there has been discussion and descriptions, but no pictures, so i decided to cleen out the durty ass engine bay and take sum pictures here we go

this is realy the only step thats critical- coverin everythin (i prob din have to cover the stock airbox, but i did anyways:

Dont forget the alternator:

when everything is covered, spray a lil water all over the engine bay, and after bout a mintue, spray on a heavy coat of cleaner, i used GUNK (citrus powered

now if ur engine bay looks lyk ass then the tooth brush wont cut it

Neither will this brush thing

so u’r gna have to get serious, and bring out the steel wool

Gettin better:

now wash it all down completelty trying not to focus the water on any sensors, or belts

Final result:

yes i kno its not so cleen u could eet off it, i jus wanted to make it half decent cause i’m selling it soon

make sure to remove the plastic bags b4 driving the car, and after rinsing it down completely start it and let the water evaporate, its not smoke its steam, and if u’r that paranoid sit in the car and watch the temp gauge, you car will smell lyk oven cleaner for a while but it will go away

and there you go, frum durtly lik sh*t, do half decent, it took me bout 45 mins, if u take u’r time u could make it reely cleen and nice and all that other nice stuff

IACV = Idle Air Control Valve

step one: locate your IACV it looks like this and on D series engines its mounted on the rear of the intake manifold near the throttle body, and on F series engines its mounuted towards the front of the car on the intake manifold near the throttle body.

Step two: remove it, all you need to do is take the 2, 12mm bolts out, disconnect the electrical connection, and your heater lines that run to it. (note put a rag on the heater lines so it doesnt spill everywhere)

Step three: take some brake cleaner or carb cleaner and spray out the screen, which as you can see is very clogged on my 180K+ D15b8.

NOTE you can also take off the bottum part and inspect the gasket to make sure its clean and dirt free, and in my case it was

Step four: Let it dry, then reconnect your electrical connection, your heater lines, and your bolts and BAM your done.

Tools:
- metal sheers
- drill
- grinding stone bit
- body color spraypaint
- masking tape
- duct tape
- newspaper

This is how the gas door looks like on a 2001 Civic. The 2002 Civics have a little plastic gas cap hanger I think. Maybe I could have even bought the part off of the 2002 Civics to put on and have myself a gas cap hanger. IMO that just gets in the way.

The little part in the middle is totally useless. It’s just dangling there and not really doing anything. It doesn’t press up against the gas cap when the door is closed. It doesn’t really stiffen the gas door. It’s useless. Let’s hack it off. Use the metal sheers to cut it down the middle. Then bend the pieces up and down until they tear off.

Woohoo! We just lost 0.2 ounces! Maybe 0.3 ounces with the little tabs that were left on the car that I didn’t place on the scale. I ground them off with the dirll and the sanding bit. I placed a few pieces of duct tape behind the work area so that I wouldn’t grind up anything else with that sanding bit.

Viola! No more center piece. Uh oh! It’s not painted behind that metal piece! Whoops!

No problem. We use some spraypaint to paint that spot. I had some from a while back and it matches the OEM paint perfectly. I masked off what I didn’t want painted with newspaper and masking tape. I used quick bursts from about a half a foot away and I moved the nozzle around fast here and there to get good even coverage. The results speak for themself.

Grey from civicforums

I bought the 9.5158G and 9.5162G sway bar bushing sets. The G stands for black. If you want red, then you would buy 9.5158R and 9.5162R. I bought them from Jeg’s The red ones (at least from Jeg’s) come with black covers for the zerk fittings. If you want red covers instead, then you can buy them here: ZERK FITTING CAPS

Tips:

Tip #1: Clean everything off with WD-40 before installing the sway bar bushings (that is if you’re replacing older bushings).

Tip #2: Grease the bushing from the inside before putting it on the sway bar. To put the bushing on the sway bar pull it apart and force it on by it’s open corner.

Tip #3: Grease the bushing again using a grease gun until grease start to flow out from the seams. Wipe up the excess.

Review:

The polyurethane seems stiffer than the stuff that came with my Progress sway bars since it’s harder to open up when putting it on. Maybe it softens up over time? Then again, I remember that the progress bushings were easier to install when they were new.

The zerk fittings in the back are right where you want them to be when the bushings are installed. They are easy to get to and they don’t interfere with anything. When the front bushings are installed they stick down and are the closest thing to the ground when the car is lowered. You can not grease the front bushings without lifting the front end off the ground.

