Cars and Automechanics

September 23, 2025
in Cars and Automechanics
13 min read

Requiem for a Daimler(Chrysler)

Part 1: Sad Summer

In June of 2025, my poor PT Cruiser suffered a string of systemic failures that culminated in the ol' girl kicking the bucket just before hitting 190K.

In one incredibly long weekend I overheated going up a mountain, got stranded for a few hours, got a brief tow, then drove the rest of the way to my destination once the engine cooled down. Two days spent investigating the issue lead me and my mechanic (a close relative of mine) to conclude that it was probably fine. We thought the issue was with my cooling fans or thermostat not functioning properly.

I left my mechanic's house at around 08:00 and didn't get home until 21:00. For a drive that was only supposed to take 8 hours, all of the overheatings, getting stranded, and eventually getting towed 125 miles closer to home added up to about 13 hours total.

My PT Cruiser was out of commission for about two weeks while I diagnosed, tested, and eventually resolved the overheating problem by replacing the coolant and radiator. I was ecstatic and that car never purred so well and she drove cold as ice for another month or so.

One evening, going about 45 mph on a straight road (downhill even!), the wife and I headed home from the grocery store as the Cruiser just stopped accelerating. No BANG, no grinding, no death knell or warning whatsoever. She slowed to a stop and never drove again.

I called our roommate and he came to the rescue, took us and the groceries back home, and I called a tow truck the next morning. I met the driver on the side of the road (8 miles from my house) and he followed me back to the driveway. He dumped the car, collected the ~$190 I owed him, and I set off to repair the cruiser yet again.

After discussing it with my mechanic and weighing my options, I decided that this old car wasn't worth the effort and money anymore, so I decided to sell the car to the local car yard where I get a lot of spare parts from. To "give 'er back to God" as it were.

Sidenote: I don't believe the car ever made it to the pickyard, I'm fairly certain it just got sold at auction. What a shame.

Part 2: Frustrating Fall

With the cruiser gone, the search began for a replacement as I really appreciate having two cars as my wife still works and when her car is acting up, she can then use one of mine as a spare. (This will be important later.)

I started scouring local used car lots, online ads, CarMax, CarFax, Craigslist, AutoTempest, ebay Motors, and even Facebook marketplace, but none had a vehicle worth purchasing. All were too expensive, too damaged, or too far away. I wasn't 100% set on what kind of car I wanted to get yet; I was mostly looking at 2nd Gen Honda CR-Vs and 7th–8th Gen Honda Civics.

A few different listings stuck out to me, both 7th Gen Civics (2001-2005) and both with a host of issues that became obvious as I saw them in person and finally realized why they were listed for so long and so cheap.

The first was a $4,500 Civic Coupe, bright red, tons of cheap respray and body panel issues. It also threw an engine code for a bad gear ratio which heavily indicates a bad transmission. This was a shame since it only had 120K miles on it. The second was similarly priced, in an ugly tan color, a few dents, but this one actually rand and drove alright. It definitely had an exhaust leak or some kind of aftermarket muffler so it sounded like shit and had cheap, failing tint. I think it only had 160K on the odometer.

I happened to check AutoBidMaster one afternoon and found a green 2002 Civic Sedan with a surprisingly low number of miles (only 112K!). My curiosity was piqued and I placed a measly $500 bid on the car. The auction listed it as a donated car that would start under its own power (or with a jump), would shift into drive, and move forward. I figured that I would gamble on the car and see if it would be my little emerald in the rough. It was also listed as a donated vehicle, so I hoped that meant that it was just neglected and not a turd.

The paint's clearcoat was heavily damaged, the battery was dead, and the engine seemed to have a minor oil leak. Without seeing the car in person, I just had to rely on fate to see if the car would be worth the effort. The auction closing day finally came and I won the auction with a bid of $1,600. This was not what I ended up paying and only started the laundry list of shenanigans that would end up plaguing me because of this too-good-to-be-true car.

The auction closed, but the purchase hadn't been finalized because the seller had to "approve" my bid. This shady practice is known on AutoBidMaster as an "on approval" auction as opposed to a "pure sale" auction where the final price is whatever the last person bid before the close of the auction. The seller ended up contacting me a few hours later stating that I could win the auction if I increased my bid to $2,000. This was just plain insulting and really goes against the whole point of auctions. I couldn't complain too much since I knew this was a possibility before I bid, but I figured that even $2,000 was worth it if I could secure such a low-mileage Civic.

I declined the offer for $2,000 and retorted with $1,800. He countered with $1,950 and didn't respond to any counters from me. I eventually caved and agreed to the $1,950 and began the purchase process. The purchase price was bad enough, but the $1,200 in fees from AutoBidMaster was really painful to swallow. The site also charged me ~$300 to ship the car from their lot to my house which was only a distance of about 30 miles.

I paid the company the ~$3,500 it ended up costing and a few days later the green meanie was in my driveway and the real torment finally began.

Part 3: Civic Duty

The tow truck dropped it off in my roommate's parking spot, so my first order of business was to move the damn thing. This was difficult with a dead battery (which was really dead and wouldn't hold a charge), so I instead opted to lube up the cylinders with some fogging oil through the spark plug holes—as it had been sitting for some time—then attempt to start it with my old Honda Element group 51R battery. It fired right up after much protesting from the stale fuel and slumbering electrical system. I put it in drive, pulled it about 20 feet down the driveway, and parked it. There it would sit for another two weeks.

