[sumeethaldankar]

Got the suspension parts overhauled from Deva Bhai yesterday. He charged 1500 bucks for the work. Took about 5 hours for the job. All the components were pulled out except the shockers and inspected. The TRW's have replaced the local stuff. I told Deva about how Straight Line guys would always say that they are not able to adjust the Tie rod/Steering ball joint for alignment. He compared the old tie rod with the TRW one and found that the older one was about a mm or two longer than the new one.

After the work was carried out headed straight to 'Straight line' :-). Trevor did not charge anything for the work and he got the alignment done. The car has now become butter smooth. There is no clunk clunk over speed breakers and the play noise in the tie rods which used to come before while driving even over smooth roads is now gone. All i hear now is the engine note.

Meanwhile the CNG license plate has expired and i will sending it to Suraj for Hyrdotesting. This is where they will pull out the CNG tank and send it for testing. It will take a couple of days to get the tank bank and a months time for the new plate. Suraj Gas will handle the RTO and paper work and i just have to be present for the removal and refitting of the CNG tank.

This sight has become too familiar for me unfortunately.


The broken stablizer link rods. I was not imagining the sounds and the thuds. Initially Deva's mechanic was not convinced the car needed a suspension overhaul as Deva had not taken a test drive and relied on my word.




The tie rod fitted. I would recommend these over the local desi stuff we get. The specs were not proper on the old one and they were a bit bigger than the current TRW. Bought them from spareshub.com.

[sumeethaldankar]

Odo has turned post 90k. Nothing much to update except had given car for 80k service and got a fat bill of 10.6k courtesy the fuel filter. Honda service reminder personnel keep nagging for service due calls so have blocked their nos on my phone. Will unblock them after 6 months when the next service is due. 3 months service interval is too soon than required especially for a out of warranty car.

In the bill you can see Honda personnel have listed out faults etc all of which are not needed to be done except for rear pads which are down to 4mm. They even listed the lower arm joints and bushes as local even though i had changed them from Honda itself which proves they are just doing a cut paste job of things to be done from the old service history.

[sumeethaldankar]

A few updates.
Horn
One thing I had forgotten to mention in my last update that the original set of horns was replaced by Roots for 540 and 150 bucks labor. The older horn set only 1 one was working while the other was honking occasionally only. So decided to do away with the old set. The new ones did not come with the connectors and I had to watch as the mechanic cut away the horn connector and spliced wires to connect the new horn. Hope they don’t short out in the rains.


Overheating
Second issue had occurred in Apr that the car had started to overheat when in dense traffic and in peak afternoon time. I showed it to my mechanic who got the radiator cleaned for 1500 bucks. Post that there was no overheating issue. Coolant was changed to Wurth brand and I have noticed now the car takes a bit more time to reach its operating temp even in peak afternoon heat. What my mechanic observed was that there was a lot of dust on the outside of the radiator and it was rather clean from the inside. He recommended the radiator be dusted off with an air pressure pipe and cleaned with a water spray once a while.


The temp gauge would rise above the halfway mark.




The biggest HASS bill date.
I have been mentioning the jerks while driving the car in gas mode. The CNG guy had diagnosed as the coils being the issue. I overlooked the same due to the exorbitant price tag of a single coil. However off lately I had observed the jerks even in petrol mode. I could feel the engine a bit strained and I knew the time has come to change the coil & the spark plugs. I attempted to buy new coils from a Chinese website however they were unable to deliver the order and I cancelled the order. I tried to see if I could import the plugs from RockAuto.com but after shipping and customs I found I was saving just 1.8 k over the cost against buying from HASS here in Mumbai. So decided not to push it further I got the Ignition coils and the spark plugs replaced from HASS. I got the largest bill ever due to the high cost of these parts however now there is no jerking of the car while driving and I don’t have to resort to antics such as changing gears at higher rpm to mask the jerks etc.


One issue still pending is that the car is still a little bit shuddering in idle (though this was observed just once or twice after the change) and this is due to need of throttle body and IAC valve needing cleaning which I had entrusted to Honda but it seems they don’t do a very good job at it. I will get this done in the next service from my mechanic rather than HASS next time. After the coil and plug change the driving experience has improved to more than 150%. Earlier in CNG the tacho needle would rise lazily but now it moves almost as fast as in petrol mode, this is noticed more when doing rev-matching while down shifting gears as one needs to rev the engine a bit while shifting down a gear at high speed. A major attack on my wallet this was but I have gained more in driving pleasure which was robbed from me all this while.

