Do it Yourself Archive

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K&N Filter Charger Cleaning

By
Bart Piotrowski
– June 11, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

It’s been a while since I cleaned my K&N Filter Charger so today I decided to do it. In the process I took some pictures for a Do it Yourself article.

6 Easy steps to take your dirty K&N Filter and make it clean again!

k&n filter charger cleaningk&n filter charger cleaning

Step 1 – Unloosen the mounting bracket so you can pull the filter element of the intake tube
k&n filter charger cleaning

Step 2 – Spray the filter element with K&N cleaning solution and let is soak for 10 minutes
k&n filter charger cleaning

Step 3 – Rinse the filter under a faucet from the inside out. This will get the dirt and gunk of the filter
k&n filter charger cleaning

Step 4 – Once the filter is clean shake it off and let it sit in the sun till it’s dry. Do not use compressed air to dry it off because it could damage the filter elements
k&n filter charger cleaning

Step 5 – Spray the filter with the K&N Filter oil and make sure the oil has penetrated all the dry spots
k&n filter charger cleaning

Step 6 – Mount the K&N Filter Charger back on your Honda Civic and your ready to go
k&n filter charger cleaning

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, Do it Yourself, Intake
5

How To Do an Oil Change on a 92-95 Honda Civic

By
Bart Piotrowski
– January 24, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Click Here!
Tools needed: Oil drain pan, car jack, jack stand, 17mm wrench, rag or paper towels, oil and oil filter




Step 1 – Place a jack under the appropriate jack place on the drivers side of the car and raise it up. Once your Civic is raised place a jack stand under the frame for added safety.




Step 2 – Place an empty oil drain pan under your Civic and use a 17mm wrench to loosen the drain plug and let the oil drain now.




Step 3 – Loosen off the old oil filter from the back of the engine from underneath of the car. Once the old filter is out take a new filter and coat the rubber seal with new oil and screw it back on the engine.




Step 4 – Tighten the oil drain plug back up with 17mm wrench and wipe off any excess oil around oil pan. Then remove the oil drain pan and jack from under the car and lower the car back down.




Step 5 – Add 3.5 Liters of oil into the engine using a funnel so not to spill. Oil Grade will depend on where you live and what temperatures you drive in but I use 5W30 or 10w30.




Step 6 – Check oil level on the dipstick to make sure you are at the full mark.




Step 7 – Start the car and watch your oil light come on and it should go off in a couple seconds. If the light does not turn off  turn the engine off right away and double check the oil level.



Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, Do it Yourself, Engine, Oil and Lubrication
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Rear Drum Brake Job

By
Bart Piotrowski
– November 22, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

This page is about doing a rear drum brake job on 1993 Honda Civic.

How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 1 to 4

How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 5 to 8

How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 9 to 12

Tags: 1993 Honda Civic Project, 92-95 Honda Civic, Brakes, Do it Yourself
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Preping Your Honda Civic For Winter Weather

By
Bart Piotrowski
– August 30, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Fall is upon us really soon and our great sunny weather with hot tempertures and great visability will be replaced with rainy cold days with dark and low visibility conditions. This is when we must change our driving habits and adjust to the fall and winter driving style and leave more room between us and other cars in front of us.  We can only control so much while driving on the streets so taking extra precautions is always a great thing. By precautions I mean making sure your car is in good standing order for the fall and winter weather.

Things to check on your car for night time driving would be making sure your lights are all working including headlights, backup lights and especially brake lights. Changing light bulbs is usually quite easy and replacement bulbs can be bought at all auto parts stores for just a few dollars. With rain and snow hitting the streets you will want to make sure your tires are properly inflated to 32-34psi and that the tread is still sufficient enough to keep you from hydroplaning. If you can afford it a pair of snow tires is always a good thing and having all four is even better. Swapping summer tires with mags to steel rims with snow tires gives you more grip and saves the nice finish on your expensive aluminum or chrome wheels.

Wipers should be replaced once a year before the start of fall as this is when they will be used the most and give you the best visibility in heavy rain. Your wipers rubber insert tends to crack and degrade with extreme heat conditions during the summer so replacement is crucial. Some drivers forget this and use their wipers for 2 to 3 years till their visibity is so poor that they finally have no choice but replace them, but really why wait so long for such an important piece of your car during rainy season. Topping up our windshield wiper fluid is a good thing too as I know many drivers go through this very fast. Windshild wiper fluid is reasonibly cheap and usually costs less then $5 for a 4 liter bottle at most parts stores but don’t wait till you run out as gas stations charge a lot more. You can use a glass cleaner like windex to clean your windows from the inside so when they do fog up they are easier to see through until you defog them with your heater system.  

