The honda civic 2001 was probably the single best car I have ever owned excluding my 2009. I racked up 320,000 miles on that car which was the same car as yours with a manual trans. I replaced front wheel bearings but never the rear. You have drum brakes on the rear and may be just hearing rust buildup. I would clean the engine bay, change oil and filter and try to locate the leak. It could be a valve cover gasket or a cam seal which are easy fixes. I really believe if there is a weak point in these cars it's the A/C. Fix the big stuff and don't worry about the small stuff for now. A few hopefully easy fixes and this car should give you some good service.
Wow. I hope mine gets close to that!
I just ordered $600 worth of oem parts. Timing belt parts and rubber seals, gaskets, water pump. I'll put in Honda coolant as well. No point on neglecting it even if I don't like it as much as my Solara.
I should apologize, I didn't mean to be so hard on you in my first post. I still think you overpaid, but here's the main thing:
It's a Civic. Yes, the 1.7 has a stigma around the HG issue. My opinion? It isn't one. I've seen one, maybe 2 go bad.
Your "massive" oil leaks? It needs: a cam plug, VC gasket, maybe cam and crank seals, and an oil pan gasket. They never leak from the rear main, at least not that I've seen.
The suspension creaks? Just throw new stuff at it. The front compliance bushings are probably shot, you're better off doing the control arms as an assembly. Struts are likely work, they sell quick struts for cheap.
You're already doing the timing belt and WP, good call.
As far as the electrical issues: check the ground strap FIRST! It runs from the battery, to the passenger strut tower, to the transmission. It corrodes and causes TONS of issues. A new cable right from Honda is around $20, I just did one the other day.
All in all, you're kind of stuck. You already bought it, so make the best of it. You paid $2,800. It sounds like it needs about $1k in work, lets round to $4k. Over 3 years, assuming you don't spend another dime pther than oil changes and gas, that's about $111 a month. It would be difficult to buy a reliable car for that price, including financing. That being said, with good credit and the $2,800 you paid for that Civic you could have leased a brand new Kia for a 2 year term and probably $89 a month... just saying.
