With the rising price of gas, I thought it would be a good idea to do a tune up on my 2000 Honda Civic. I have almost 140,000 miles on it. It has been running great, but still. I think the last tune up it had was around 90,000 miles.
I bought new plugs (NGK platinum), wires (NGK), cap, rotor and PCV valve. I popped out my Honda repair guides (Chilton and Haynes), and started reading. I figured out that I would also want the ant-sieze compound and some silicone di-eletric compound as well. So I went and bought some of that too.
I gathered my tools, and realized the sparkplug socket I had sucked. The spark plugs on my Civic are recessed way down inside the engine. And the socket wouldn’t lock onto the extention I had. It didn’t have the little dimples. Also, it didn’t have the little rubber thing to hold the plug. So I headed to Sears, and bought a new 5/8″ Craftsman socket! Sweet! Nothing wrong with new tools!
I gapped all of the new plugs to .039″. The manual said to gap them to .039-.043″. I replaced the spark plugs one at a time. I would remove the old plug. I would coat the threads of the new plug with anti-sieze stuff. The I would shove the plug into my socket, and the rubber thing would hold it. Then I would lower the plug into the recess using the 8 inch extention, and carefully screw it in by hand, careful not to cross thread it. I would screw it in by hand as tight as I could get it, then I would attach the wrench, and turn it one half turn. The spark plug box said 1/2 - 2/3rds of a turn. I reattached the wire to each plug when done.
After getting all the plugs replaced I examined the old plugs. I found they were copper tipped, and the gaps were .054-.056″! Very in need of replacing! I test started the car, and it ran it for a minute just to make sure everything was okay. It was.
I removed the old distributor cap with the wires still attached. I got out the new distributor cap and set it beside the old one. I coated the insides of the boots on the new wires with the silicone di-electric stuff. Then I replaced the old wires with the new wires, on at a time, attaching them to the new distributor cap, instead of the old one.
The rotor was easy to replace. I just removed a single philips head screw, popped the old rotor off, pushed the new one on, and replaced the screw. Then I installed the new distributor cap. The old cap and rotor show definate signs of age with some electrical scarring on the contacts? Points? Electrodes? Whatever! Again, I test started the car, and it ran nice and smooth.
Then I went to install the PCV Valve. I thought this would be the easiest part. Just unplug the old one, and plug in the new one. WRONG! It took a while to find the old one. I found it hidden under everything! Buried! The easiest way to reach appears to be from underneath after removing the oil filter. Ack! I normally get my oil changed at Valvoline Instant Oil Change. Maybe what I will do it make an appointment with Honda to have my next oil change, and have then replace it. The part is cheap. And if the oil filter is off, the work would only take a minute to do. So hopefully it wouldn’t be very expensive. Or mayeb I can find out what Valvoline charges to do it.
My car runs pretty much like before. But Hondas are well engineered, and seem to run pretty well in spite of trashed plugs. Hopefully my gas mileage will improve a little. Or at least the chances of my car dying on the side of the road will be decreased.

Posted by Rob in Whatever on June 24th, 2008 |