Honda prices go up, each year, for dealer parts that are difficult to get any place else. If you own an older Honda it's worth the effort to find sources other than the dealer. A lot of Honda dealers are rip off's. You are lucky that they will sell you a car and maybe work on it too.
Cost of Honda Ownership
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Lets not forgot alot of people don't have the skills or tools to change a water pump/timing belt.
Its not that Hondas are expensive to fix, its just that if you take any car (import/domestic) to the dealership to get fixed, expect to pay alot of $$$$.
Its not that Hondas are expensive to fix, its just that if you take any car (import/domestic) to the dealership to get fixed, expect to pay alot of $$$$.
I had the timing belt replaced on my '99 at McGrath Honda in St. Charles, IL for about $650.00. But this included all new belts, a new water pump (it comes with the job automatically) and a valve adjustment. If I had the same work done at an independent service station, the cost probably would have been the same. I own 2 Accords. The '99 has had some problems (ball joints at 42,000 - Honda paid for the parts, even though the car was out of warranty, right tie rod end, right strut; the radiator cap started to leak on vacation and no one had the right cap - I finally found one in Jersey after getting the right part number from my dealer in Illinois; the "check engine" light has come on due to a signal from the carbon canister solenoid; it has the famed "piston slap"; it sometimes won't go into first gear unless you try several times; it has a computer glitch that causes "slow spin down" i.e. the RPMS don't go down quickly when I take my foot off the accelerator), but it always starts and runs. It has gotten my family and I to the east coast and back three times. It now has over 70,000 miles and has not given us trouble since all the above mentioned stuff was repaired. I've learned to live with piston slap, slow spin down and a troublesome shifter. I don't think that it will make 300K, though. My 2003, however, has been great except for a whining sound coming from the valvetrain area. Water pump, power steering pump, belt tensioner and alternator were all replaced under warranty. The whine is still there. However, I recently heard someone else's 2003 with the 2.4 and a 5 speed manual and it made the same sound, so I'm thinking there's probably nothing wrong. Automatics, apparently, do not whine. In sum, I love my Hondas and will probably buy another, but I do not think that they are necessarily the quantum leap in quality that everyone thinks they are.
Larry, I had to buy a carb "kit" for my Accord. A dealer only item of course and it was $30 CDN. Not bad I thought.
I get the kit though and it's about 10 o-rings and one paper/felt gasket. Yikes. That's a markup of about 1500%!
I think it's a covert plan to highly price older stuff for a few reasons: they are not making much money when we continue to fix our old cars; it's old stock they probably would like to be rid of.
Maybe not.
I get the kit though and it's about 10 o-rings and one paper/felt gasket. Yikes. That's a markup of about 1500%!
I think it's a covert plan to highly price older stuff for a few reasons: they are not making much money when we continue to fix our old cars; it's old stock they probably would like to be rid of.
Maybe not.
I went to a Honda dealer to buy bearings and seals for my 84 Civic 5-speed. They told me the only way they sold a rebuild kit included gears, syncros and everything except the case. I found a place a jobber that sold me exactly what I wanted for a great price. The bearings had exactly the same numbers on them as the ones inside the transmission. The dealer told me that I could not just replace the bearings and seals. He was wrong, as any transmission mechanic will tell you. The only downside of owning my Honda is the dealers.
i dont know what engine you have (maybe a 2.2?) but im pretty sure my crv doesnt with a b20 doesnt have a balance shaft.
also you probably didnt realise this but the oil pump seal on my engine is the same thing as the crank seal.
so my parts list still stands as ok for a crv.
Well, our 02 V6 EX bought new has cost me, so far, just umpteen oil changes, do myself, transmission changes as described earlier, do it myself also. I had a whistling noise and a small leaky moonroof, fixed for free by Honda, and that's been all, so far. The 06, nothing so far. I will be changing out the timing belt, water pump, accessorie belt, which I already bought. Dealer quoted 365 for labor. Not too bad I thought. Will change out the plugs too, they are 17 each at the dealer. Kind of high I thought, but for the having OEM plugs in it now that have not given me one lick of trouble, it's worth it. All in all, I'm looking at spending about 500 to 600 dollars, with OEM antifreeze that has been an ongoing discussion on this board as to what type of fluid Honda uses. For that price and to get another 100K trouble free miles, as this is the wifes car, in my book, MONEY WELL SPENT. The only complaint I have is why did Honda make the interior cabin filter so dang hard to replace on the 6th generation, which I do myself. Our new 06 Accord, it's so much more easier to do.
