Hello TR! I've been on this website since I was a freshman in high school, although I rarely post as you can see. Anyway, have a read and lemme know your opinions, advice and/or flames...
Cheaper to keep her? …the tale of a love/hate relationship with my 99' EX
I own a 99 Civic EX. Red. I bought it 'used' around 2007 with about 85k miles on it. There were a few red flags that I ignored when I bought the car, but I was young and stupid; signed the papers anyway. Red flags? …the car-fax report originally stated the car was white; when I bought it was red. The AC 'mumbled' but did not blow cold air. The plastic fender liners were barely attached, etc. I should have never bought this car but I REALLY really wanted a '99 stick-shift red civic. I had a 72 month loan on it.. ..so in my head, I was thinking I would just fix it and modify it to my liking once it was paid off
It's now 2013, it is still my daily driver and it has about 185k on it now. I love this car, but I hate it at the same time. Since I purchased the car around 6 years ago, I have not put much money into preventative maintenance at all. This of course excludes oil changes, tires, and the occasional brake repair. The normal things a 'good' civic owner should have done like changing the water pump, timing belt, etc.. have YET to be done. The car is really starting to fall apart….
Shortly after I bought the car, as my luck would have it, I was driving down Gornto Lake in Brandon and hit a kid riding a mountain bike; he jumped the curb out of nowhere, I nailed him going around 25 mph. I freaked out, the kid knew he obviously did something wrong, wasn't hurt and proceeded to take off. My new and beloved Civic wasn't so fortunate. You wouldn't think hitting a mountain bike at 25mph would do much damage, but it did. My front bumper cover broke completely off, my grille cracked in half and a huge dent was left in my hood. I proceeded to drive the car to a nearby parking lot and while doing so, my fender linings broke off and my two front wheels ran both of the linings over, which in turn pulled the bulb fixtures out of my headlights. I was really broke at the time so of course I wasn't able to fork over hundreds of dollars to a body shop to fix my front end. I was spending a lot of time on drifting forums back then and I saw a couple pictures that gave me an idea of how I could temp fix my fucked up bumper. See pic below.. …it's been like that ever since. ( …btw, my neighbor at the time was a cop so I did in fact fill out a police report in regards to hitting the kid. He was fine. )
My AC. I've only owned two cars in my life and neither of them have had functioning AC. Tampa is a terrible place to drive a car without AC. When I first bought my civic, like mentioned above, the AC 'mumbled' and blew a little bit of air but there certainly was no 'full blast.' It wasn't even cold and it did not blow out of the two vents above my radio. My parents were sympathetic to this issue. Although extremely pissed that I bought a 'lemon,' they shelled out $900 for my AC repair. I have never heard of a cheap AC repair. The shop apparently replaced my 'compressor' and something else.. ..originally quoting me at $1100 but I was able to talk them down to $900. This was somewhat of a temporary fix. When I got the car back from the shop, the AC blew extremely cold but there still was no 'full blast' and there still was no air flowing from the center vents. I was not satisfied with the way the AC system was working after the repair. It was extremely cold, but still not 100%.
A few months later, I guess my 'ac blower' underneath my glove box started to go out. Made the craziest noise I have ever heard. Sounded like a weed eater was in my glove box every time I turned my AC on. I bought one used and installed it myself. The noise went away, but there was no noticeable effect on how the AC blew or felt. As it sits right now, my AC barely blows air. I can feel a 'faint' breeze coming from my side vents on the MAX AC setting and still nothing from my center vents. I can hear my AC working when its set the MAX AC setting but hardly nothing is coming out. My windshield defogger does not work either. I've had some pretty interesting commutes home trying to defog my windshield. I should mention that the heat has never worked.
I've never done a tuneup. I replaced a faulty distributor that was preventing the car from starting after sitting for a few months. Right now, when I start the car, at a complete idle, the engine will pulse/rev to 1k and back down until completely warm; that shit can't be good. Timing issue? Idk. It leaks oil; not bad, but it does leak. When looking at the engine, there is oil covering the block. I believe it is coming from underneath the head. Blown head gasket? Probably...
My car just flat out looks like shit as well. The once glossy red paint has since succumbed to the Florida sunshine. It now resembles a low quality matte-red spray. The paint is chipping in places which signals to me that it was a poor quality paint job to begin with. After my front bumper was damaged, I got replacement head lights from eBay; the cheap kind. They were good for about 3 months but now they are yellow and barely emit ANY light. The terrible looking paint job, my yellow headlights + a zip-tied front bumper make my car look homeless. This needs to be fixed…
Other minor issues include windshield washers that do not work, carpet that is moldy that needs to be replaced, and a steering wheel that is on crooked…
I still really love this car and I WANT to keep it. With the a fore-mentioned issues, would it just be cheaper to get another one? This car has never left me stranded. I figure my engine right now is my biggest concern. I'm getting the feeling that it is about to completely shut down; the warning signs are all there. In my head, my engine requires basically all new of everything. I could be completely wrong though. If I decide to start fixing things, my starting budget for my ENGINE alone would be about $1500. With that price, would I be able to get a shop to reliably rebuild the engine? I've read on various forums that I could get a new-used D16Y8 with 30-60k miles anywhere from $500-800? With that being said, do you think $1500 would cover the cost of the engine + installation at a local shop? Too rebuild or to swap, thats the question. I always wanted to boost it, but always wanted a bullet proof built engine.. ..forged rods + pistons, ARP studs, etc. A simple but sturdy D16 build. Goal would be around 200-250hp on moderate boost but SAFELY …is $1500 a realistic number to have a shop rebuild my current D16 under those circumstances? If I decide to swap the engine, can I assume whoever is doing the work would be able to diagnose my AC issue as well? I noticed that AC repair shops are normally limited to this type of work...
My bodywork issues I can take care of pretty cheap. It made me happy to find out that Honda body parts basically snap on like legos. Any websites to find cheap OEM Honda parts would be appreciated. I'll be looking on craigslist as well. Are the cheap OEM body parts from eBay even worth it?
Owning this car has been very easy over-all. I guess if I had spent more time in the Honda/Import social circles here in Tampa, I would've learned how to fix all this shit myself and/or got to know someone who does this kind of stuff for fun and would've done it for a few hundred dollars and a case of beer. I would hate to have my ass handed to me by a shop but this is my primary means of transportation; having the car NOT running for an extended period of time is not an option. So please, with all of that being said, let me hear your advice, opinions, questions, flames.
