2004 civic, it's been a good run

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Thought I'd share--

My mom called yesterday with sad news. Her civic has been diagnosed with head gasket leaks. I believe the diagnosis through playing the role of "phone mechanic" throughout its life. Approximately 340,000 on this car. She likes to drive them into the ground for as long as they are useful.

It had faulty backup light wiring early on it its life. dealer found and fixed a problem in the harness.

Oil consumption started at 200,000. she switched to maxlife

It needed a new alternator around 220,000

Oil consumption jumped around 275,000 and by 300,000 was becoming unpredictable.

It needed an A/C compressor around 290,000

It needed a new starter around 330,000, and several engine gaskets and seals were changed to reduce oil leaks with the latest TB/WP job.

Besides that, it had regular oil and tire maintenance, dealer TB/WP changes every 100,000. Twice in its life she came by and I'd swap a few qts of trans fluid with amsoil. I think we changed out ~10 qts of ATF around 160,000 and then 4 qts around 270,000. Trans still shifts crisply, consistently and doesn't leak a drop. She doesn't think the dealer ever did any ATF changes.

Used engine swap is 3x the value of the car, plus as well all know, it's well into the nickel-and-dime phase. It's the longest lasting vehicle I've known. She's obviously shopping for another civic but is disappointed that she can't get crank windows.

It's been a really good car.

-mike
 
the civic 1.7 engine is one of the cheapest on ebay to swap at under $500 shipped. give old bessy a new lease on life!
 
Its tuff to kill this generation Civic.

I inherited a 2005 Civic with 30K miles recently, I doubt I will put on the same mileage as your mom did. She got her moneys worth in that Civic.
 
If it were me I would honestly just replace the head gasket and keep motoring. It's not like you'll have to replace the head gasket every few months or anything. That is a one time replacement usually in 99% of cases.

If so much other work has been done, just get it fixed and keep on going. That's just my .02.
 
unless the rest of the car is simply falling apart, I see some viable options above for keeping the car. and if the shipped EBAY motor is legit... well. can you unbolt it all and do a motor swap ? or is your mom simply ready for a fresh machine ?
 
Have the same gen only 01 EX wrote about in the recent 200k mi CR thread now below, so won't repeat.

But sounds like you've gotten your money's worth. And there's always the down time for maintenance like the head gasket you mention. Have to find a ride and deal with that while car is repaired.

Helping maintain the 01 for daughter now, I understand the desire or need for a new one.

Does sound like it's been a good car.
 
Originally Posted By: meep


Used engine swap is 3x the value of the car, plus as well all know, it's well into the nickel-and-dime phase.
It's been a really good car.

-mike
Civics have always been great value and incredilbly durable, without being overwrought. Regardless of what you hear out there, this car is at an incredibly high mileage and replacing the car is definitely as sensible option.

That said, I agree with those who point out that a repair is feasible. I also respectfully would challenge two of your assertions. One is the idea that repairs that are close to or higher than the value of a high-mileage, depreciated car are not economically feasible or advisable. This is not the correct way to look at it. You should consider the utility of the car after the repair against the costs of operating the car, remembering to assign a value to the fact that you know the car's history.

Secondly, I don't agree that there is such a thing as a "nickel and dime phase." This idea is based on a false perception that repairs come in clusters, or that multiple components are designed to fail at the same time. It just isn't the case. Further, your own record shows only predictable wear items!

Rambling aside, far fewer than a percent of private passenger cars will achieve this mileage. You have won this game however you move forward.
 
I told the Jamaican car salesman that my attitude with cars was 'till death do we part'. He said "when the time comes, bring it in and we'll give it a good funeral."
 
When my brother had transmission problems (5MT) in his 1995 Civic he considered selling it and getting something else. I told him to look at what he would put into his "known quantity" for the repair, add that to what he could get for the car as-is and see what he could buy for that money. Turns out he couldn't get anything nearly as good so he paid for the repair even though the cost was more than the car was worth broken.

I know a guy who bought a new '87 Integra and got 500k miles of service from the car. He was (in)famous at the dealer because the car came with free oil changes for life.

I vote to repair. If the rings are still good rebuilding the head will do wonders for the oil consumption.
 
I wish my mom was like that. I hate when people "need" a new car when it needs brakes or something stupid because they don't want to be bothered. If its not rusted out throw a new motor in it.
 
Originally Posted By: Joshua_Skinner
I know a guy who bought a new '87 Integra and got 500k miles of service from the car. He was (in)famous at the dealer because the car came with free oil changes for life.

At 7.5k OCI he got about 70 free OC's, normal price of OC at dealer is about $30 so he got $2k free oil changes. The MSRP of '87 Integra was about $14-15k, $2k free service isn't bad.
 
Great that your mom got such great life out of her Civic. I've been driving Civics since 1987 (an '83 from '87-'98, then a '98 since). People are right she could fix it & probably get many more cheap years out of it, but here's an opportunity for her to get a new car so why not? (except for not being able to find crank windows)

I still miss my '83 from time to time, but it really did hit the nickel & dime phase: seat covers rotting away, turn signal stalk snapped off, driver door handle broke off, window crank knobs broke. The final straw was the windshield washer system stopped working & I couldn't see a [censored] thing. But it ran like a dream & barely sipped any gas.
 
I knew bitog'ers would understand. Thanks guys. It's kind of one of those respectful, "hat's off" moments.

I agree that additional work could be done on it, however it's not something I can support, so she's at the mercy of paying full shop costs for nearly all of her repairs. If you take that into account and use $300/month as the break-even point, she's there. Typical repair for this thing is 500-1000, and she's had 3 of those recently, now the engine, and frankly the transmission owes us nothing and by all normal averages should have given up a few years ago. Add in piece of mind (she's retired and drives out of state frequently), and it's pretty much done.

I told her if she was attached to the car and was open to the risk of other unexpected failures, there's no harm at this point in maintaining it further. She's the last person to buy things that aren't practical, so if she's decided to buy new, I will be the last to complain. We've actually wanted to see her in something newer for a while.

humbled.
 
The Fit is actually a little cheaper than the Civic and gets better mpg, she might want to look into it
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
The Fit is actually a little cheaper than the Civic and gets better mpg, she might want to look into it


Fit is also more practical, and have higher seating position, so it's maybe more appropriate for older lady.
 
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Originally Posted By: bubbatime
She got her moneys worth on that car. Time to move on. Sell it to one of the ricer kids as a project car.

EXactly..
 
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