It was that time again. My car was due to get inspected again. It was also due for an oil change. I made my appointment for 8am on a Saturday morning. The roads sucked as they were cover in snow. I hoped the Honda dealership wouldn’t be busy. I like to get in early, so I can get in and out. When I pulled in, the entry bay was clear. Great. I went in to the service desks. They were all available! Cool! I checked in, and went to wait in the waiting room. Oh crap, the waiting room was packed. I found a seat, and started booting up my laptop. I had just connected to the free wifi when another seat opened up. So I moved over there, and played on the internet. Too bad facebook and youtube were both blocked. Oh well.
I was told my car was almost ready a couple times, then it finally was. It passed inspection no problem. They did inform me of a couple issues to keep an eye on. A very slightly loose ball joint. And also corroded fuel, break lines, and exhaust system. They said it wasn’t anything critical at this point, but they will keep and eye on it in future visits.
When I was on vacation out in Seattle, the Kia Elantra rental can I got had satellite radio installed. I got totally addicted to the comedy channels. Especially the Blue Collar Comedy channel. I had already been considering replacing the stereo in my car. It’s the stock stereo that came with the car. It generally works fine, though some CDs have problems ejecting. But I wanted to be able to play MP3 cds for one thing. But now that I am looking at getting satellite radio installed, I decided to get a satellite radio ready stereo. I looked around, and decided on the Kenwood KDC-MP342U. This stereo not only is satellite radio ready, but will also play MP3 cds. It also has a jack on the front where I can hook in my mp3 player. It also has a USB jack to hook up an ipod. Not sure if I can use that to charge my Sandisk mp3 player. Also, it is HD Radio ready as well. Not sure if I will get that hooked up. I also ordered a wiring harness, and an installation kit for my car.
I plan on installing the stero myself. I considering buying it at Best Buy and getting it installed. But by buying it online, and installing it myself, I am saving about $100. I hope all the stuff will come, and I can get it installed in the next couple weeks. Depends on weather though. I would be doing it in my garage, and that can get kind of cold to work in in the middle of winter.
Last week when it was excessively hot, I went out to my car, hit the button on my remote, and the door didn’t unlock. I hit the button again, and again it didn’t unlock. I could hear the click of the power door locks, and I could see the little door lock knob try to go up. It was like it was sticking. I was forced to use my *gasp* key. Later when I went to lock the car using the remote, again the doors didn’t not lock. I was forced to use th key to lock the car as well. The car even beeped when I hit the button twice, but it didn’t lock. A little later when it cooled down, the door locks started working again. But the next day they stopped working again, at least for a little while. But they started working again.
The problem was a little disconcerting as I would be walking away from the car, and hit the button on the remote, listening for the beep to tell me the doors were locked. But now I would have to double check to see if the doors were actually locked. What a pain.
My car was due for an oil change. I called up the Honda dealership to schedule an oil change, as well as have them look at my door locks. My appointment was last Tuesday. I dropped my car off, and took the shuttle to my work. I was in the shuttle when the service department called. They had already looked at my car. They said the power door lock actuator was dying. They had managed to get it to act up. The part cost $65. But they weren’t going to charge me for labor, as they had replaced the door latch on that door only a couple months ago. And since they had already my door opened up before, they weren’t going to charge me for the labor. Very cool! The work would be done in about an hour and a half. Hmmm… The shuttle was about 30 minutes from my work. I considered just having the shuttle driver take me back to Honda. But I ended up having the shuttle driver come to pick me up at lunch time.
The door locks work fine now.
On my way to karate class, I used the cruise control while driving on the freeway. I took my time, and managed to average 44.3 MPG for the drive there. Not bad for a 2000 Honda Civic! There was a long piece of road with construction signs and 55 mph speed limit signs. Normally the speed limit in these areas if 65. But people were flying passed me doing like 70 anyway.
On my way home, I decided to see how good of gas mileage I could get. The first part I used a steady foot to hold the gas pedal in a fixed position as best I could. I tried to keep my scanguage showing a throttle position of 16. Much of the early part was the construction zone. Then when we got out of then, we hit the regular 55 mph zone. After holding the pedal steady for a while, I switched over to using my cruise control. I had already been averaging about 46 mpg. I set the cruise control to have me going about 55 mph. Actually the speedometer on my dashboard was showing 55mph, but my scanguage had me going about 52 which was more accurate. As I got into town, there was more construction, and the speed limit dropped to 45. I dropped my speed more. People were passing me, but I didn’t care. I just let em go. My gas mileage now was average over 48 mpg! Wow! The speed limit dropped again to 40 while going through downtown. I slowed more. Then as we got out of town, the limit goes back up to 55. I speed up, and was actually going about 52. After a while, the speed limit goes up to 65. I speed up just a little and was going maybe 55. My gas mileage average kept going up.
Eventually I had to get off the freeway. There were some lights, but I managed to get my speed just right that I was able to catch them on green. I was doing great, but then there is a steep uphill section as I get near my house. I live on a hill. This drub my gas mileage down. When I pulled into my garage, my final average gas mileage was 47.5. It had been up in the mid 48’s before the hills. That’s great for a 2000 Honda Civic! My car is not a hybrid and is totally paid for too!
A few months ago, the heater blower motor in my 2000 Honda Civic started making a buzzing noise. It sound like maybe there was a leaf or something in there touch the fan blades. As time went one, it seemed to get worse.
I decided to pull the fan out and see if there was something in there. I pulled out my Haynes and Chilton guides. The motor was pretty easy to remove. It was located under the dash, behind the glove compartment. It was mostly just awkward laying on my back to get to it. There were just three screws holding it in. I just removed the three screws, and it dropped right out.
The fan and motor were covered by a black soot like powder. I didn’t see anything like a leaf. I removed the fan blade from the motor, and washed it off. I blew off the heater blower motor with blasts of compressed air from my compressor. I put the fan back on the motor, and reinstalled it. It made an awful noise. It sounded like the fan was rubbing against something. I pulled it out again, repositioned the fan a little bit, and reinstalled it again. It was quieter, but pretty much how it had been before I messed with it. I searched online, and found this was common for heater blower motors in Hondas.
I decided to try something else. I bought some oil especially for electric motors. It was made by 3-In-One, and I found it at Home Depot. I pulled the heater blower motor out again. First I sprayed in WD-40 to clean the old gunk out. Then I lubed it as well as I could with the electric motor oil. I reinstalled the motor. It was subtly quieter than before.
I debated about buying a used motor at a auto salvage yard. But I thought I might be buying a motor that would encounter the same problem. I looked for OEM motors, and found they were not cheap.
I stopped down at the local auto parts store and bought an aftermarket replacement heater blower motor. It was significantly cheaper than the OEM models I found online. It didn’t come with the fan. I removed the heater blower motor from the car again. I swapped the fan from the old motor to the new one. Since the fan just clamps on a shaft, I positioned it as close as I could to where it was on the original motor. There was a small plastic plug piece that the motor wires fit into. I followed the included instructions to fir the wires into the connector so that the fan would rotated in the proper direction. I installed the new motor. Installation went a little easier as I had stopped at Sears and bought a screwdriver type handle with a flex shaft to hold small sockets. This allowed me to reach the small screws much more easily.
The new motor was quieter and had way more power than the old motor. It was well worth the effort of replacing it. And I will have the car for quite a while, so hopefully it will last the life of the car.