Even if you do raise the front end off the ground to grease the bushings you might have some trouble fitting the grease gun in under the car. I raised my car using my floor jack to as high as it could go and I set my jack stands up to as high as they could go. Even then the grease gun barely fit on the zerk fittings.

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The solution is not to torque down the bolts as hard as you can. Believe me, I tried. I stripped one of the holes. The damn thing still moved though because I saw little markings on the brackets where te aluminum slid back and forth.

The correct way to deal with this problem is to buy an M12 bolt and re-thread the hole for an M12 bolt. However, I live in the good ‘ole US of A. Therefore metric bolts aren’t easy to come by. A wonderful thing is that a half inch diameter bolt fits perfectly with less than a 20th of a mm of play on either side! Now that’s tight!

Allright, on to the DIY…

Time:
This procedure takes a total time of two hours to complete for the meticulous DIYer. The fast working DIYer that can tolerate a scratch or two and a possible screw-up should be able to finish in an hour.

Complexity:
To complete this procuedure one has to have a certain degree of proficiency with hand tools. No other skills are required, although an understanding of how maliable aluminum is is useful in not messing up.

Tools:
- electric drill
- 1/2″ drill bit
- 27/64″ drill bit (about $7.00)
- 1/2″ – 13 (threads per inch) tap (about $3.50)
- monkey wrench

Materials:
- four 1/2″ stainless lock washers
- four 2″ long (I think?) 1/2″ – 13 grade 8 bolts
- WD-40

Procedure:
1. First take the strut bars off of the car. Take the base brackets off as well.
- The base brackets should come off because the strut bars will need to be put on by piecing them together before putting the whole thing on the car. Then torquing to press the base brackets into place. The rear strut bar seems to be an especially tight fit after this modification.

2. Drill out the one unthreaded hole on each side of each strut bar to 1/2″.
- If you’re not comfortable enough with a drill to control your drilling so that you don’t drill into the threaded hole, then do not proceed! Find a thin piece of steel to put behind the small hole so that the drill will contact the scrap piece of metal before it reaches the threaded hole.

3. Drill out the threaded holes on each side of each strut bar to 27/64″.
- You should start by putting the drill bit through the 1/2″ hole that you just drilled and center it based on that hole. That way the bolt will fit through that hole and thread straight in. If you don’t align the two holes the bolt might not find the thread and you won’t be able to screw it in.

4. Tap the 27/64″ hole with the 1/2″ – 13 tap using the monkey wrench to hold the tap.
- I used a monkey wrench because I didn’t feel like spending more money to buy something to hold the tap. The holder I had wasn’t large enough to hold that size tap. Remember to thread the hole so that you can screw in the bolt straight in through the 1/2″ opening. You’ll have to look at it as you thread it to align the two holes.

5. Now put the three pieces of each strut bar together and mount each strut bar to the strut towers.
- Fit the strut bar base brackets on top of the strut tower bolts and tighten them down all the way with the stock nuts. If you have a torque wrench, then torque them to 33 foot pounds.

6. Tighten down the new hardware to 33 foot pounds, or until the lock washer is seated.
- You don’t have to tighten the hardware down too much. I tightened it down to 33 foot pounds and I didn’t strip the threads. If you tighten it down until the lock washer is seated, then it should be enough as well. The bolt contacts the base brackets, so now the stiffness of the strut bar no longer depends upon the torque of those bolts.

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I reccomend reading this article: Maintenance – Valve Adjustment to familiarize yourself with the basic procedure.

Tools:
- Torque Wrench (required)
- Small Flat Head Screwdriver (required)
- 10mm Socket (required)
- Short Extention (required)
- Feeler Guage (required)
- Long Extention (required)
- 19mm Socket (required)
- Spark Plug Socket (optional)
- Gasket Sealer (optional)

First off, you need to get your car ready… This procedure should only be done when the car’s engine is cooled down. You should leave the car in a garage overnight to let the engine cool down completely. Make sure that you will have enough time to complete this procedure the following day. With food and drink breaks and a little rest here and there it will take a full day (not night) to complete. Especially if you’re not too familiar with your engine bay.

Please download the following file: ValveAdjustment.pdf (1.0MB) and look it over. This file contains information about adjusting valve clearances taken from Honda’s service manual.

Page 9 of that document contains the instructions.
Page 10 shows you the pulley and how to read it at TDC.
Page 11 shows you the valve cover tightening sequence.
Page 17 shows you the clearances and how to adjust them.

You should first start by removing the negative battery terminal. I wrapped the connection up with some masking tape to prevent any accidental contact. I then removed the positive battery terminal and did to it what I did to the negative.

