Hey guys, I need some of your advice. This post may look familiar from another forum but it's always good to get advice from other people.

Alright, let me make this short. I'm leaving the 26th of this month with my fiance on a cross country road trip from Orange County, CA to New York, then down south to Florida and back to SoCal. Here are some of the things I changed within the past month or so.

Transmission fluid (ATF-ZI) a week ago, dyno motor oil (burns about a quart more or less every 750-1000 miles) I have about 172k miles on engine. 4 Brand new tires, the coolant, radiator and hoses are about 15k miles old and all the basic stuff like cap & rotor, new plugs (V power), ngk wires, pcv valve, clean mugen SRI w/K&N intake, new oem thermostat & oem radiator cap. Brembo rotors with oem pads (only put 5k miles on them) and about 60% in the rear. Belts were changed about 20k miles ago with all the seals. Any other suggestions?



These are some of the basic things I can think of for a 8k - 10k round trip road trip. The only worry I have is the burning oil and our autotragics (already rebuilt once 27k ago). Other than that the car runs really good. Most the car is stock since I poured a lot of money into my teg and that was stolen and later found at a chop shop. But that's a different story. Does anyone have any suggestions if I decide taking my car and not my fiances hoopty Yaris? Last time we took that car to Colorado it was a nightmare going up the rockies. I know my generation accord is slow but are they better suited than a 1.5L automatic yaris for long drives across the country? Plus our cars are way more spacious and comfortable. I'm mainly worried about the transmission and the winding noise coming from the timing belt area where the tensioner is. Is going up any steep terrain bad for our auto trannys? It's a 4cyl. I take care of my car religiously and I just want to be safe. Sorry for the long post! I tried to make it very short. Any input would be appreciated guys!

*edit*
The only problem is my mechanic never changed the tensioner! He said they were still good, and who ever owned the car before me changed it out and there was no need at the time to replace them. (I know!) It's been making a winding noise a year later and he said the belt needs to stretch out. Unfortunately I took his advice and waited too long and the shop went under new ownership. Do I have to replace the tensioner since it's making a winding noise? I do a lot of highway miles back and forth from Vegas to Cali and never had a problem since the car started making that winding noise a year ago. It sounds like I have a turbo. My only worry is during this long trip I'm afraid it could get worse? Any advice?

98 Honda Accord 4Cyl Coupe/Auto 172k

 

Get the noise fixed.