Honda civic repair costs

[Girkin]

Just watched the summary of Eric’s repairs on the Honda Civic. I know the car is almost 20 years old, but I was surprised by the number of things that were worn out on it. I have had friends tell me that “nothing” ever goes wrong with their Hondas but I suspect they may be stretching the truth. The northern salt exposure is brutal to all vehicles.

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[asetoftools]

The answer to his question (how much should a cheap reliable car cost) is as cheap as possible. $500 is the exact price i usually pay.

The less money you spend up front, the more you can put into repairs.
However i do live in a place that a ’99 would not look like that pile of rust and cracked rubber.

for kids, you want the beaterest of beaters, so they can learn how to fix things and it doesnt matter when the wreck it up.

this car though, has so many problems damn… of course a honda expert like eric who knows literally everything that can go wrong, probably looks at things with quite a different eye than someone driving a beater into the ground.

tires and batteries are important though to buy new. The wrecker is a great source of cheap parts. Dont always have to buy new.

[Paul]

ETCG hit the major safety items: tires, brakes, steering, and suspension, and he probably used a finer-toothed comb because the car was given to his son.

I haven’t experienced any issues with the two Hondas that I’ve owned until the 6-7 year mark, aside from normal maintenance. Afterwards, entropy rears its ugly head and problems arise, although none were surprising. Maybe I’m lucky and hit the tails of the distribution, or maybe the car was designed to be problem-free until the warranty expired (I honestly don’t know).

[EricTheCarGuy]

I’ll say this here since I’ve typed it a hundred times in the comments. It answers to the question of labor cost.

If someone brought me this Civic to repair, I’d advise against it because the cost of the repairs would exceed the value of the vehicle. However, I stand by my price point of $2000 for cheap reliable transportation. If someone were to do the majority of the work themselves, they could have had this car for about the same price.

If I had to guess at the labor time I have into the car, I would put it somewhere around 15-20 hours. I am a former Acura master tech with a hoard of old Honda Parts lying around. This made this car very affordable for me, which is why I chose it.

I plan to revisit the car in a year to see what repairs where needed during that time.

Thanks for your input.

[Drew]

In watching this video ETCG mentioned a “long start” that could be caused by the TM Sensor, or coolant temperature sensor. I’m curious how this might impact the starting process and would like to hear more about this.

I have a 2010 Pilot Touring and it is experiencing long starts. Personally, I think there’s a ground issue as I’ve recently had to replace the alternator and battery. This happened after going through the car wash then having an unresponsive gas pedal, the car wouldn’t go in reverse, and a host of other issues that were fixed. I still hear popping in the speakers occasionally as well, which is another reason I think I have a ground issue. Maybe a squirrel got under it and had a snack.

At any rate, would like to hear why a temp sensor would cause a long start and if I should look at that as a possibility.

Thanks!

[EricTheCarGuy]

The computer uses coolant temp to calculate fuel mixture. If it’s not reading correctly, the fuel mix will be off and it may not start right away.

A 2010 is more sophisticated than the 99 and would likely set a code for a coolant temp sensor if it was a problem.

[Author]

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