During all this time, my wife and I started to pack our things and prepare to move from my roommate's house and into a new place on the other side of town. This put a damper on my car repair time which started interfering with my pack-n-move time, all to the chagrin of my dear wife.

Between moving preparations and going to work, my time was limited to get the Civic into good enough shape to make the 30 mile trip to the new house. I had a list of things to do:

Change the oil
1. I already had the correct oil and filters as I have a similar year Element
Replace the thermostat
1. Just in case
Drain and fill the coolant
1. I didn't have any Honda Type 2 so I used Zerex Asian Vehicle antifreeze
Change the transmission fluid
Put some new gas in it
Check the tire pressure
1. All 4 wheels matched and had good tread, which was nice

Once all that was done, I took her on a maiden voyage to the gas station. This is when I noticed the shifting issues. The tranny shifted really hard, a lot harder than it should, even though it was a 20+ year old car. I thought it might be me not putting the right level of fluid in it, but I triple checked it and the fluid level was fine. This was bad news bears indeed.

My mechanic wasn't 100% convinced the tranny was bad as it was throwing some codes for a bad PCM (computer) and some bad shift solenoids. I started on the latter, buying two off of ebay, installed them both, and while those codes went away, the shifting was as bad as ever.

Moving day came and went with the Civic holding it's section of the driveway firm. I hadn't driven it far enough to be sure that it could make the 30 mile trip to the new place. After everything else had been moved, the Civic was all that remained. I needed to replace the PCM before it could be moved though. There is apparently a design flaw with this generation of Civic where if the alternator gets loose, it can ground out on the interior of the engine bay and fry the computer. I believe this is what happened to mine. I purchased a replacement PCM on ebay for $45, removed the two immobilizer chips from my old one and soldered them onto the new one. This took about an hour and completely resolved the engine codes for the PCM.

My wife and I drove down one night and she dropped me off at the (now) old house. She went to see a relative and I went to work replacing the PCM and checking the ATF again and when I determined that the levels were good. I took it for a very short spin and the shifting hadn't gotten better at all. After a few minutes, I decided to just start driving and see how far I could get.

I started off down the road and after a few minutes of it banging around, I threw it in 2nd gear and drove the whole trip at ~35 mph. This annoyed the hell out of the folks behind me on the single-lane roadways that I had to drive down, but I had my hazards on, so oh well.

I parked it in the driveway, locked the doors (with the key, no keyless entry), and there it sat.

Part 4: Drive-by-Night

A week goes by and my mechanic (who lives a few hundred miles away) said that he had an open weekend, a used tranny for the Civic lined up, and all the tools to do the swap at his house. He just wanted me to be sure that it was the right move since he had to rely on my amateur observations and my lacking vocabulary and therefore couldn't make a very informed judgement call.

I took it to a chain mechanic that was open during the evening and they confirmed that the tranny was bad and needed a rebuild if not a full replacement. I relayed that to my mechanic and he purchased the tranny. Now it was the end of the week and with my slim window of opportunity approaching, I decided to make the eight hour drive to his house—with the Civic's transmission shifting harder than ever—and hope for the best.

I left the new place at 23:30 as I was too riled up about the upcoming trip to sleep after getting home from work at 17:00. I think I only got three hours of sleep that evening.

The first hour went well. Since it was the dead of night, traffic was light and I wasn't as likely to get in anyone's way while making the trip. I drove the majority of the trip in Drive, but some areas were limited to 2nd as the tranny didn't like low speeds.

The next few hours were pretty calm, but I was getting very tired as the night wore on and the dawn approached. A few close calls with dozing off, a weird sound I heard in traffic (that turned out to be my fender liner scraping against my tire, I later cut it off at a gas station), and a clunky-ass-drivetrain were the biggest worries from the trip. By 08:00 on Saturday, I was in the driveway of my mechanic's house. I then proceeded to go upstairs and crash for six hours in his spare bedroom.

A foggy view from the early morning drive

The afternoon rolled around and as I got out of bed, I see the Civic in his backyard now and he confirms that the tranny is bad (and worse than he expected!) and that he can definitely replace it with me over the next two days. We got to work, raised the car on jack stands, removed the undercarriage, dropped the old tranny, and popped in the new one by 22:00 that night.

Sunday morning, we put the subframe back on, replaced the headlights (I brought them with me), cleaned up the mess, and went to the store to get some ATF and cotter pins. We filled the fluid, felt the gears, and took it for a successful test drive. We celebrated with a big dinner that him and his wife cooked up. I went to bed around midnight and left for home at 09:00 the next morning, but with pockets about $460 lighter after the tranny and ATF.

The drive back was a lot easier than the drive down. Although, ten minutes into the trip the engine threw a P0740 Torque Converter Clutch Solenoid Circuit error. The transmission still shifted just fine, so I drove the few hundred miles back home, stopping for gas, and to fix the fender liner issue that one time.

I pulled into the driveway and breathed a sigh of relief, but work on the Civic has only just begun.

Part 5: Updates and Upgrades

I started to draw up a list of all of the parts of the Civic that I wanted to repair, replace, or otherwise modify:

The radio was the casette variant and had no bluetooth
The cheap tint was failing and bubbling
The speakers were broken in the front and sounded like crap in the back
The seats were uncomfortable and had no back support
There is a minor oil leak around the cam plug and valve cover grommets
The instrument cluster lights are dim
The alternator wasn't properly grounded
There is no keyless entry
The front passenger door does not unlock with the rest of the doors

Part 5-1: Radio

The bluetooth module installed into the Civic's radio (If you can't find a ground, make one!)

