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del Sol Projects and Maintenance Log
del Sol Projects and Maintenance Log
Just to give you some idea of what one of these little guys takes to maintain (not much, Honda engineering is incredibly awesome), I've decided to track maintenance on the web.
246100 miles | Starter went up in smoke in my driveway in Colorado, replaced it with a used Honda starter... Amazingly about a 20 minute job to do. |
244700 miles | Outer CV boot failed on passenger side axle just outside Janesville, WI. Drove all the way home (~200 miles) to Iowa and the joint was still clean, so just had my mechanic clean, repack, and reboot it. |
220433 miles | New fuel filter, just since it was due for one. Since I put the money in the timing belt, might as well take good care of it. |
218009 miles | Car wouldn't start - after messing with the ignition to no effect, turned out that my timing belt tensioner had failed, allowing slop into the timing belt. It slipped a notch, knocking my compression down to something like 35psi. Belt, tensioner, water pump replaced. |
211017 miles | Replaced oxygen sensor after milage has been down 25% (only 30 mpg :). We'll see if it helps, but I can't come up with any other reason for the fuel economy dropping and the sensor was the original factory one... |
~203000 miles | New tires again - The "Warrior" tires that were on the five-spokes when I bought them at 180k were craptastic. Replaced with some good old Michelins. |
~203000 miles | Realign car - turns out nothing was loose, just out of alignment in a strange way. |
202988 miles | Replaced front brake rotors - the old ones had warped significantly. There's still something loose in the front end, but at least it doesn't shudder to every stop now. |
200000 miles | No maintenance really, just a notable point on the odometer. Rolled over 200k passing under North Academy on I-25, here in Colorado Springs, on 16-Apr-2006. |
183227 miles | New Gentex 50-GENK20 compass/temp dimming mirror. I guess I got spoiled by my Yukon's auto-dimming mirror over the last five years - I just had to have one on the Sol. |
182883 miles | New KYB shocks and NGK Iridium plugs (stuff that needed to be replaced, upgraded at the same time) |
182813 miles | New ignition switch - old one had corroded contacts, causing car to die randomly or not start. Since Honda wants some $273 for the whole thing, I found a new Acura GSR switch on eBay that fit almost perfectly for $50. Just had to move the automatic transmission-related wires over from the old 7-pin connector. |
181372 miles | New CSF radiator, Honda Type 2 coolant, and hoses. Didn't really need replacing, but the old radiator didn't cool well enough for the long climb up I-70 on a hot day. After 11 years of bug/rock impacts, it wasn't worth fixing, so I upgraded it to a new aluminum one with a thicker core. (After tests in 100+ deg weather, the new radiator absolutely rocks!) If you need a new radiator, might I suggest Radiator Barn - good prices, good quality, and I've always had excellent service from them. |
~181000 miles | The decision is made - rather than selling this one and buying a new one, I'm going to keep mine and do all the rebuilding/replacing necessary to keep it going indefinitely. As I approach 200,000 miles, it was one of those things that had to be decided. |
180200 miles | New wheels! 14 inch thin fives bought off a guy with an Si in Denver |
179300 miles | What's with my luck? Rear-ended in Amarillo, TX. Not serious, needs bumper cover painted |
174000 miles | WRECKED! Don't worry, not my fault. She'll be rebuilt by mid-May |
170002 miles | New thermostat, stays open intermittantly on cold days |
169922 miles | Changed spark coil, producing weak spark, wouldn't start (again) |
169227 miles | Added PriorityStart unit to save my battery |
~157000 miles | New set of tires - Michelin this time, no more Firestone junk |
~155000 miles | Changed spark coil, original one failed (shorted) |
~149000 miles | Replaced another FR380 under warranty, yet another bulge |
~138000 miles | New tires, one of the Firestone FR380s developed a bulge |
~126000 miles | New timing belt and water pump, valves adjusted (Honda dealer) |
119000 miles | Purchased in Cedar Rapids, IA. All regular maintenance items changed (fluids, filters, plugs, etc.) |
Obviously, being my new focus of fascination, the del Sol will also be the target of a few new projects. My first (and only) big frustration with the car is leaving my lights on and killing the battery. The car has no headlight warning buzzer, and because I've always been a staunch supporter of running lights (which my US market car does not have), I tend to leave the headlights on during the day. Oops. So, project one is going to be some sort of headlamp controller system, probably a cross between daytime running lamps and ambient light-sensitive automatic headlights. I haven't exactly figured it out, but when I do I'll post the schematics and a howto on it.
Update on the dead battery problem (9-Jan-2005): Sure, buzzers can be kludged in, but I've been far too lazy to develop the auto DRL circuit that I really want. So, in the meantime, I found an automatic battery cutoff unit sitting around the house while I was visiting my family over the holidays. My dad had picked it up over a year ago, and had never gotten around to doing anything with it, so I convinced him to let me take it home. Basically, it monitors the battery and isolates it from the car if the voltage drops too low, retaining enough charge to run the starter. It's a PriorityStart Pro unit, and so far it seems to be working as advertised. See pictures of it installed here and here.
Project 2, a bit further off (possibly doomed to always be a future project), is to tap into the ECU and start reading back more sensor data than Honda made available on the dash. I like data - lots of it. I also prefer gauges with real numbers. Honda didn't give me either of these, so my eventual goal would be able to strip this information straight off the computer itself. Like I said, far future project, since nobody seems to know anything (at least nobody that's not NDA'd into silence) about the protocol.
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