** PROBLEMS - SYMPTOMS & DIAGNOSIS LOG **

[Masamune]

Accord Vehicle Info:
1993 Honda Accord SE Auto

Symptom(s):
Oil is slowly leaking from the oil pan at the drain plug.

Cause(s):
My car leaked small amounts of oil for the longest time. As it turned out, I had the wrong washer on the plug. The guy I bought the car from replaced it with a very convincing look-alike. Only the Honda one will work though.

Price(s):
Free. Go to your local honda dealership and ask for a drain plug washer. They should just give it to you. If not, bring about $1.50

Solution:
This is tricky, especially if you want to finish off the oil in your car. Get a CLEAN drain pan, or an empty milk jug (1 gallon) that has been THOUROUGHLY cleaned and dried. Emphasis on dried. Take off your drain plug and quickly pull the old washer off and replace it with the new one. Replace drained oil from milk jug, and be happy your damned oil pan seal isn't bad.

[Masamune]

Accord Vehicle Info:
1993 Honda Accord SE Auto

Symptom(s):
Indicator light doesn't come on when either foglights or defrosters are turned on.

Cause(s):
The beanie-ass light bulb (yes lightbulb, not LED) inside the switch is burnt out.

Price(s):
$1.59 from radioshack. Bring the bulb with you and they should be able to locate a new one for you.

Solution:
Simple. Remove the switch in question, turn it upside-down and find the brown screw thing. Use a flat blade to turn it about 1/8th of a turn to the left. It won't pull out from unscrewing it, you'll have to carefully pry it out with the flatblade screw driver. Uncoil the metal legs that snake through the head and remove dead bulb. Replace with new one and trim legs down to similar length. Replace into switch and plug switch back into car.

As an alternative, you can also get a complete bulb assembly from the dealer: it's like $7 or 8. Yes, cost is much higher and you'll wait at least a day (and make two trips ...) because it's 'special order' but you don't have to construct a generic bulb into the old brown rubber holder.

NOTE:
The fog and defrost buttons have an additional bulb, removed similarly, in each switch that lights them up with the dash lights. The hazard button has only a single light in it because presumably you'd KNOW when you hazards are on.

[Honda3002]

D4 light blinking one day out of blue.

93 accord Lx sedan/Automatic

Cause

D4 light blinking one day. Car would not go unless down shift manually. Had car towed to dealer to find out tranny fluid was burnt and needed replace.

Solution

changed trans fluid myself and used 1qrt of royal purple the rest were honda trans fluid. Shifts like a dream. Plus made and put in a trans cooler myself.

Cost
Royal Purple $ 6.00
Honda trans $ 4.50 each
3/8" cooper tubing 10 ft. from hardware store $5.00

[DjSpeedy]

Problem:

Put the car in park(auto) and the console light would go on after a few minutes. Worse in the cold.

Solution:

Took the whole console area apart. Apllied liberal amount of electrical cleaner,let dry. Added di-electric grease to the slider and all the wires and connecters.

Cost:

4 bucks for the cleaner
8 bucks for the grease
Worth doing before you run into this problem.

[HondaFan81]

Accord Vehicle Info:

1991 EX manual

Symptom:

Engine revs only to ~3500 rpm in each gear, then fuel cuts off (feels like you ran into a wall). Check engine light is on.

Cause:

Fuel injector wiring is bad/cut, etc or the injector connector is removed/damaged.

Price:

N/A

Note:

I purposely removed cylinder #3 injector connector because that cylinder is dead/no compression. I figure I'd save on gas No worries though, this car will have a built F22 all-motor setup in its near future (different block & head).

[sd93accordEX]

vehicle:

1993 Accord EX Auto

Problem:

Car will not start on cold days (+38 degrees or less). It will crank over, but no fire. The temps were single digit and lower.

Fix:

I got it troubleshot down to the distributor ignition module. I replaced it and it's all good to go. It's been just as cold today (-3 up to 9 above) and the car has started every time.

Cost: $70 from NAPA

Time: 30 to 60 mins

[accord91]

Vehicle Info:

1991 EX Automatic

Symptom:

Speedometer stopped working, Green "s" for sport indicator would start flashing after 30 sec of driving.

Cause:

Bad vehicle speed sensor

Fix & Price:

110$ for the sensor of OEM Honda part or cheaper if you get good used part from working Accord.

Its located in the top rear of the transmission next to the firewall under the intake near the rear coolant neck of the lower radiator hose.