Here you see a picture of the ignition coils. The wire cover is right above them.

To take off the wire cover, first use a large screwdriver to turn the two plastic “screws” 90 degrees, then pull up on it. Use a 10mm socket and socket wrench to take off the little bolts that hold the ignition coils down. It is easier to pull the coils out a little before taking off the connectors.

Using the same 10mm socket and socket wrench take off the bolts that hold down the throttle cable clamps. Tie off the whole assembly so that it doesn’t get in your way. I tied mine to my strut bar with some masking tape.

I measured the voltage on the exposed bolt in this picture with a multimeter and it indicated that there was still 0.15V of potential difference betwean it and ground. I waited about 15 minutes before the voltage totally dissipated. I guess that the alternator acts like a capacitor?

Anyway, it’s best to wait 15 minutes from the time you disconnect the battery before beginning on this step of the procedure. After that time has elapsed simply move the rubber boots aside and take out the connector and unbolt the other connection. You’ll need the 10mm socket and socket wrench again.

Remove the two bolts holding the wire harness to the valve cover by using a 10mm socket and socket wrench. Then thread the end of the wire harness (by the alternator) through and arrange the whole thing to the side as in the picture (highlighted orange).

Remove the bolt that held the bracket that held the wire harness (circled in green) by using a 10mm socket and socket wrench. Remove the bolt that holds the aluminum hardline (circled in red). Removing both of these will make it easier to take off the valve cover.

Slip the wire harness off of the two studs on the valve cover (circled in blue). Grasp the clip on the hose that attaches from the filter box to the valve cover and push it back towards the filter box. Take the rubber hose off of the valve cover. You can use a screwdriver to get under the rubber hose to help pry it off.

Take the support bracket off of that one rubber hose that leads into the aluminum hardline and rotate it out of the way. This will make taking off the valve cover a little easier since the rubber hose and the aluminum hardline will be able to flex a little.

Loosen the valve cover bolts (circled in purple) with a 10mm socket and socket wrench. Pull on the bolts to make sure that they are loose; you should be able to move them in and out. Remove the valve cover by prying up on it. The rubber hose that leads into the aluminum hardline will get in the way, but you should be able to push it aside.

The intake lifter adjustment screws and nuts are circled in green. The exhaust lifter adjustment screws and nuts are circled in red. The feeler guage should be set to .007 inches for the intake side and .009 inches for the exhaust side (as in the file provided on Page 17). You can also take out the spark plugs using a spark plug socket, long extention, and socket wrench to fascilitate turning of the engine by hand.

You may take off the pulley cover to better see what happens when you crank the engine by hand. First disconnect that little connector that goes into the cover. Take out the rubber boot and pull on the connector. Then take out three bolts that hold the pulley cover down. You will need to use a 10mm socket and a socket wrench to take them out.

Notice the spoke on the pulley marked “UP”. Also notice the two “ears” on the pulley that are also facing upwards. If you can not read the word “UP” engraved into the spoke of the pulley, then you can use these two “ears” as your guide. With this spoke in the position shown in the picture, one set of pistons is at TDC (Top Dead Center).

Jack up the driver’s side and take off the wheel. You will then have access to the crank shaft via a hole in the wheel well. Mate a socket wrench with a long extention and a 19mm socket and put it through the hole in the wheel well; feel around for the crank-shaft bolt. Once you find it, you will be able to turn the crank-shaft by turning the socket wrench counter clock-wise. Watch what happens to the valves and the pulley as you do so.

Now you’re ready to adjust the valve clearance. You can start with the exhaust side since there’s a lot of room for the feeler guage; that will make things easier. Turn the engine by hand until a set of lifters that you have your eyes on pops up; then turn the engine a little more to make sure that the lifters will stay in that position. They will stay in the same position throughout most of one revolution of the crank-shaft because of the shape of the cam shaft.

When one set of lifters is in the right position (as described above), loosen the valve adjuster lock nut and loosen the adjusting screw. Put the feeler guage betwean the valve stem and rocker arm (as shown in the attached document on Page 17) and tighten the adjusting screw until it “grabs” the feeler guage. Tighten down the valve adjuster lock nut to 14 foot pounds in an EX and HX and 13 foot pounds in a DX and LX.

Repeat the above process for all exhaust valves. Then move on to the intake valves. Remember to use the appropriate clearances for the exhaust valves and the intake valves (as outlined on Page 17 of the attached document). When you finish adjusting all of the clearances simply put everything back together. It’s also a good idea to dab a little gasket sealer onto the head where the valve cover gasket makes sharp bends; this will keep the gasket from leaking until it settles.