Under the hood you want to check things like engine oil, tranny oil if you have a automatic tranny, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and clutch fluid. If you haven’t replaced your radiator coolant in the last 3 years now is a good time to do it. Old fluid will cause premature water pump failure, poor cooling and will not hold up as well under sub zero tempertures. Depending on the area that you live make sure your antifreeze to water ratio is proper to give you the best cooling  and so it doesn’t freeze. Usually it’s a 50/50 mix or in really cold places 70% antifreeze and 30% water will keep it from freezing. 100% antifreeze is not really recommended as this will severely corrode your water pump, block and head.

During fall and winter try to keep your gas gauge above the 1/4 mark as running out of gas in the middle of a snow storm or a torrential down poor is not a happy experience. Traffic tends to be a lot more congested with lots more waiting and idling so having that gas gauge above the 1/4 mark will keep you at ease and less stressed.

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, Do it Yourself
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I Found A Complete How To Turbocharge Your Honda

By
Bart Piotrowski
– August 20, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Today I was looking into more turbo installation info and found another great turbo installation writeup that covers everything from start to finish. The more research you do before installing your turbo the better it is so check out this install and get some pointers. Click Here for the link to the Complete How To Turbocharge Your Honda Install.

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, Do it Yourself, Turbo
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How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 9 to 12

By
Bart Piotrowski
– August 11, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Step 9 - To assemble the brakes back together follow steps 1 to 8 backwards until its all together.

Step 1 to 4 and Step 5-8

In the image below you can see the difference between a new brake shoe, a used brake shoe and an entirely used brake shoe that has no more lining left for effective braking.

Step 10 - Top up the brake fluid reservoir with DOT 3 brake fluid and start bleeding the brakes. To bleed the brakes get your friend to pump the brakes 3-4 times and then hold the brake pedal firmly. Once your friend is holding the brake pedal, connect a clear tube or a brake bleeding kit to the bleeding nipple at the back of the wheel cylinder and then use a 8mm box end combination wrench to loosen the nipple. You should see brake fluid flow out with some air bubble along the way. Once the brake pedal reaches the floor tighten the nipple up so no fluid is able to leak out. Repeat the pedal pumping and bleeding till no more air bubble show up in the clear tube, but check on your reservoir every 3-4 sessions of bleeding.  Do this about 4-6 times till your satisfied with the results and then tighten the nipple backup. Be careful when loosening and tightening the bleeding nipple as not to round the nut so make sure your using a box end combination wrench, not pliers or an open end wrench.

Step 11 - Once the brakes are bled use a flat screw driver to adjust the shoes using the self adjuster. Then put back the drum on the hub, spin it and see if it drags. Keep adjusting it till you have a slight drag on the drums. Now remember this is suppose to be a slight drag not a total stop.

Step 12 - Once the drums are adjusted you can go inside the car and adjust the e-brake. To get to the e-brake adjusting screw you need to first take off the rear center console. Under the e-brake handle there is a small screw cover,  grab a flat head screwdriver and pop that cover up. Then use a Philips head screwdriver to unscrew the 2 bolts. Once the bolts are out slide the whole rear center console towards the back seats to loosen it from the floor. Then take a 12mm combination wrench and adjust the e-brake adjustment screw. You can check if the e-brake is getting tighter by lifting it up. It is recommended to adjust the e-brake so it clicks 6 to 10 times. You can check this by releasing the e-brake all the way down and then slowly lift it up and count the clicks. Once the job is done check everything over and go for a slow test drive to check the brakes are working correctly. If you’ve done a proper brake bleeding process the pedal should get firm really quick, if not then you might have to repeat the brake bleeding process again.

How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 1 to 4
How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 5 to 8

Tags: 1993 Honda Civic Project, 92-95 Honda Civic, Brakes, Do it Yourself
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How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 5 to 8

By
Bart Piotrowski
– August 10, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Step 5 - Using pliers release the bottom spring carefully so it doesn’t fly away.