The contacts that I hijacked for the BT signal to use

My first thought was to simply add bluetooth to the existing stock radio. This would add some modern functionality while retaining the stock design. I accomplished this by purchasing a universal bluetooth module for about $8, stripping the RCA connectors off, and wiring it up to the tape deck circuitry inside the radio.

This worked, but the deck was smart enough to not output sound from the tape circuitry without a tape present. I popped in a dummy tape and that sort of solved the issue, but the whole time music is playing I can hear that tape spinning. The audio quality wasn't amazing and it was rather quiet, but it worked for a short while. I ended up going back to using one of those bluetooth FM transmitter devices instead.

A few days later, I found a silver Civic radio from a Hybrid 2003, cleaned it up, and popped it in the dash. It looks good and sounds good too.

Part 5-2: Tint

The whole Civic was covered in shitty tint that has long gone bubbly and brittle. I spent a few hours scraping it off with a razor blade, but I found out that—at least for the rear window—I could vaccuum it off with a strong enough shop vac. This helped me get the rear window about 80% clear before I stopped for the night. I still have some of the other windows to do.

Part 5-3: Sound System

With the radio situation solved, my attention turned to the speakers in both front doors as well as the two under the rear window. I swapped all four with a set of

To be finished soon...

Need for Sneed sticker on the rear window of the Civic

The Civic with red and green instrument cluster lights

The Civic's homemade alternator grounding cable

The rare 2002 Civic keyless entry wire harness

My Civic finally wired up with keyless entry

October 1, 2024
in Cars and Automechanics
8 min read

Element Spotting (5)

In the last few weeks, most of my attention has been put into my 1st car—my daily driver since 2017—a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser (Non-Turbo, Touring Edition). This car has been fairly reliable, if not a little quirky (to say the least). It leaks power steering fluid, it eats tires, I've rebuilt the frontend suspension, and the current KBB on it is $256. In just under eight years, I ran over a crate, hit a guardrail, and my roommate accidentally backed over my bumper and ripped it off (he had a late 90's Toyota Land Cruiser at the time). The brakes are new, the muffler is rusting off, the car is painted a few different colors, and it gets about 23 MPG.

Since my recent interests have leaned toward backyard auto-mechanics and my bills have been low, I've spent much of my time and money on tools and parts for both of my cars. With the Element mostly fine, my focus has been on the Cruiser as it is getting up there in years and has not been maintained nearly as well as it should have been.

The Camshaft knows where it is because the Crankshaft knows where it isn't

Back in May, I replaced the camshaft position sensor on the Cruiser as the engine started shuddering and misfiring before throwing a relevant code. I grabbed a new sensor, slapped it on, and went about my day. Last week, my car shuddered and misfired again. I pulled over, scanned the ODB, and got the verdict: Bad crankshaft position sensor. Generally, shops replace both at the same time if one goes out, they're cheap hall-effect sensors and fairly easy to replace, I'm just lazy and put it off until it was an issue.

This turned out to be quite the project and replacing this simple sensor took around four hours for two reasons: There was a support bracket in the way and the sensor itself seems to have deteriorated. I got the Cruiser up on ramps, got the three 15mm bolts out of the bracket, then the 1st 18mm bolt came out without much fuss, but that 2nd one took a very long time. The bolt is long, tucked away at the top of the bracket, and sandwiched between the radiator, radiator hose, and engine block. After trying half-a-dozen tool combinations ranging from simple extensions, to universal joints, to power tools (not enough room), I landed on a combination of a breaker bar, 10" extension, and 1/2" universal joint socket.

Many, many turns later, the bolt was free and the bracket came loose. Problem #1 solved. Next came the sensor itself.

I removed the connector, loosened the tiny bolt holding the sensor on, and gave it a tug. The sensor came free, but didn't look right. Turns out it partially broke-off inside of the engine and needed to be extracted. This left me with few options as space was scarce and as it was a smooth, plastic tube stuffed into a purpose-made hole; it didn't want to budge. I eventually stuffed a flathead screwdriver in there and walked it out. I felt around the hole and confirmed that there weren't any other pieces in there nor were there any scoring marks in the chamber.

I popped in a new sensor, bolted it in, and put back the three 15mm bolts, the 1st 18mm bolt, and struggled all over again—but in reverse this time—to put the 2md 18mm bolt back.

I cleared the codes, fired up the engine, and I haven't had any issues since.

Drum Roll (Please)

While brakes are (arguably) the most important aspect of car functionality, it seems a lot of people ignore them until a problem has developed. These big problems tend to be the result of ignoring or not noticing small issues and the monetary cost of them tends to snowball with time. I did a brake pad and rotor swap for the Cruiser a few months ago without issue. I even wire brushed the calipers to clean them up a bit, but I didn't replace them as they aren't leaking and I'm getting to the point where I don't want to dump too much money into it.

I knew it would be a good idea to at least check the shoes on by rear brakes. I still have no idea why any car chooses to have both disc and drum brakes on a single car, but that's not important now. I bought new shoes, drums, and a hardware kit for the springs and whatnot. When Saturday came around and all the parts were in, I got to work. I then was swiftly roadblocked as when I took my wheel off, I discovered that the drums were seized in place and I wasn't getting them off by hand. I tried hammering, penetrating oil. more hammering, adjusting the brake shoes, more hammering, and even hammering from behind with a screwdriver. When these all failed, I broke down and spent $40 on a 12" gear puller on Amazon. It was on my porch Sunday morning, I positioned it on my drum, hit it with the impact, and it popped free.

