Honda Civic - Top tips for looking after your motor

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Mon 18 Apr 2011 21:43
Honda Civic - Top tips for looking after your motor - JonL

Hi, I have just purchased a 2010 Honda Civic 1.8 petrol and we hope to keep the car for 5 + years. What are the backroomers top tips for looking after the car and preventing corrosion\wear & tear?

Thanks

Jon

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Mon 18 Apr 2011 23:45
Honda Civic - Top tips for looking after your motor - gordonbennet

Most people will think this is a waste of time and effort, but my 15 year old MB puts 5 year old cars to shame for underside condition.

First thing to do is give that underside (and underbonnet lower body avoiding electrics as much as poss) a good wash, hose out the wheelarches and in all nooks and crannies you can get to, get rid of the salty crud that will be lying all round. Give the brake calipers and near suspension parts a good wash off too, and a good hose down of the radiator and front end, and dont forget the tail end of the exhaust either, this should be done every spring, but only a handful of people do it, and the rest winge when their brakes seize up.

When dry jack it up, have the wheels off, thorough inspection of everything in sight, if you are so minded remove pads, lubricate the pistons with brake grease, and the back of the pads with coppaslip, also lubricate any sliding parts of the calipers, and handbrake cables/pivots etc.

Check brake pipes for corrosion, there shouldn't be any but exposed ones likely to suffer could do with a wipe of grease.

If the calipers themselves are starting to corrode, clean up with a wire brush and a coat of Hammerite will see them looking good for years, i use black.

Check the exhaust system for rust, if you find any a rub down and paint with chiminea or similar heatproof paint will help prevent *outside* corrosion, similarly Hammerite any brackets that look as if they could do with it.

If you don't mind getting filthy a good slosh round with warm Waxoyl won't do any harm at all to everything you can get to underneath.

Obvious about good servicing, keep to the makers specified service schedule as a minimum.

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Tue 19 Apr 2011 03:29
Honda Civic - Top tips for looking after your motor - unthrottled
Wow! That is thorough!

I would only be concerned about exposed components that move. The actual undercarriage of modern cars has pretty good corrosion resistance as it is. I agree with Gordon in regards to keeping a close eye on brakes and suspension compents but, unlike Gordon, I wouldn't worry about surface rust on shafts, track rod ends etc. It looks bad but isn't likely to seriously affect structural integrity.

Exhausts tend to rust from the inside out-I wouldn't worry about them rusting on the outside.

One of the best things you can do for a car is to actually use it! This sounds obvious but with high fuel prices, a lot of cars are not being used as they were designed. If you are a ...er...cautious driver!, try to get in the habit of occcasionally braking firmly (where safe). This will get some well needed heat into the brakes keeping pads and discs nice and clean. The same thing applies to the engine-cars are designed to cope with short journeys. but they're happier if they get good and hot. The oil will run cleaner.

I like to vary engine speed in an effort to keep an even wear profile on moving parts and get the oil and coolant flow rates up occasionally.

A wet car will dry off much more quickly if left outside than if it is garaged...

Avoid 'additives'; conventional oil and petrol have got plenty of 'additives' in already.

Save some pennies-if the handbook says the engine only requires 95 octane, anything over that is a waste of money.

Best tip I ever got was to buy a good chamois and rub the windscreen ands wiper blades as hard as possible. Better than any snake oil in ensuring a smear-free clean window.
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Wed 20 Apr 2011 23:02
Honda Civic - Top tips for looking after your motor - JonL

Thanks for the suggestions. Take your point about using the car, I lilke to give them an italian tune up from time to time, I was of the opinion that a occasional tank of 97 Ron V Power would be benificial - a bit like adding redex but not as messy but I'm no expert..

I've invested in a microfibre towel rather than chamois and always take it for a run after washing to dry of the brakes.

Thanks for your ideas.

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Wed 20 Apr 2011 23:38
Honda Civic - Top tips for looking after your motor - unthrottled

Use whatever fuel it asks for, but please not redex! Petrol is a good solvent and will 'clean' the injectors in normal use.

Either the car pings on 95 octane or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then 97 Octane is no use, if it does, then it needs 97 octane all the time. An occasional tank isn't going to leave a nanolayer of intelligent molecules on the engine. Supermarket fuel got a bad rep because it used to contain a lot of sulphur. The sulphur attacked certain types of aluminium engine blocks. Nowadays, the sulphur is limited to very low levels in all fuels.

The sale price of petrol is mainly tax and VAT. If additives made a marked improvement in performance, they would be added as standard practice-with only a small increase in price.

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