1991 Honda Prelude SR from North America - Comments

The timing belt went at 167,000 km. When I bought the car, the seller said he had changed the timing belt. I doubt this is true, since it was an original Honda belt and several Honda technicians said they have never seen one go before the recommended 100,000 km mark.

The belt went on a vacation, just outside of Calgary. A Honda Dealer in Calgary said "When the timing belt goes, the pistons will hit the valves, causing valves to break and likely the piston to crack and even the connecting rod can bend." Their solution was to buy a used engine for $3,500 and spend $1,500 having them put it in, total bill $5,000. I told them, no thanks.

I bought the service repair manual from Honda at a cost of $100. This was probably the single best investment I made on the car. I followed the manual to the letter and took the head off the engine. I had 3 bent valves. I had the head serviced at a block shop in Edmonton and the total cost for head servicing was $400, including knurling of the value guides. There was no damage to the pistons or to the connecting rods.

After buying new gaskets for everything I took apart, new belts and new thermostat, the total cost for parts and head servicing was about $800.

Total time for me to fix was about 120 hours over about 6 weeks of evenings and weekends. I am not a mechanic, but am no stranger to fixing the odd thing on my car. It was tough to do at times, but saving $5,000 over taking it to Honda, helped spur me on.

My advice: Change the Timing Belt every 100,000 km, or when you buy the car, if you are unsure.

The oil pan gasket was leaking. Took off the oil pan and found the gasket was cracked, possibly due to our cold Edmonton winters. Replaced the gasket and the car hasn't leaked any oil since.

Transmission is now having some difficulty going into first gear, from neutral, when I am stopped. I know it is getting old, so I try to put it into first, before the car comes to a complete stop. I figure if I baby the transmission, I can probably get another 100,000km out of the car.

It burns some oil now, about 1L between gas fills, not great, but oil is cheap.

Great little car, good on gas and it still looks great after all these years.

Just starting to show the first signs of rust, but just over the wheel wells and very minor rust at that.

I drove a 2000 Honda Civic a few weeks ago and found that my 1991 Prelude is a far more comfortable car.

I wish Honda still made the Prelude.

I also have the SR (Canadian) model, and found a few things that have gone wrong:

Driver's side dome light door switch often sticks. If I keep it oiled with WD-40 I usually don't have a problem.

Retractable antenna wouldn't extend or retract fully. I disconnected power to the antenna while it was in the 'UP' position, but I later broke the antenna when opening the trunk. This was of course my own fault, but you would think the brilliant minds at Honda could have designed an antenna that didn't interfere with the trunk mounted spoiler.

Blower motor (interior car fan) stopped working after about 250,000km (150,000 miles). Honda wanted C$350 (US$250) for a new blower. Canadian Tire auto parts wanted $87. I simply replaced the brushes, springs and cleaned the commutator. Cost of the brushes and springs was $17. The replacement brushes are slightly narrower than the previous original brushes, but it still works. The blower makes a faint ticking sound, likely due to the narrow brushes not having as great a field of contact. I can live with the slight extra noise and feel good about not giving Honda $350.

A/C compressor warning light comes on intermittently. Oddly enough, after I repaired the blower motor (one week ago), the A/C warning light hasn't come on. Normally I would have expected the light to come on at least 4-5 times by now. I do not know why it appears fixed, I did start to remove the evaporator unit (next to the blower assembly) and wiggled the unit several times before I realized that I did not need to remove this unit. I did clean out a small leaf or two from the unit, once I had the blower was out. Could there be a connection, who knows? Maybe its just dumb luck (heavy emphasis on the 'dumb' part).

Paint on the hub caps started to fake off about 1998. As of last week nearly 50% of the paint had come off. This might have been due to driving on the occasional gravel road, but I am not sure. I took the hub caps off, sanded them down and have started to repaint them with Exact color match paint from Canadian Tire. It has taken me about 1-2 hours per hub cap to sand and then repaint. They look nearly brand new. Honda wanted $76 for a new hub cap and $40 for a new center cap.

HELP: I have a rattle in the sunroof, when driving about 100 km/h (60 mph). I don't know how to fix this. Has anyone else experienced this problem and know how to fix it?

HELP: Retractable Headlights sometimes wait up to 4 minutes before going 'UP' after I turn on the headlights. I can turn if off and on again, but it still will wait about 4 minutes. Could the switch be starting to fail? Has anyone else experienced this problem and know how to fix it?

HELP: My right side fog light works intermittently. I took it out and everything looked in working order with no corrosion on the contacts. When I was working on it, the light worked, then about a week later it started acting up again. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Lol, no kidding, I have the same problem with my right fog light, have no idea what it could be. As for your retractable lights, if you look in your owners manual there is a way you can manually open/lift the lights, that'll keep you from waiting 4 minutes before you can drive at night.