A wave of relief washed over me, but my work was just getting started. I took lots of pictures of the spring assembly and noticed how paper thin my brake shoe material was. Glad I changed them when I did!

I removed the assembly, cleaned up the dust shield, greased up some wear spots, checked the cylinders, and put the new shoes in place. I confirmed that the new drums fit on the shoes and that all the functions work as expected. I took the new drums off, spray painted them bright red, put them back in place, tested the brake friction, torqued the wheels on top, and went for a test drive. Braking was not great, definitely needs adjustment. I found some time a few days later and got them to brake a little more evenly, albeit probably looser than they should be. I can stop fine in the rain, so I should be good.

Clean, Mean, and Toast Machine

I felt kind of listless last weekend and thought it was about time to wash and polish the orange beast. I scrubbed it top-to-bottom, ran some plastic trim restorer over the grey bits, popped all the wheels off to hit them with some wheel cleaner, and covered the paint with some once-a-year car polish. She's nice and shiny now (until it rains and gets muddy again) and the plastic restorer should help keep the grey trim from turning white.

Update: I'm not sure if it was the polish or the trim restorer, but it has started turning white again just a week or so after the initial application. I plan to try this Solution Finish product soon, perhaps changing my grey trim to a black. Going from the stock color scheme to a more Halloween-type theme.

Moll-E: New Name for my E?

HRG Offroad makes a set of metal molle panels that affix to the rear door and quarter panel windows. These add a neat style to your E as well as a sorta-functional matrix that you can mount military-themed stuff onto. I currently have some little 4" square velcro patch panels on them that I plan to put some of my morale patches on (eventually). They are fairly destructive to install, requiring that one drill holes into the plastic trim and the inner metal of their car. I did this for my rear doors, but I may eventually get the rear quarter panel set as well (driver's side and passenger's side). It's around $500 for all four panels which is steep, but if you're interested, add them to your ebay watchlist and you may get lucky if the seller offers a slight discount offer (like what happened to me, I think I got mine for $9 off).

Not a lot going on repair-wise on the E. I have some ideas in the mix to finish painting my PT Cruiser; it is currently black and gold (tan), but I plan to maybe paint something on it. Graffiti? Camo? Not sure yet, I'll make another post when I have some more pics to share. Until then, enjoy some new Element pics!

Recent E Pics:

My E (Left) next to another Sunset Orange E from my town (Right)

My cracked windshield: Fresh, Dry, and Fixed

Reader Submission: A (Dented) Tango Red E G2

August 8, 2024
in Cars and Automechanics
9 min read

Element Spotting (4)

Since my last post regarding Elements, I have gotten new tires, replaced the instrument cluster lights, and started building backrests for myself and (hopefully) other E owners to enjoy. I also found a few goodies at the junkyard for my E that I'll show off later in the post.

01: Tires
The Walmart folks have always treated me very well and they certainly took care of me here. The back two tires (as I suspected) were up for replacement while the front two still had good tread, but one of them had been patched previously. I elected to keep the remaining good tire in the hopes of getting another wheel and making a full-sized spare. Speaking of, the temporary spare tire is present, but it is original—that is, 21 years old—and I plan to replace it at some point.

02: Wheel Alignment
New tires with an unknown alignment can equal bad tires quickly so I wanted to schedule an alignment ASAP. I called around and most places wanted $150 or more! I called a local shop a little farther from my job, but closer to my house and they quoted me $90. I dropped my car off soon after, they took care of it quickly, and I picked up my car later that day.

Now that I have new tires and a fresh alignment, I can relax a bit more with driving the Element more frequently. I've been driving it to work two days a week and I'm getting much more used to the handling quirks of it compared to my other car.

With the big ticket issues are out of the way, I could focus on the smaller items that need attention; differential fluid, transmission fluid / filter, and replacing some of the worn rubber components.

A Nighthawk Black E near my mechanic, notice my E on the right

03: Rear Differential Fluid
I took care of the differential fluid last Saturday. I jacked up the E, popped both 3/4 drain and fill bolts loose, drained the dark-cherry colored fluid, cleaned and inspected the bolts / washers, torqued the drain bolt, pumped in 1.1 quarts of Honda Genuine Dual Pump II fluid, torqued the fill bolt, cleaned up, and called it an afternoon. It was a cramped job, I got bit by bugs, and I got diff fluid in those bites, but it wasn't hard and I'm glad I got around to it.

04: Junkyard Goodies
On Sunday, I found myself at the junkyard again and to my delight, I ran into an Orange 2003 Element EX (sounds familiar) that was parked in the intake area of the u-pick lot. A new addition. Weirdly enough, I recognized the car. I saw it online a few days prior on an auction site for busted-up cars. I recognized it by the dumb sticker on the back window.

I squeezed between it and the cars around it, opened the crushed-in door through the open window, and crawled inside. I didn't see much of anything good at first, except the other seeat lock cover piece that I needed. Both seat lock covers in my car were deteriorating and had ripped rubber sections so I wanted to replace them. I found a complete set between two E's at the junk yard and at $4 a piece, I couldn't pass them up. A little bit of dirt removal later and they were installed and looking snappy. They don't look new, but they certainly look better.

