New Kid on the Block

[Blackbird_]

Greetings all,

I just entered into the 3Gee family last night. Got an 89 LXi Sedan (A/T). It's my first car by the way so I'm a little excited :rofl: I'm looking foward to learning more and fixing up my car. It's got ~220k on it. I'm not a mechanic (just had a lot of car trouble over the years) but I'm not afraid to buy some tools and jump right in - well as long as my transportation to college doesn't break :lol:

So I'm thinking a full tune up on this bad boy:

Change fluids (oil, tranny, brake, coolant)
Belts and battery were replaced like 2 weeks ago by previous owner

There are some niggling things that bothers me like someone siliconed the sunroof shut :uh: and there's a bad tint removal job done on it and the interior is dirty (how do I clean??)

Good to be here, and I'll be sure to search first lol

Edit: I saw someone on here is pushing 400k+. Is this for real?!?

[Rendon LX-i]

Yes SIR its for real. these motors can be unstopable with great care. As far as of your tint it should just pell off but its a pain i used help of a unitly blade. Im guessing someone put siliconed for the fact the water was leaking so they got lazy and put that crap all over it. Welcome to 3geez

[Demon1024]

boy that sounds like the car i was looking at in lowell.:)
welcome to the site man!
no kidding on the miles. got 2 over 300k now

[Blackbird_]

Thanks guys! I actually got this car in Austin, TX. More worries tho :( 48 degrees outside and it won't start

[Vanilla Sky]

Probably a cold battery. Did you try to jump start?

[Blackbird_]

Not yet. I've been driving it around with the gas gauge on E (the light hadnt come on but maybe it's burnt out?) so I'll get a gallon or two for it from the gas station. If that doesn't work I'll try the jumper cables. The battery is brand new from Walmart though (previous owner did it in December). I've got a multimeter too so I can check volts/amps across the terminals.

Edit: Oh and in case anyone is wondering, I engage the brake pedal, crank, it'll weak start, rpm goes to 1k at most then dies (all this is about 15 seconds) . If I crank with foot on the gas pedal or even touch the gas at all it dies faster. I ran it for two days fine though but we'll see.

[Vanilla Sky]

Ahh, that fuel warning light circuit likes to fail. That's more than likely your problem.

[Blackbird_]

It is indeed! Put a gallon of gas in it and it started right up. :cheers: Went, filled it up, drove it around the neighboorhood and that puppy is smooooth. Refilled P/S fluid (I was having to manhandle the wheel - now its like butter)
A few things I need to do:

Tune up including:

Oil change
Oil filter change
Fuel filter change
Air filter
Spark plugs (NGKs)
Spark plug wires
Coolant system flush/refill
Bleed brakes (When I got it two days ago the pedal had a tendency to sink - I actually locked the brakes my first time out, but now it seems to have gotten the pressure back. Pedal travel is maybe 1/4 inch before noticeably hard braking. I think just for safety I'll bleed em, who knows how much air and moisture could be in there)


Minor issues:

Driver's window is off track, I'll have to take the panel off and seat it properly
Power locks don't work - with the panel off I'll test the system as per the FSM
Sunroof - It's silioned shut but the motor does work so I'll have to get my heat gun from back home and see if I can't get it up and going
Alignment - car pulls to the right, not extremely but I notice it if I drive sraight with no steering input (Also, the front tires are more worn on the inside while the back ones are more worn on the outside (or was it the other way around...) Is this due to being misaligned or something else like camber, toe-in,toe-out (I don't even know what those are lol)



I fuckin LOVE this car :)

[cubert]

Im wondering if the sunroof vents are clogged, and the preivious owner just sealed it shut not knowing of the clog...



Have fun with the car :thumbup:

[Dr_Snooz]

Congrats! Sounds like you got a great first car. You've also got your priorities right for keeping it running a long, long time. The 3gs are easy to work on, super reliable and very, very forgiving. You've got a wonderful little car and with proper care, you'll get her to 400k too. Welcome to the board!

[codyJDM]

I'm stoked to see someone so enthusiastic about a 3g right off the bat. She will treat you well and you'll soon be addicted like the rest of us. :cheers:

[86ccord]

nice ride bro! throw some pictures up..

