Noticed an oil leak on Passenger Side near valve cover and determined the VTEC solenoid gasket was leaking. After ✌researching✌ the issue on the innerwebs, it appears to be a common annoyance, so I decided to jot down my procedure cuz it's fresh in my head.
NOTES:
a) You don't have to remove the valve cover (that topic came up some when I was looking around).
b) You don't have to jack up the car...although I did just because it allowed for the best visibility of the mounting screws.
c) I heard to not mess around with junky (ahem...Amazon) parts. I paid about $13 for a gasket from the local Honda dealer (P/N 15815-RAA-A02).
d) during reinstallation, my 17 y.o., crawled underneath and "guided" me in to the exact mounting location. Once I had the new gasket installed, I didn't want to bump into or brush against anything to mess it up while it was in my hands otw to its final mounting spot. This wasn't necessary, but it's his car and he needed to get dirty.
DEETS:
1) Remove the 3 plastic pins holding the center windshield wiper cowling. There are 6 ea. hidden clips you have to pop up as well. Carefully flip wiper cowl over.
2) Remove 4 ea. (2 per side) 12mm screws and 5 ea (2 per side, 1 center) 10mm screws from metal cowling (now exposed when wiper cowl is out of the way)
3) VTEC solenoid has 2 connectors on it. Carefully disconnect both.
4) There are 2 ea. connector zip-tie/clips on the solenoid housing. You gotta unclip those. I tried being careful, but ended up breaking both little nubs of the clip. No biggie.
5) VTEC solenoid has 3 mounting screws. They are 10mm. I recommend using a 1/2" ratchet (w/10mm socket and short extension) to break loose each one. The extra "heft" of the larger ratchet helped. Once broken loose, each of the 3 screws came out by hand.
6) Remove VTEC solenoid. I took it to my bench to a) removed the old gasket and clean out the gasket groove really good with Isopropyl and b) I used a little brake kleen on the solenoid body.
7) Before reinstalling, I clean the engine block where the solenoid mounts really good with isopropyl alcohol. I used a mirror to inspect and re-clean as required.
8) Inspected the new gasket (Honda OEM) and installed into solenoid groove.
9) I also bought an oil pressure switch o-ring (P/N 91319-PAA-A01), but I did not notice any oil leaking from it (one of the connectors on the solenoid), so I decided not to disturb that joint. Plus, I think you need a 21mm socket, which I don't have, to remove that easily.
10) With new gasket installed, and one 10mm screw as a guide, I carefully reinstalled the solenoid finger tight. Then the other 2 screws...finger tight.
11) Ran them all down with a ratchet. Then torqued all 3 screws to 104 in/lbs.
12) Reconnected both connectors, and reinstalled both cowling pieces.
The VTEC Solenoid part took about 30 minutes. But, with the cowl removal/reinstallation, the whole job took about an hour as I was trying to NOT break plastic clips. I emptied a can of engine degreaser on the passenger side of the engine bay and rinsed. Then...took 'er for a spin to feel that VTEC kick in, yo!
NOTES:
a) You don't have to remove the valve cover (that topic came up some when I was looking around).
b) You don't have to jack up the car...although I did just because it allowed for the best visibility of the mounting screws.
c) I heard to not mess around with junky (ahem...Amazon) parts. I paid about $13 for a gasket from the local Honda dealer (P/N 15815-RAA-A02).
d) during reinstallation, my 17 y.o., crawled underneath and "guided" me in to the exact mounting location. Once I had the new gasket installed, I didn't want to bump into or brush against anything to mess it up while it was in my hands otw to its final mounting spot. This wasn't necessary, but it's his car and he needed to get dirty.
DEETS:
1) Remove the 3 plastic pins holding the center windshield wiper cowling. There are 6 ea. hidden clips you have to pop up as well. Carefully flip wiper cowl over.
2) Remove 4 ea. (2 per side) 12mm screws and 5 ea (2 per side, 1 center) 10mm screws from metal cowling (now exposed when wiper cowl is out of the way)
3) VTEC solenoid has 2 connectors on it. Carefully disconnect both.
4) There are 2 ea. connector zip-tie/clips on the solenoid housing. You gotta unclip those. I tried being careful, but ended up breaking both little nubs of the clip. No biggie.
5) VTEC solenoid has 3 mounting screws. They are 10mm. I recommend using a 1/2" ratchet (w/10mm socket and short extension) to break loose each one. The extra "heft" of the larger ratchet helped. Once broken loose, each of the 3 screws came out by hand.
6) Remove VTEC solenoid. I took it to my bench to a) removed the old gasket and clean out the gasket groove really good with Isopropyl and b) I used a little brake kleen on the solenoid body.
7) Before reinstalling, I clean the engine block where the solenoid mounts really good with isopropyl alcohol. I used a mirror to inspect and re-clean as required.
8) Inspected the new gasket (Honda OEM) and installed into solenoid groove.
9) I also bought an oil pressure switch o-ring (P/N 91319-PAA-A01), but I did not notice any oil leaking from it (one of the connectors on the solenoid), so I decided not to disturb that joint. Plus, I think you need a 21mm socket, which I don't have, to remove that easily.
10) With new gasket installed, and one 10mm screw as a guide, I carefully reinstalled the solenoid finger tight. Then the other 2 screws...finger tight.
11) Ran them all down with a ratchet. Then torqued all 3 screws to 104 in/lbs.
12) Reconnected both connectors, and reinstalled both cowling pieces.
The VTEC Solenoid part took about 30 minutes. But, with the cowl removal/reinstallation, the whole job took about an hour as I was trying to NOT break plastic clips. I emptied a can of engine degreaser on the passenger side of the engine bay and rinsed. Then...took 'er for a spin to feel that VTEC kick in, yo!