The same junkyard E and my matching hat patch

In that Orange E I also noticed an original Element-branded OEM floormat. I excitedly brushed the stagnant water and broken glass off of it, and removed it from the cab. I then noticed the other two pieced of the three-piece set in the back, crushed under the seats. I rescued all three pieces, threw them on my shoulder, and made my way to the checkout line. I've previously seen complete floormat sets—and even individual mats—sell for north of $200. I walked away with a B+ set for six dollars. Later, when I got home, I hosed them off, let them dry, and installed them without issue and they look gooooood.

The middle and rear floormats I found at the junkyard

After securing the rare mats, I returned to the yard and considered the Android head unit in that I found alongside those floor mats. It was about $190 (ATOTO S8 on Amazon) new and seemed to be in good shape, but it was a gamble to see if it worked and the previous owner's wiring left a lot to be desired. I grabbed it anyway and they only charged me about $20 for it.

That evening, I plugged it up to my Element radio tester and it worked! I factory reset it, cleaned it up, and spent about thirty minutes rewiring the harness so it wouldn't catch my car on fire. I removed my 2008 Element radio, put it in storage, and replaced it with the new Android unit. It went in easy, looks clean, and sounds great. I even figured out how to enable Developer Options on it so I can connect my laptop and debloat it.

If you have an ATOTO S8 or a similar Android head unit and would like to enable these options: Go to Settings and quickly tap Users and Accounts four times. This should unlock the Developer Options menu.

05: LED Instrument Lights
A few days back I decided to upgrade the little bulbs in my instrument cluster and HVAC controls with Amber LEDs to match the Orange exterior and to brighten those panels up a bit. Popping the covers off and removing the old bulbs was easy enough. The replacements are fairly easy to install, but do keep in mind that they have a polarity that isn't really notated anywhere. Try it one way, if it doesn't work, rotate 180 degrees and try again. A good indicator that you're on the right track is to leave your driver's side door open and to turn your dash lights on and off. If the car makes a loud noise, it means it detects lights. If it's silent, it doesn't detect your lights / cluster. Also, for the T5 LEDs, try to use the original socket connectors as the one's from Amazon didn't seem to work for me. Be careful pulling the bulbs out of the old sockets, you can easily shatter them and send glass all over your car. I recommend getting a thin but stiff metal implement and pushing the bulbs through the hole in the bottom of the socket or rock the bulb out with your fingers.

Instrument cluster and HVAC with new Yellow LEDs

If you'd like to upgrade the LEDs in your Element, you'll need three sizes; T3 Neo Wedge, T4.2 Neo Wedge, and T5 Wedge. They come in a few different colors and a whole set for all of the dash lights should cost under $50.

05: Moonroof Delete Kit
I don't mind that my E has a moonroof, but I really don't see myself using it unless I'm sleeping in it. For those hot summer days when it's sitting in a parking lot, I want something to keep the interior a bit cooler and keep the sun's rays off of my plastic and upholstery. I removed my moonroof, covered the hole in craft paper, traced the hole with a scalpel, taped this squircle to a piece of cardboard and windshield reflector material, cut it to shape, taped the edges (most of them, I ran out of silver duct tape), and stuffed it in the hole (after putting the glass back in). It's not pretty, but it works well. Below is the result:

06: Tailgate Backrests
I recently purchased a new 3D printer as my old one was annoying to keep level and had a host of issues (I sold it to a coworker for a couple of bucks and he likes it). While searching for some things to print, I found this Honda Element Tailgate Backrest by Kirk Makes Things. He shows how it's easy to cut some 3/4 metal conduit to 41-7/16" (1053mm), print these connector and spacer pieces, and add some gym foam rollers for padding and you'll have yourself a nice little backrest. Now you'll have a comfier sear for those times when you want to watch the sunset from your E's tailgate. He sells these end pieces on Etsy and you can get the rest of the parts easily.

My coworker suggested to use a pool noodle instead of the expensive foam rollers that Kirk mentions. I did some research and found that pool noodles come in a few sizes, one of the common ones having an inner diameter of 3/4 inches, perfect! I got some metal conduit, some pool noodles, and I 3D printed a few sets of the end pieces. The end result has a similar comfort level to the rollers, can be a few different colors, and makes the unit cost about half compared to the foam roller variant.

I've considered selling some of these premade backrests for a reasonable price on eBay or Etsy or something, but haven't looked into shipping costs yet. Currently, I have half-a-dozen or so in the back of my E until I decide how I want to sell them.

Test fitting some of the backrests I've made

The washer fluid, coolant, brake fluid, and transmission fluid are the only ones I haven't taken a look at yet. Transmission fluid and filter will probably be first, then I'll check out the others. I'm also attempting to recondition the old headlight lenses that I have replaced already. I'll make sure to write it all down in the next entry, but until then I have quite a few new Element photos that I've taken, been sent by readers, and that I've found on the internet, please enjoy:

Reader Submission: A Sunset Orange E at Goodwill

Reader Submission: A Silver E on the roadside

Internet Find: A Galapagos Green E next to a woman in a bikini

Internet Find: A Galapagos Green E in the snowy woods

July 23, 2024
in Cars and Automechanics
9 min read

Element Spotting (3)

The last few days have been full of excitement and frustration. My new car is nice, but has some minor underlying issues that I wanted to take care of before I put too many miles on it.

