SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

Civic update, good news maybe?

Eric replaced that seal and no more oil leak so far. He also replaced the plugs and PCV valve, and threw in some Techron & high octane fuel. Ran out to pick up some tacos last night (to go with Interstellar of course!) and NO MORE RATTLE!! Was not a very long drive, so we'll see how she is today but we both think normally we would have heard it during that amount of driving.

 

give the techron at least half a tank, and if you can, drive it HARD and get motor fully warm.

 

good news but don't attribute it to anything just yet, it might just be the new oil that made it quiet

lets just hope the clattering was just from old worn out oil

now to fix the sunroof ................

what is this noise its making? describe it, could it be the tracks have no grease in them and your hearing the screech from dry tracks and slides?

if we cant burn it then we may as well help you fix the things that are easily fixable at least so its a better car to use until you find a replacement for it.

 

ok so, from your list it seams these things need fixing:

Alignment
Nearly bald tires
Both CV boots trashed
A tie rod boot
Compliance bushings


No A/C
Broken sunroof
Intermittent wiper setting hasn't worked for years

so lets work on the last 3 which I think could be simple fixes

whats wrong with the a/c? is the compressor locked up or just not running?

whats wrong with the sunroof? is it just making noise or not working at all?

intermittent wiper is usually just the circuit board in the wiper motor needs to be replaced, on my chevy is cost $15. take a picture of the wiper motor where the wires plug into it so I can see what it looks like. there is usually a black square cover you remove to get to the circuit board.

 

Eric's still plugging away at the Civic.

He was going to change the coolant and noticed the temp sensor was dead. Off to Oreilly for a new one, then he'll do the coolant. Didn't do the oil or hard driving yet. Might take it on some fast but straight roads just a little bit, perhaps later today - gotta get those CV boots changed out, don't want to trust it too much until that's taken care of.

Good news is he has a week off after this coming week, so the tentative plan is to order the parts for that soon so that he can do the work when he's off, and maybe even squeeze in a short trip somewhere afterwards (in the Taco!)

@keakar , thanks for asking about the sunroof, but we'll probably not mess with that. It's closed and watertight right now. Would hate to f**k with it and change that in this climate.

Although..................speaking of fixing up the Civ.................I am actually trying to convince Eric to let me roller paint it blue or black Hey man, my rule of thumb on cosmetics is, if it's not going to look worse, why not give it a shot? So far he's not convinced, I don't understand why though?

 

The AC is one of those situations where the whole system has to be converted, because it's so old or something like that. I remember we called around about it a few years ago, and it was gonna be a few hundred. At that time we figured the car would die soon anyway so we never bothered. And I think the big problem with trying to DIY it is disposal of the chemicals or something? I vaguely remember talking about that........

The wipers used to be worse a few years ago. Sometimes they would hesitate to come on AT ALL, which is not safe, especially around here. So I called a Honda dealer, and they actually put a tech on the phone (!!!!) and told us what often causes this in older Civics. He was right. We googled what he said, and from there took the steering column apart and found this little doohicky in there that controlled the wipers and turn signal. The contacts were worn or corroded or whatever, so we cleaned them appropriately and put it back together. Since then, they always come on and work well, but only on low or high - not intermittent. It's just annoying, but at least it's not dangerous anymore! But I'm guessing if we actually REPLACED that part instead of just cleaning it, it would fix that issue. Was a real bitch taking all that apart though (I actually got "hands on" involved in that project, because I was so proud that I got the info we needed from Honda all by myself so I kinda took that one over!!)!!

That other mechanical crap has to be dealt with though. Gotta start compiling an exact list of the parts we need for all the mechanical crap, then if all that goes well and all else is going well with it, she will be rewarded with new tires and alignment. And maybe some rollered on teal blue paint.

 

Just looking into that Costco auto program. Anyone ever bought a car through Costco?

We love Costco and buy virtually everything there already, so I would definitely be open to this. Still not sure exactly when we'll replace the Civ, but it's gotta happen in next year-ish for sure, and possibly much sooner. Nice to take more time to look into all the options.

 

Oreilly was at it again with the wrong parts. What's up with them lately??????????

"O, O, O, OREILLY!!! THE WRONG PARTS!!"

 

oh hell no, don't buy cars at walmart or Costco, c'mon girl you know better then that may as well go buy a car from shady joes used cars and BBQ ribs

as to the a/c, its been a while since I knew what the instructions were but as I recall, all you have to do is drain the oil out of the compressor and replace t then refill and you are good to go. I think "k" said he did one of those conversions already

 

Costco here gives a $1000 discount at any Ford dealer. On our F150, after we had negotiated a price, we mentioned our Costco membership and got another $1000 taken off.

 

Got the coolant changed out and new temp sensor thing in. Cleaning up tools for today, going to look into what parts are needed for the front end/CV boots stuff next.

Might consider revisiting the AC thing, thanks for the advice @keakar !

@Sterdog , that's cool about the Costco discount! Nice!

Civ is done for today, yardwork done too. Time for the mister and a margarita!!! Made homemade sweet & sour mix for margs, yummy!!

