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Honda Civic Basic Maintenance Questions

165 messages,  Last post on Nov 26, 2009 at 12:35 PM

You are in the Honda Civic Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens

What is this discussion about? Honda Civic, Brakes, Fuel System, Oil, Coupe, Sedan

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#155 of 165 Re: 98 Honda Civic by kmp7 Sep 16, 2009 (7:12 pm)
Replying to: pat (Sep 04, 2008 12:50 pm) I am way out of my league......... I have a 98 Honda wit 106. miles. It spends most of its time in airport parking lots. I left it off at a Honda Dealer to get a new headlight and oil change and was contacted later with a list of things that needed to be done ASAP.   I would really appreciate any feedback on the need and estimates if they sound about right.   1.) I do not know what "bushings" are but I guess they are important. I was told that the rear trailing arm bushings need to be replaced $668.77. 2.) Drain and replace brake fluid $133.09 3.) Drain and replace Power Steering Fluid $151.69 4.) Replace valve cover gasket and Spark Plugs $176.30   Just checking on the urgency as it looks like I would be making their weekly budget in the service department!   Thanks for any help. kmp7 Replies to this message: civictory (Sep 17, 2009 6:31 am) jet10000 (Sep 17, 2009 8:37 am) crazyfly (Sep 19, 2009 8:26 am)
#156 of 165 Re: 98 Honda Civic [kmp7] by civictory Sep 17, 2009 (6:31 am)
Replying to: kmp7 (Sep 16, 2009 7:12 pm) Just my perspective, as I am certainly not an expert...   1.) If the bushings really are bad, you need to get this done. I would get a second opinion before I spent any money, though.   2.) Probably not necessary (brake fluid)   3.) Probably not necessary (power steering fluid)   4.) Are you leaking oil? The gasket, I think, would correct that. Spark plugs might improve performace, but they are very easy to do yourself, if you're so inclined.   For the sake of comparison, I had a '97 Civic that I drove into the ground. I traded it in about a year-and-a-half ago with about 180,000 miles. I never did #2, #3, or the gasket; and I never needed the bushings replaced. Granted, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do the brake fluid or power steering; I'm just saying I never did. What ultimately killed my car was a very slow transmission fluid leak that I didn't know about until it was too late... So there is something to be said for routine maintenance, fluid flushes, etc.   Whatever the case, you're Civic is barely broken in and you should get many more miles out of it. Good luck! Replies to this message: jet10000 (Sep 17, 2009 8:37 am)
#157 of 165 Re: 98 Honda Civic [civictory] by jet10000 Sep 17, 2009 (8:37 am)
Replying to: civictory (Sep 17, 2009 6:31 am) The brake fluid and the spark plug changes should be done according to the maintenance schedule in your owner's manual.   You can probably get better prices on everything if you go to a mechanic you can trust.
#158 of 165 Re: 98 Honda Civic [kmp7] by crazyfly Sep 19, 2009 (8:26 am)
Replying to: kmp7 (Sep 16, 2009 7:12 pm) I owned my last civic from about 71,000 miles to 180,000 miles which covers the time period when most maintenance items need to be taken care of, including the ones you mentioned. Based on my experience here are answers to your questions:   First of, you are correct. You will be helping the Service Dept meet the weekly budget targets, because:   a) Trailing Arm bushings are good to replace at a future time, but are not critical and not Have to be replaced ASAP. Not having them replaced will affect your tire's alignment and wear n tear so you may check it out later. Perhaps call around and get quote from repair facilities. Sears, Pep Boys or go to Yelp.com and search for independent honda mechanic.   b) Brake Fluid change / flush: This is Important. But there are two things to consider: 1) $133 is too high a price. most honda dealers run specials to do this for $89.99 or $79.99. Call around to get good price. Now the second part (2) check your records to see when was the last time you changed the brake oil. Honda recommends changing this every 3 years regardless of miles driven.if you've changed regularly, then go right ahead and get this done for less than $90. But, if you have never had a brake oil changed, thats a whole different ball game. The thing is, old brake oil has aged with the car and its seals, that the new brake oil will be stronger and will cut through the old seals resulting in a failure of master cylinder ($600), aka brake failure.. thats a life threatening situation. I had this exact thing happened to me and then later to my brother to his 2000 civic. perhaps you can benefit from experience. Ask the tech how bad is the brake oil? Take your car to other shop and get second opinion. If you can hold off on this, thats great, but if you must change right away, keep checking your master cylinder for any brake oil leaks.   