Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Honda Civic: Problems & Solutions
This discussion has been closed.
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
elissa
But it looks like you are the same person speaking at the repair shop. Looks like i have very little options. I only bought the car last year (used) for 7000 in MI, moved to CA(800 transport) and spent about 800 on this, and if i have to forego it.. its kind of difficult...
Do you know any mechanics in the Orange County area that can do this kind of job??
And Thanks again so so much for reading my msgs and responding..
thx v much.
I am wondering if it has one at all. The gas cap is sometimes a suspected problem and I made sure it was on correctly. However, it could still be bad, I went to the inspection station to have it checked but they wanted to run the whole car through inspection so I went home. I am wondering if a bad head gasket could cause coolant to be burned and thus affect emissions. The exhaust looks OK and there is no sweet smell coming out of the tailpipe.
perhaps another clue???: the (ac?)belt squeals ALOT. And if during an idling session I rev the engine to try and stop the squealing, the car will usually die at the end of the rev cycle...hard to start again, so I don't use that method anymore. Now I just turn off the AC. BUT it is very HOT here...this is making me sweat bullets on several levels!
Help - please. Mckenna
To answer your question, yes I am a Honda tech. The weather conditions in some areas create the issues with the bypass and two way valves so they will be an area to look at...
I can't find the PCV valve in my '86 civic either! :-) but I think it's buried under my air filter housing and I haven't had the time to dig under there yet. Don't know where it is on the '00s.
"The gas cap is sometimes a suspected problem and I made sure it was on correctly."
I had a car with a bad "evap" code that we spent $300 to diagnose. After screwing the gas on repeatedly tighter to make sure that wasn't it. It turned out to be a bad/cracked gas cap! For $5 you can try replacing that. *shrug*
"I am wondering if a bad head gasket could cause coolant to be burned and thus affect emissions."
Hard to know that without the requisite tests. Your search for white smoke out the tail pipe, sweet smell out the tail pipe, coolant in the oil and vise versa are all relevant but you should have a shop do some combination of:
- coolant pressure test (only will indicate a large leak
- engine compression test
- leakdown test
But your symptoms so far sound way to vague to make wild guesses or start throwing parts at it without a proper diagnosis. You'd be well advised to take the car to a modern repair shop with OBD 2 system software for your car - a dealer or someplace else. That is the only way to really know what's going on.
GOod luck,
elissa
Little story: when I got my civic, it idled high (1200 rpm) and the A/C worked fine. After the tune up, the idle was closer to spec (900) but the A/C would stall the engine when it was at idle. The shop suggested that the high idle was masking the problem and that it likely existed before - they suggested a full diagnostic for $160 and that it COULD be the idle-up solenoid or A/C solenoid. The part alone cost $35 wholesale and I wasn't sure what goes into the labor. Well, I got the car up on lifts and looked under it and noticed two vacuum hoses were dangling ad not plugged into a port. I looked at the vacuum hose routing diagram under the hood and noticed a part related to cars with A/C and sure enough, those were the two vacuum hoses that were dangling. I plugged them in per the diagram and my A/C no longer stalls the car. I saved myself over $160 and found the shop's error. And this is the best rated shop in the SF peninsula *sigh*. Check for loose vacuum hoses too :-)
Elissa
After a new windshield and a timing belt service that car took me all over the east coast from Florida all the way up to Canada. Ahh memories.
Elissa
So now what??? Any ideas how to steer the controls on the next phase? Going to the AC shop my mech recommended today, but really feeling kicked in the gut by this mystery that eveyone keeps pushing off to someone else. And let me add: My climate REQUIRES working AC.
really getting nowhere fast and worried about the money I am investing in a 15 year old car!
Mckenna
Just for the heck of it, buy one of those conversion kits from walmart and recharge the system, the a/c should spring back to life for a day or two, until the refrigerant escapes.
You can get R134 with flourecent dye and get UV light to see where the leak is. Most likeley it is at the front of the a/c pump, but there is chance the system has holes elsewhere. If you are not up to DIY work, then you are in for a big repair bill. You need someone knowledgeable to diagnose. Anyone can replace a part, but diagnosis is 3/4th the job. You don't want to be replacing part after part only to find out that it was not the cause.
You may want to get a definite answer from a knowledgable shop on whether it is the pump. If it is, then you would need to replace it with a refab one and have a professional shop evacuate the system and refill with new R134 freon.
Replacing the A/c pump is not too difficult, but plan on spending the better part of a saturday morning. Then it still needs to be evacuated and filled. Although you can fill your self, with a kit from a store, there is no DIY way to pull vacuum on the system.
At this point I can tell by the feel of when im putting into gear wether or not I have it in "all the way" im still curious as to why this happens and if the problem could get worse...
elissa
Now we want newer car, but can't make up our mind.
Any opinions out there.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
Why not try your dealer? They work on these all of the time.
Also, it is not unheard of for the manufacturer to give a case-by-case basis warranty extension - there is a special name for it but I forget. Also speedometers and odometers I've heard are allowed a 2% margin of error - that would mean that there is a good chance that when your odometer reads 36,720 that you're really only at 36,000 miles. You may be able to use that to your advantage with the manufacturer. If you can't budge on the manufacturer, you will want to consider how good a customer of that particular dealer are you? Will they go to bat for you with Honda? Will they foot the bill for you? Have you paid for work there before? Did you bring them bagels that morning? :-) Good luck!
Elissa
And SI's aren't any more trouble then any other Honda although they do tend to get modified more and probably driven harder.
The 1999-2000 Si's were less troublesome than the current 2002-2004 Si's.
However, I just checked alldata and there are actually fewer TSBs on the Si's than the other Civics for 2003 and 2004 model years.
Clearly, this forum and my perception are not scientific research. ;-) But I get the feeling there are lots of disgruntled Si owners out there? It would make me think twice, reading over the comments here.
Elissa
There is alot fewer Si's sold than regular Civic's. I think the 2002 proection was 15,000, with less than that actually finding homes, and 2003 and 2004 were projected to sell even less. At most there are 30,000 new generation Si's out there. Compare than to 1.5 million (assuming Honda sells 400,000 Civic's a year) 2001-2004 Civics.
Statistically, Si is more troublesome than regular Civic.
I have only driven the new accord for a day when they first came out. And I was impressed. It is a nice car, but way too big for my tastes. I wish Honda Sold the Euro/Japan Accord, but not loaded to the gills like TSX. I really like the TSX, for the size and perfomance, but I could care less for the leather seats in fact I HATE leather seats), dual HID's and climate control. I would gladly pay the US Accord 4 cyl EX price for the similarly equipped TSX.