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Hi.
My car is a Honda Civic 1990.I just recently changed my PCV valve, as mine didn’t do the clicking sound that it should apparently be doing, and I was trying to smoothen my idle. The part I bought was from Standard Automotive and was fairly expensive.
Since then, I’ve read on here that it is not a good idea to put a non-OEM PCV valve on a Honda, so I soaked the old OEM one in paint thinner, alot of black came out and now it clicks again. I wanted to put it back in but someone told me there’s a seal inside that was probably melted by the thinner. Is this correct?My PCV valve looks like the attached pic. The old OEM one has a metal piece that’s pushed against the top, and the new one has the same piece but it’s loose and halfway inside.
Other question : does someone know the best (reliable and cheap) website or shop to get OEM Honda parts in eastern Canada?
Thanks
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Here is a sight that may help. Try ebay or amazon
sometimes you can get genuine OE parts.Thank you sir, but the website linked does not ship to Canada, and it seems like their prices aren’t as low as on some other sites.
I might try ebay or amazon, but I find the parts diagrams and price lists on websites to be helpful.
Does anyone know about the PCV valve?
Thank you
I’m not a fan of Standard Motor Products but sometimes low volume items are OEM parts in an aftermarket box. It’s cheaper for them to buy it from Honda and throw it in their box than manufacture it themselves. Lets face it, not many 1990 Hondas left in Canada. Most of em have been crushed and are a fender on a new car by now.
If the car runs well and it’s not blowing oil all over I wouldn’t worry bout it.
[quote=”wysetech” post=86874]I’m not a fan of Standard Motor Products but sometimes low volume items are OEM parts in an aftermarket box. It’s cheaper for them to buy it from Honda and throw it in their box than manufacture it themselves. Lets face it, not many 1990 Hondas left in Canada. Most of em have been crushed and are a fender on a new car by now.
If the car runs well and it’s not blowing oil all over I wouldn’t worry bout it.[/quote]
Maybe its different in Western Canada but there are no shortage of 90 era Civics out here. Dime a dozen! I’ve had luck with autopartsway.ca. In the parts description a lot of the time will say its an OEM part. Prices are pretty good too.
On that car Id be looking more at the throttle body, idle controller for cleanliness and properly checking for vacuum leaks. I don’t spend much of any time on Hondas but I know Eric had a great vid on Honda idle issues.
Thanks to JS, for advice about a retailer who will ship within Canada. We certainly need more healthy competition north of the border, and somebody who can push those horrible cross-border shipping fees down.
Regarding the PCV valve, those are normally so inexpensive I would be inclined to toss the old one and use a new one. If the one you bought doesn’t seem to be working I would recheck the hose it connects to, so that you can be sure that it also isn’t blocked. Sludge in the PCV is probably a sign of sludge everywhere, so I would consider doing a few rapid oil changes, and I would double check to be sure the breather hose is patent as well. When the PCV plugs off, blowby gasses mix more completely with oil to give a shmaggy mess, so it’s a problem that makes itself worse over time. If you are unclear as to whether the PCV is working you could put a vacuum gauge on the block.
Alright, thanks everyone.
The prices seem pretty good on the website for OEM.
Here in Quebec there seems to be plenty of early 90’s accords and alot of 92 and up but I don’t see many of those 88-91’s. Mine is in real good shape, 65k miles, no rust, so I’m trying to keep it that way.
I’ll do a vacuum check when I can and get an OEM valve if needed, but for now it seems to be doing alright.
Sometimes troubleshooting my car on the internet makes me worry for no reason.
Thanks
I would recommend getting a new OE PCV valve, if nothing else but because you’ve come this far. I find on those older Civics that the grommet that the valve goes into can get old and sometimes cause vacuum leaks so you might want to check for that after you do the install. In addition I’ve written these articles specifically dealing with Honda idle issues that might help as well.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Okay then, I will get the 30$ Honda one. They are the metal ones that screw directly into the manifold without a grommet.
Thanks.
65,000km is soooo low!! Being a Quebec car I’m surprised it still rolls. Worst roads in the world there!