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah a new person who is actually intelligent! Can complete sentences, uses punctuation, and knows how to find info without creating repeat threads. We love you already! ;)

Seriously though, you do sound like your priorities are right with this car. Too many people come in saying "yo i got thiz car, and $50 wanna swap a DOCH in it." First thing is first, if you wanna drive the car you gotta get it running top notch like you are talking about. That includes the 100 little tiny things that are on your list that the previous owners usually neglect. Once you get those taken care of and your car is a good A->B car, then you can really start having fun with it.

Not that fixing all those things isn't fun. It's pretty damn satisfying just getting a car going from "meh" to "yeah!" as far as its function and operation. The beauty of these cars is their simplicity and ease to get things working. Keep up the good work, and yeah... PICS!!!! :)

[MessyHonda]

welcome to the site....where are you located?

[Blackbird_]

Austin, TX for college but I'm from Houston. I'll try and post some pics tomorrow guys.

Edit: 2ndGenGuy: You are so right! I'm finding out more and more about this car as I drive it. I think these are some issues that have more precedence over the tune up:

Passenger Side CV Joint/Boot? (I'm hearing the ticking from the right side when I turn) - Just curious, what happens if I ignore this for a while i.e. how serious is this

BRAKES!!! - When I push the pedal down, I feel it slowly sinking under my foot. Also if I'm at a stoplight and I've got my foot on the brakes, the car will still slowly inch foward. At one point I threw it in park until the light turned green. Also the brake light has come on twice in the past three (3) days. First I thought I had just driven with the E/P Brake up but no. I topped off the brake fluid (it looked pretty low) and the light went off only to come back on today when I was driving back up to Austin. I'm thinking either:


Air in the brake lines
Need new brakes (pads, shoes, rotors?)
There is a leak in the brake system


IIRC, brake pads aren't very expensive at the auto parts store but since brakes are mission critical on a car and I'd rather not die (newbie to working on cars) I may just suck it up and take it to a shop (Gonna get raped out the financial butthole I know it.) There's a place around here called Rising Sun that does only Honda, Toyota, Nissan and then there's a "Just Brakes". Don't tell me this is how drum brakes normally are :beat: I'm used to discs all around with ABS/ALB - Tight brakes and when I hit the brakes, I've got necksnapping stopping power :rofl:

Power Steering leaks as well (A good amount too as I found out today) but thats not too too big for me as in the meantime I can top it off when I use the car

In my apartments working on cars is banned (I scraped someone's truck once and got a very "spirited" phone call from the property manager. I later found out he buffed it out...) so I can't really bleed the brakes here and I don't know anyone with a garage where I can work on this puppy. Also I need it by Wed (back to Houston) so it may go to the shop (dont even have the cash for that - what should they charge me, anyone know?) ...or if there are any members close by, wanna help a fellow 3gee'er out? :)

I kinda feel like I'm running at the mouth, lol sorry for the long edit

[Dr_Snooz]

Ignore the CV joint until it starts clattering going around corners. It's $80 from Napa, a pain to fix and can be safely ignored for some time yet.

The brakes will need to be looked at by a professional and serviced properly. I'd say avoid a lowball bid in this case. It sounds like you have a leaking master cylinder, another leak elsewhere in the system and probably air in the lines. If you get the cheapest service possible, you'll get new pads, but you won't get any of the rest of that dealt with. The brakes on these cars are relatively straightforward, so if you get $600 quote, keep looking. In the meantime, you can keep the car stopped at lights by pumping the brakes.

[codyJDM]

Man! I was just in Austin a few days ago. I was there for a good 2 weeks. I wish I had known you needed some help. It sounds like you have a master cylinder going bad, or maybe some leaky brake lines. Could just be in need of a good bleed. Either way, good luck and keep us posted.

[Blackbird_]

Got it back today (21st Birthday) and the brakes are much improved. I put my foot in it on the freeway lol. $288 to replace the brake lines (labor was more than the parts wtf) and they said the P/S is leaking from the rack and also from the pump ($1315 they quoted me..hell no) and I think some joint or something in the suspension (not the cv) needs to be replaced. Throttle cable seems to stick a little in 1st/low speed (There is a point where I have to give it that extra push - maybe some petroleum jelly on the throttle cable?) I'm just glad I have a relatively safe working car again. Pics in a few hours and then no more spending cuz I'm broke (-_-)