Hi. Im a returning member, and looking to get my teg running again. Ive done some searches and browsing, but Im not sure how to word my question to get a good search engine return. So here is my issue: About 6 years ago I broke my timing belt (at about 250k, it was one of those things I kept “needing to get around to”. Oops). I decided to fix it myself, and things didnt go quite as well as planned and I ended up getting a new car. My teg has sat since then. About every two years I have to move it for my apartment complex to recoat the pavement. Whenever this is needed I drop a battery in the car and it fires right up (literally fires up in less than a second or two of cranking). It idles really roughly, but revs smoothly. I have decided now is the time to try to get it running properly again. I know I shouldnt have started it up in the past without changing the oil and stuff like that, but I cant change the past. My question is what maintenance do I need to do to prep starting this back up and getting it on the road? The things Im thinking are:
- Change oil / filter
- Change fuel filter (I have added fuel stabilizer and new fuel to a nearly empty tank within the last 6 months)
- Possibly need new tires (mine still hold air, though one has a slow leak)
- Drain and fill brake fluid
- New brake pads / rotors
- Get new battery
What am I missing? I cant do major work at my apartment complex, but I can drive it to my parents and do the work there. It is drivable, Im just concerned about how safe it is to drive without some work, both to my health and the health of the car. Any suggestions or advice would be helpful. If anyone cares to know a little more of the back story please read further, and feel free to give any suggestions there as well.
At the time I got a lot of conflicting info in regards to whether the engine is an “interference engine” or not and opted to pull the head, put in new gaskets, check for damage, etc. (For reference, our engine is NOT an interference engine. With a piston at TDC, I spun both cams to open all the valves and none ever hit the piston, so it most certainly is not interference.) I got it running again, but the timing belt was off a few teeth and slipped about a week later. I fixed that and a couple weeks later it died while I was driving it and wouldnt start. I did get it running again, but it always felt extremely rough at idle. I took it to a dealership and they checked my compression and timing and they said both were spot on, which left me without a lot of direction to follow. During the swap I added a heddman header that wasnt on the car before my timing belt broke. I now have a full exhaust system installed, and Im wondering if adding the header just makes the engine idle rough. Ive read about the IACV and FITV and how to clean them, and that is now on my list. I was told it could be the EGR, but then I read here that the 5speed doesnt have and EGR valve. Ive seen on ebay recently that you can get TPSs and IACVs quite inexpensively now and Im thinking about just replacing them. Any thoughts on the issue at hand would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and just to describe the rough idle issue, it used to have the surging idle issue (surges up from ~500rpm to ~1300rpm and then drifts down repeatedly) but now its just rumbling and loping almost like it has aggressive cams in it.
Well, it sounds like the car starts when you put a battery in there. Idle rough you said but revs good. Which all you need to do is just change all your fluids, Oil, Coolant, Brake fluid, and maybe your transmission fluid. I’d use Honda MTF. For the rough idle, it may be a few things but I’d start on cleaning your IACV and FITV. There is a teg tip on that. Change out your sparkplugs IF they don’t look really dirty. Change out your Air filter. Change your Fuel filter.
Once you did all that, make sure your tires are up to speed by checking tire pressure and take it for a test drive to make sure things are good like the suspension. Look for knocking sounds clunks and what not. Making sure your CV axles are good.
These are the less expensive things you can do. Lets hope you don’t have any major issues as you drive more and more.
Thanks, thats kinda what I was thinking. I know I have a blown CV joint, it was bad when I parked it. I have Skunk2 coilovers sitting on stock struts with probably all 250k miles on the struts, so I know those need to be replaced. I know Ill have plenty to work on once I get it running, just dont want to get ahead of myself and damage the engine or transmission before I even get it running.
My car was sitting for a few years as well and every 5-6 weeks i would crank it up and let it run. well once i was ready to get the car back on the road i went to crank it up and it ran terrible. was backfiring through the intake. i spent two days checking over spark, fuel, main relay. everything. Well i took off the valve cover so i could start tearing my motor apart. well when i took the valve cover off, i noticed that two of the rocker arms were laying in the head. the valve had stuck down in the valve seal. so take a minute pull the valve cover and turn the motor over by hand just to make sure everything is fine. oh and i believe our engines are interference because the valves can hit each other if the cams happen to line up.