01: Air Filters
There are two slab-style filters in the cabin and a cylindrical one in the engine bay. The engine filter was swapped without much trouble; just four screws and moving some hoses is all it took. The cabin filters were much more involved; first you have to drop the glovebox, then you have to remove a little plastic door, then you pull out both filters. This last part was the most troublesome as the filters seemed anchored in place. I gave them the 'ol heave-ho and they popped right out... alongside some rodent crap and goddamn CHICKEN BONES. A lot of them!

I tossed the larger pieces, vacuumed out the spilled mess in my passenger seat area (as well as what I could get to under where the filters go), popped the new filters in, and reassembled. I then promptly started the AC, sprayed one of those Ozium car bomber things, and let it cook for a while. This helped the smell a great deal, but it kind of came back a few days later, much better than before though. I'll clean the engine bay and air intake more soon.

02: The driver's seat
Mine—like almost all Elements—has a front-to-back tear on the driver's seat, on the side closest to the door. I purchased a leather repair kit on Amazon for about $6 and cut it to fit the seat, applied it with a hairdryer, and it seems to be holding up well enough. I have another sheet if I need to make a replacement patch in a few months.

The faux leather patch on my driver's seat

03: Speakers
The OEM speakers in a lot of the Elements I've seen have been blown or are just disintegrating. I suppose those materials just weren't designed to last 20+ years. I replaced the four door speakers with Harman Infinity Reference 6532ex's, about $140 total as I got them refurbished with a $10 speaker adapter cable set. The sound is much better and they seem to pair well with the existing subwoofer and tweeters.

A before-and-after of the speakers in my E

04: Spark Plugs
The existing plugs were probably original and while they showed some discoloration, the ceramic wasn't cracking and the electrodes weren't too badly corroded, so I suppose they held up well. I replaced them with a set of NGK Laser Iridium 6994 plugs, cleaned and greased the existing coils, torqued it all to spec, and the engine fired up without issue.

05: Oil Change
When buying a used car, fluids are tricky as it can be difficult to know ~~when~~ if they were changed and if they were done properly (they weren't). I already had a new jug of 5W-20 High Mileage oil that I planned to put into my current car, but I have a few miles left until that time comes, so I elected to use it for the Element. That was the easy part, it turns out, the last guy to put an oil filter on the engine was invigorated by Hercules himself and it was completely stuck in place. This was quite the issue for me and turned a thirty minute oil change into a four-hour long living nightmare with multiple trips to the hardware store and to a garage on a nearby property.

Turns out, a major design oversight with the Element is the placement of the oil filter. It is situated in a hard to reach space and even with small hands, I wasn't able to comfortably reach it, much less get any sort of grip onto its slick surface. I tried three different oil wrenches; an adjustable clampy kind, an adjustable rubber grippy kind, and a 64mm oil filter wrench specifically designed for OEM filters. None of these provided any amount of traction and I was unable to loosen it at all with them. I resorted to finding a hose clamp, wrenching it onto the cheapo filter with similar vigor, and tapping it with a screwdriver / hammer combo until it finally gave way and unscrewed. I replaced it with an OEM filter marked with the date and mileage, filled the oil up, drove it for a minute or so, topped it up to get it to full, and called it an afternoon.

My E up on ramps while I changed the oil and headlight housings

06: Headlight Housing
But the afternoon wasn't called quite yet as my new headlight housings came in and I already had the car up on Rhino Ramps so I may as well take the opportunity to yank off the bumper cover, vacuum out some more chicken bones, and pop in the new headlight lenses. The old ones were kind of yellow and while they were in usable shape, I like a crystal clear headlight and the replacements I ordered were a black-accented set for about $120. The install was quick and easy, I even replaced some of the cracked / missing clips from the bumper cover.

A before-and-after of the headlights on my E

07. Radio
One of my excursions to the local car scrapyard netted me a car radio from a 2008 Element. It was a tad rusty and needed some TLC, but I took a gamble and spent about $40 on it. I took it home, completely disassembled it, cleaned the hell out of it, snapped it back together, and... that was it for a few weeks. I bought the radio before I had an Element to test it in so all I could do was guess as to whether it was working or not. Another issue I didn't anticipate was the anti-theft system Honda put on their radios. You need a 5-digit code to "unlock" the radio whenever power is removed from it. I took a photo of the car as well as the VIN when I took the radio from the parts yard and I'm glad I did as it was just what I needed to get the code from Honda. I also grabbed the surrounding snap-on plastic trim as I wasn't sure if I would need it, turns out I did need it as the 2003 radio's shroud didn't fit on the 2008 radio.

To test the radio, I actually assembled this weird little box that consists of a Honda radio harness connected to a computer power supply with the radio on top and held together with metal strips and zip ties. While janky looking, this machine allows me to power on and test Element radios safely. I plan to connect a pair of car speakers to it in the future and create a de facto shop radio with a CD player. This contraption help the '08 radio for a few weeks, but I eventually swapped it into my Element and put its '03 radio into the shop radio box. The speakers come in a few days, I'll give you an update when it's all done.

