Help!!

Just bought a 91 dx hatchback .Where do i start? What are the most important things i should do first???:bloated:

depending on how old you are.....BRAKES.....but seriously....brakes, suspension, wheels, then when you get a feel for the car tend to the motor. Thats the smartest way in my books.

i agree with slammedcivic, about brakes, the brakes on these year hatches SUCKKK, i have a 91 dx myself, brakes would be first, but the thing is.....which way do you want to go? all show and no go? or go and then show? show then go? which one? but brakes before anything i got a motor and puched it and i had people in the car, and the car litterally WOULDNT STOP? and almost crashed. going down hills with people too...forget it.

i disagree, if ur brakes feel ok to you, and u are downshifting instead of braking with clutch in and ur stopping isnt too bad then u should do some basics before you upgrade ur brakes. basics being things like lowering springs and shocks, si gauge cluster so you have a tach, intake and exhaust. How much money do u have to work with?

my brakes feel great.. maybe cause its canadian made:D :finger:

^^^^^LOL. My brakes are fine!!! Well I've done all the basics to make to car run good, new brakes, new shocks, new filters, oil, coolant flush, new pcv, new alternater, steam cleaned. Heres a pic, I'd like to work on apperance now the car is runin good. What should I do to the exterior first. Shocks? Tires, Rims, body kit? I don't want to get rims and then it doesn't look right or vice versa.

Do the MPFI swap.

my brakes are fine, haha i dont know what you guys problems are, maybe yall should learn a little compression braking :finger:
i would start replacing boots and bushings, cuz if your car is like mine, they are all trashed

definitely sounds like CVs to me, but im not car expert or anything, if your boots were shot then theres a good chance that the cvs are bad too it all depends on how bad the boots were and such. damn i gotta say that hatch looks hella clean, looks like they took good care of it. on the mpfi swap i dunno anything bout that cuz i have an si so it was already mpfi, i know you need to add a few wires, a new intake manifold and an injector resistor box, but thats all i know, theres prolly more to it, sounds like a pain to me. you should come back in the evening when all the smart people are on :D

if its a knocking noise it can be A) wheel about to fall off check your lug nuts or B) bad wheel bearing

first i would like to say nice car! that is WAY clean! i would agree that it is your CV joint.... also listen with your windows open as you drive on a quiet road at about 20 mph and listen for a slight hissing noise, ilke metal rubbing on metal... like SHHHHHHHH but very quietly coming from that wheel... that can also be a sign of the CV joint going out.

well as far as what to do first, it all depends on how big you want to go. first i would check out your current motor and see if anything needs fixing. check for ECU codes and compression, check the status of your brakes and hoses, when was the timing belt replaced, or has it been?

motor:
on the d15 you have currently, it is hard to get much performance out of the DPFI (2 injectors rather than 4 like MPFI) so the best option is to start off with either a MPFI swap (converting your DPFI to MPFI) or just swapping in a whole new motor with MPFI. this has been covered a zillion times on these forums, just search around.

suspension:
if you want to increase handling and looks, i would suggest new springs and struts. possibly a camber kit. lots of companies make lowering springs for a 4th gen civic. just make sure you do it right--no cut coils please.

brakes:
i think every car ever made could always use upgraded brakes... no one has ever said that they stopped TOO short or TOO fast. getting some new rotors and high quality pads along with some braided steel brake lines and DOT4 fluid can help dramatically. if you need more, you can always do the rear disc swap. there are how-tos of this posted all over.

other than that, it is limitless. just look around and see what people have done. find something that fits your budget and your ultimate goal for your car. have fun with it, make this car a reflection of you. i think the best part about modifying a car is that you take something ordinary and make it special and unique to you.

check out www.4thgenerationcivic.com

They replaced both front axels. $400 holy crap! :eek: dude start learning how to do some stuff on your own it saves a ton of money! 1st thing you should do in my mind is get a manual for your car ;)

Do the work yourself when you can. It cost me $60 for an axle with a lifetime warranty at Autozone, and only took an afternoon.
When a wheel bearing goes out, it makes a noise any time the car moves. Wheel bearing noises are never intermittent.
When a CV joint is going out, it always makes the machine-gun CLICK-CLICK-CLICK, but only when your wheel is turned to one side or the other. CV joints usually don't make any noise when they are going straight ahead.
If you've done your tune up (and your engine looks SWEET, by the way), and you've got good brakes, I say your next step should be tires. Even a great suspension system and good brakes won't help you if your tires are bad. Even if they are new, if they are low quality and not sticky, you'll find yourself sacrificing everything else in one brief moment.
I had one bad scare, and I've been investing in tires ever since. They are your best insurance policy.
Flunky
PS-They'll keep you out of accidents, and keep your insurance rates down, too!

multi point can turn out bad if you do it wrong, you need to wire in two more injectors, but and add a resistor box, and wire that in, and you need to wire in two wires into your ecu plug ins. if you are thinking about doing it, i would suggest going on the internet and getting how to do it, BUT BE CAREFULL, some people lable the wires on the back of the ecu plug ins wrong. they tell you that the plug ins go a1, a2, a3, meaning that top to bottom it goes top a1, bottom a2, and so forth but the way honda does it, its the whole top row is a and bottom is b, i have spend 2 thousand dollars trying to wire a ZC to multi point. what a waste.



i would say lower the car first, take off the honda sticker, and the bra.

other than that, your car is wayyyy clean, congrats, how much did you pay for it?

KEPP IT STOCK!

(runs away with hand waving widely in the air):evillaugh

what 2000 just to wire up a zc

Thanks for the help and compliments. I appreciate it. I do most of my work myself but my tools werent here!! Heres a pic of the side.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DDogg

Very clean engine bay, I like it. One day when I'm not so lazy I hope to get around to doing mine...