Grey from civicforums

Tools Needed:
- Socket Wrench
- 12mm socket
- Phillips Head Screwdriver

Optional Tools:
- Torque Wrench
- Grippy Gloves

The instructions supplied with the kit are good, but I do a few things differently. You may want to read over the instructions supplied with the kit first and then take a look at my DIY for further reference. Those instructions cover the installation in a 2001 Civic. 2002 Civics and 2003 Civics will have a slightly different installation because of the different cup holders and the integrated arm rest.

Here’s what I got in the mail. A nice little package and three sheets worth of instructions.

First you remove the shift knob. Pull down the silver trim ring until it comes off. Then unscrew the shift knob. Lefty loosey, righty tighty.

Now, pull up on the center plastic piece that surrounds the emergency brake. Pull straight up. Use as much force as possible. Grip it wherever possible, but not on the edges there it goes in. You can grip it in betwean the emergency brake and the plastic. That’s a good place to grip if you can get a finger or two in there. Also gripping it betwean the pocket and the little tray might work. Wear gloves with a lot of grip if your hands are slipping.

Now move the seats up to gain access to the two screws in back. Unscrew them using a Phillips head screwdriver. Whoopsie… This picture was taken before I removed the plastic piece around the emergency brake. Oh well, you get the point.

Now there are two screws inside where the plastic cover around the emergency brake used to be. Remove these with a Phillips head screwdriver.

Now there are a couple of plastic clips up front. What you do is stick your finger in back to pop out the little inside of the clip. You can do it two ways, you can pop it out or you can push it in. Pushing it in is harder IMO and if you use something hard to push it in you’ll scratch up the plastic and your hand might slip and you might scratch up something else.

Here’s how the assembly looks like. Locate the four bolts holding down the shifter assembly and use a 12mm socket to unbolt them. Unbolting these and bolting these in is probably the most time consuming part of this DIY.

Now take out the metal part of the stock rubber bushings by simply pressing it down with your finger. Make sure that it doesn’t get lost as it’s pressed out. Then simply push out the stock rubber bushings.

Here are CapYoda’s bushings. Put one under each mounting location and one on top. The flat side of the bushings that are on the bottom should be in contact with the metal under the shifter assembly. Make sure to line everything up so that when you go to put in the bolts, they go through both bushings.

Now put the bolts in and tighten them down to 16 foot pounds. I didn’t bother with a torque wrench, I went by feel alone. Just make sure that you don’t overdo it! Shift everything around as you’re tightening to seat everything properly.

You’re done! The shifter should feel more stable and you should feel each gear engaging more than before. These are a good alternative to the KumoSport bushings since they’re cheaper. They do exactly the same thing. Props go to CapYoda for making a good product that is actually cheaper than what is already out there.

Grey from civicforums

What could go wrong:
I’ve have this mod for a while, but I was reluctant to post a DIY because my idle was unstable. Now my idle is rock solid, but I have no idea why? [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG] The first time I did this modification I had a slightly elevated idle (by only 100rpm’s). I scratched up the throttle plate when I put it back into the throttle body, so I decided to redo everything. This time my idle was way way off. It was oscillating betwean 1,000rpm’s and 2,000rpm’s. It was hard to drive around in low gears at low rpm’s because the engine would sputter and shake as if it was being choked. I experimented with the IAC (Idle Air Control) valve and I couldn’t stabilize the idle. I finally just gave up and put the stock plastic cap back on. Then after driving around with it like that for a while my idle stabilized and the check engine light finally went off. Now I;ve driven around for more than 500 miles and everything seems like stock. Well, except for the better throttle response (attested to by my sister without me even saying anything).

Time needed:
Well, it’ll take you quite some time to get this done. I’de say that there’s enough work here for a whole weekend. That’s if you’ve never done this before. Then there’s even more work if something fouls up. Take your time to do it right and I’m sure that you’ll be happy with the results.

Required tools:
- Socket Wrench
- 10mm Socket
- Phillips Head Screwdriver
- Crescent Wrench
- Metal File
- Sand Paper (medium, fine, very fine)
- WD-40
- Window Cleaner (anything that cleans and dries fast)
- Countersinking Bit
- Electric Drill

First you’ll want plenty of light. Hehe, you can see my now famous lamp here. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

Here’s a shot of the filter box. Notice how nice and shiny my engine bay is! It’s winter time too, but it’s just bean cleaned. Anyway, take off the three bolts holding the filter box down. They’re 10mm bolts and you’ll probably need an extention to reach the left-most (passenger side) one.