My sketchy Element radio tester (Obverse)

My sketchy Element radio tester (Reverse)

08: Hatch Struts
On a lot of Elements, the rear hatch supports seem to fail after a number of years. Mine still held the hatch up, but had trouble raising it without manual assistance. Per a forum comment, I opted to replace mine with a pair of VW Beetle struts from Amazon. $20 and 3 minutes of install later and my hatch opens up quickly and a few inches taller than it used to. The struts I got were these ECCPP 4325 Rear Hatchback Lift Supports

09: LED Lights
As far as I know, there are only nineteen light bulbs on an Element, not including the dash and HVAC system; Two high / low beam headlights, four turn signals, three brake lights (Revision: There are five brake lights IIRC), two reverse lights, two side markers, two license plate lights, two map lights, and two dome lights. I have replaced all of these with LEDs of appropriate colors and they are brilliantly bright now. The only lights that are still incandescent are the headlights, I have an LED set coming in a day or so, but I don't usually like them and I'm not sure if I'll keep them yet. While replacing the lights, I cleaned up the various mounts, housings, and lenses to make them look a little less dirty.

10: Battery
The standard battery in an E is a Group 51R battery and in my case, it was listed as having 500 CCA. This battery is widely regarded as undersized, so I elected to replace it with a larger, group 24F battery. The cheap Walmart one I grabbed ($70 + $12 core charge) states to have 600 CCA. To accomplish this install, I bent the existing battery tray tie down tabs flat, bolted on a universal battery tray ($10) on top, and dropped in the new battery. A $10 tie down kit solidified the upgrade and made it a clean install. I cut the J bolts for the new tie downs about 20mm shorter and used some threadlocker on the battery tray bolt to help with vibration. I was even able to reuse the little zip-tied cable loom clip that connects to the J bolt to keep those cables from rubbing on the bare metal.

11: Tires
While the back two tires on my E are Michelin, the date code puts their manufacture date in Q4 of 2013, far too old for safe use, not to mention the dry rot creeping around the tread. The front tires aren't much better. While they are only two years old, they're a no-name brand and should be part of a matching set. I opted to get a new set of Crosswind All Season Light Truck tires from Walmart. I've never cared much for fancy tires and I'm pretty cheap, so I think these'll be fine for a while. My first stop after the tires is to get an alignment though as it's such an important step that a lot of people seem to gloss over after getting new tires is to get their car properly aligned.

Please enjoy the Elements that I've spotted recently:

A Silver and Blue Element at the gas station

A Khaki Element near my house (I believe it's the same one from the last post)

July 19, 2024
in Cars and Automechanics
4 min read

Element Spotting (2)

Tuesday, July 16th of 2024 was the day that I finally bought my 2nd car. I was fortunate to find a 2003 Honda Element in Sunset Orange Pearl with a mere 129K (rust free) miles on it just a few hours' drive away. I called off work, drove up there, and spent the afternoon haggling with an Arabic kid, trying to talk him and his dad off of the $8K that they wanted for the E.

Before I expressed any specific interest, I made sure to (literally) crawl over every inch of it and take in the total condition. I tested the windows (more on that later), the locks, looked for rust, checked panel gaps, respray, chips, scratches, tires, etc. I even scurried under the damn thing to check the mission-critical undercarriage.

The main sales associate tossed me the keys and basically said "have fun". I took it for a twenty minute test drive on the nearby street, highway, and I even tested the braking power in an abandoned parking lot. I came back, pointed out the mismatched tires, small amount of wear 'n tear, and the rusty bumper but they wouldn't budge far off of their sticker price.

Unfortunately, I'm not much of a haggler so I was only able to knock off the paperwork fee; a $600 (in my case), bullshit charge for selling me a car and filling out half-a-dozen pages of simple paperwork. I paid cash, signed some documents, and was on my way.

The drive home was helpful as it gave me a much longer-term idea of the drivability of the Element—my Element—as well as some of the issues I noticed.

Windows
1. The passenger window seems to only work intermittently. It worked fine when I tested it not two hours earlier, but it seemed to have died in the interim.
Noise
1. There's some high-pitched squeaky sound that revealed itself at around 72mph and wasn't noticeable at significantly higher or lower speeds.
Drivability
1. The overall suspension and alignment need attention. I plan to address those before I put too many more miles on it.

I got it home, spent a while buffing out the goddamn Armor All, and eventually got it to a slightly less oily condition. The interior, seats, body, and trim are in remarkably good condition though. I plan to rust-proof it, rub some conditioner into the plastic trim, and coat the paint with a simple rub-on, wipe-off wax.

At the request of my coworkers, I drove it to my office the next day and they all took a look at it out in the parking lot before the day started. I showed off some of the obvious features including the folding seats, suicide doors, and hatch / tailgate.

I really only plan to drive it as a secondary vehicle; at least until I can replace the fluids, change the tires, and get the whole thing aligned.

This weekend, I plan to change the oil, swap all he lights with LEDs (except the headlights, those stay halogen, swap the air filters (cabin and engine), de-stinkify it (smells like undesirables), and replace the hatch struts as they aren't very weak, but they don't lift up much on their own. I'll take some pictures and include in the next entry, but for now, please enjoy the Element pictures I've captured on the last few days:

A Green Element that I found on Google maps (Aug, 2008)

A Craigslist ad I put up while looking for an Element

July 9, 2024
in Cars and Automechanics
7 min read

Element Spotting (1)

Somewhere around 2018, a longtime friend of mine recommended that I ditch my 19-year-old, spray painted, dented up, rust bucket for a Honda Element. I basically ignored his advice for a few years as my cheap ass is way too stingy to buy a half-decent car for what those crook car dealers want and my current car works fine (most of the time). Cut to a few months ago, I'm leaving a Walmart parking lot and I see a 1st gen Element (2003-2006) sitting a few spots away from me with a For Sale sign in the window.

