder! I might throw a cheap remote start kit on while I'm monkeying around with those wires though, would be nice for winter.

My wife was kind enough to vacuum it out for me, removed a few acorn shells from the glovebox and beneath the rear tray. Hopefully the critters haven't been in the airbox again, I already changed that cabin air filter a year ago and I'd like the defrost to work this winter...

Borrowed an ozone generator that probably just finished its second 30-minute cycle to freshen up the inside a bit. Didn't smell too bad but it smelled like a car that sat more than it was driven.

My friend up the road has a hoist in his garage and I have a few things to do if I can get an afternoon in on that;

• Install new swabar end links on all four corners
• Patch a small exhaust hole back at the muffler
• Throw some cheap spring coil spacers on the rear springs (they are a bit saggy and my oversized tires rub a bit when loaded down)
• Brace the universal hitch receiver that I installed (not used for towing, just for a cheap cargo rack I haul deer on)

If I have time I might also change the rear diff fluid and address a cracked CV boot in the rear. I don't really want to put new axles in the back but might have to, unless anyone here has a recommendation on a good fitting split boot I can just cram on there quickly and let ride. From what I understand those often don't work for most people, but its tempting.

I hope the AWD still works since this is northern Minnesota, but I should be OK either way since the tires I put on are still like brand new. Probably not even 1k miles on them yet.

I did do one itty bitty mod that I can't remember whether it ever got posted here or not. I popped out the wire harness between the factory radio head unit and the optional CD player, cut the line-out wires from the CD player and spliced them into a standard 3.5mm headphone jack that I drilled a small hole in the dash to mount. Now I have an aux input on the factory head unit with a $9 bluetooth receiver plugged into it works perfect, the only catch is that you have to have a CD you leave in the factory CD player to trick it into thinking its playing something, otherwise the head unit doesn't pick up the signal. The front door speaker wires are in bad shape, speakers cut out when you open and close the doors so I need to address that too, but basically I got bluetooth on the factory radio for $9 so I can take a phone call on the road or listen to some tunes.

Its going to be interesting to see how this plays out, especially when it hits the real cold part of winter. Better swap some fresh oil in the motor one of these days too, not sure that's happened since 2020 but again, hardly put 1000 miles on it either so... its fine I'll keep you guys in the loop.

 

[arudlang]

Please do keep us updated as you do more work

Arranged some time to work in a friend's heated shop tomorrow, so hopefully going to get through as many fix-it things as possible.

I like your blue CRV too, I have that same Thule box but I have not ever put in on the CRV. Seems like the wind resistance of it would be hard on my little motor, that box makes noticeable drag on our bigger cars on the highway.

I have a winch too but not installed yet and not for recovery... I actually have a wild hair to put a lightweight UTV plow on this car if time and money allows and I would use the winch to raise and lower the blade. I have a simple flat paved driveway but its big enough it takes well over an hour with just a snow blower. I might just put the winch on the plow blade itself rather than the car and use a heavy anderson connector to just hook it up when I need it, then when I take off the plow the winch is off too. I don't need the winch for much else except that it would be handy for deer hunting, but for two uses per year still doesn't seem to be worth the permanent install for me.

If I get through my needed repair items the fun stuff I have planned next is a CB radio and PA setup. Going to mount a 3 foot fiberglass antenna up top and add the radio on top of the dash probably, PA speaker under the hood of course.

 

[arudlang]

Well, I busted my butt on this car over the weekend. My friend whose garage space I borrowed sure hopes that the rest of the car continues to hold together for me to enjoy my efforts, and I have to say I agree. Many ticking time bombs in this car that I could not address with the time allowed but I did what I could for now.

I installed the new swaybar links and did some coil spring spacers in the rear to try to make up for sagging springs. Feels like a whole new car in terms of ride quality and handling.

One of my new radiator hoses is already trying to seep, the upper one where it connects to the cylinder head. This is one where I was forced to use a crappy worm-gear style clamp so it wasn't real surprising. I tightened it up a little and added a second clamp as a hail mary, there is nowhere around here where you can source the good spring clamps locally and ordering them online is just too expensive.

I patched one exhaust leak but this morning discovered another one I will have to deal with another time.