The Big bill.


The old coils. Most people dream about new cars I was dreaming about new coils for the last few months.



The new coils came in these boxes. Each coil 4k a piece and there are 4 of them.



The spark plugs came at 1023 a piece.





The old spark plugs were shot.

[kunal_kaushal]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Got the suspension parts overhauled from Deva Bhai yesterday.

The tie rod fitted. I would recommend these over the local desi stuff we get. The specs were not proper on the old one and they were a bit bigger than the current TRW. Bought them from spareshub.com.
Attachment 1607559

Hi Sumeet, which company are these from, Talbros or TRW ? because i checked with spareshub and they had Talbros only.

Regards
Kunal

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by kunal_kaushal

Hi Sumeet, which company are these from, Talbros or TRW ? because i checked with spareshub and they had Talbros only.

Regards
Kunal

Hi Kunal these are from TRW brand. They should be still available with spareshub , if not you can call on their support helpline and ask for same. I am sure they will be available.

[kunal_kaushal]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Hi Kunal these are from TRW brand. They should be still available with spareshub , if not you can call on their support helpline and ask for same. I am sure they will be available.

HI Sumeet,

Appreciate your prompt revert, trying to procure TRW ones locally from Delhi ( Have spoken to GHAI Auto Agency and they have confirmed that they will be able to arrange the same by tomorrow morning).

Regards
Kunal

[sumeethaldankar]

Happy Independence day guys. The "ODO" has crossed 97k kms. Closing towards the 100k kms mark in the next few months or so. This Sunday I switched over to Liqui Moly 5W 30 engine oil bought online for 3.8k bucks. Quite frankly I am unable to tell much difference probably because Honda's own OE oil seems to be quite competent however recent reports of Honda switching to 0W20 instead of the regular 0W30 made me go in for the aftermarket oil.

One thing I did notice however now is that when I do a rev match while downshifting from a higher to a lower gear and blip the throttle the needle moves more swiftly than with the OE oil. I guess the Liqui Moly oil is a bit better than the OE but I expected more. Anyways I will continue with same for the next 10k kms at least and won't be going for a oil change sooner unless some issue crops up.

Meanwhile the CNG has conked off. On switching to CNG the car shudders, sputters and feels like it is about to switch off. Driving on petrol for more than a week. Might or might not make some changes in the future. Happy driving in petrol mode for a change. No boring queues, no jerks, no fear of car switching off at idling since then.

Battle scars are visible on her as she ages.


The ODO reached closer to the 100k km mark sooner than I expected.


The Liqui Moly 5W30. Made in Germany. No mind blowing difference was noted. It may change as I have done only <90 kms with the new oil.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

The Liqui Moly 5W30. Made in Germany. No mind blowing difference was noted. It may change as I have done only <90 kms with the new oil.

Give it some time to settle. You'll get to see its true nature once you cover around 500kms on this oil.

Some queries:

1. What was the color of this oil?? Was is green as its advertised??

2. Did you get this from Amazon? Which seller?? Asking because many people have got fakes from Amazon. I trust only a couple of sellers on Amazon like Cloudtail, TAMS, Color Zone, Aarsons(Too expensive) etc

Regards,
Shashi

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Give it some time to settle. You'll get to see its true nature once you cover around 500kms on this oil.

Some queries:

1. What was the color of this oil?? Was is green as its advertised??

2. Did you get this from Amazon? Which seller?? Asking because many people have got fakes from Amazon. I trust only a couple of sellers on Amazon like Cloudtail, TAMS, Color Zone, Aarsons(Too expensive) etc

Regards,
Shashi

Yes I think it may show it's true colors once it settles. As I mentioned already the engine has become a bit more revvy while doing rpm matching. The color is green like those of coolants. I bought it from Amazon and the package everything seemed genuine. The seller is aancor and has a 86% rating on Amazon.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

The color is green like those of coolants.

