My wife brought a 96 Accord EX coupe w/ 74000 miles on it into our marriage... Here are a couple of problems I have had with this car... Please tell me if that's how Accords are in general and if it is still worth keeping...THX!! BTW, I have never had experience with Japanese cars other than a GS300 I just bought about 5 month ago... I had been driven mostly euro cars through out most of my life...that's why I am seeking for experts here... My wife had her car maintained at a dealer and has receipts to show that it was maintained on time; only once that it went 300 miles late of a oil change... I don't think 300 miles is that big of a deal is it? Here are some problems I had been having but she says that these don't bother her at all...

Gear shifts really rough, especially from 1st to 2nd, the car kind of tosses you around rudely. The car seems to not like to down shift and upshifts all the time...especially around 3500 rpm that's when the car go crazy, it would shift 3 to 4 times vilently to hunt for gears. I have never had this problem with my Lexus and my old Audi (sold it last year).

The car vibrates really bad, hand can get numb after driving it for 1/2 hour...not only steering wheel vibrates but the whole car... I was told that the front engine mount is broken, and they want $160 for replacing it... however I would like to know if that will completely solve the problem...cause even if I put the car in Neutral or Parking, the car still is pretty shaky. Not to say the rattles and buzz sounds from everywhere... My 2002 Lexus GS300 is pretty shaky but...

My mechanic told me that the balancer shaft gasket needs replacement, he wants $650 for that and timing belt; water pump would be addition $50. He also told me that my radiator is about to go soon and he wants $400 for that. He wants $160 for the front engine mount. My SRS light is always on, he told me that I need an Air bag controller unit, that will be another $550. He told me that part of my exhust also needs replacement and he wants $300 for that. Rear brake pads, he will charge $155 for those. And for 90K service, he wants $500... Add everything together it would cost me about $2500 to make the car driveable. He told me that these are all common problems of Accord...but I thought Japanese cars are suppose to be trouble free, how can there be so many common problems if they are reliable? The drive feel of this car reminds me very much of my 1991 chevy cavalier...except the cavalier never gave me any problems other than maintainence on the book.

The book says that the car is worth around $8000 but car max would only pay $3800... As far as I know, the car had only a fender bending accident with a deer; and the damage was not extensive... Although only 8 years old and 75000 miles, I am not sure if overall the car is in good shape for the investment of repair. Please let me know what you think...THX!!

 

wow... that car sounds like it's had a little more of a rough life than she lets on dude. my 96 was totalled before i bought it and it runs and drives like it just came of the lot at 98k miles.

 

there is a recall on the balancer shaft for alot of 5th gen accords. If your call falls under it, which it should..., you will get it fixed for free.

 

the water pump and t-belt should be good till atleast 90kmi. is there a hole in your exhaust? if there isnt, you dont need to replace it. how much pad is left in the back? if its still decently thick, you dont need to replace them. they'll start to make a nasty grinding noise (made by an indicator on the pad) when the pads need to be replaced. my front engine mount quit at only 55kmi, but it was covered under warranty. both the rear pads and front engine mount are pretty easy diy projects.

as for the tranny, honda is notorious for weak, feeble auto trannys. my tranny had been slipping since 60kmi, finally had it replaced at 100kmi. if ur car was driven hard, its quite possible that it may be time to replace the tranny.

the vibration while driving could also be caused by unbalanced wheels, bad alignment, improper inflation, or bad tire wear

try reseting the SRS module 1st, b4 replacing it. use the search to look for it

 

i think you can get about 5,000 for it. I bought mine last year for 4,800 with 89k miles but the motor in mine was in much better condition than what u described.

 

i would find a new mechanic, he's trying to :boink: out your money

 

This car was driven by a woman obviously. :fawk: Yes I know that there are a select few good women drivers though.

300 miles late on an oil change wont hurt at all. As far as shifting, yes my car does that too, but I drive VERY hard... so its like my car is used to me. For the motor mount, I had shaking, and the motor mount replaced. It helped a lot but didn't completely take all shaking out... you should def. get it replaced tho, $160 isn't that much money yo.

That is about the price for water pump, timing belt, and other main belt replacement. As for radiator, wait till it goes, they don't really just "go" unless it cracks, and he can't predict that. 400 bucks is rediculous... you can get the OEM radiator for ~$150 and installation shouldn't be more than about ~$150 too. Exhaust shouldn't cost that much, just get a new cat. back exhaust system..., or take it to a local exhaust shop specialty place. You may want to fix that air bag problem, but then again it could be nothing. It's up to you, but it sure would suck to have it randomly go off while driving down the road. Brakes... thats a good price.

Japanese cars are great, but you still have to fix things. If you think about it, 2500 bucks isn't that much for an 8 year old car, if you just add it to it's initial cost.

Dealers wont give you anything for a car, if you sell it, do it private party. Accords are REALLY easy to sell. You should be able to get at least 6.5-7K for it.

And yes, there is a griding noise when you have problems with breaks... so just wait till you hear that if you want.

 

thanks guys, that's really helpful... the mechanic told me that the balancer shaft problem was a recall, however it was expired last year...so he can't do it for me and claim through Honda anymore...but he told me that the engine would basically be gone if the seal is broken...is that true?

and the brakes will make noise when it is gone right? if so, I will just drive it until then to have them changed... my wife doesn't drive very hard, she almost never go pass 3500rpm but she doesn't warm up the car. it is still very hard for me to accept such early death of components...

THX everybody for theose useful comments!!

 

i checked on my recall too, but they said my car wasn't included in the recall. if ANYTHING happens, i'm gonna give them hell. other than that, my car drives great.

 

i would highly recommend replacing the motor mount. That could make a lot of your vibration go away. . .

The other stuff comes down to maintanance really. It sucks that it all comes at once but it happens taht way sometimes. If you put the car in tip-top shape and take care of it, it will stay there quite a while.