I put a semi-permanently mounted automatic trickle charger on the battery and put the cord out the front grill so I can try to keep the battery working this winter. The battery is pretty marginal, marked as Jan 2015 so its old and it doesn't help that I left the key on and drained it stone dead Friday night but luckily it was in the warm garage so it didn't freeze, and it seemed to come back to life. It cranks very pitifully in cold temps since its parked outside, hopefully using this trickle charger will help avoid needing to buy a new battery and help it start reliably in the coming cold months. Fingers crossed.

Of course I did an oil and filter change. Man, the oil filter is in a stupid place and is hard to get at on this car!

I'm really sketched out by the condition/looks of the rear brake lines... I had an incident a week ago when it was 0 degrees out and I fired it up and found the brake light on. Turned out the float in the reservoir was stuck, fluid level was not down luckily. I figured there must be moisture in the brake fluid. I wanted to flush it but the bleeders just look too nasty to risk cracking them... instead I opted for just swapping a portion of fresh fluid into the reservoir by pulling out as much as I could with a turkey baster and refilling with new fluid. Not great I know but that's all I felt comfortable doing for now with the time I had.

The oil pan is drenched in oil, but I'm not yet seeing big issues with the oil level going down too quickly. I forgot to check if the oil pan bolts where snug... maybe next time.

Looks like 3 out of 4 rear CV boots are torn... no time to do anything about those, I wonder how long before the clicking sounds will start it. Front U-joint is loose and worn too. Earmarked for a future garage day.

The most significant, and time consuming thing I got done was installing a full remote start system. Definitely debatable whether that was worth the time and effort it took to install, about an 8 hour job to do everything nicely and properly. Since the car is always parked outside in cold and snowy northern Minnesota it felt important, its nice to let the engine warm up a couple minutes and get a tiny jumpstart on defrost before stepping out of the house or leaving work, especially since I go immediately from my driveway or work parking lot to a 65 MPH 4 lane highway, it's not like I get to drive it gently for 2-10 minutes on slow side roads when I leave my house or work... its straight from 0 to 70 MPH traffic, whether its 10 below zero or not, hence I feel like warmups are worth it. Naturally I went all the way and properly tapped the tach signal wire, thats the only way these things work reliably in the cold temps up here. The so called "virtual tach" where it cranks based on alternator voltage and a timer is just not reliable at the temps we get here.

The other big gain is I now finally have remote lock, unlock, and trunk release. Those are pretty aggravating features to not have in this climate, especially since Honda has the "feature" that prevents you from locking your keys in the car, the only way to lock or unlock this car was by putting the physical key into the drivers door. What a pain when its dark, below zero, snowing and wind blowing, etc. I will greatly appreciate being able to simply use a fob button for lock and unlock. That wiring under the dash is a lot of work though. Trunk release required a relay which added more work time. I got it done though, and somehow it all worked first try when I finished all my wire connections and hooked everything up.

All I know is the timing belt had better hang in there and nobody better smash into me and total it out after all the work that was. Would appreciate if the brake lines hold in there too. At this point I'm probably willing to pay to have a trusted shop replace the brakes in this, I just can't scrape up enough free time to do every last thing myself. I will continue to do what I can though.

 

[arudlang]

BTW I thought nice looking tires until I saw the name: omikron….

They were cheap, and they balanced up OK. I did not know I was going to be daily driving it back when I bought them, I was trying to save money and have grip for deer hunting and such (and they have definitely provided good grip off road). The jury is still out on snow traction, but if you go to my post #3 on this thread and look at the tires it came with, I'm sure you'll agree this $280 set of no name tires is probably better than what I had 😉

 

[arudlang]

Oof, I'm slow, but I finally got the joke hours later... Omikron, omicron, yikes 🤣🤣🤣

 

[arudlang]

I'm going to make a separate thread with a full writeup and hopefully some video as well at a later date, soon-ish, so try to save your in-depth and technical questions on this for the dedicated thread yet to come but... I did a semi-unplanned thing yesterday as a 10-12 inch snowstorm loomed towards my home area and I am too excited to not share a small teaser:

More to come... when I make the dedicated thread I will link it in this thread, give me a few days as I have very little free time and I am pretty slow at video editing