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Mar. 27th, 2018 04:02 amThings I've had to do on Ai lately:
-Replaced the power steering pump. Sort of planned, sort of necessity. It wasn't making noise or acting weird but it's been leaking, so the noise and weirdness were only a matter of time. Also the adjusting bolt had broken off long ago, and what was left of it rusted itself to the old pump. Got a used pump from ebay for the princely sum of $55, cleaned up and chased all of the threaded holes, then I also got replacement hardware as well because I had no idea how much of a fight I was up against. All of the mounting bolts threaded into the pump, so if any broke on the way out, it wouldn't matter because the pump was getting replaced anyway. Plot twist: The original bolts (except for the adjusting bolt) came out without a fight and were in good enough shape that I could have re-used them. Inverse of Murphy's Law, I guess.
-Removed a broken, rattling heat shield. There is (no, was) a pair of heat shields on the exhaust manifold, but over time, the mounting holes rusted out so badly the bolts could no longer hold them on. The heat shields were really just hanging on like a coat on a peg. The outer one came off easily enough, the other was caged in by surrounding parts. The good: It wasn't falling out on its own when least expected; I had to really yank and pull and bend to get it out. The bad: It was rattly and noisy as hell and wasn't coming out without a fight (or removing major components). But it had to come out. The ugly: It was resting against the dipstick tube, and transfered heat from the exhaust directly to the oil dipstick, which would start to cook the engine oil.
-Fixing one of several oil leaks. Oil leaks on Ai are turning into a squishy messy game of Whack-a-mole. The one in question is on the top of the engine. There was a plastic cap on the end of one of the camshafts that gave up long ago, and there's a big gooey mess directly below it. That plastic cap is there because some of Ai's fancier GS-R siblings have VTEC, and thus there would be a solenoid for some of the VTEC hardware. As Ai does not have VTEC, there is just the plastic cap instead. I found a fancy aluminum cap as a replacement. Time will tell if this fix did anything.
-Cleaning off the valve cover. In fixing the above leak, I had to take off the valve cover. That was surprisingly easy, I just had to be careful and use the proper hammer. (Seriously, proper procedure calls for hitting the edges with a rubber hammer, not prying it off.) As it's one big piece of aluminum, it's much lighter than it looks. It came painted from the factory, but a lot of that paint peeled off due to a combination of heat, stray oil, and time.
Things I'm planning to do on Ai in the near future:
-Front brakes need replaced. Pads, rotors, calipers, even the rubber lines. It's all usable as-is for now, but state inspection is coming up next month and I don't want to get caught out on that. I think the front calipers are original, as I have no record of ever having them replaced. They look like they were on the bottom of a lake for 50 years.
-Rust repair. There are some rough spots on the rear quarter panel, and on the bottom of the doors. The best thing I can do in the immediate future is fill them in with body putty. After that, body work is outside of my expertise. That requires a bit of an artistic skill as well as mechanical.
-Replacing the rear shock/spring assemblies. I did the front a few months ago but the rear was about to put up a surprising fight, so I opted to save that for warmer days. Honestly, I might as well rebuild the whole suspension. That's a battle for another day.
-Oil pan leak. The gasket for that has been replaced before. I accepted that short of completely removing the engine and replacing everything that comes in contact with the oil, I'm not going to get all of the leaks.
-Various interior light bulbs. Easy stuff. The only ones that will really put up a fight are for the climate control backlighting, and compared to what else I've done, won't really be a fight at all.
-Loose shifter linkage. The bushings are all shot, and the metal linkage bars are rusted out kinda badly. I have a whole new assembly and related hardware at the ready, courtesy of ebay.
-More exhaust work. She seems a bit growly, but I don't know if that's because of the aftermarket exhaust parts. Yanking out the old heat shield tamed the rattle only a little bit. There's also a noticeable gassy smell when cold, and I think both issues are pointing to the same part, so she'll probably need another catalytic converter (currently on #3). All that said, aftermarket exhaust parts are nowhere near as durable as the OEM parts. For example, her original muffler lasted 10 solid years; every one after that lasted only 3 years.
