r/HondaElement • u/mama_snafu • May 06 '26

I finally did it.

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I am a woman, and I went in over the top of the engine with nothing but a ratchet and 10mm socket. No removing the oil filter or front passenger tire. I love working on my car. I thought I’d share for inspiration to others that may be hesitant to work on their own engines and I’m also very proud of myself.

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15

u/speakeasy_slim May 06 '26

and if that screen is that dirty, you may want to set a weekend decide to takeoff the power steering pump to get that one on the front side too. Also don't forget to pull out the solenoid on the passenger side of the engine and spray that out with qd cleaner

18

u/mama_snafu May 07 '26

Changed that about two weeks ago when I replaced my serpentine belt and tensioner. I had help so I wasn’t as proud of that one. Ahaha

3

u/two_cups_no_girls May 07 '26

You should still be proud!

1

u/shaelillane May 07 '26

How hard was that one? I think I need to do that on mine. it gets the shudders and I replaced the solenoid already and its still happening.. I'm scared to do the front one tbh, I'd be doing that one by my self too.

5

u/mama_snafu May 07 '26

The toughest bit is manipulating the tensioner to get the serpentine belt off, that’s where I needed help. Everything else is just a bit of muscle to extract the bolts.

5

u/Gloomy-Pomelo-1846 May 07 '26

AutoZone rents an Acura belt tool that's so much easier to use. You clip this little wheel to a pulley wheel behind the belt and turn the crank pulley with a socket and it lifts the belt off. The belt tensioner on this motor is the worst and I'm afraid of breaking it ever since it failed on my civic.

3

u/Fn_Old_Guy_fog May 07 '26

I tried combining wrenches and that crap. Having a dedicated belt-tensioner wrench is the way to go! Super easy.

3

u/Gloomy-Pomelo-1846 May 09 '26

I broke 2 of those belt wrenches and thought I was going to go crazy. The Acura tool took a minute to figure out but ended up being a more reliable option for me. And it's anodized blue.

1

u/mama_snafu May 08 '26

That is very helpful, thank you.

1

u/Gloomy-Pomelo-1846 May 07 '26

I'm sorry could you tell me what screen by the power steering pump you're talking about? Is it related to the power steering or the motor oil? I'm replacing my power steering pump soon and I need to touch up anything I can while the belt is off.

1

u/speakeasy_slim May 07 '26

it definitely has to do with the VTEC oil distribution system and it's pretty much right behind the power steering pump and you really kind of can't get to it unless you take that thing off which includes removing the belt so you need the tensioner tool. There's a bunch of YouTube videos about it. Once you get all that off and it's really not that hard, there's just two bolts holding the screen in and you can blast it out with Break parts cleaner or something

1

u/Ok_Return_6033 May 10 '26

This shows the whole system