Step 6 - While removing the brake assembly away from the hub, use some pliers to pull off the e-brake cable.

Step 7 - Once the brake assembly is out check the wheel cylinder for any brake fluid leaks on both sides of the boots. If it’s leaking you will have to get it fixed or replaced with a new one.

Step 8 - There is a retaining clip on one side of the brake shoes, you will have to remove this before disassembling the brake parts. Clean all brake parts with a rag and assemble with new brake shoes. Then clean the self adjuster and re-grease it with an anti-seize grease.

How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 1 to 4
How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 9 to 12

Tags: 1993 Honda Civic Project, 92-95 Honda Civic, Brakes, Do it Yourself
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How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 1 to 4

By
Bart Piotrowski
– August 9, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Before doing a rear brake job order the shoes and drums and get your tools all organized. If your drums are within limits can get them turned at a machine shop and reuse them but for my brake job it cost me $10 more to just buy new ones so I went with that route as new parts are always better.

This article will show you how to do a rear brake job on a 1993 Honda Civic hatchback although this is the same on all rear drum 1992-1995 Honda Civic’s.

Before starting the brake job, secure the front wheels with some wheels stops so the car doesn’t roll. Then raise the vehicle, support it by jack stands and make sure to release the e-brake

Step 1 – Screw in 12mm bolts into the brake drum slowly and evenly, to make sure it comes out straight.

Step 2 – Spray the brake assembly with brake cleaner until all the brake dust has dripped down to the ground. You might have to repeat the process to make sure all the brake components are clean. The cleaner the brake assembly the easier it is to do the job.

Step 3 – Use needle nose pliers to push back and twist the tension pin that holds the brake assembly clip on each side.

Step 4 – Use needle nose pliers to release the spring that sits vertically in the brake assembly. This spring holds the self adjuster from slipping.

How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 5 to 8
How To Do a Rear Brake Job on a 1993 Honda Civic Steps 9 to 12

Tags: 1993 Honda Civic Project, 92-95 Honda Civic, Brakes, Do it Yourself
0

Transmission Removal Step 21 and 22

By
Bart Piotrowski
– July 22, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Step 21 - Support the tranny with an extra floor jack and then unbolt it.

Tools Needed: 17mm Deep Socket Wrench, Floor Jack, 2×4 Piece of wood.

Place a 2nd jack with a piece of 2×4 wood under the tranny. Then get your friend to grab a hold of the rope with some gloves. Once the tranny is supported you can start unbolting the lower front transmission mount using a 17mm socket wrench. Then Tell your friend to hold the rope tight and start unbolting the last 3 top engine mount bolts using a 17mm socket wrench.

Step 22 – Grab the tranny and wiggle it left and right to dislodge it of the engine.

Tools Needed: Gloves

Grab the tranny with your hands and start wiggling it left and right to dislodge it off the engine. Careful not to move the engine to much so it does not fall of the jack support. Once you get the tranny loose, hold it while your friend removes the 2nd jack out of the way and you can slowly lower it to the ground.

Click Here to go back to Transmission Removal Step by Step

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, Do it Yourself, Transmission
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Transmission Removal Step 18, 19 and 20

By
Bart Piotrowski
– July 21, 2008Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Step 18 – Support engine with a floor jack and piece of 2×4 wood

Tools Needed: Floor Jack and a 8-12″ Piece of Good 2×4 Wood

Position the jack under the engine oil pan, and place a piece of 2×4 between the oil pan and the jack. Then gently raise the jack till the piece of 2×4 is touching the oil pan. Make sure you are not jacking up the engine, all your doing it supporting it so it doesn’t drop to the floor when the tranny is dismounted.

Step 19 – Wrap some rope around the tranny for added support later

Tools Needed: 6-10 feet of nylon rope

Wrap the nylon rope around the tranny 2 times for added support later. Make sure it’s not going to fall off the tranny so wrap it front to back.

Step 20 – Unbolt the rear top transmission mount bolt and the top engine to tranny bolts

Tools Needed: 19mm Socket Wrench and 17mm Socket Wrench

Unbolt the top rear tranny mount bolt using a 19mm socket wrench. Then take a 17mm socket wrench and unbolt the top four tranny to engine bolts. Keep track where each bolt is from as one of them has a bracket for the oxygen sensor plug.

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Click Here for Step 21 and 22

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, Do it Yourself, Transmission
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