Liqui Moly engine oils have weird colors. Last year, my friend bought an oil which had MoS2 additive in it, and was therefore dark black right out of the can. We had a tough time convincing the mechanic that it wasn't a "burnt" engine oil. He'll go crazy if I show him this green stuff.

Regards,
Shashi

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

He'll go crazy if I show him this green stuff.

Once upon a time Toyota's mineral engine oil 15W-40 was blue (like a coolant) in colour. Wonder what he'd have to say about that.

This is one of the reasons the owner had to stick to Toyota's OEM oil (manufactured by Savita Chemicals under license from Idemitsu) since a different coloured oil was a clear sign the owner wasn't maintaining it according to warranty requirements.

The current 5W-30 OEM mineral oil is amber in colour.

[skdking]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Happy Independence day guys. The "ODO" has crossed 97k kms. Closing towards the 100k kms mark in the next few months or so. This Sunday I switched over to Liqui Moly 5W 30 engine oil bought online for 3.8k bucks. Quite frankly I am unable to tell much difference probably because Honda's own OE oil seems to be quite competent however recent reports of Honda switching to 0W20 instead of the regular 0W30 made me go in for the aftermarket oil.

Heartiest Congratulations, Sumeet.

[sumeethaldankar]

Last week’s Mumbai flood saw me stuck in a massive traffic Jam for a pretty long duration. I had never in my 20+ years of driving experience been stuck for such a long time in my car. I must have switched the car on off at least 50 times during the period while I crawled on Mumbai streets towards home. Thankfully the 10 year Civic held and delivered. There was not a whimper from the car and she performed consistently and “sailed” through (pun intended) the darkest parts of the journey. I had to drive her through half wheel high water to reach home safely.


I decided to give the car to Honda for a general checkup at Linkway on Sat. A lot of flood hit cars had come and Linkway had their hands full. Also there was some creaking noise which I reported that I wanted attended. Honda gave a report stating the A/C is not working and that the creaking sound is due to the dampers. Since they were busy and there was no other issue (touchwood) with the car I asked them to ignore the sound for now and give the car back. Total bill was around 1.5k



The report stated the usual minor ailments with the car and that the AC was not working along with a “RHS engine mounting weak” remark. I was surprised as this was supposed to be Honda’s re-designed mount and was to last a longer time. Nevertheless I am not going in for a change till it displays all of its known symptoms.

I took the car on Mon to the AC guy who diagnosed that the cooling coil had gone kaput. The non OE Coil was 3.5 years old and served 55k kms and I guess it was time up for a change. Did not go in for a OE coil as it was quoted 11k just for the part. The current Shoma make costed 12k including everything. Total damage for the AC was 7k with 4.2k for the coil. The AC is now back to normal. Earlier I had though the issue was due to the water surfing that I had done since the outside temp gauge was stuck at 26. This was proved wrong when the temp gauge started working fine once the Sun decided to shine.

The old coil undergoing a leak test. Observe the leaks in the form of bubbles.





The old coil Showa make (Made in Thailand) served for 3.5 years and close to 55k kms.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Give it some time to settle. You'll get to see its true nature once you cover around 500kms on this oil.

The green stuff has started to show what it is made of. The car is so silky smooth I am just loving to drive it again. The oil coupled with the fact that I have adjusted the spark plug gaps for petrol mode has made the car smooth.. I just have to touch the go pedal and I can feel the response. Looks like I am going to be Liqui Molly customer for life. I doubt if i ever will go back to Honda for a oil change. Initially I was like what is this oil all about but after driving around 900 kms with the oil I understand why.

[sumeethaldankar]

Finally below happened yesterday. A lot sooner than expected when I had bought the car.



Made it to 100k



Meanwhile still sitting on the fence whether to fix the CNG or not even at today's fuel prices heart does not want to go back to run the Civic on the alternate fuel. The car has given decent mileage as can be seen from the figures. All inputs are from full tank to full tank. I usually tank up on the last 2-3 dots on the Civic. The figures are healthy for 1.8 litre engine. One point to note is I do not drive in general timings and have to work and travel during non peak hours eg I leave home from office at 11:00 PM so I encounter less traffic. The worst figure of 7 kmpl was when I was stuck in traffic during Aug's floods situation in Mumbai.