[HondaFan81]

Accord Vehicle Info:

1991 DX Accord 5-spd

Symptom(s):

Battery is okay and battery cable condition is OK. When you turn key, it will not attempt to crank over at all. Starter checked out fine as I tested it individually and removed from the engine.

Cause(s):

Negative (ground) battery cable was loose because my battery has no battery tie-down and wiggled itself loose from the battery getting jumbled around while driving.

Price:

No money spent on the fix, however I plan to get a new battery for self-comfort.

[93CB7]

Heater blower motor diagnosis

Accord Vehicle Info:

1990-1993 all

Symptom:

No fan any speeds

Cause:

Fuse, Relay, Switch, Fan. One of these has failed.

Price:

Fan at the salvage yard was $35
I called the local Honda dealership, with 6.5% tax they quoted me $395.55 parts and labor to replace the fan.

Note:

The fuse is in the underhood fuse block - visual inspection.
The relay is in the dash fuse block (not behind the fuse block access panel... it's up a little further, about 6 inches, it's the one in the middle) - Ohm test the two silver terminals.
Switch - If the A/C light comes on the switch can be assumed to be good.
Fan - This is the most common point of failure. It is difficult to remove, but easy to test. Behind the passanger side kick panel is 3 wire harnesses that do differant things in relation to the heater and A/C system. The center one is the power for the fan (see picture). Run lead wires off of each of the two terminal on the middle harness to a battery. If the fan is good it will spin. If it's bad, well, it won't spin.

[deserthonda]

Symptom

Oil level would decrease more than normal. Engine would run fine. When coming to stops after engine had been running, this burning oil odor would flow in through the vents into the cabin and sometimes like a smokey haze. If you would look at your oil filter, around the base you would see oil leaking around it causing you to think it may be the oil filter leaking.

solution

oil filter housing o-ring

[HondaFan81]

Accord Vehicle Info:

1991 EX manual

Symptom:

Suspension completely checks out to be fine (considering everything has been restored). At lower speeds it is not as noticeable, but about 55+ mph it is definitely apparent that upon acceleration (foot on gas pedal), you feel wabbling-like vibration. A portion of this vibration is translated to the steering wheel.

Cause:

Driver-side inner CV joint is worn. All CV boots were not torn/ripped, this joint just happened to get worn over time is all. You can test it by jacking up the front-end and push/pull in the up/down direction, not side-to-side.

Price:

$53.88 remanufactured CV shaft @ Advance Auto Parts ($35 core).

[deserthonda]

oil leak at oil pan plug repair

Problem:

This will permenantly repair the oil drip issue from the oil pan plug after it has been stripped, no need to replace the oil pan.

Fix:

You need a time-sert kit # 1415 from Matco tools
inserts 14 by 1.5
all the instructions will be included in the kit..

You also need a permanent oil valve, it is spring loaded, so you never have to remove it, you can get the valve at,,,
http://www.fumotovalve.com/ ....or 1-425-869-7771.... the valve you need is F-106..

I have done dozens of these and they work great, you can also install these instead of the regular plug , thus avoiding future complications,, especially if you take the car to those quick lube places..

Here is what the time sert kit looks like

http://www.timesert.com/html/mtrcsert.html

[93CB7]

Oil leak

Accord Vehicle Info:

1992-1993 EX and SE

Symptom:

Oil leak around oil filter

Cause:

Engine oil cooler o-ring failed.

Price:

The o-ring is a couple of dollars + lost oil unless you change the oil and filter while you are down there any way.

Note:

1. remove oil filter
2. remove center oil cooler bolt using a 30mm socket
3. remove old o-ring
4. clean-up engine oil cooler with brake cleaner
5. apply some white lithium grease to o-ring mounting surface on engine oil cooler to hold the o-ring in place while refastening bolt
6. get the o-ring into its groove on engine oil cooler
7. put the center oil cooler bolt back on; snug like the oil filter - not super tight
8. put the oil filter on; new one or reuse the old on. It's up to you.
9. top off the oil level
10. start the engine to do a pressure check; look for leaks

[93CB7]

Vehicle has no electricity

Accord Vehicle Info:

1990-1993 All

Symptom:

No lights, no nothing

Cause:

Negative battery cable has corroded down where it attaches to the block because the last few inches aren't covered.

Price:

Ground cable assenbly $35

[f22-dohc]

vehicle:

1990 Accord EX 5spd JDM f22b

Problem:

car starts up, idles fine, sputters/bogs/misfires, no CEL

Cure:

change spark plug wires,

Cost:

50-80 bucks