Sidenote: The only reason I replaced the original catalytic converter was because it was easier to just get another one instead of trying to unbolt it from the rusted out fragment of pipe it was rust-welded to. I figured "someday I'll be able to get those apart", so I never disposed of it for that reason. If all goes as planned, that someday will be soon. I could probably re-use it. It looks rough on the outside, but the inside seems to be ok.
-Repaint the valve cover. Maybe. This is really best done during warmer weather, because spray painting is usually best done outdoors. Now that it's bolted back on, I'm not in a hurry to take it off again, as doing so destroys the gasket. Then again a new one is only about $11-12. Then again this is purely for aesthetics and is otherwise functionally fine as-is.
-Fixing the air conditioning. Another maybe. It's not so much that it needs fixed, but more like completely pulled out and every major component replaced. For what it's worth, some of the earlier Integras came stock without A/C, and Ai's hasn't worked in a long time, so it's not all that critical.
-Oil changes. Mundane, I know. But it's a recurring task. I find I'm able to do these more frequently now that I have a garage. That's because before, when either car needed an oil change, I'd have to remember to take the car to the oil change place while they were open, and I really only had the weekends available for that. That made for a narrow window of opportunity that frequently got missed. Now, it's like "well I have her up on the lift already, might as well do this while I'm at it". 8pm on Sunday? No problem. As a bonus I have more control over the selection of oil and filter.
One of the biggest things that's helped with all of this is the right repair manual. Back in 2004, I bought the official factory service manual. It's about the size of a pre-internet phone book, and goes into incredible detail on the specs of the car and any repairs. I paid $60 for it and it was worth every cent.
It can be puzzling to many people as to why I would put so much work into a car with so many miles. For the amount that I could spend fixing everything on her, I could just as easily buy a much newer car, or even go as far as a significant down payment on a new car. It's more complex than that. It's a "because I want to and I can" thing, it's a learning thing, it's a "because I like this car" thing.
Ai is only one of the hundreds of thousands of Integras that were built, but only one of them is Ai.
-Replaced the power steering pump. Sort of planned, sort of necessity. It wasn't making noise or acting weird but it's been leaking, so the noise and weirdness were only a matter of time. Also the adjusting bolt had broken off long ago, and what was left of it rusted itself to the old pump. Got a used pump from ebay for the princely sum of $55, cleaned up and chased all of the threaded holes, then I also got replacement hardware as well because I had no idea how much of a fight I was up against. All of the mounting bolts threaded into the pump, so if any broke on the way out, it wouldn't matter because the pump was getting replaced anyway. Plot twist: The original bolts (except for the adjusting bolt) came out without a fight and were in good enough shape that I could have re-used them. Inverse of Murphy's Law, I guess.
-Removed a broken, rattling heat shield. There is (no, was) a pair of heat shields on the exhaust manifold, but over time, the mounting holes rusted out so badly the bolts could no longer hold them on. The heat shields were really just hanging on like a coat on a peg. The outer one came off easily enough, the other was caged in by surrounding parts. The good: It wasn't falling out on its own when least expected; I had to really yank and pull and bend to get it out. The bad: It was rattly and noisy as hell and wasn't coming out without a fight (or removing major components). But it had to come out. The ugly: It was resting against the dipstick tube, and transfered heat from the exhaust directly to the oil dipstick, which would start to cook the engine oil.
-Fixing one of several oil leaks. Oil leaks on Ai are turning into a squishy messy game of Whack-a-mole. The one in question is on the top of the engine. There was a plastic cap on the end of one of the camshafts that gave up long ago, and there's a big gooey mess directly below it. That plastic cap is there because some of Ai's fancier GS-R siblings have VTEC, and thus there would be a solenoid for some of the VTEC hardware. As Ai does not have VTEC, there is just the plastic cap instead. I found a fancy aluminum cap as a replacement. Time will tell if this fix did anything.