Take off the oxygen sensor connector. Just press on the little tab on the top and pull it off.

Pull back the little steel clamp holding the rubber hose going from the filter box to the valve cover.

Take a phillips head screwdriver and loosen the steel clamp that holds the filter box to the throttle body. Feel the back of the steel clamp with your other hand and notice where the screw threads through. Unscrew it almost all the way, but you don’t need to let the screw fall out. Just use your other hand to feel how far you’ve unscrewed it so far and stop before the end of the screw disappears into the threaded hole.

Remove the filter box by pulling up on it. You’ll want to pull up on it near the throttle body and then slide it out to the right (driver’s side) to disconnect it from the intake resonation chamber. You should jiggle it around a bit and pull up hard; you’ll get it eventually. You’ll be able to disconnect the tube leading from the filter box to the valve cover after you have the filter box disconnected from the throttle body.

This is what the underside of the filter box looks like. You can see the screw and the steel clamp as well as the rubber insert. The rubber insert may have been left on the throttle body when you pulled up on the filter box. Just take it off of the throttle body and put it back on the filter box. It’s coded to only go on one way; just take a good look at it and you’ll see what I mean.

Disconnect all of the sensors leading to the throttle body. The right-most (driver’s side) one also needs to be disconnected so that we have enough room for the screwdriver that we will use later on. You do not need to disconnect the battery. You can even have the radio playing in the car; just don’t turn the key past the first position.

Use a crescent wrench to remove the throttle cable and the A/C cable (if you have one) from their mounting locations near the throttle body. Then simply unthread the wires from the throttle body and take them out. Try to get a feel for how they will go back in. The little pegs at the ends are of different sizes, so you won’t get them mized up when you put them back in.

Separate the IAC valve from the throttle body. There are three phillips head screws holding it on to the throttle body. Make sure to do this step only when the car has cooled down enough for the coolant system to be depressurized. Some coolant will leak out when you separate the IAC valve from the throttle body, but only enough to fill a table spoon. Just wipe it up with something and don’t be tempted to taste it. Bleh…

Now disconnect the thing on the right side (driver’s side) of the throttle body. There are two phillips head screws holding it on. Now just use a 10mm socket to separate the throttle body from the intake manifold. There are three long bolts and one nut. The long stud helps you center the throttle body onto the intake manifold when you go to put everything back together. I love mechanic friendly designs! [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

Take out the throttle body. Remember to plug up the gaping hole leading in to the intake manifold with a clean rag so that no dirt gets in. Okay, I’m sick of saying throttle body; from now on throttle body = TB. Look inside and take out the two phillips head screws that hold the throttle plate to the throttle plate holder. Watch out not to let your hand slip; you don’t want to scratch anything up. The biggest thing you could mess up would be the edge of the throttle plate. Now mess with the part of the TB that tilts the throttle plate. Tilt it and take out the throttle plate by wiggling it out of it’s holder.

Now polish up the surface of the throttle plate. It’ll have some minor scratches on it and it might have some carbon buildup. I used three different grits of wet sanding sand paper; what this means is that you spray some water onto the surface and it acts as a sort of lubricant and coolant. I chose a very flat surface to work on so that I wouldn’t be sanding down the edges of the throttle plate. Use a mirror or a piece of glass if you have one. I can not stress this enough, DO NOT sand or file the egdes of the throttle plate!

Sorry for the quality of this picture, too little light I think. Anyway, the edges have been knife edged. The throttle plate is 1/16″ thick and I left a 1/32″ edge that comes into contact with the walls of the TB. I took off some material with a metal file from only those surfaces of the throttle plate whose angle with the TB walls decreases to parrallel when you open the throttle plate. Refer to the following diagram…

Now counterink the throttle plate holder on the back side of the throttle body. DO NOT countersink the side with the threads for the screws! Use light pressure and check on your progress from time to time. I have no idea what that metal is made out of, but my countersinking bit chewed through it easier than I would have thought. Now clean the TB with something like TB cleaner, but using anything that cleans and evaporates quickly is good for the job. Just don’t submerge the whole TB; doing so might damage the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor).