I walked around it for a minute, took some pictures of the sign and number, then realized there were people in the front seat (whoops). The guy was nice and showed me around the vehicle for a minute, started it up, and let me know the mileage (220,000 mi) and the price ($3,000 iirc). I thanked him and thought about it for a few days. I decided I should go for it and texted the number. Unfortunately, the car was sold the day before. Bummer.

A few more months go by and I don't pay the Element market much mind. I happened to drive past a used car lot and out in front there sat an Element being used as a billboard to advertise some local mechanic. I jotted down the number and gave it a call later that day. The man said that the sign isn't available for sale, but he did have a 2003 black Element for sale, 240K miles, and priced to move. He sent me some photos of it and then stopped responding to my texts. Another bummer, perhaps it sold.

Couple days later, I see a black Element parked next to a few cars on the side of a road that I pass going to work. There was no For Sale sign or contact info. so I had to do a bit of detective work. I found the house on Google Maps, found a business that was right behind it and cold called them. A man answered, I asked about the Element and he gave me the number of the man who owns it. It matched the number of the Element from the billboard! I found the car and it hasn't been sold yet. I called the number and spoke with the owner again, let him know that I drive by the car daily, and that I'd like to see it if possible. We set a date and time, I showed up, and he gave me the grand tour.

The car was dirty, not well maintained, had some really sketchy lower kit on it (basically some U-bolts on the shocks), cheap tint, broken or missing panels, and some other cosmetic issues. I gave it a quick test drive, turned down his $2,700 cash-in-hand offer, and went home. Bummer #2.5.

In May, I won an ebay auction for a 2005 Honda Element EX with 104K miles on it in Satin Silver Metallic with a Surf Blue accented interior. No mechanical issues (more on this later), a cheap shipping quote, and a moderately high ebay seller rating made me confident that the car would be fine if not great.

A week after I sent my bank wire and signed all the paperwork, I message the seller to see when I'll get my car. She (Annie) says that they've put the job up on the shipping site and that it'll go out next week.

A week later, she says that the Element has developed a transmission issue and her mechanic is looking into it.

A week later, she says that they'll put a replacement transmission in it free-of-charge and they're waiting on parts.

A week later, she says that the replacement transmission failed and it's still having trouble shifting.

A total of 35 days after I paid for my car, they call me and say that they're going to refund me the full amount and keep the car.

This seller (jetafel and autoresale2on ebay) is incredibly shady and was terrible about communicating the status of the car that I already paid for ($7,000 after shipping and "processing fees"). I waited for my refund check to clear and once it did, I wrote up my ordeal in a jaded (but certainly true) ebay review. This was immediately appealed and removed by them, but at least it helped tank their seller rating. Bummer #3.

2025 Update: This seller is definitely a scam. If any ebay seller asks you to call someone named "Annie" with a PA area code, beware! It's definitely the same seller. I found the same Element being sold multiple times in the last few months (as of 2025-09-22):

While I was certainly disappointed, I was not defeated. I began crawling all of the used car sites (AutoTempest is a great tool for that) in search of another Element. I traveled about two hours south of my home to see an Element I found on Craigslist with around 150K miles on it. I found the car, shook hands with the guy selling it, and began examining the car with a fine-tooth-comb. I peered in every little nook and cranny; I fired it up and took it for a spin; and I crawled underneath the damn thing while it was parked on the street. The results weren't good; there was lots of rust, interior was shredded by dogs, and the owner clearly had no idea about the finer details concerning its condition. I turned down his $6,200 offer and drove home. Bummer #4.

With quite a few bummers on my mind, I wearily returned to the used car websites and began the search yet again. I even briefly turned to looking for a 2nd gen CR-V as they seemed to be a little more available, but I found out they are just as rare and desirable (I just want the little card table and the spare on the back door). Everyone wants upwards of $8K for a ~20 year old car that is reliable sure, but ugly as sin and not very powerful. I suppose there are more people out there like me than I suspected.

One of the Elements I saw a few times happened to be for sale just a few minutes from my work and the dealership had reasonable hours. I sent an inquiry and was met with some pushback as they insisted that their 2005 E with 128K miles on it was absolutely worth the $10K that they were asking for it. I scheduled to see it anyway and I went there after work yesterday to check it out.

This dinky little dealer was getting to be more lipstick than pig, but I gave them a chance, gave them my ID, and they pulled the Sunset Orange Pearl beauty around for me to test drive. The car was like the dealer—a polished turd. Sure it had pretty low mileage for an E of this antiquity, but the amount of paint respray, loose body panels, and weird devices wired into the engine bay made me sure it wasn't worth my time, let alone $10K. I puttered around in it for about ten minutes, but due to traffic conditions, I wasn't able to take it over 50 mph. I returned to the dealer, handed them the keys, and left without even discussing a purchase.

There's another orange E about two hours north of me that I plan to check out this weekend. But in the meantime, I thought it would be fun for me to collect the Element pictures I've taken in the last few months and arrange them below, enjoy!

Bonus Story: I also briefly considered buying this rusted-out 1998 Dodge Neon for $250 as a favor to the owner and a project for myself. After finding out the totality of the damage though—it was sitting for about five years and the transmission was completely seized—I decided to turn it down. I did however see it at the junkyard a few weeks later, which was interesting.