A year of owning my 1998 Honda City; Ownership experience

The Honda City recently got a new garage mate in the form of a Ford Endeavour 3.2 AT.

BHPian AnInternetUser recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Here's one of my favourite pictures of the car.

The '98 City completed one full year in my garage a few days ago, and coincidentally this past year has been filled with some rather overwhelming changes in my life. So it might sound like a month or two worth of updates, but most of what you'll read took place between the end of August 2023 to March 2024. In my original post, I shared a brief list of items I felt needed work. Here are some reasons behind why I felt that way and what was ultimately done:

From what I saw and heard, the car was in very good condition when I bought it. However, it was clear that the brakes and suspension needed work just 100 metres into the test drive.

While it’s easy for us car enthusiasts to spot these flaws, I’ll share why I felt this way for those readers who might not be as mechanically inclined. I’m not an experienced technician by any stretch, just a curious learner and a keen observer. Here is what I felt during my initial test drive:

• Observation: a quick and easy step to see if the front steering/suspension is tight without even driving the car is to semi-aggressively wiggle the steering wheel back and forth, say by about an inch or two. It’s safe to expect some repair work if you hear a knocking sound or feel something is loose or clunking. My experience says it could be anything from a broken component to worn bushings. In addition to hearing a clunk, the entire front felt noticeably "loose", almost as if it'll fall off entirely if I go over a rough patch at anything higher than crawling speeds.
  Cause: weak shock absorber mounts and worn tie rods. Both items were replaced.
• Observation: notice how the steering feels. Cars of this era came with a hydraulic power steering system which is usually not as light as electric units found in cars today, but I still feel these units can be a lot smoother and lighter than most people imagine. So if the wheel feels stiff, it could mean that there’s work required in the steering system. This car's steering felt stiff, not too bad, but certainly far from how smooth it should be.
  Cause: there were a few flaws with the steering system. For starters, the power steering pump’s pulley was bent. The pipe that takes the fluid from the pump to the rack was leaking, too. And to top things off, the rack itself had a couple of leaks. The rack was repaired, while all other components were replaced. As of writing this, the rack leak has resurfaced so I will be looking for replacements.
• Observation: a car’s should feel tight. Bite = how sharply the car reacts to the pedal. If the pedal feels spongy or you feel little to no resistance while pressing the brake pedal, it’s important to get the system serviced. Not only did my car’s brakes feel spongy and lacked bite, but the stopping capacity was alarmingly poor.
  Cause: the brake rotors were worn and needed resurfacing. Naturally, I had the pads replaced, too. Braking performance was better, but not ideal, so I had a brake fleed done by a Honda ASC which helped tremendously. The car now stops on a dime.
• Observation: no modern car should feel like a trampoline or bouncy castle. If the ride is unusually bouncy over bumps or after going over a speed breaker, chances are that the shock absorbers need to be replaced. The rear left felt very unsettled and reminded me of the old video where Jeremy Clarkson shared his concerns with American cars from the '70s.
  Cause: rear left shock absorber needed replacing. This is still pending.
• Observation: the tyres were very old and needed to be replaced ASAP. Two tyres were almost entirely bald and had some cracks. There was no traction even on mildly dusty roads, and the feel left a lot to be desired. It's important to look at the manufacturing date. This is printed in the format "XXYY" where XX stands for the week and YY stands for the year - 1224 would mean the tyre is from the 12th week of 2024. Also, look for cracks on the tyre. Gauging a tyre's health by just measuring the tread left is not enough.
  Action: replaced all four tyres with Yokohama Earth-1s. Pricey, but good tyres are a non-negotiable.

The '98 with a friend from Japan.

An unexpected breakdown

Mechanical work aside, I had the car serviced, the details of which I’ve shared in the initial post, too.

It might not be a wing that's large enough for a dinner plate, but it is a spoiler big enough for a couple of coffee cups!

The car drove exceptionally well after the work, but I faced an unexpected breakdown a few months after: I had gone for a night drive with a friend and we stopped to take pictures. I thought of heading home after, and was looking forward to letting the car breathe a little on the empty roads that were to come. My friend, too, had booked an Uber. However, my heart sunk as soon as I sat in the car and tried to turn on the ignition.

There were no lights at all. Nothing on the instrument cluster, no radio, no clock, nada. If it were a manual, this would be a slight hiccup and something I wouldn’t really worry about since we can easily jump start the car. However, being an automatic, our options were limited. Under normal circumstances, I would be okay with parking the car at the side of the road and not lose precious sleep over it, literally. But these weren’t normal circumstances, since the windows were rolled down and the car wasn’t fully in the emergency lane. It was now around 0200h and I was thinking of friends who might have jumper cables on them to help me (this was also a good reminder to buy jumper cables, something which I still haven’t done). Before I could call someone, however, my friend’s Uber driver came to our rescue. He popped open the hood and noticed that the battery cables were loose. He fiddled with them and boom - the car came to life. He asked me to keep the rpms high in case the car stalls (it almost did after we started it).

One of the pictures from that night...

Warm days made even warmer

Another problem I faced was with the AC resistor. One fine (and warm) day, the car’s AC stopped working at speeds 1 and 2. And given how strong the AC is, speed 3 was extremely cold. I did not have the time to go hunt for the part and since it wasn’t a major mechanical failure, I drove the car without the AC for a few months. When I finally had the time to get it fixed, I spent some time hunting for the part, which came with its own set of challenges.

All my car AC work is done by an FNG who said he could source a compatible resistor, but it would cost some INR 1,100. Apparently, these used to be INR 200-300 parts not too long ago, but prices have been hiked to the moon lately. He said these parts are usually not very reliable either and I would be better off trying to source on from Honda. I’d tried to get the parts from Honda earlier without much luck, but I thought I’d chase them this time. So after multiple calls and requests, they managed to find one single piece at a Pune dealership. While the part itself was just INR 283, they charged me INR 400 for shipping, which I was okay with.

"Fresh" from the factory

A simple part that can make driving unbearable during warmer months. While I can't find a picture of the old one, it looked much darker, didn't have the white insulation (or whatever it is) and felt brittle.

A fresh set of tyres

Fresh rubber!

May god bless Mumbai's perpetually under-construction roads. This is what ultimately prompted me to get the tyres replaced... The car was out of commission for a good 3-4 weeks due to the puncture. When I finally switched to the spare tyre, I found that was in even worse condition. The home installation really helped!

The car uses 175/70 R13 tyres which aren’t very common. I decided to get either Yokohama Earth1s (same as the outgoing set), Bridgestone Sturdos, or Continental UC6s. I was thinking of getting the Contis but went with the Yokohamas instead. I spent a couple of weeks checking with most stores in Mumbai and even checked out some online vendors, but found that Premji Tyres offered the best deal. Cherry on the top: for a nominal fee, they agreed to install and balance the new tyres at home + provided free alignment whenever I went to the shop. Process was extremely smooth and their van is well-equipped.

Two-week old tyres - the newest set that I could find.

A quick look at their home installation setup van. The wheel balancing machine was next to this.

Next Update

Soon after all the work was done, we embarked on a 410-km road trip in the '98 City. I will share more about this trip in the next update. Until then, here's a picture of the car's newest stablemate!

Yin and yang?

Thanks for reading!

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