Butcher

Yeah, I think I will disconnect the cable and try to see what is moving freely and what isn't. Hopefully it's an easy fix. This isn't really related (or maybe it is...?) but my car has a really awkward accelerator. It was the very first thing I noticed when I test drove it. I'm used to it now, but it's like it has a bit of slack in the cable, then it stops and it's really heavy! Like a button. Keeping that in between point, needed for good clutch control, is a skill I'm still refining 3 years on.... Is that just my motor, or do we all have this problem? First thing I did was tighten up the cable to take up any slack, but it didn't seem to help much. Despite their reliability, I've not found these to be the most refined cars, and I just put it down to that.

Anyone had this? Started for me a few months back. Sitting at the lights and the car's doing 3.5k revs! Pleased I got the exhaust fixed when I did... Kept this up for a while until I pulled over a few miles down the road. Pushed the spring back on the throttle body and it was fine again. Anyway, I oiled and greased the spring on the throttle body, gave the exposed end of the cable a clean. It kept doing it occasionally, so I cleaned this up a few times. Which maybe helped, but it's still doing it. Last few days it has been even worse. Although it only seems to be sticking for a few seconds at a time now, it can go up to 6k revs between gear changes! New cable needed maybe?

Well, the interior trim got removed.... I doubt it'll be going back on. Anyway, I could've kicked myself once I'd done all this and figured out what the problem was... If anyone has this problem, try this first..! Having exhausted all possibilities, even after taking the trim off, seeing no problems, and releasing it no bother. I got out, locked it, and it did it again. And after a bit of puzzling it dawned on me. It was the pull lever not releasing fully, effectively disabling the lock. ALL I had to do, was push the lever forward a few millimetres before unlocking it. Trim is off now anyway! So it got greased up. Must get a little bit of condensation around there, because the lock itself was like new. Mechanism on the pull lever was a bit weathered.

It feels like it's not unlocking, as if maybe the mechanism has become detached somewhere. Any ideas? And does anyone know how to remove the interior trim without a chainsaw? I need to use the tailgate on a daily basis, so it's pretty important!

I gave up on mine after spending two weekends upside down in the footwell. Followed all the instructions, and there's some good guides on here and elsewhere, but just couldn't get it to work. Not all Civics are wired up the same either, which adds further complication. But worth a go. I think it's one of those things...I'm not really incompetent with this kinda stuff, but you'll get it working or you won't. You feeling lucky, punk?

Cheers Jay. I was just reading through a thread there on dist. caps. Think I will take a look at that first.

Since everyone has shiny new leads, I don't suppose anyone is selling their old ones cheap? I'm having some misfire issues and trying to diagnose it without breaking the bank.

Have never seen the engine management light while driving. Doubt the ignition leads have ever been changed... And yes, the fluid looked like clear water. Air-con was my own guess, although I don't know why - I just couldn't think of anything else. Never use it (it doesn't work, despite re-gassing last year), but it has been on a few times recently....in the vague hope that maybe it would just take a year to settle in!

Thanks for the advice. Unless it gets any worse I doubt I'm gonna catch it while it's misfiring. It's only been a couple of minutes at a time. Twice in about 300 miles. Can you check error codes on these things? Any electrical faults should be recorded, right?

I don't think it's a fuel mixture or anything. It's a proper judder/vibration. So possibly a cylinder not firing. I didn't have it down as that straight away, but the more I think about it the more sense it makes. Not sure if I put my foot to the floor, but tried giving it more power, and it wasn't happy.

So, last week. Got in the car, which was cold (had been parked up for an hour). Driving off, got up to about 50mph. Then all of a sudden.....turbulence! I checked the speedo again. Yup, definitely 50mph. Not 500mph. No cloud cover. Definitely not turbulence. Then it went. Had a mild panic when I got home and seen liquid dripping from the car, seemingly from the offside front corner. Had a look around, Couldn't see where it was from. Checked the coolant. It was around the min mark on the expansion tank. Bearing in mind it's never been topped up in 4 years, at least...nothing to really cause concern. Checked the oil. Very slightly low. But that's not been checked for a year either. It looks golden, like new. Anyway. Car has been absolutely fine since. Until exactly a week later (albeit different time, different place - this time car is warm), more turbulence! Juddering, loss of power... Given the random nature of it switching on and off at the drop of a hat, I'm guessing it ties in with an electrical misfire? But what are the weak points on these cars, and where do I look? I don't know a lot about them. Do they have coilpacks? Distributor? T'is an Aerodeck MC1. 1.6 SOHC. Incidentally I replaced the plugs about a month before this first happened.