Here’s a little tip… Take some sand paper and sand the inside of the throttle plate holder. Just fold a piece of sand paper in half so that there’s sand paper on both sides. Then run it through the throttle plate holder while holding it open all the way. What you want to do it take out all of the rough edges (if there are any) around the area where the screws were holding the throttle plate to the throttle plate holder. You do this so that you don’t scratch up the newly polished throttle plate when you go to put it back in the TB. Notice the Loctite… We’ll use this when we put the throttle plate screws back in.

I doubt that you can buy the exact size of screw that you need. If you can, then more power to you. What I ended up doing was taking some stainless steel phillips head screws that I had laying around and filing then down to size. Mine were #8 with thread size 32, but I think the stock ones are metric. Didn’t matter much though, they threaded in okay and with the Loctite they’re not going anywhere.

Here’s what the finished TB looks like from the side of the filter box. Now, when you put in the throttle plate you’ll have to get it so that there’s equal space on one side and the other when it is closed. When you hold it up to the light you should see little to no light shine through the edges of the throttle plate. If you do, then you will have to adjust the little set screw that prevents the plate from closing all the way. Adjust it so that the throttle plate seals properly with the edges of the TB. Make sure that the throttle plate does not bind to the edges of the TB. After adjusting the little set screw you’ll have to adjust the TPS. More on that later…

Here’s what the finished TB looks like from the side of the intake manifold.

Here’s the payoff; a few more CFM of flow.

To adjust the TPS you’ll have to re-install everything back to this point. Then hook up a multimeter to the TPS by pushing in some pins into the TPS connector. Five volts goes in to the TPS. It should read .5 volts when closed and 4.5 volts when fully open (at WOT, Wide Open Throttle). It’s important to have it be as close as possible to .5 volts when closed, but not over. The factory sets this to just under .5 volts. You can adjust the TPS sensor with minute taps on it’s sides with a little piece of wood and a hammer. Watch the multimeter and give it a few taps. DO NOT tap too hard or you will break the plastic. Position the wooden block as close to the wall of the TB as you can so that you don’t break off the plastic on the sides of the TPS (which is rather thin). This method only works for minute adjustments. I’m talking .05 volts at the most. If you need anything more than that then I don’t know what to say… You messed something up. Go back and try to re-adjust the position of the throttle plate within the throttle plate holder. Technically you should never have to do this step if you do everything carefully.

Good luck!

Grey from civicforums

Time Needed:

If you follow this DIY to the letter and you have many tools, then I’de say about two hours. If you don’t have all of the reccomended tools then it will take you considerably longer. A good working environment is also important, so if you don’t have a garage or proper lighting then it will take you longer to complete this DIY.

Tools Needed:

- socket wrench or torque wrench or both

- 14mm socket for bolts or whatever

- crescent wrench whatchamacallit

- haxagonal wrench thingie

- jack and jack stands

- work light or flashlight

- some rags that you can get dirty

- a can of WD-40

- some synthetic grease

Here is what is in the kit. A few bolts, some polyurethane bushings, some bushing holders, some thick support brackets, these weird rings, and some stickers. You know, the essentials! Oh yeah, did I mention the instruction sheet? Scrap it. If you follow those directions you will be doing more work and you won’t be getting the sway bar installed any time soon. Plus you’ll be looking for “the included tube of grease” which is mentioned in the instructions, but which didn’t come with the sway bar kit.

The first step is to jack the car up in the front and take off the front wheels. Look for the support point. There’s an arrow etched in the plastic pointing to it. Jack it up as far as possible and put the jack stands under the support points on the side. The more you jack it up the easier it will be for you to work under your car. You should also lay down a piece of tarp on the ground so that you don’t get too dirty. If you have one of those things with the little rollers on it, then use it! The front wheels will need to come off so that you have access to the sway bar end links.

In the previous picture you could see the stock sway bar and the bushing holders. Use a 14mm socket to unbolt the bushing holders. Then seperate the bushing holders from the bushings. Then take the bushings off the sway bar. The sway bar will either stay in place or move slightly when this is done. There is no force on the bar besides it’s own weight, so don’t worry about it being under tension. Look at the stock bushings and see how they have an orientation. Honda wanted the slits in the bushings to face the front of the car. Take this as a cue to do the same when installing the bushings from Progress.

Now, move the sway bar until you have access to the nuts on the end links. You’ll be working down near the wheel wells. First, spray the threads and nut down with WD-40 and clean them off with a rag. Take the hexagonal wrench thingie and jam it into one end of the threaded rod. I used a 3/16″ size, but I think it’s metric. The 3/16″ seemed to work allright, but if you happen to have a set of metric hexagonal thingies then use them. Then just use your crescent wrench to take off the nut holding the sway bar to the end link. Wear leather gloves for this. If your hand slips you’ll be in pain (as I am now with a nice little blood blister under my fingernail).