It's so funny, now I STARE at all the cars around me when I'm out and about. The last 6 months, it seemed the ONLY other vehicles I ever saw were Tacos. Now all I see are little sedans and hatchbacks, and if I see one I actually like, they get the full on stare down so I can figure out what the hell it is!! Keep seeing lots of cute Subarus of all kinds around, little hatchbacks and little mini wagon/hatchback things. Saw an Elantra hatchback that was kinda cool. Speaking strictly on looks, those Mazda 3's are the winner in my book. Too bad they aren't for tall people and are unreliable!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__alchrw7CE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1VG1OHEfAM

 

Unblankingbelievable. Never a dull moment with vehicles over here.

Civic will not start now. He did the oil seal, PCV, plugs, and Techron with high octane fuel on Saturday. It drove great Saturday night. No more rattle (that we think may have been detonation), and it appeared that the oil leak stopped.

He did the new thermostat, new temp sensor, and new coolant yesterday. Didn't drive it after, but he ran it for a while in the driveway late yesterday afternoon, and it was running just fine.

Went to start it this morning. First time, it started then RPMs went up and down all crazy, then it died within ~10 seconds. Tried starting again, it started and died within seconds. Tried to start again, and that time it wouldn't even turn over. Oil looks fine. Air filter's a little dirty but doesn't make sense as the culprit, because why did it start/drive so well Saturday night and start/run so nicely parked yesterday with the same filter. So that eliminates all the super simple cheap stuff.

So we walked away for a minute, and had a nice pleasant, calm, happy, fun discussion about WHY THE F**K THIS MIGHT BE HAPPENING. No swearing occurred. Basically came up with zero logical theories as to why. Decided to try the old, "maybe it fixed itself somehow in the last 10 minutes approach" - went back and tried starting again. Started and died within seconds. So Eric just left for work in the Taco, and I have my 22 yr old red beast sitting dead in the driveway, again. Guess I'll be joining a Civic forum today. Anyone know of a good one? We haven't found one yet.......



Happy Monday TW!

 

sorry to hear but did he check all the electrical plugs? maybe he left something unplugged or something came unplugged like a MAF sensor? when mine is unplugged its hard to start and barely runs.

maybe its a sign

 

I remember when I was doing the ABS cutoff switch mod. I had just finished splicing in the switch, wrapping everything up nicely, and decided to start everything up to make sure everything worked ok. My Tacoma did exactly what your Civic did, sputtering out worse and worse, and I nearly shit a brick. Then I realized I still hadn't reconnected the brake electrical plug . Once that was in every thing worked fine .

Do a quick double check of everything. At 22 years young that Civic might have some plugs where wires are corroded or worse so concentrate on just the area's where Eric was working.

 

Thanks guys. So frustrating!! I swear, every day is a new scenario with the vehicles over here. Occasionally a scenario for the better, often times a scenario for the worse, but damn near every day brings some kind of something!!! Just crazy, never in my life have I had this sort of continuous stream of vehicle issues. I feel like we are cursed or something!!

At least the good news is since it's summer and stays light so late, he'll get a good couple of hours to take a look tonight. Hopefully I can do a little research today to get us started in the right direction - might see if Honda would let me talk to the tech that looked at it the last 2 times and see if he has any advice/thoughts, or even a good Civic forum recc'. The more I think about it, I would really, really like to keep that little beast going even if just for another month or so, just to buy us a bit more time to look - but not if we have to spend gobs more just to keep it semi road safe!!

 

Well, this is kind of interesting...

Do we have power to the starter and is the engine free to turn? I could see giant chunks of carbon breaking off after sitting all night and jamming a piston

Do we have fuel getting to the cylinders? Again, the techron could have free up debris that could clog the filter

Do other electrical functions still work, like lights and wipers?

And what it really sounds like until the engine stopped turning over was simple vapor lock.

Howard

 

http://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...on-96-civic-after-replacing-thermostat-87455/

That person's problem was similar to ours, also after replacing thermostat, and it turned out to be a ground wire issue. He said: "Thanks for the replies. I checked ground again - pushed connector firmly on to the fan temp sensor and everything works fine now. I'm not sure which fixed the problem but it starts and runs great like before"
@hetkind , I really hope this is not fuel system related. I am all too familiar with how much fun troubleshooting a fuel system is.

Called Honda, and didn't get to talk to the tech but an advisor suggested putting the old temp sensor back in to see if any change. He questioned whether there was an air bubble in the coolant. But do you guys think that would cause the issue we had this morning?

 

I bet it was the ground connection, have eric take it apart tonight and clean everything up with some sand paper and a brush then reconnect the ground wire.

glad your good now, its a good thing eric is married to a good mechanic who can fix these things

not to but that's what you pay extra for when you buy new, so you NEVER have problems with it. buy something new and take care of it and it will last you 20 years never needing to be fixed. when you buy used its certain there will be issues to fix and you will always be fixing "something" on it as long as you have it.

 

The grey color of this Corolla is looking prettier and prettier to me, imagine that? It's got about 70K miles, and it's a 2011, and it's a Toyota Used Certified. Wrong color but it's got a sunroof. Asking is $14K. And it's being sold by a dealer I trust

Toyota offers 5 years at 2.9% on all certified used vehicles if you qualify and I think we would. That would keep the payment on this guy at $250/mth at most, assuming worst case we paid full asking price and got zero dollars on the Civ - and surely there's some room to negotiate the price, and surely they'd give us a little tiny something on the Civ, if for no other reason to avoid hurting our feelings maybe?

Looking at this car and thinking about making payments on it doesn't make me excited, but imagining how many reliable years it will give us long after it's paid for, likely repair free for the most part, yeah, that makes me excited.