Pulling the cluster is really easy on that car. First remove the black bezel in front of the cluster (2 screws) then remove the cluster itself (4 screws).

(EK Stock Cluster Removal)

 

Pulled the cluster, bulb was there, just burned out. Got replacement from honda, and cleared the ecu of any codes. CEL comes on when key is in ACC, and goes off when I start it now

 

Glad to hear she's healthy again.

 

Oh shes far from healthy. Right after I solved those problems, CEL pops up a day later. Code P0420, most likely the cat is getting clogged up. And its double welded so I can't do that myself.

Plus...had oil leaking from the front corners of the valve cover so I replaced the gasket and siliconed the corners and when i was tightening down the valve cover bolts, one of the back bolts broke off inside the head before ever reaching the 86 in. lbs of torque that I had the wrench set to. So now I'm in the process of extracting the bolt tip, but its not going well. We've damaged the threading now inside the head, so now my only options are to either

A, drill the entire bolt tip out, fill the hole with some hardener and retap a 10 mm threading, or

B, bore the hole out wider and tap it with 12 mm threading and use a 12 mm bolt for the one corner. I know it a ****ty way of repairing things, but its cheaper than replacing the head. Ateast the bolt holes in the valve cover are wide enough to accept a 12 mm bolt. Now I just have to pray we bore the hole just right and get the thread damn near perfectly so the bolt doesn't go in at an angle.

 

I'd suggest getting a new set of the valve cover bolts. They are so weak it's rediculous. If you snapped one it's likely another one will snap too. Have you ever used a Helicoil? If you can't extract you drill it over the size and thread in an insert with the original thread size and pitch.

 

I was thinking this exact same thing; plus, the bolts have been removed and tightened atleast 4 times now. I'll order a set from Honda.

This seems like the route I'm gonna have to take. The threading is far too damaged now, I guess I'll drill on her for an hour and see if I can drill the bolt out completely.

Where can I find a special insert like you're talking about? I can picture it in my head, but don't think I've ever seen one. It has like 12 mm male threading on the outside and 10 mm female threading on the inside right?

 

Okay scratch that last bit...I found a place nearby that has a helicoil kit with number drill and inserter for $30, I'm also gonna pick up a reverse drill bit, although that may be pointless since half the threading is gone...

 

The left-handed drill bit will sometimes grab the broken bolt and back it right out. Just don't be impatient and bear down on it with too much pressure to allow that to happen, try to use slow speed. Also, as I'm sure you know, make sure that the bit used to extract is under the size of the bit used to bore the hole to receive the Helicoil. If you can fabricate some sort of a stand or jig to ensure that you are drilling nice and straight that is always recommended. Even a pencil or something taped to the drill, that is exactly parallel to the drill bit, can help in keeping things straight. Good luck, it is indeed a pain.

Ed Fisher
Dallas, Tx

 

Heli coil kit said to use a quarter inch bit so we drilled a hole and now I think what I'm going to do is put the valve cover on and get an extension for the tap and carve the threading in using the valve cover as a guide

 

If you're seeing oil around the back right corner of the valve cover area make sure it's not coming from the VTEC solenoid. There is oil under pressure there and it will leak like crazy should the gasket blow.