Wow, no intermediate step? How’de I remove that sway bar without messing with the exhaust system (as in the retarded instructions provided by Progress). Easy enough, geometry! After removing the nuts from the end links, take the bar off of the end links and go under the car to mess with it. I ended up moving it towards the back of the car and the twisting it around the exhaust pipe. Worked beautifully. Here’s a comparison of the two sway bars. The Progress sway bar is 27mm in diameter and weighs 15 pounds while the stock sway bar is 25.4mm in diameter and weighs 7 pounds. Now all you have to do is put the Progress sway bar in by using the same trick. This may be different for EX’s because of the catalytic converter, but you never know…

Now just reverse the process and put the sway bar back on the end links. Hold the threaded rod with that hexagonal wrench thingie and thread the nut on with the crecent wrench. Tighten it down until the sway bar end link attachment is seated up against this flat spot on the threaded rod. Tighten it as much as you can, but don’t go bonkers.

Grease up the insides of the polyurethane bushings and slip them onto the sway bar near the bracket attachment points. Remember that the slit in the bushing should be facing the front of the car. Now just put on the bushing holders and put the thick support bracket betwean the bushing holders and the chassis. There’s a small notch in the corner of the support brackets. This goes near these big bolts that are near the mounting area; they did this for clearance, but there’s enough clearance there anyway. Now attach the brackets to the car loosely with the bolts and push the whole assembly towards the back of the car for extra clearance up front. Remember to center the sway bar before tightening down the bolts. I used a torque wrench and tightened them down to 50 foot pounds.

One last thing to do. To make sure that the sway bar does not move from side to side, simply attch those weird rings on the outsides of the sway bar right up next to the polyurethane bushings. Tighten down the bolts as much as possible, but don’t overdo it. You may want to grease up area betwean the polyurethane bushings and the weird rings as they will rub together a little bit.

That’s it. Installation is complete. Put the wheels back on, lower the car, and take it out for a test drive. After a few runs go back and check everything for tightness. If everything checks out, then you should be enjoying this upgrade for the life of the car. The only thing that you may have to do is re-grease the bushings. That is if they start to squeek or something… As for the stickers… I was going to put them on the bar, but there kinda was no room for that. Although I guess I can curve the stickers, so I may have room for them after all… Maybe near the end links?

Anyway, the car rides more level now. The front is really stiff and the rear is somewhat stiffer (since the front and rear are linked together via the unibody). I’ve tested this setup on several of my favorite on-ramps and off-ramps and the results are favorable. Reduced body roll makes taking these turns much less scary. Although I don’t know the limits of the new setup yet, so it’s hard to tell whether upgrading just the front sway bar means takind corners faster? We’ll see soon enough I guess…

Grey from civicforums

- socket set

- No. 3 phillips head bit

- jack and jack stands

- brake pad grease

- some strong string or wire

- hammer

OPTIONAL MATERIALS:

- wrench

- impact screwdriver

- small sledge hammer

- vise-clamp

CLEANING MATERIALS:

- WD-40

- brake cleaner/degreaser

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Loosen the lug nuts on the front wheels.

2. Jack up the front of the car with a jack. (look for an arrow etched in the black plastic under the car to see the support point)

3. Put jack stands under the sides of the car in the middle of the special support points. (remember to make it so the wheels are off the ground slightly)

4. Remove the lug nuts completely and take off the wheels.

5. To do the passenger’s side of the car turn the wheel all the way to the left. To do the driver’s side of the car turn the wheel all the way to the right.

SEE OPTIONAL STEP NUMBER ONE BELOW

6. Look for two big bolts that hold the caliper to the hub. (circled in blue)

7. Remove the lower bolt first. (remember which way to unscrew; right-hand thread)

8. Suspend the caliper with some strong string tied to the spring, or a wire bent to hang from the spring. (watch out to not bend the brake line too much)

9. Remove the upper bolt and let the caliper hang from the string or wire. (make sure it’s secure)

10. Spray the two phillips head screws holding the rotor to the hub with WD-40. (circled in yellow)

11. Wait for the WD-40 to loosen the screws and use a No. 3 phillips head bit to unsrew them.

SEE OPTIONAL STEP NUMBER TWO BELOW

12. Tap the old rotors with a hammer if they’re stubborn and won’t come off the hub.

13. Now clean the rusted parts of the hub with something that removes rust to make a good seating surface for the new rotor. (WD-40 is okay)