Been using wiperblades.co.uk own brand aeros for the past few years and they do the job pretty well and only cost about a tenner. Which is about a third the cost of equivalents. Current set have been on 3 years and are probably due to be replaced (they're just starting to squeak and streak a bit).

Got them off eventually. Looked at every how-to going, tried an impact driver, tried bashing it with a screwdriver, tried bashing it with a nail punch. After hours of trying I got the drill out and the discs were off in 10 minutes. And to top it off I'm coming down with some sort of illness, so spent half the weekend under the car, in the snow, feeling feverish! Might write some more about it when I can be bothered. For now I have new discs, and the handbrake is marginally better - managed to free up the stuck caliper and balanced the cables - but you still have to pull the handbrake just about as hard as you can to stop on a steep 15%ish gradient.

So......how the **** do you get these discs off?

Yeah, I've done the pads before. Learnt about the pistons the hard way!

Tightened the cable not long back. Found some interesting stuff last night about the auto-adjustment on the handbrake though, which seems to have cured issues for a lot of people. I need to take the callipers off to fit the discs anyway, so will take a look at them and re-do the handbrake cable at the same time. If it works I shall be reporting back. Anything I need to know about before fitting the discs? It's a new job for me...

MOT time. And the verdict is not good. Mostly fixable stuff, so that's good. But one of my main concerns is 'Offside rear parking brake recording little or no effort'. I actually noticed this myself last week when I was working on the exhaust, I was able to spin the wheel freely with the handbrake applied. It just doesn't seem to be doing anything at all. From what I know this is a common problem with the Civic. In fact I'm pretty sure I even posted about the handbrake performance once before (although I can't find the post now). All callipers have been serviced by myself within the past year. I removed the rust from the callipers themselves so that the pads could moved freely, and I think I serviced the sliders on the rears too. 95% certain. Tell me there is some way to fix this relatively quickly and easily, preferably without forking out £100s on new brakes. Discs are also reported to be 'excessively fluctuating', but I'm guessing that's completely unrelated.

Had my aircon recharged last summer, and it did something, but never really blew properly cold. Total waste of time basically. But changed my pollen filter too not long back and it made a big difference to the amount of air blowing through, but I've not actually tried the aircon since then. Though I doubt there's much point in this weather, it's gonna be pretty cold whether it's working on not! Mini Discs?? You got Betamax in there too?

Where'ma gonna put me CDs?

You mean I have to lose my centre console?

Two things I really miss in my car: air conditioning, and cup holders. The air conditioning is a faff, but cup holders should be a doddle, no? Did the civic ever come standard with them? Something I could pick up from a breaker. Or is there any decent aftermarket options?

Well, National tyres wanted £120 for back box. No chance! So got my toolbox out and it actually came off pretty easy. Bolts snapped, but hey...made my life easier. I'm now suspicious though, nothing works out that well. Gotta be some issues putting it back on!

Hmm. Might pop in the tyre place. See what the price difference will be...

MOT is due soon, and I need a new back box. And being a cheap skate I'm thinking it can't be hard to fit, can it? On paper it's a doddle. Couple of bolts. Gasket. Loosen, remove, fit, tighten, jobs a good'n. Is that the way exhaust jobs go down? Or is it more like, try to loosen, fail, shout, swear, start kicking it, eventually loosen, snap the remaining good exhaust, then take it to the tyre services for a complete exhaust that you didn't need in the first place.

Cheers guys. Bunged a bit of cardboard in there for the time being to limit the cold air to the radiator. Will take my time and shop around.