c) Power Steering Fluid: Thats just total BS. Honda does not recommend changing P/S fluid, and you will notice that in the Scheduled Maintenance' section of the owners manual that p/s fluid change is not mentioned. The Honda service dept cooks this up to get your money. I talked to the Honda Master tech I've known for 10 years and these were his words. He recommended I don't change the p/s fluid.   d) Valve Cover Gasket and Spark Plugs: These items are usually done when changing the timing belt of the car. Check the scheduled maintenance section of your owner's manual to see when timing belt is due. At that time you'll also need to get the water pump changed.   CONCLUSION: If you are not married to your civic, the time has come to think about replacing it. Even though the miles are low, it still is a 10 year old vehicle and things are going to start going south soon. In the next 3 to 6 months you will need:   a) Trailing Arm Bushings - $600 b) Brake Fluid change - $ 90 c) Master Cylinder change - $600 d) Timing Belt package (timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, gasket etc) $1000   In total you'll end up spending about $2300 on the car in 6 months with more to come soon. If I were you, I would consider the possibility to replace this car. Take the $2300 you need to fix this car, + about $5k you can get by selling it, you can make that a down payment on a new(er) vehicle that will not have these many issues.
#159 of 165 2009 civic tire issues by midway54 Sep 20, 2009 (8:50 am)
I recently bought a civic LX-S with Continental tires. The car runs fine but the tires are very noisy..Are Continentals just lower quality and run noisy? Has anybody else had a similar issue with these tires.My wife also has a civic but it came with Goodyear RS-A tires which seem quieter..Any suggestions on what I can do..I do not want to go spend 400 on new tires..Any suggestions would be appreciated... Replies to this message: crazyfly (Sep 20, 2009 3:35 pm)
#160 of 165 Re: 2009 civic tire issues [midway54] by crazyfly Sep 20, 2009 (3:35 pm)
Replying to: midway54 (Sep 20, 2009 8:50 am) After many years of buying tires, I eventually learned that not all tires are made equal and some are just noisy to begin with ... yes, i know i am a slow learner!   To your question, I would say check out tirerack.com and lookup your exact tire and see the survey test results. That will tell you how your current tires stack up against other and whether that means you to look for replacement in the long term. good luck
#161 of 165 Serpentine Belt Replacement by bordeaux52 Nov 11, 2009 (7:47 am)
What is the general recommended milage to replace the serpentine belt of a Honda Fit?
#162 of 165 How much oil should be in the new replaced compressor...confused ???? by uunfews Nov 11, 2009 (11:34 pm)
Excerpt from Honda Factory Service Manual for Honda Civic 2001 LX sedan   "For compressor replacement, subtract the volume of oil drained from the removed compressor from 130 ml (4 1/3 fl oz, 4.6 lmp oz) and drain the calculated volume of oil from the new compressor: 130 ml (4 1/3 fl oz, 4.6 lmp oz) – Volume of removed compressor = Volume to drain from new compressor.   NOTE: Even if no oil is drained from the removed compressor, do not drain more than 50 ml (1 2/3 fl oz, 1.8 lmp oz) from the new compressor."   Hi All,   Please read the factory excerpt above and give me some advice on how much oil to put back into my newly replaced compressor. I am confused from reading the factory service manual as to how much oil to put back into the system.   I drained a total of 32mL from my old compressor. My new Honda compressor came prefilled with 130mL of oil from the factory. So does that mean the new compressor will get 32mL put back in??? The confusion starts with the added "Note." If I follow the Note instruction then (130-32=88mL) 88mL is too much to be drained since 50mL is the maximum allowed and therefore the new compressor to be installed should get 80mL and not 32mL. Or do they mean 80mL only if the compressor is completly dry which would not apply in my case???
#164 of 165 2006 Civic Maintenance by olidakatt Nov 25, 2009 (10:34 pm)
No judgments please, and only minor lectures - I feel awful enough as it is.   I have a 06 Civic just shy of reaching the 25K milestone. I used to commit via public transport so which explains the lower mileage. However, this reason I've been lax on regularly scheduled maintenance outside of oil changes whenever the maintenance minder indicated so.   My question for the pros here -- I want to have a dealer do my first maintenance on it, but I'm not sure if I should ask for maintenance schedule A, B, C or what.   Thoughts? Much appreciated. Replies to this message: jet10000 (Nov 26, 2009 12:35 pm)

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