If you do find there is a lot of sludge every ware Splunkered’s advice is great. Once that crap starts growing there’s no stopping it if you don’t deal with it. I have also found a slundgy engine can plug up PCV systems and it only makes the issue worse. Get a couple bottles of oil system cleaner and two oil changes worth of stuff from your parts store. I highly recommend the Liqimoly oil cleaner. It works really well, I swear by it. Audi/VW dealers up here use the same stuff branded in their own badging. If its good enough and safe for them to use in 75,000$ cars I trust it too.
Use a bottle of cleaner, Warm up the engine and then let it idle for 15 min with the cleaner in. Don’t drive it with the cleaner in it. Drain and do your oil change. I know the bottle says 5 min on it but it will be fine for 15 as long as you don’t drive it. If you pour the old oil thru a kitchen sive you’ll be amazed at the crap that came out of the engine.
Drive it a week with the new oil and then repeat the process. That will get rid of most sludge, it also cleans out the oil passages as well as helps free up any stuck piston rings. On a lot of older cars, mainly German ones I’ve been using diesel specific oil. Honda not so much, but older VW engines ran heavy oil to begin with so its easy to find Diesel oil in the correct weight. IE 15W40. Most of the diesel oils, even non synthetic have really good additives in them designed to break up and prevent deposits and sludge. If I pulled the valve cover off my engine you’d swear it had less than 100,000km on it by how clean it is. I just use good cleaner, diesel oil and conveniently the filter for the diesel version of my car fits and is twice the size.
As far as using a diesel oil to help an older Honda engine out you may want Eric’s advice as he seems to be the man. Hopfully you get the issue sorted quick, its bloody cold out there right now! The weather here is the opposite, it was +12 at the top of Whistler last weekend.
Thank you sir.
No I meant 65k miles, so it’s about 105 000km, but it’s still running pretty much like new. I think I really exaggerated on the sludge issue. It really isn’t that bad but I was looking for a reason to clean up things. Just changed the timing belt so I took off the valve cover and it’s all shiny inside.
I’m looking into the liqui moly treatment. I was already thinking of using the seafoam one, but I’ll trust you on this. I figure the only place I’ll be able to find this here is at an Audi service.
And I had no idea you could use diesel oil in a regular car. I think I’ll stick to Castrol though, I do my oil changes very often and don’t drive much to begin with.And in Quebec the potholes hurt your car, but I can tell you my first car was never the same after being through the Rockies out west. It came out with half the power it had and a slipping transmission!
Edit : and with the treatment, being an older car, don’t I have to worry about damage to seals or leaking?
In regards to the oil I still would consult Eric on that. He knows Hondas. I know the diesel oil works well in older VW, Audi, Volvo and some older BMWs too, but that’s pretty much all I get to play with. Old heavy Euro stuff. Its also convenient since a lot of those engines came with oil heavier than 10w30 from the factory.
Using the oil cleaner is never a bad thing. If its not that bad I would skip doing the double oil change and just use the cleaner every time you do change it. A lot of German car speciality shops sell Liquimoly-It is German stuff. Failing that go to any VW or Audi dealer parts counter and ask to buy a bottle of their oil system cleaner. Its cheap. I have never seen it cause a leak in my experience, not like adding synthetic to an old engine can do for example. Synthetic causes seals to leak because the molecules are smaller and more uniform compared to mineral oil. Cars that came with synthetic have better seals most of the time.
In my own car I always pair it up and use the Mo2 additive with the new oil. It throws you off a bit because it makes the oil black right away but I find it really helps with high milage engines. Even adding it to 2000km oil seems to quieten the engine down a bit.
Most oil cleaners do the same job. I just use that one since the guys that put me on it work on anything from 88 Audi 90s to 2010 R8 V10s and They trust it, It has the European “TUV” rating on it and it does a good job. I even know guys that will add half a bottle to a manual gear box and let the wheels spin on stands thru the gears and then drain the gear box.
Side note: The rockies will sign a death sentence to any old transmission or quickly show you how worn out your cooling system is. Its also the last place to find out your brakes are worn too! Thankfully the mountain driving I do on the regular is to Whistler and back, its not so bad provided your tires are good!
I’m not big on ‘treatments’ for that vehicle, or any vehicle for that matter. Really the only thing they need is a good tune up with Honda parts, a good valve adjustment, tight timing belt, and some fresh oil. As for the oil, stick with what’s on the cap which I believe is 5W30. I’ve seen more problems than I can count when someone thought they knew better than the engineers that designed the engine in the first place.
Good luck.
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