J
Jim Mowreader
Tomorrow afternoon I will purchase my first Honda. It's a 1986 Accord DX
sedan. Here's what I know...
* Car has the 12-valve four-cylinder engine with PGM-FI.
* Compression between 160 and 165 on all four cylinders.
* Car does not smoke.
* Car drives well in all five forward gears and reverse. No clutch
problems are apparent. It stops in a nice straight line with no
throbbing or pulsing on the pedal.
* Car has a new battery.
* All the glass is sound.
* Car has power moonroof, power windows and AC. Of the three, only the
left-rear window doesn't work.
* The outside door handle on the driver's door isn't working. The
previous owner attached a cable to the inside handle and used that to
open the door. Since I will just use the car to get to work, until I can
fix the outside handle I intend to lock the door and crawl in from the
passenger side.
* Someone pulled the hood-release lever off the dash. I popped it back
in. One job down.
* There's a fairly decent-sized dent (about shopping cart height) on the
front left quarter panel. I wonder how that got in there?
* The paint looks...well, like the paint on a 17-year-old car that's
spent its entire life in the Carolinas.
* All four tires are bald to the point of being illegal. One of my
buddies is a dirt track racer and has loaned me his transporter for the
afternoon.
Plan of action after the car's home:
Change all the fluids. Honda antifreeze, naturally, after a good
flushing. Synthetic oil in the crankcase and synthetic hypoid oil in the
transmission--I like Castrol's synthetic hypoid and probably will go
with Mobil 1 in the engine. Change the brake fluid to Castrol GT/LMA and
change the power steering fluid if I can figure out how.
Change all the belts and hoses including the timing belt. Install a new
thermostat while I'm there--great time to do it.
Change the tires, else I can't register the car.
Fix the door handle!
Leave the AC the hell alone until March or April. It works well now, so
having a routine system check pulled on it wouldn't be a bad idea.
Work out the shopping cart dent, find the missing pieces of trim (it's
missing a Honda nameplate and a little dinky moulding off the right
side) in a junkyard, put a little rubber rejuvenator on the seals, and
have the car repainted.
Fill the very empty car-stereo hole with something decent.
RIght now I drive a VW Bug. It will be so nice to be warm in the winter.
--jmowreader
sedan. Here's what I know...
* Car has the 12-valve four-cylinder engine with PGM-FI.
* Compression between 160 and 165 on all four cylinders.
* Car does not smoke.
* Car drives well in all five forward gears and reverse. No clutch
problems are apparent. It stops in a nice straight line with no
throbbing or pulsing on the pedal.
* Car has a new battery.
* All the glass is sound.
* Car has power moonroof, power windows and AC. Of the three, only the
left-rear window doesn't work.
* The outside door handle on the driver's door isn't working. The
previous owner attached a cable to the inside handle and used that to
open the door. Since I will just use the car to get to work, until I can
fix the outside handle I intend to lock the door and crawl in from the
passenger side.
* Someone pulled the hood-release lever off the dash. I popped it back
in. One job down.
* There's a fairly decent-sized dent (about shopping cart height) on the
front left quarter panel. I wonder how that got in there?
* The paint looks...well, like the paint on a 17-year-old car that's
spent its entire life in the Carolinas.
* All four tires are bald to the point of being illegal. One of my
buddies is a dirt track racer and has loaned me his transporter for the
afternoon.
Plan of action after the car's home:
Change all the fluids. Honda antifreeze, naturally, after a good
flushing. Synthetic oil in the crankcase and synthetic hypoid oil in the
transmission--I like Castrol's synthetic hypoid and probably will go
with Mobil 1 in the engine. Change the brake fluid to Castrol GT/LMA and
change the power steering fluid if I can figure out how.
Change all the belts and hoses including the timing belt. Install a new
thermostat while I'm there--great time to do it.
Change the tires, else I can't register the car.
Fix the door handle!
Leave the AC the hell alone until March or April. It works well now, so
having a routine system check pulled on it wouldn't be a bad idea.
Work out the shopping cart dent, find the missing pieces of trim (it's
missing a Honda nameplate and a little dinky moulding off the right
side) in a junkyard, put a little rubber rejuvenator on the seals, and
have the car repainted.
Fill the very empty car-stereo hole with something decent.
RIght now I drive a VW Bug. It will be so nice to be warm in the winter.
--jmowreader