Hello All,

I am a new member, who just purchased a '99 Accord LX 4-cyl, w/ 94k miles. Because of the escalating fuel prices, I decided to
park my 2001 Ford Power Stroke 4wd 6" lift w/ 35" tires, and use the "new to me" Honda as a daily driver. I have driven Ford
diesels for the past 10 years, so this is a new world to me, to say the least.

My initial questions are, what initial maintenance precations should I take with this car? According to the original
owner, all that was ever done was the 3k oil changes. Is it time to flush the tranny, change the fuel filter, etc...?
I put a K&N on and had the oil changed immediately. The check engine light intermittantly comes on and goes off,
but I assume that is the fuel cap, the performance has not changed at all.

Any suggestions will be appreciated, this car will have approx. 700 miles a week put on it a week, so anything I
can do to extend the life, or increase fuel mileage, I'm up for it.

Thanks,

Aaron

 

Welcome to the forum!

I would suggest changing the timing belt at or before 130k miles, a tranny flush, coolant flush, spark plugs, cap and rotor, wires, fuel/air filter, and a full inspection (brakes etc) If you keep regular maintinence on it it should run forever... I've got 145k on my 94, lightshow has 245k all origonal miles/engine, other than those items I'd have that check engine light verified to make sure it's just a loose gas cap, Also, on spark plugs stick to NGK no Bosch...

 

I've done numerous mod's and maint, and my trucks, what am I looking at changing the timing belt? Is it worth doing yourself,
rather than the dealer?

Thanks

 

I did my 96 Accord timing belt myself. It is very tight and I had to get a tool made to remove the bottom pulley. The tool locked the pulley whilst I used a socket and wrench for the bolt.

I have done a fair bit of maintenance on my cars but these days tend to put the car in the garage.

From my experience I would leave it to the experts Cost me about £70, local specialist would of charged £200

 

The timing belt isn't to difficult. On almost all hondas if you remove the tire there is either a hole to get onto the bolt for the crank shaft or there is a piece of the fender well that you can remove for easy access.... As far as changing them I'd say they are relativly easy but if you don't remove that piece it can be difficult due to clearance issues. Just remove the other belts, pull the cover and go for it... I personally don't think it's that difficult and I'm no mechanic by far... but I've never worked on a 99 either... I think you'll be pleasantly suprised at how easy it is to do... just pickup a cheap manual.... while you're in there to you might want to look into replacing the water pump

 

I appreciate the comments, I did almost all the work on my truck learning off of a forum like this. Very valuable tool.

Thanks

 

DO NOT assume that the chk engine lite is due to the gas cap,, it could be but go to autozone and have the code checked.. As for the timing belt,, try this site see if it helps

http://www.cybertrails.com/~puf/Hond...meBalNote.html