(4) Reassembly

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. Is there a more disingenuous term? Who wants to read every sentence backwards, just as they're flagging? To put everything back together, I started by taking the clingfilm off the throttle body.






In the space of 10 minutes, it was getting hard to see. Sunset is getting much earlier this time of the year :-(



Refitting the Air Box


With the airbox pushed back onto the throttle body, I popped the breather hose back on and tightened the two 10mm bolts (these don't need a lot of tightening).





Almost forgot to tighten that little 8mm jubilee clip screw/bolt back up:





Plugging the electrical connector back in, the airbox refitting is completed.





Refitting the Resonator


Last step! Slot the right hand side of the resonator back into the airbox union, and push the pipe below it into its clip on the the resonator. Then slot the fat intake tube into the resonator's left side.




Refit the four 10mm bolts:




...and the job is done. Hopefully, all this has prolonged the life of my EPS rack. Given the lack of grease at 63,000 miles, I think that lubricating the slider guide's area of travel ought to be part of the service schedule for these Civics.

Thanks for reading!

Flounder

(3) Regreasing the Slider Rail

To regrease the area that the EPS slider moves along, I cut off the steel bellows band at each end of the slider, and pushed back the accordion gaiters, exposing the inside of the rack. The driver's side gaiter has the more spacious access, so I did that side first. Of course, with no air filter and the throttle body blocked, the engine was not started during the rest of this procedure.

To give an idea of what is to follow, this photo shows the driver's side accordion gaiter, and the direction to push it after the band has been removed.





It was handy to keep in mind that with the steering at right full lock, the guide moves along the slider and the driver's side accordion gaiter is elongated, and the passenger side compressed.




You guessed it - at left full lock, the driver's side gaiter is compressed, and the passenger's side elongated.






You can see in the two photos above that having the steering at right full lock will help expose the most of the slider area, and having the steering at left full lock will make pulling the gaiter back into place easier when the driver's side greasing is finished.

Regreasing  the Driver's Side

Moving on, I cut the bellows band off. The red dot shows the safest place to use the cutters, avoiding the rubber gaiter.





Before exposing the inside of the rack, I gave the gaiter a clean to minimise dirt & grit ingress.





So this is the inside of my steering rack at 63,000 miles. Nothing on the edges of the rails, and what little grease I could find had been left at the end of the slider's travel. I stuck my fingers inside till I hit what was presumably the slider guide, there was nothing there either.





I gave the inside a light coat of grease. The red line shows what I took to be the most important area, the edges where the slider guide rubs against. then I moved the steering back and forth several times to distribute the grease evenly.





Then I thought, instead of all this faffing about, why don't I just put loads of grease in there, turn the steering wheel from lock to lock, then clean off the excess?





After cleaning the excess grease off, and making sure there was none on the rubber gaiter, I turned the wheel to left full lock, and pulled the rubber gaiter into place ready for a new bellows band to hold it in place.





About to clip the bellows band (this side is the smaller diameter bellows band) into place...





... After the band was clipped on, I crimped it tight.




Regreasing the Passenger's Side

There are more obstacles in the way on the passenger's side, and less space to get cutters in there to get rid of the bellows band. The arrow in the photo points to the cutting area. If the band had been put on with the raised cutting portion rotated to face further up, it would have been much easier to do!




As before, I cleaned up the gaiter before exposing the rack within.





Hmmm... not much lubrication on this side either. I put a fair measure of grease in there, turned the steering back and forth a fair bit, and cleaned up in the same fashion as I did the driver's side. It was starting to get a bit dark.





Crimping a fresh bellows band (this side is the larger one) into position.








With the rack regreased, and the sky darkening, it was time to get the resonator and air box back on the car. My final post on this will cover reassembly.

(2) Removing the Airbox

Removing the airfilter housing helps to improve access to the right half of the steering rack. Here's the airbox highlighted in red - I've reused the first photo from the resonator box removal, that's why the resonator box is still present in this picture.





First I unscrewed the two 10mm captive bolts circled below. They come away with the airbox after loosening.





The jubillee clip holding the airbox to the throttle body below slackens when this screw on the right hand side is loosened - no need to remove it completely. It has a philips head slot cut into an 8mm bolt, so I used an 8mm socket over a screwdriver for ease of use. There is no need to open any air filter clips as I have in the picture!





All that remains is to disconnect the electrical plug by pressing down on its locking tab and pulling away, and squeezing a clip to pull off the breather tube. Both are circled in the next photo.





The airbox, freed from the engine bay. Notice the two 10mm bolts are still in place.





With the resonator and airbox removed, the EPS steering rack can be seen.





The rack was now exposed enough to start fettling - I blocked off the exposed throttle body before getting down to it just in case. I'll cover the regreasing in my next post.

