1997 Honda Accord Revival
Surprisingly, the car started right up, but it was evident that the battery was weak. I tried to shift it into gear to move it but had no luck. It's a manual transmission and it would not go into gear. I used a bit of force but didn't dare try to slam it into gear for fear of further damage. I assumed at the time that the clutch needed replacing. I let the car idle for 15-20 minutes and ran the a/c for a bit. I shut it off and further assessed the visible damage. A couple tires were low on air but not flat. We tried to push it but the wheels were locked. The paint/clear coat was peeling from having baked in the sun for a couple years. My mom had assumed that someone had poured acid on the hood at Halloween, but the sun had just baked it to the point of car sunburn. I've noticed other older Accords with the same problem.
At the same time, I was having a couple friends perform some maintenance on my mom's house. One of them noticed the old, beat up Accord in the driveway and offered to buy it; however, my mother was loathe to part with it. Since he was in desperate need of a car, I suggested that if he got it running he could drive it for a couple months. I figured that that was much better than the car continuing to sit in the driveway and perhaps he would perform a little TLC on it.
I suppose at the time that I had underestimated his need for wheels because he somehow managed to get it into gear and drive it around. Upon being driven, the clutch gradually came back to life but the brakes were shot. He (we'll call him, Dave) changed the oil, changed the manual transmission fluid, and had some other minor repairs done and continued to drive it for a couple months.
He returned the car in late November and I put it in the garage for the winter months. In February, I decided to take a closer look at the Accord to see what I could do to get it back in shape. The first order of business was getting the brakes fixed. I pulled it out of the garage and headed down the driveway. As I approached the road, I hit the brakes and felt the pedal dive to the floor with little resistance. I guess I had forgotten just how lousy the brakes were, and I marveled at how Dave had driven that car for a couple months with almost no stopping power. I learned later that if you anticipated your stop and pumped the brakes some, you could build some pressure and stop a little better.
I got the car to the mechanic's shop without too much difficulty although with a bit of trepidation. I later learned that it also needed a new right front axle and left front wheel bearing. $782 later, I was on my journey to reviving the Accord.
Not too long later, I decided to get a quote on fixing all the baked paint on the Accord. The hood was a complete mess. The roof of the car had a small spot where the clear coat was peeling and the paint was faded. The trunk had a similar spot, and the driver's side rear door had a small spot. I forget what the total quote was, but it was over $1000. I chose to just have the hood repainted for $397. I've included a picture of the finished product although we just had a bit of rain before it was taken. Having the hood repainted was well worth it except now I want to get the rest of the car done as well.
Since then, I went ahead and changed the coolant. Someone before me had added or changed the coolant with the green antifreeze. This Accord takes the orange/pink stuff (in this case, Zerex Dex Cool Antifreeze). I also changed the spark plugs and spark plug wires. I have a distributor cap and rotor ready to put on as well.
Final repairs include having the timing belt, water pump and the balancer belt replaced and fixing some sort of support rod near the left front tire that was bent in an accident. I went to have the wheels aligned and Mr. Tire tried to sell my new struts claiming that they had gone bad and were affecting the caster on the vehicle. Turns out that struts have nothing to do with the caster and it was the bent support rod that was causing the problem (also causing that tire to wear excessively quick).
Information on the internet seems to differ as to timing belt replacement period on the 1997 Accord. I've seen 90k miles and 105k miles. Either way I'm due at 113k.
It will be nice to get the Accord back in shape. I'm sure this car can go another 113k easy.
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