14. Take out the brake pads from the caliper. They just slip out.

15. Take out this little clip cover on one of the brake pads and clean it.

16. Clean the old pads and rotors. (save them and maybe sell them [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG])

17. Clean the caliper using a de-greaser. (dish washing liquid is okay, but specialty brake cleaner is preferable)

18. Clean everything else so that it’s spic and span, greaseless, and dry.

19. Now put the brake pad grease on the back of the brake pads and on the slip covers. (do not put any on the sides that touch the rotor)

20. Install the brake pads. (remember to include those slip covers that you removed from the stock pads)

21. Make sure to clean the rotors of any grease before putting them on.

22. Put on the rotors. (these rotors are directional, remember to put the right one on the right side)

23. After putting on the rotors check again if they have any grease smears on them. (clean as necessary)

SEE OPTIONAL STEP NUMBER THREE BELOW

24. Put on the calipers. (do not grind any part of the caliper against the rotor)

25. Tighten everything down to specifications. (don’t know what that is exactly, so I’m going on feel)

26. Before putting the wheels back on pump the brakes lightly a couple of times to seat the brake pads.

OPTIONAL STEP NUMBER ONE:

1. Look for the two smaller bolts that hold the outside part of the caliper closer to the rotor. (circled in red)

2. Try to loosen the bolts; notice that this one part spins.

3. Use a wrench to hold that part in place while you try to loosen the bolts again.

This optional step is to loosen how close the brake pads sit to the rotor’s surface. You should do this if you have any difficulty removing the caliper from the rotor after unscrewing the two big bolts. The torque specification for these bolts is somewhere around 25 to 30 foot pounds. I reverse engineered this torque specification by adjusting my torque wrench until I could unscrew the bolt. Some people reccomend you break in new rotors using old pads and break in new pads using old rotors. Brembo’s instructions state to replace the rotors and pads at the same time, so that is what I ended up doing.

OPTIONAL STEP NUMBER TWO:

1. Use an appropriate bit (No. 3 phillips head bit) and an impact screwdriver to loosen the screw from the caliper.

2. Set the impact screwdriver to turn counter-clockwise.

3. Tap the impact screwdriver with a hammer to unscrew the bolt. (you may need a small sledge hammer if a regular hammer isn’t heavy enough)

This optional step is for older cars where these little screws have corroded threads and are stuck. An good impact screwdriver set can be bought for about $15. This tool is very good at taking out these screws; especially with the No. 3 phillips head bit. It’s a good tool to have in your arsenal, so if you’re not sure whether you’ll be able to take those screws out then get this tool before you start this DIY. It’ll save you some frustration, that’s for sure.

OPTIONAL STEP NUMBER THREE:

1. Make sure the brakes are not depressed (duh!)

2. Use a vise-clamp to push the piston in if you do not have enough clearance to put the caliper back onto the rotor with the new brake pads in.

This step is necessary to perform if you have used up a lot of the old brake pad material. The piston will be all the way out and the new brake pads will be too thick to have them fit into the caliper and for the caliper to go over the rotor. If you cannot depress the piston then you might be able to un-do the bleed-valve and then depress the piston. This will cause brake fluid to come out of the bleed screw, but you’ll be able to depress the piston for sure. Not 100% sure about this, so don’t try it if you’re not sure…

REVIEW:

I can compare the effectiveness of the stock brake pads to the AEM/Nissin brake pads since my sister also has a 2001 Honda Civic LX. It takes less pedal effort to get the AEM/Nissin brake pads to start gripping. I also notice that the brake pads work better when they’re warmed up. I don’t know about the rotors since I have no way of testing them. Although, in theory they should work better than the stock ones do. The holes increase the surface area of the rotor and allow the air to flow through the rotor which increases cooling of the rotor. The slots are there to prevent the buildup of brake dust so that it doesn’t form a glaze on the surface of the brake pad. This glaze forms under hard braking and has lower frictional properties than the surface of a non-glazed brake pad. In effect, you will be able to effectively brake longer than before.

This is a picture of the rotor after a few weeks of time have passed. Notice the season, it’s fall. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG] Anyway, the zinc coating is holding up pretty well. This is the passenger’s side. I first put on the rotors backwards! This is not the way to put them on! Whoops! If you put on the rotors this way then the brake pads will be used up quicker.

This is a picture of the back of the rotor. The piston is the circular shape in the middle. The bleed screw is pictured as well along with it’s little black dust cap.

Grey from civicforums