(1) Removing the Resonator Box

To improve access to the steering rack, I took out the resonator box, after looking up how to in the shop manual. This is another first for me, I've never seen one in a car, and only ever heard of Helmholtz resonance in the context of motorbike airbox shapes. The resonator box is highlighted below.





I removed the four 10mm bolts highlighted in green...




...Then pulled the resonator from its rubber intake connector, circled below.





On the other side, I pulled the resonator from its path to the airbox, and freed the tube immediately below from its clip on the resonator.





After these steps, the resonator can be pulled straight out of the engine bay, revealing the left half of the steering rack.






In my next post, photos of the airbox removal, exposing the right half of the steering rack.

Regreasing an EPS Honda Civic Steering Rack

EPS steering. Electric Power Steering. I admit never having heard of it before I met the Civic. Unlike conventional, reliable, relatively maintenance free power steering systems, or half conventional, half electric systems, EPS steering involves no pump, no hydraulic fluid, and no feel at all no assistance while the steering wheel is not being turned.

Instead, a torque sensor tells an electric motor to turn the wheels when the steering wheel is used. The idea is improved fuel economy, as the steering is not a constant drain on the engine's power.


Personally, I think Honda's EPS feels unnatural. From personal experience (before following excellent advice to spray a little lubricant in the torque sensor area), it can be notchy and reluctant to return to centre. At the time of writing, an innocuous google search for "honda civic eps" brings up more complaint than high praise - click the thumbnail to zoom in.

Poor lubrication can result in noise in the EPS rack when steering, stress on the electric motor, wear, and big headaches and bills. There are guides to replacing the rack once it's worn, but I'm not comfortable extracting the entire rack from the engine bay, or resetting electronics or tracking. I'd rather regrease the EPS in situ as much as possible while my steering is still fine, as a preventative measure.

© Copyright Colin Smith and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

I'm not a mechanic. This post and those immediately following it are an account of how a dilettante regreased an EPS rack on a 2003 1.4l Civic, and shouldn't be taken as an authoritative guide. If you follow the same steps as me, I admit no liability for any damage done.









To give a short overview of what this involved, I lubricated as much of the rack sliding surface as possible by first pulling back the rubber accordion gaiters on either side of the EPS slider, and shoving grease in there. To get access to the rubber gaiters, I first removed the resonator box and airbox from the engine bay; to pull back the rubber gaiters, their steel retaining clips needed to be cut off.

Tools needed:

• an 8mm socket (for removing the airbox).
• a 10mm socket (for removing the resonator box and airbox).
• socket set extender (for an awkwardly placed resonator box bolt).
• axle stands (for raising the wheels off the ground; moving the steering wheel side to side helped with distributing the grease evenly).
• a small set of cutters, to remove the original retaining clips (bellows bands).
• a small crimping tool (to fit new bellows bands to the rubber gaiters).

Parts needed:

• A new driver's side bellows band ("Band A"), Honda part number 53449S5AJ01.
• A new passenger's side bellows band ("Band B"), Honda part number 53448S5AJ01. This has a larger diameter than the driver's side. £8 for the pair at a dealership; why so expensive? More on these bands below.
• General purpose grease, despite the rubber gaiters. Honda make a dedicated power steering grease - part number 08C35-B0534L - but the shop manual specifies normal multipurpose grease during overhaul of the EPS rack:

I found it a great help to have the front wheels off the ground, so that they could be easily steered with the engine off:

Attempt nothing without gloves!

I've never come across these "bellows bands" before. Judging by the old ones, after fitting, the only way to remove them is to cut them off, so they are single-use. The raised area seems designed to prevent you cutting into the rubber gaiter by accident. When fitting the new bellows bands, I crimped the raised area in the same fashion as the old ones had been; this tightens the band securely.

In the photo below, the tabs circled in green slot into the holes circled in red. Then the raised area, circled in blue, is crimped tight. To later remove, the raised area is cut, releasing the band.






Following this introduction,I've split the EPS regrease photographs into stages:

1. Removing the resonator box (only four 10mm bolts to unscrew)
2. Removing the airbox (only two captive 10mm bolts to loosen, a hidden 8mm bolt to loosen, and an electrical socket to unplug)
3. Regreasing the rack sliding surfaces at either side of the EPS slider guide
4. Reassembly.

See you in the next one, have a good time.

Honda Civic Unflappable Fuel Door Suggestion

I've exercised a little brevity in this post. I'd like to round off this triptych of Honda Civic fix-up posts with a write up of today's EPS steering rack regrease soon, and with 45 photographs taken I'd prefer to give that the lion's share of my mindthots (spot the belated eponym reference) .

Something I've noticed about Hondas, driving this one, is that they all seem to have metal fuel filler flap doors, rather than the plastic flaps most other manufacturers use.