JHZR2
Staff member
Honestly, that IS a LOT of stuff to have issue with in only 70k miles. Always starting and running in a car with 70k miles should be near guaranteed, if you did any sort of maintenance at all. I do hope you get 300k miles out of it... keep us posted.
JMH
One thing you have to keep in mind about websites like these is that we join up because we have some problems that we are trying to fix or learn about ourselves. There are thousands of owners out there that don't even know that forums like this even exist, so your going to read about nothing but problems. Like the F150 spitting spark plugs, yes some do, but umpteen thousands of them don't.
That happened to my mom's 1997 Ford Escort. I went to a u-pull-it yard and got a solenoid and purge flow sensor for $8. I installed them and that fixed the problem.
I decided to see whether the old solenoid worked by energizing it and blowing through it...it was plugged up and when it unplugged a cloud of black dust came out of it. Apparently, that was the problem. I have no idea why it got plugged up other than to say that that car had been rear-ended (not that you could tell, they did a very good job of fixing it) and I think the carbon canister is in the rear so it's possible that the black dust is carbon that broke off in the impact.
That's often due to emissions-related programming designed to reduce emissions during transient engine operation. Otherwise it could be a bad throttle position sensor or a sticking idle air control valve.
93 civic, radiator replaced....father in law blew it up driving in the mountains, retard.
JHZR2
Staff member
I wouldnt be so sure on a site like this. IMO most people come on here to see how much better they can care for their cars... as they like to do the best DIY they can. Its fortunate that there is a repair section on here, as things do happen. Surely it does happen on other sites though.
JMH
Nobody complains when they don't have a problem with their car.
Wrong, Brian.
I try to make many more good comments about our 2005 Accord than I do bad ones about our previous pieces of junk from GM.
I try to make many more good comments about our 2005 Accord than I do bad ones about our previous pieces of junk from GM.
JHZR2
Staff member
Agreed, I like to make good comments about the cars I own and enjoy.
WHen some occurrence of interest occurs in a vehicle (or home, lawn equipment, electronics, etc), I post, good or bad, to see if others have some insight. Thats the beauty of this board, and of the internet in general.
A LOT of folks have a LOT of experiences, and when you sort through the meaningless stuff, you can get a LOT of useful insight.
JMH
WHen some occurrence of interest occurs in a vehicle (or home, lawn equipment, electronics, etc), I post, good or bad, to see if others have some insight. Thats the beauty of this board, and of the internet in general.
A LOT of folks have a LOT of experiences, and when you sort through the meaningless stuff, you can get a LOT of useful insight.
JMH
I shouldn't have said "nobody", but the fact is that people, in general, are more likely to complain when something goes wrong than they are to compliment when something goes right.
Patman
Staff member
I don't have an answer to that question yet, even though we've had our 2000 Civic since October 1999, and have over 65k on it, we still have not had any problems with it!! The only money we've spent on it has been oil changes, tires, brakes and other typical tune up items.
We had an 87 Civic, last year of the carb as I recall. Engine had lots of hoses all over. It was very reliable; fan switch that went out (I ended up repairing it with some large power resisters as the replacement looked like it'd burn out too), clutch at a bit over 100k miles, AC compressor (was a dealer intall instead of a factory unit), and several CV boots but I suspect that the dealer was just replacing those for extra income. Still had the original radiator when we donated it to charity at around 120k miles.
I never replaced the timing belt as it seemed like a short replacement interval, it was expensive, and looking around at the typical Civic owners I knew that many didn't know what one was, much less that they had one that needed to be replaced, and that the highway wasn't littered with Civics with broken timing belts.
It started burning oil, blowing blue smoke at startup, compression was down in one cylinder, etc., so we decided to donate it. Reliability is different from durability.
I never replaced the timing belt as it seemed like a short replacement interval, it was expensive, and looking around at the typical Civic owners I knew that many didn't know what one was, much less that they had one that needed to be replaced, and that the highway wasn't littered with Civics with broken timing belts.
It started burning oil, blowing blue smoke at startup, compression was down in one cylinder, etc., so we decided to donate it. Reliability is different from durability.
1sttruck:
I've often heard Volvo folks call their cars durable but not reliable. I own a Volvo wagon and a Honda and I think the Volvo comment is true although not so about the Honda. Ours has been very reliable AND durable ... It's an apples to oranges comparison as the Volvo is more complex but the Honda has been a very good car.
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