Before reading this, I would like to say: Please read the most of it as you can and try to give me some useful info/developed answers to my questions. This whole situation means a lot to me.
Okay, so I am a new driver, and I own a 1996 Acura 3.5RL with a little over 200k miles. It's my dads old car, and its really nice. For those of you who many not know, this car is awesome. They're not subaru's but they are quick and quite luxurious. I really like the power of a motor, and the sense of acceleration and speed. (not wanting to drive like a teenage dumbass type speed, but in the sense that I have huge respect for the fine machines that many cars have the potential to be. I love nothing more than a well-built car that can get on it and go.) This being said; I have the car right now sitting with a broken engine mount (still drives well, a little shaky when you get on it, being fixed in a week) and a missing exterior door handle (broke it, fixing in a week). After this is fixed, I really want to do some maintenance on the car to bring out its potential. It's satisfying currently, but I would like that extra push from some simple maintenance/cleaning type stuff that could be done at home realtively cheap. I was thinking as follows:
- New air filter
- New fuel filter
- New oil filter
- New sparkplugs
Would these things help my car in terms of power? Also, I have a mechanic who I've known for a while that claims he is willing to help me with the following:
- Exhaust cleaning
- Intake cleaning
- Valve Rings cleaning
- Computer reset
Is this stuff going to be a boost as well? Could I do it myself? Thing is, this guy is like the shadiest yet nicest/honest character you know. I WANT to trust him but I don't know if I can. He has worked on my family's cars, and there have been problems almost every time. He either took really long to complete the job, or failed to fix the problem/created a new problem. In contrast, the work he actually does is good stuff and he's a really nice, enjoyable guy. I enjoy talking to him and he knows the stuff he is talking about. (I know a lot about cars, but not about working on them). He says that if I bring my car and some money for parts, (he wouldnt rob me) that we could go out and get all the parts and do the work ourselves and he could teach me a few things. However, he mentions that doing the cleaning type stuff would require overnight soaking of parts because it is better than cleaning them for a few hours (which seems logical) but I don't feel comfortable doing that. He insists that overnight would be best. I mentioned doing the other stuff while things were soaking and cleaning, and he didn't want to do that either. I would like to go over there one day and get all the work done then. In all honesty I have a feeling that he would do some shady act, yet I really want to believe that he wouldn't (if that makes sense). I don't know if I should trust him, although I really want to. In conclusion, I would simply like answers to the following questions:
1. Which of the maintenance stuff is most important/gives the biggest return, and in what order should it be done? (I want to restore as much power and make the car run as smooth as possible)
2. Should I trust the guy? I really want to but I'm not sure if I should.
3. What sort of sketchy things should I look out for when dealing with him, and what sort of "guidelines" should I implement with him?
Bonus Question: How the hell do you remove the exterior driver side door handle (broken) from a 96 Acura 3.5 RL?
tl;dr: Bold
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