Something else I've noticed after a quick look through Google is that this Civic is not alone in sporting a rather indifferent fuel flap - occasionally it sticks shut when the opening lever in the cabin is pulled, and when it does open, well, it's not open so much as slightly ajar. From what I've read, I'm one of the lucky ones. Enough fuel flap cables have snapped apart on these Civics that an American website exclusively sells repair kits for them.

Using the method described in this post, I managed to persuade the fuel flap to pop open with a bit more conviction. Here's a before and after comparison, in the usual tradition.

Before fettling...





...and after:





Anyway, I had noticed that the piece of sprung steel that pops the flap hinge open had become misaligned, it was no longer parallel with the door. Its retaining nut (8mm) had slackened off with time, as photographed below.



Some days I'm just not in the mood for tinkering with cars. Instead of taking out the leaf spring, I just used angled pliers to tension it a bit more (bend it). I lined the spring back up in parallel with the fuel filler door, and tightened the 8mm retaining nut.





All done, thanks for reading. A suivre: the EPS steering rack regrease. And after that, I'm not so much as washing this Honda, my enthusiasm for this sort of thing tends to fade with the waning autumn daylight.

(4) Thanks, No Thanks.

Thanks
The civicforums members, especially the OP, who posted in the following thread how to regrease the push rod - and to suspect it in the first place!

http://www.civicforums.com/forums/120-transmission/178652-got-squeaky-clutch-i-fixed-mine-today-pic-added.html

No Thanks
Blogger, for neither supporting the Opera browser in  the new interface, nor in the stats panel of the dashboard.

(3) Replacement, Can't Hardly Wait.

There's not much involved in replacing the push rod. This is a long post, but it's mostly just photographs. An electrical plug has to be disconnected, two bolts unscrewed, the rubber boot taken off and the slave cylinder spun around.

Tools required:

• A 12mm socket, preferably a hefty one (3/8" drive, is that the larger one? I can never remember).
• A couple of extension bars, so you can reach the bolts easily. The area is quite low down in the engine bay.
• A wrench (I used a cheap torque wrench)
• Grease, about a spoon full. The shop manual from Honda specifies a special Honda polyurea grease, but it's very, very expensive in the UK and my dealership didn't have any (what does that tell you). I used Castrol Red brake grease, to avoid damaging the rubber parts. Mintex's Ceratec brake grease is also safe on rubber, and has a 1000 degree boiling point so I'd probably use that next time. 

To start with, here's a reminder of where the push rod is hidden:

Between the battery and the exhaust headers...




... Down there.






The slave cylinder's rigid hydraulic pipe (highlighted in blue) is fitted to the slave cylinder body with a spinning washer. It doesn't need loosening or anything done to it at all. When carrying out the next steps, bear in mind only to rotate the slave cylinder around the bolt as highlighted in green in the photo, especially when separating the ball end of the push rod from the socket it pushes against. This way, the rigid pipe isn't bent or stressed - you know you're doing it right when getting the ball end of the push rod out of it's socket takes very little physical effort.

First separate the grey electrical plug and socket, and move the two wires out of the way. Mine was flipping hard to separate, even with the locking catch pulled back. Unscrew the two 12mm bolts, circled in brown. In the photo below, the bolt on the left is obscured by the electrical socket. I've highlighted the slave cylinder bleed nipple in pink for reference only, don't open it.





With the slave cylinder now loose, pull the rubber boot in the direction shown in green, to stick your hand inside it from the large opening (red) and have a feel around. Separate the push rod ball end from it's socket - the slave cylinder should be spinning on its axis, anticlockwise only. To show what to expect, I've drawn on a wobbly MS Paint x-ray of the push rod ball end, in yellow, and the socket it pushes against, in blue.





With the push rod freed from it's socket, the rubber boot can be pulled right off. After I did that, I span the slave cylinder 180 degrees, to give better access to the push rod. To take it out, pull the rubber accordion gaiter off its lip on the slave cylinder body. Donate the plastic collar and rubber gaiter to the new push rod, they just slide on from the back. In the photo below, I've lightly greased the new push rod and the gaiter with rubber safe grease inside and out.





To regrease the push rod ball end, I filled the socket cavity it fits in with the Castrol Red. With the slave cylinder spun well away, access to the socket cavity (circled in purple, behind the hydraulic pipe) is grand.





Cleaning out the socket prior to greasing. Paper towels are fine for this. I used a little brake cleaner on a cotton bud too, there was no need for it really. I've circled the slave cylinder bleed nipple in pink, just to show the slave cylinder is spun well away from the socket. I pretty much filled the socket in with grease.





That's pretty much it! Fit the fat rubber boot over the new push rod's accordion gaiter, spin it clockwise, and click the ball joint back into its socket. Screw the two 12mm bolts back in, tighten to 22 Nm if using a torque wrench. Click the electrical plug and socket back together on their bracket, and have a feel around the rubber boot to make sure the fat square end is fitted in its cavity properly.

Silent clutch, and less than a tenner too. :)