Hey, cars are cars. Hondas are cars. Things go wrong. You can go to any board and find people who will swear that their chosen make will run until it's rusted to the frame. Maybe you've got a lemon. My first 2 months working on my ZC motor, I've replaced a radiator, thermostat, TWO head gaskets, soldered sensors left and right, and dealt with a myriad of problems related to my cooling system. And you know what? Everything I had to do was the result of just 1 stinkin' bad decision, not to put enough water in when I first swapped in the engine. I know exactly how I got every other problem as a result of that first one. But I only know that now, with the experience I got from fixing the same problem over and over. So understand that cars can be something of a black art, and if you don't know what you're doing, you can easily get discouraged. It sounds to me like you can't do the maintenance yourself, so owning a old car is NOT a wise decision for you. Just buy another car. You can buy another civic for the couple thou you need to invest to solve the problems you mentioned, or you can buy any other old car that will last you a few months, maybe a couple years, and you'll come out ahead.

 

WD-40 is a bad idea for that job anyway... WD-40 will eat rubber. White lithium grease is made for this job. I've fixed squeaky clutch pedals on my RX-7 and two 626's with white lithium grease.

 

eats rubber? thanks for the info I'll try the white grease instead.

 

Hondas are good cars...it's just that in comparison with say fords...I've seen many fords that run as reliably as my car or close to it...which I didn't know or I wouldn't have paid what I did for my car. Really, why pay as much for an econo civic as a luxury ford if they are gonna get the same milage? Thats my real gripe I guess.

 

congrats on getting your car back together...watch out for those darn deer!

 

for one thing honda is a company that builds cars and has your safety and interests in mind where ford is a company for its shareholders where profits are the most important factor leading to pintos, broncos, explorers, etc. that have been the center of lawsuits and avoidable deaths

the reliability of a any ford is no where near that of any well maintained honda (besides the isuzu rebadged passport and slx mistake honda did in the mid 90s)...i've owned over 5 different hondas over the past 10 years each with at least 100k up to 315k...i remember going to get my friend after his 1 year old cougar's tranny seized spinning him out on the highway or my friend's explorer whose tire just went flat and he almost flipped over doing 45mph in a straight line and he didn't even have the ford specified minimum cost firestone tires on them

when you buy an older used honda you are taking a chance...it is almost 50/50 that someone has modified the car, drove it hard and did not maintain it over that period where they also started having problems...when they sold the car they put it back to stock and played off that their car was "never raced" nor driven hard only to the new owners disbelief that the car has several issues they need to fix soon after the purchase

 

I'd say that less then 5% modified it without notice to the next buyer, but I'd bank on a solid 90% not maintaining it properly. A stupid owner is easily the number one killer of cars.

From my experience, a person selling a used car is selling off their problems. Buy a used car and you have to understand that you have to fix problems inherant to a used car... the trick is knowing the fixes. When I bought my current RX-7, it had a shitpile of problems thanks to the previous&original owner not maintaining it. I knew how to cure these issues, so it wasn't a big deal.

It takes a lot of love and devotion to take care of an old car... you just have to figure out if you are up to it or not.

 

i can 2nd you on that...i recently picked up a 84 porsche 944 and have quite a bit of repairs to do b/c of ignored maintenance...that is why i bargained the car down to a good price

 

Things happen man,but just don't giveup like
that.Good luck ,all those things listed are minor issues,
try blowing two motors in one week.

 

I put over 100k on a D16 without changing the oil. No, seriously. My car actually changed it's oil pretty much all by itself. Well, it did half the job at least. It slowly blew it out the back, and then my oil light would come on, reminding me to dump in another quart. I blew it up around 160-170k. I just called japan and they sent me a new D16 right to my front door. For $580, I can't complain. I prefer to look at what I did as a "test" of the durability of Honda motors. Honda gets an A+ in my book.