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Honda Element Day 8- Final post

I looked at the brakes and they really don't look all that bad, I'm guessing that I can squeeze about 20,000 more miles out of them. WIth that out of the way I can honestly say that the Honda Element is totally ready to be consistently driven. It will now be my regular vehicle and could even come up to college with me.

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Honda Element Day 7

I've been driving the Element for a while now after checking the fuses and there haven't been any more problems with the radio! This is a very surprising outcome, I suppose that the radio's fuse must have just been slightly loose or something. Now that I don't have to worry about the radio anymore I'm turning to the squeaky brakes.

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Honda Element Day 6

I figured that checking the fuses would be the easiest thing to start with because it didn't require much tearing apart of the engine. So the other day I opened the fuse box, which was positioned just next to the battery, and when I did I was greeted by what was probably the cleanest fuse box I had ever seen. I was very surprised but still pulled a couple to see if there was any corrosion on them. There wasn't anything, so I plugged everything back in. If the radio continues to malfunction I'll at least now know that it's not the fuses.

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Honda Element Day 5

I got the oil changed in the element and now that I've been driving it around for a while I have noticed that the radio will disconnect every once in a while. I say disconnect because instead of just turning off the radio seems to completely disconnect from the battery. I'm thinking that there could just be a wiring issue or maybe an issue with a fuse, so I will have to check that soon because its getting to be very annoying.

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Honda Day 4 continued

After getting the starter completely on and putting everything else back into place (plastic trimming and reconnecting the battery) it was time to start it up. It cranked over a couple times then fired up just like new. Well not exactly, because the car had been sitting for so long it ran a little rough because it needed an oil change badly. However, despite needing the oil change it still was able to drive.

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Honda Element Day 4

It took a while but I was able to get the element's starter all the way back in. I did have to take it completely out and back in a couple of times but eventually I got it fitted against the transmission. After getting it seated and bolted in I needed to attach wiring back to the positive terminal on the solenoid. that took a bit longer than expected because there was a little rubber boot that was supposed to keep the terminal from any kind of damage but on the reinstall it just got in the way.

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Honda Element Day 3

Today I was able to loosen the bolts completely and remove the old starter. I went to NAPA and got a new starter and started to put it in. It’s gonna be just as much of a process as getting it out was.

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Honda Element day 2

I’ve started to get the old starter out, removing the plastic cover is the easy part. The hard part now is getting the starter itself out. It’s positioned at just the right spot next to the block, right above the oil pan, that makes it incredibly difficult to get to. I’m beginning to loosen the bolts but will have to take a break because it’s getting late.

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Honda Element

At the beginning of this school year my dad told me about a friend of his offering an old Honda Element. This car had been kept in a garage for a couple months and wasn’t running. No one else in the friend’s family wanted it and he knew that I liked to work on cars so he offered it to my dad. My dad accepted it and got it towed to our house.

I did a couple tests and have confirmed that it has a starter issue and will be starting the project as soon as I can.