Honda Prelude Forum - PreludeDriver.com

i just got my prelude and i noticed that there is a clicking sound when i take off turning left or right... most likely cv joints. and also it has gotten terrible gas mileage since i started driving it. any suggestions?

The clicking sound when turning at slow speed is almost certainly your CV joint.

Regarding the poor gas mileage, are you getting an ECU warning light? Checking to see if the engine is throwing any error codes is a good first step when troubleshooting potential engine problems (such as excess fuel consumption)

no there are no check engine or ecu lights on. im thinkin it because i just got the car and dont really know how to lay off it yet haha. but any tips on keeping my prelude running great? i want to have it for a long time. im going to replace the cv axle because it looks like a pretty easy fix. ill try to take video and post it on here if thats cool. im new to the prelude thing so i need as much help as i can get.

Just take good care of her. Do fluid changes on a regular basis and keep your eyes on any parts that can wear out with time (suspension joint, struts, clutch, master/slave cylinders, etc). Hondas are very high quality, so your car will last a long time.

hey so my check engine light came on and I cleaned out my egr... so does the check engine light just go off after or do i need to disconnect the date and time fuse to reset it?

I'd pull the ECU fuse for good measure to reset everything.

what would be a good price for a cat converter to be replaced in my prelude... the part was about 200. is it a hard job to do? Californias smog test suuuucks!!

Swapping them out is pretty easy. Three bolts on either end (that will likely be seized a bit, as this is the exhaust system), drop the pipe, put the new one on and bolt it up.

zb831 wrote:but any tips on keeping my prelude running great? i want to have it for a long time.

Ludes are very well built cars, they are some of the last Hondas actually built in Japan. If you do the basics you will have the car for a really long time.

change oil every 3k, always keep an eye on wear and tear parts. I consider CV joints wear and tear, so that's no biggie at all. Rotate tires when needed. Also look into your car's manual, many people don't use them, but you will be surprised that there is a ton of amazing info in there on how to always keep your car in top shape.

Clean your car often, believe it or that helps too. Your paint will last long time if you wax the car at least 3 times a year. Wax protects from water and even sun to a certain extent. Clean your interior often as well.

In the end when you have 200k or more on the motor, you can always swap a newer motor from Japan in and have a pretty damn good car all over again. In Japan cars are junked at around 50k-60k on them, very easy to find an H or an F series motor with low miles. This also saves you money from buying another car because It's really pointless when you can still keep your old car. Good luck mate!

thanks a lot! also i was wondering... my prelude has had a pretty bad oil burning smell. i heard that the 97 h22 engines have a problem with this. any way to stop the burning or to reduce it. any suggestions will help thanks.

Does your exhaust have a blue tint to it as well? First you need to figure out whether the oil burning smell is coming from inside the engine or is from oil spilled on the outside of the engine. Exhaust that looks blue, especially right when the car starts after sitting for a while is a good sign that the rings in the engine are weeping oil into the combustion chamber.

no, no blue smoke... my engine is dry except for this one part on the back of the engine on the driver side. it looks like its leaking from closer to the middle of the engine and coming down. there is a little oil that comes all the way down to the oil pan. but its not the drain plug. but its not a lot. just enough to smell. any suggestions where it might be coming from? i've shined a light and tried to see where the start of it is but i cant find the exact spot. hopefully there's a common gasket or spot that leaks on the H22's. hope to get a response soon, thanks

It's probably the head gasket. These will leak when they wear out. If it's a slow leak, most people live with it for a while. If it's a bad leak, or you're losing engine compression, it should be replaced. In bad cases, the leak will cause oil to mix with the coolant. You'd see your coolant (ordinarily clear and green) get oily looking and filthy.

If the leak is originating from behind the shroud that covers the timing belt, it could also be a cam seal.

is this an easy fix?

Not really. Changing the head gasket requires removing the entire top end of the engine. This means taking the timing belt off and disconnecting a lot of things.

If you're comfortable with automobile mechanics, it's a doable project, but if you're new to cars, you might want to get somebody to help you.