winston

New to the forum, just bought a 1989 Prelude - 187k kilometers.

Colfax

Congrats on the new carbie lude and welcome to the forum. Looks pretty clean from that angle. Interesting paint scheme. At first I thought it had a bra.

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89 Prelude 2.0Si 4WS
91 Prelude Si - SOLD

winston

Haha, yeah. It's actually some kind of stone guard I think - not sure if they came like that some point or if someone painted it on.

It's my first car, it's automatic - and I believe the engine is a B20A3.

I'm not that knowledgeable on them, but I'm hoping to learn a lot from this forum.

SnOwAnGeL

I was just looking at this car the other day on Kajiji.. it was for sale in Oshawa of memory serves me correctly.

It looks like its in amazing shape. Congrats!

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Colfax

Lol, it definitely didn't come from the factory with the stone guard on there. It had to have been applied by a previous owner.

Yep, b20a3. The 88-90 S models came with the dual side draft carbs and b20a3 engine. There was no S model in 91.

It's a great first car. Great handling and fun to drive. A little under powered, but that can help keep you out of trouble.

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89 Prelude 2.0Si 4WS
91 Prelude Si - SOLD

winston

Well, after a few days of driving it to gigs (I'm a musician), I can say that this is a really fun car to drive. Every so often you get a head turn from from a middle aged person looking like they're thinking "Hey! I used to have one of those". (I'm 22).

The only problem I encounter is it has trouble starting in the morning, I give it gas when I'm turning it over, but it takes a few tries sometimes. While this is happening, the battery and oil lights come on, but then turn off after it starts running. Maybe this is because of moisture in the lines? Oil filter? Fuel filter?

I'm planning on getting an oil change sometime in the next week or two.

EDIT: I think the turning over problem might have something to do with the spark plug wires as well. (spark plugs are new, but not too sure about the wires)

Colfax

Definitely change the oil. That's never a bad idea. Also replace the wires, distributor cap and rotor. No need to change the plugs since you said they are new. Then make sure the timing is right. You willy also want to replace the fuel filters. There are two on the S model, one in the engine bay and another in the left rear wheel well. There is a cover that needs to be removed in order to access the one in the wheel well. Here is a link to the procedure in an online manual...

http://media.honda.co.uk/car/owner/m...sf100/6-52.pdf

Your cold start problems could be caused by a problem with the choke system. I'll see if I can find the write up from another forum that I used when I had choke problems with my old carbie lude a few years ago, and I'll post it up when I find it.

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89 Prelude 2.0Si 4WS
91 Prelude Si - SOLD

winston

After some research, a Haynes manual, and a friend of a friend who is a mechanic, I can definitely say that it's a choke problem. It appears to be stuck all the way open - we suspect that it's either broken or dirty.

Colfax

Kind of what I suspected. These carb'd ludes run great as long as you are driving them. But they don't like sitting for any length of time with gas in them. Here is the write-up I mentioned. It's from another prelude forum, but it really helped me out when I had my carb'd 89...

B20a3 Carb Adjustments Write-Up and ECU Error Codes - Preludepower.com

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89 Prelude 2.0Si 4WS
91 Prelude Si - SOLD