Survivor 91 Accord SE Brittany Blue Metallic Ivory Leather 61K Miles

[UnicornHondaSE]

Update.

My bro bought another car so he doesn't have to drive Brittany in the winter salt. YAAAAY! Brittany has been saved

Which also means that the Type R has two back up cars saving it from being subject to salt.

The new DD is another Honda, a 2002 civic HX, which is actually in pretty good condition with only 78k miles. It has some rust on it though so he and I don't feel bad about driving it in the salt. Sucks but not much we can do about it in this area.

Right now I am trying to solve poor gas mileage, the SE is getting about only 20 m'spg. I removed the EGR and it does look quite sooty so I will be cleaning that and replacing the gasket.

I am hoping that OEM EGR gasket is still available from the dealer, otherwise I will hit up NAPA or AutoZone.

Bro and I have been taking Brittany to the local Cars & Coffee and people really respond well to her, she usually gets as much attention as the 2023 Type R.

Will get some more pics up one of these days.

I gave Brittany a decent hand car wash and polish last week.

Hand wash with mother's or meguiers soap and a microfiber mit, then after drying I used chemical brothers P4 polish, applied and removed by hand, then I waxed with mother's carnauba wax applied and removed by hand, then I cleaned the windows, it was a good work out start to finish. I ran out of day light but got the hood, passenger side, and the driver's fender and door treated. Next week I will do the trunk, roof, and rear pass door.

I finished up by polishing the exhaust tips and wheels with eagle one metal polish and a microfiber.

Other than that, not much else going on with the SE, she's just chilling in the garage with the CTR.

[UnicornHondaSE]

Update on Brittany.

The SE is getting new NGK wires and spark plugs. I pulled the plugs tonight and they look original, rust around the porcelain and very old dry electrodes.

Also I am doing a Seafoam treatment due to hot start poor idle and accel.

I have spent the last few days researching the EGR cleaning and I've found guys drilling out the pressed in small cylinders in the intake manifold, for the EGR passage.

I appreciate the guys who took video and showed everyone how to do it but their one mistake, IMO, was doing it while the intake manifold was still attached to the head.

Yeah they vacuumed or air blasted the shavings out but I won't take that chance.

I'm not removing the intake manifold on a mint 1991 car with only 62k miles.

Which means I will NOT be drilling those plugs, so Seafoam treatment will have to suffice and hopefully that clears up the hot start poor idle and acceleration, and poor gas mileage.

The EGR valve itself holds in place when I cover the vacuum port, so that's good. I purchased a new EGR gasket and sanded the EGR surface with 1500 and 2000 grit on a flat surface for a clean mating surface.

Timing belt, tensioner, and water pump will be completed before winter. And also the oil pan gasket since it is weeping

Brake fluid will also get flushed, and probably trans fluid too. And power steering fluid.

After all that, the car should drive much better.

[UnicornHondaSE]

Update on Brittany.

Basic tune up completed. New NGK plugs and wires. New EGR gasket.

If I can find an OEM distributor cap and rotor I would like to replace them too. If anyone has a source for them please advise.

Waiting for new fuel injector o-rings to arrive at the Honda dealer, those will get replaced next week.

[hiptech]

The cap 30103-PT3-C02 is still dealer available. The rotor 30103-PT3-C02 not so much. You can try Vintage Parts for the rotor or keep shaking the trees on EB for NOS but you may need to go aftermarket.

Hope u find it...

[UnicornHondaSE]

Hiptech, how gracious of you for that part # info, thank you.

I do have a new Dist-rotor here from AutoZone, I believe it is duralast brand. We'll see about that. Lol. If it even fits I will be amazed.

I am thinking of also doing new rack n pinion bushings, and front sway bar bushings, clean up the ride a bit from that old rubber.

Any idea if those are still available OEM from dealer?

Or am I looking at the aftermarket route...?

Maybe new sway bar end links in the future too. We'll see. Those upper A arms possibly also.

And a basic new shock. Lol. And, and and...

I shopped bilstien and nothing available on their site.

