newbie questions...

Registered: Dec 2003
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Nextel phone in lighter makes radio buzz....
quote:

when I use the lighter charger in my lighter, the radio simply goes into
buzzing world. Is there a known problem or a known fix for this?

Also, a really basic question: I just bought this car (91 Accord EX)
and it appears to have custom items (new front and rear lights, etc).

It says 16 valves" in the engine. is this special? Also, what gas
should this use? My mechanic suggested 89 octane, since it is 16 valve.

Finally, how can I tell if it has been hotrodded? it certainly has a
lot of pickup....

thanx all!! I'm a newb, but humble in the face of this forum....

 

(Robert Blank) spake unto the masses in

Any mods to the electrical system? Alarms, remote starter, aftermarket
wires, aftermarket radio? Noise like that is usually due to somebody having
monkeyed with the factory wiring, or corrosion having set in somewhere.

Uh oh, sounds like you just bought a former rice-boy car. Hope you didn't
pay too much.

Not these days. You've got a 4-banger with 4 valves per cylinder. Very
basic by today's standards. In 1991 it was special, but not now.

The number of valves has nothing to do with it. Chances are pretty good
it's supposed to use 87 octane. You can use a higher octane, but you will
gain nothing by it. You'd probably lose 1%-2% gas mileage.

Take a pic of the engine bay and email it to me or post it to some Web site
somewhere. You'll then find out pretty quick if it's full of AutoZone rice-
boy junk.

 

Tegger, you have just made me realize that not everyone likes rice. I
was under the impression (by the Toronto area Honda owners) that that
was the normal state of affairs.
Vuarra

Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound.)

 

The problem with rice is that the vast majority of items sold as "tuner"
products are poorly made and amateurishly installed. For these reasons they
often lead to problems down the line, such as noise through the radio.

If you buy someone else's "tuner" car, you stand a very good chance of
inheriting problems they installed along with their rice add-ons.

 

Hey Tegger, I am in a nervous position as a seller of a "tuned" vehicle.

I just put my '92 Accord EX Sedan on the market. As parts have failed over
the years, I've replaced them with aftermarket components. When the front
sway-bars went, for example, I put in a set of Suspension Techniques sway
bars. When the muffler rusted out, in went a Apexi World Sport stainless
cat-back exhaust system that gives just barely above stock levels of exhaust
noise. Next the flex pipe before the cat rusted completely through, which
prompted me to replace the entire header system with a DC Sports 4-2-1.
Warped front rotors were swapped out with PowerSlots, and the pads are high
performance ones made by AEM. I wanted keyless entry so I installed an
Alpine alarm system with shock and proximity sensors. Finally, I replaced
the horrendous stock cassette deck with a Kenwood CD player with MP3
playback capability.

On the one hand, I am quite proud of this car. I use to compete on the
IASCA circuit so the headunit and alarms were installed correctly. The
exhaust and suspension bits were also installed by me according to the steps
in the Helms manual in a fully equipped mechanic's garage. The rotors were
put on by a Honda dealer because of the cursed ball joints. The only
stickers I've put on the car are the little "Alpine Security System" 1" x 2"
window stickers on both sides, one small DC Sports sticker and one small
Apexi sticker, both about 1" tall and on the driver side rear triangle
window. With a 5-speed transmission, this car has a decent amount of pep to
it, and the mods certainly didn't hurt. It isn't loud, it looks stock from
just about all angles, and it's been garaged all its life.

But then I am just afraid that someone will take one look at the exhaust
mods and then start to walk away because they think this car has been
tweaked by a mindless rice boy, which there are plenty in the VA/DC/MD area.

Any reaction?

Lee Cao

 

"Robert Blank"

Certain phone and certain radios do this. Sony have good interference
protection. Erricson is very bad. Nokia is good. Panasonic is poor. Nextel is
probaby as bad as Erricson.

Go for higher octane for certain conditions e.g., constant pinging when
going on an incline.

The gas pedal is worn.

 

I can't tell if you're being facetious here or not.

In my reply to Vuarra, I said that "vast majority of items sold as
"tuner" products are poorly made and amateurishly installed".

I think that's a pretty fair assessment given the youth and thin wallets of
most "tuners". I did some "tuning" 20 years ago with what passed for
"tuner"-type items back then. My tuning efforts were amateurish and poorly
installed. I ended up ripping them off and reinstalling the OEM stuff
again, which actually made the car work better. I did not know then what I
know now.

You sound like a dedicated tuner who actually spends the money to put
proper quality parts on the car and has them installed correctly, with all
the parts chosen to work well together. That is not rice, that's what hot-
rodders have been doing since the '20s. You also don't sound like you're 20
years old.

The problem is, how do you know if the modifications have been done well?
It's really hit and miss, isn't it? How many modifiers are going to spend
the money and time to have it done right, and how many just want their cars
to look, ride and sound like a race car and are willing to put up with all
sorts of problems and glitches for the sake of appearance?

And for sure, modifications will definitely severely limit your potential
market when you go to sell. The best market for selling that kind of car
would probably be the community of people who are into that sort of thing,
and who hang around together, frequent the same shops and shows, and talk
about others' cars enough to know who's done it right and who hasn't.

That's my reaction.

 

LOL

And the driver's seat shows signes of having spent a lot of time at 45
degrees of rake.

 

Does it have the "Hamster Torture Sound" fartcan in the back, or a
Bigass Wing on the trunk?

Some stickers, yes, most rational people can see, but the rice crowd
(my brother-in-law included, with his 1986 Olds Cutlass Supreme; even
good cars can be riced) usually are the ones to go overboard. I've
seen one guy with a Civic who had a Screaming Chicken sticker from a
Pontiac Firebird and the Super Hi-Kis <sp> sticker from a Nissan.

Most people would understand that your car is not rice. Rice, for the
most part, is all show and no go.


Vuarra

Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound.)