-Cleaning off the valve cover. In fixing the above leak, I had to take off the valve cover. That was surprisingly easy, I just had to be careful and use the proper hammer. (Seriously, proper procedure calls for hitting the edges with a rubber hammer, not prying it off.) As it's one big piece of aluminum, it's much lighter than it looks. It came painted from the factory, but a lot of that paint peeled off due to a combination of heat, stray oil, and time.
Things I'm planning to do on Ai in the near future:
-Front brakes need replaced. Pads, rotors, calipers, even the rubber lines. It's all usable as-is for now, but state inspection is coming up next month and I don't want to get caught out on that. I think the front calipers are original, as I have no record of ever having them replaced. They look like they were on the bottom of a lake for 50 years.
-Rust repair. There are some rough spots on the rear quarter panel, and on the bottom of the doors. The best thing I can do in the immediate future is fill them in with body putty. After that, body work is outside of my expertise. That requires a bit of an artistic skill as well as mechanical.
-Replacing the rear shock/spring assemblies. I did the front a few months ago but the rear was about to put up a surprising fight, so I opted to save that for warmer days. Honestly, I might as well rebuild the whole suspension. That's a battle for another day.
-Oil pan leak. The gasket for that has been replaced before. I accepted that short of completely removing the engine and replacing everything that comes in contact with the oil, I'm not going to get all of the leaks.
-Various interior light bulbs. Easy stuff. The only ones that will really put up a fight are for the climate control backlighting, and compared to what else I've done, won't really be a fight at all.
-Loose shifter linkage. The bushings are all shot, and the metal linkage bars are rusted out kinda badly. I have a whole new assembly and related hardware at the ready, courtesy of ebay.
-More exhaust work. She seems a bit growly, but I don't know if that's because of the aftermarket exhaust parts. Yanking out the old heat shield tamed the rattle only a little bit. There's also a noticeable gassy smell when cold, and I think both issues are pointing to the same part, so she'll probably need another catalytic converter (currently on #3). All that said, aftermarket exhaust parts are nowhere near as durable as the OEM parts. For example, her original muffler lasted 10 solid years; every one after that lasted only 3 years.
Sidenote: The only reason I replaced the original catalytic converter was because it was easier to just get another one instead of trying to unbolt it from the rusted out fragment of pipe it was rust-welded to. I figured "someday I'll be able to get those apart", so I never disposed of it for that reason. If all goes as planned, that someday will be soon. I could probably re-use it. It looks rough on the outside, but the inside seems to be ok.
-Repaint the valve cover. Maybe. This is really best done during warmer weather, because spray painting is usually best done outdoors. Now that it's bolted back on, I'm not in a hurry to take it off again, as doing so destroys the gasket. Then again a new one is only about $11-12. Then again this is purely for aesthetics and is otherwise functionally fine as-is.
-Fixing the air conditioning. Another maybe. It's not so much that it needs fixed, but more like completely pulled out and every major component replaced. For what it's worth, some of the earlier Integras came stock without A/C, and Ai's hasn't worked in a long time, so it's not all that critical.
-Oil changes. Mundane, I know. But it's a recurring task. I find I'm able to do these more frequently now that I have a garage. That's because before, when either car needed an oil change, I'd have to remember to take the car to the oil change place while they were open, and I really only had the weekends available for that. That made for a narrow window of opportunity that frequently got missed. Now, it's like "well I have her up on the lift already, might as well do this while I'm at it". 8pm on Sunday? No problem. As a bonus I have more control over the selection of oil and filter.
One of the biggest things that's helped with all of this is the right repair manual. Back in 2004, I bought the official factory service manual. It's about the size of a pre-internet phone book, and goes into incredible detail on the specs of the car and any repairs. I paid $60 for it and it was worth every cent.
It can be puzzling to many people as to why I would put so much work into a car with so many miles. For the amount that I could spend fixing everything on her, I could just as easily buy a much newer car, or even go as far as a significant down payment on a new car. It's more complex than that. It's a "because I want to and I can" thing, it's a learning thing, it's a "because I like this car" thing.
Ai is only one of the hundreds of thousands of Integras that were built, but only one of them is Ai.