So maybe kyb... ? Stock-like ride. Koni? Who's making good OEM suspension parts these days? Japan, German, or USA. No offense to anyone else, these are trusted sources for quality stuff... from time to time. Lol

[UnicornHondaSE]

Hiptech, I just picked up parts at the Honda dealer, and I had the parts guy check that PN you provided, and he says it is not available.

Distributor cap. I will continue searching.

[hiptech]

You can try a dealer website that has a parts database to check availability but it's not always 100% accurate. So if one dealer doesn't have try another, you never know. I've been lucky that way on a few occasions.

I like this site to find parts numbers and get a feel for availability but there are others. If you find the part number and it's unavailable, try other dealers or plugging in the number at EB and see what comes up. There's a fair amount of NOS from time to time but it's hit or miss and definitely tougher 30+ years later finding good quality OEM anymore.

https://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/

[UnicornHondaSE]

I think I have browsed that site, thanks for the reminder and advice. I will look around this week for it.

Fuel injector o rings are next, and new PCV valve, then we'll see how it runs.

I just hope that the barbed PCV valve doesn't give me a hard time, if it breaks apart and I have to pull the VC to retrieve pieces of it that's gonna suck. Does it unscrew or do I plyer it and yank?

I will look in the service manual this week.

It fired up and idled nice after the new EGR gasket and plugs and wires.

I can't recall at the moment, I may have put in a bottle of Lucas oils fuel cleaner too. May do a new fuel filter also, we'll see.

[UnicornHondaSE]

Update.

Brittany visited the local Honda dealer last week and received a new timing belt, water pump, and associated gaskets, and a "trans service", brake fluid and power steering fluid flush, and a reseal of the oil pan, and a new oil pick up tube gasket, to keep that oil pressure strong for the long run.

Today I changed the PCV valve for a new OEM valve.

The car seems to drive well, a little bit better than before.

I am hoping that the dealer actually changed the timing belt and water pump because whoever the tech was that did the job, he was like Houdini, there is not a sign that anyone was in there, so I may remove the timing cover to inspect the belt.

Other than that, the Accord purs like a well fed and loved kitten and is resting comfortably in the garage.

[hiptech]

I never had much luck with dealer service departments. No matter who the dealer and no matter how much I left explicit instructions something always went wrong. More often than not they damaged unrelated items while making repairs. So I wouldn't put it past them that one of the techs "forgot' to replace the running belt, hope not but you won't know until you do an inspection.

So here's my recommendation for the future. If you plan to continue using the dealer for service, assuming you can trust them, always ask four the old parts back so you can validate.

Otherwise I highly recommend you look for an independent Honda/Acura shop. Find one who is really into 90's cars and continues to work on them or, find a shop with an "older" tech or owner who serviced these when they were new...

I'd guess there are members here who could possibly recommend a shop near you..

Happy you're taking good care of your CB7!

[UnicornHondaSE]

What's up Hiptech.

Yeah I totally agree. The brake fluid flush, not even sure they did that since there was no fluid anywhere, most of the time when I worked as a tech for a dealer, I seen countless times techs would spill brake fluid or not clean it off the tires and wheels.

It's possible the tech was super clean.

I wish I knew of an Indie shop here locally in the NW IL area. I would have done it myself but it's been a while since I've done a t-belt job and I didn't want to have the car inop for too long. Then any special tools I may have needed but didn't have.

The service advisor said that the shop was a bunch of Honda nerds who would love the car, so hopefully it got done, but yeah you are correct, always ask for the old parts back.

[SaddleMtnMan]

If you are still getting poor gas mileage and idle performance consider changing the (only) upstream O2 sensor. PGM-FI basically never throws a Check Engine light for it unless it's stone cold dead, when it's a "little bad" the ECU won't notice but you sure will

[UnicornHondaSE]

Great suggestion, thanks Mountain Man.

I haven't driven it much since picking it up from the dealer after the timing belt and related 60k mile service, and my bro has not mentioned anything to me about the car, in regards to the gas mileage, so maybe it has been better since cleaning the EGR a little and replacing the plugs and wires.

I will ask him if he has noticed an improvement, and if not then I will suggest replacing the O2 sensor.