Now to talk about my Prelude, I bought it with about 240,000kms on it for $5800 CND, car is lowered with 16" rims with performance tires, great fun to drive, but it was burning about 1L of oil between gas fillups-which looked bad in the form of Blue smoke coming out the tail pipe. The transmission grinded when shifting from 1st to 2nd gear at high RPM's.

I blew the head gasket at 255,000kms about 2 months after buying the car (Rad coolant leaks into one of the cylendars)

I am currently getting these problems fixed.

Problem #1 head gasket/severe oil burning

Solution-Engine rebuild $3093.34 CND including tax-plus I also got the machine shop to grind the Cam shafts for me to give me higher low end torque.

Problem #2 Tranny grind from 1st to 2nd gear

Solution-New Clutch and Synchro replacement for the first and second gear, est. cost $800 for parts.

Total labour to fix these problems, Remove and Reinstall the engine, and replace 1st and 2nd gear synchro in the transmission $1100-$1250ish Cluch repaced at no cost in labour because it is already out of the car with the engine removal!

Total cost including tax, probably just north of the $5000 mark not bad considering this is what Honda wanted.

-$4440.30 for engine remanufacture, includes all labour to remove and reinstall the engine, however they would not even give me the option of upgrading the cam shafts.

-approx. $1100 to replace 1st and 2nd syncro in the transmisson parts and labour.

Wow what do you know I'm already $500 more than the 'other guy' and I get a brand new clutch and a faster car going the cheaper route valued at about $900.

Bottom line I saved about $1400 by NOT GOING THROUGH HONDA they charge an arm and a leg to service these cars, so find a mechanic you can trust and save your self some money.

All in all awsome car to drive, the pep in this car for a 2.05L engine is unreal and the looks I get with this car are great, very uncommon car when it comes to people 'ricing it out' so you don't blend in with the ricer croud.

Anyway I would highly recommend this car to anyone else, just be sure to tell your mechanic to check oil burning and if tail pipe is all black with 'soot' like material AVOID, if all looks good go for it!

I have a 91 Prelude SR and I blew my engine. Cannot find a replacement engine anywhere. It is a b21a1 and I need help finding one. if anyone can help me out that would be awesome.

I own a 91 prelude and to answer the last comment look for a B20a from japan they have around 140 horse and will not burn oil, also usually very low kms. the B21a1 is known for burning oil and the rebuild costs as much or more than the b20a. search around on Preludepower. com it has a lot of info on our cars, just got to search.

Help

I just bought a Honda prelude SR (Canadian model) with a B21A1 engine (i think). After I bought it I did a compression test and I found that my number one piston has 0 compression. I have no idea whats the problem if you how to fix this please tell me. You can contact at Margon_evangelist@hotmail.com.

Own a SR for two years now. Came with b21a1 which is a 2.05 litre, known as 2.1 engine. Car burned oil every freakin day, I had to put about half litre every morning. So much so that one day in Downtown Toronto traffic I had a cop come out of his car to tell me to fix the smell. And he was in front of me not behind at a trafic light.

Well finally this Dec blew one cylinder. Got an engine from http://www.tigerjapanese.com It's a B20a, cost me $600 for engine, $600 for putting in. Although gotta say my mechanic was annoyed as he had to swap lots of parts from older one. Anyways, she's perfect now. Have not had to put a drop of oil since 6 weeks now.

I recommend B20a, btw I was told mine has about 55,000 kms on it, since its JDM.

I have a 90 Prelude SR B21A1 and yes it burns oil.

I don't know if it is a symptom of blown head gasket, but I get an exhaust smell like fumes inside the cabin; at idle especially. Whoever owned the car before me took the air filter assembly off and just left an exposed cone filter with a short connection to the intake (looks like a K@N cold air filter, but is not). I stuck my head under the hood, and around that filter is where I smelled the exhaust that ends up up inside the car. PS. I didn't see any leaks from the exhaust manifold.

What to do?

I know these are old comments.. but if you found this by searching Yahoo or Google, maybe these answers can help.

To the first comment... when you roll to the stop, and want to put it in first and it won't go... just pump the clutch once or twice.. and it should go right in to gear.... I have heard the transmissions lasting as far as 300,000 miles...

#2... clean or replace the servo for the headlight "eyelids". Check your local pick n pull (wrecking yard); you can find foglight replacements on ebay...

#3 Yeah me too... the looks!!

#8... JDM engine and a trip to the muffler shop.

After 20 years, most of these cars have finished their first life and are now in need of engines... however, since not many of these cars were manufactured in the first place JDM (Japananese Domestic Market) engines are harder and harder to locate... they are still to be found... search Google and email the JDM engine importers... these engines can be found... or rebuilt by your local machine shop... via your local mechanic...

To build a 20 year old 200,000 mile car to be like new is very costly... but the engine is the place to start... Honda cars can run a very very long time... but like anything mechanical, you need to maintain the service schedule... you can get the original service schedule from Honda or?? And continue to replace parts on a regular basis... oil 3000 miles, not 6-12000, timing belt 40,000, axles, bushings, bearings, seals & o-rings... oh my.