Alrighty! Did a few more things with Betty.

New Struts
Installed new KYB Strut-Plus up front and struts in the rear. I torqued them to factory specs, which are 33 fit-lbs for the top and 47 ft-lbs for the lower, which didn't feel tight enough to me. A few days later, and sure enough, they loosened themselves up. I then torqued them to 80 ft-lbs and they're great.

Had some trouble with the first front one I did. The CV axle kept popping out of the transaxle (I might have terminology wrong; I'm no true mechanic). I had to wait till my wife got home to have her jiggle the opposite side while I pushed in.



It would have taken only 5 hours to do all 4. Would be even shorter if Honda didn't make the driver side top mounting bolt so difficult to access. Hah!

Have to remove the plastic cowling between the hood and windshield, as well as the wipe arms and wiper controller assembly (not sure what they're called).



Hot tip: For lining up the knuckle and the strut, I like to use my knees to hold and guide the rotor.



The ride quality is so much better! This car has always had a slight knock in the front right side since we got it. Now it rides like a newer Fit!

Oil leak
Checked the PCV valve. It's fine. Cleaned the MAF sensor. I have the o-ring for the thrust cover seal and the VTEC solenoid gasket. I might do those at some point. Definitely going to do the Valvoline Restore & Protect at the next OCI or sooner. I think with R&P, you had to do three shorter OCIs.

Transmission fluid
I'm going to try Valvoline MaxLife and some Lubegard. I think many folks here swear by Honda DW-1, and that's what I've been using. Folks over at BITOG swear by MaxLife. So I figured I'd give it a try.

Lab results from most recent OCI attached, plus some fun photos. Had to get creative with creating more shade in my condo parking lot. Also grabbed some photos of the other rubber bits because I have all of the parts to replace them. But these look practically brand new! Also inspected the brakes because they were making a squealing noise a couple days prior, but there must have just been a rock up in there or something, because the rotors and pads look great.

 

Awesome work! Perfect weather for knocking projects off the list, I'll have to get crankin.

 

Definitely! I’ve officially overbooked myself, though, and have neglected to go camping yet.

 

Last oil change, at 173,170 miles, I replaced the oil I was using with Valvoline Restore & Protect. Filter I'm using is still the Premium Guard PG4612EX.

I was reinstalling the all-season tires and decided to change the oil again at 176,950 miles. In less than 4,000 miles, the oil was down to 1/3. Only ~1.25 quarts came out when drained.

This is a known issue with Betty, and has been happening for the last couple of years. I'm hoping that R&P will help, but I'm not putting money on it. I don't know anything about oil burning or leaking, but I'll need to get to the bottom of this. No leak spots in the driveway, and can't find any inside the engine bay.

 

I’d keep doing another few OCI’s at 5k miles with R&P . See what happens. I would just use this oil for the remainder of its life. It can only help

 

Definitely keeping at it, but at 5,000 miles, I think it'd be without oil. Hah! Last oil change, I'd added 1/4 of a quart in the middle of the OCI.

 

Betty's most recent oil analysis just came through. Betty is still consuming oil somewhere. I'm not sure how to diagnose that, but I'll continue my research.

 

I've been working on fixing Betty's A/C for years now. So far, I've replaced:

- High and Low side valve cores.
- Condenser
- Drier
- Evaporator core
- Expansion valve
- Blower resistor

This week, I'll be replacing the blower resistor again, and the blower itself.

And yes, I really did do the evaporator core and expansion valve myself... It was not fun.

I'm having a shop take a look at it after it's all put back together, so that they can perform a vacuum test and help identify any points of leaks if there are any.

 

Well hopefully they can find any final leaks! AC work is never easy so well done on what you did do!

 

Thanks! It's been a PITA, so I'm looking forward to not having to deal with it again.

They finished work on it, and said they replaced the expansion valve again. I'm not super happy about that, but oh well. All in, it was $1,250. Hoping they actually vacuum tested it and confirmed no leaks like they said.

 

If they didn't, hopefully you can take it back under warranty without paying extra?

 

I'm pretty bummed lately about Betty. She needs a decent amount of work, and it's clear that the people that sold it to us in 2019 committed fraud, as there is a lot of evidence that shows it was in an accident. I posted earlier in this thread about the windshield washer fluid pump not being plugged in, body panels being misaligned, broken plastic bits that hold the body panels together, the damaged crush bar and A/C condenser, etc. Thankfully, the A/C seems to finally be fixed, but we did replace every single part in the system...

I got a new scan tool because the SRS light came on about a year ago, and needed one that could read all the codes. Well, in addition to the SRS light (and the known TPMS sensors), we've got more going on.



So, in addition to what is likely a faulty driver side airbag, looks like we've also got some issues with the ABS and power steering. I'm not sure what low voltage indicates, but I'm sure it means the module is bad.

Here's my priority list:
- Figure out how to fix the airbag, and which airbag it is.- Try to fix the oil consumption- Rust and corrosion around battery from previous battery- Starter sounds pretty scratchy on some startups
- Replace all broken plastic connections (windshield cowl, body panels)

I'm not sure just how worth it this car is in the long term. We might be replacing it soon, when we give it to my daughter. However, I constantly preach to her the value of maintaining what you already have, so I'd be a hypocrite to give up on it now. Hah.

edit: Just found for testing airbags.