cvriv

My girlfriend and I brought in her 2002 Civic EX with 1200000 miles on it because the SRS light was on when she bought the car. She just bought the car. We wanted to see if the SRS issue was covered under Honda's warranty and it is. Thats good. But they told us of a bunch of other stuff that needs to be done. Timing belt change. Im not even going to question that because i know of its importance. But they said the car has a bad engine mount?!?! Really? With only 120,000 miles on it and it has a bad engine mount? Whats the likely hood of this? The engine doesnt have a terrible vibration problem at all. I would like to grt under the hood and check this out myself. How? Or if anyone can point me in the riht right direction as to where i can get the service manuals for this car? Thanks. They also said the compliance bushings need to be changed as well. Really!?!? I read somewhere that their instructed to mention replacement at first sign if wear. Aka cracks. I personally didnt drive her car yet but she didnt mention anything about poor ability to steer. I will check myself asap. What do you think? They also said brakes need to be done, thats fine i can do those myself. Brake fluid is black and needs to be replaced, huh? Lol. Likelyhood of that? Broken exhuast b pipe?!?! Seized bolts for air box,... they said we should just replace the whole air box, really?!?! They listed more than a $1000 easy in work that needs to be done. A lot of it i can do myself. Other stuff like timing belt ill havr them do. But im wondering if some of this stuff even needs to be done. Just wondering if they are just trying to get money from us. Thanks.

lazlong

Bad motor mounts and airbox are pretty common on these models. My mounts go about every 50-70K miles (I have rough roads, you're experience may vary). There's 1 in front, 1 in back, and 1 on each side. The airbox gets weathered and the bolts won't come out. Most people just go with an aftermarket intake. It can be cheaper and it's way easier to get to stuff without that huge air resonator.

Service manual: http://www.helminc.com/helm/homepage...oDbDQ&usg=AFQj

It Wasn't Me

Among other things, yes. Here are the maintenance schedules from the FAQ's ...
The rubber cracks and weakens, sometimes worse. It's not terribly uncommon.

This Link is for the 2001-2005 service manual, but they're currently out of stock. You can find it elsewhere online. I found a used but like-new one on craigslist for $20.

However, this link is for the 2001-2003 service manual. Since the car is an '02, this will work.


Easy to inspect, a bit of a pain to replace unless you have a press or some mechanical ingenuity. There is a DIY in the FAQ's for it though, in case you wanted to replace them yourself. If not, you can have them replaced for you, or just buy new arms.
It's probably contaminated, but I don't know about being "black" .. probably just dirty.


Easy enough to inspect. It's the pipe that runs between the catalytic converter and the muffler. Click this link if you need a visual reference.


See if you can remove the bolts. Soak them with some penetrating lube if need be. Once they're out you can just replace them with some stainless bolts from the local hardware store. Smear a little anti-seize on the threads, install 'em, call it a day. (or replace the intake all together, as mentioned)


Preventive maintenance. It isn't free.


Good luck with it.

jb2wheels

Sounds like my son's 120k mile 2001. All normal.

When we bought it at about 105k, the airbox bolts were siezed up and exhaust manifold cracked. I know the compliance bushings are worn but I'm not ready to replace them.

Timing belt and water pump are normal ops on Hondas.

Engine mounts at 120k and 10 years? That's a good run. My sister's Ody only goes about 70k between $1000 motor mount replacements. They're some kind of super duper computer controlled engine mounts I guess.

Be glad you have an EX - I think the exhaust manifold and catalytic converter are 2 pieces. They're one, $400 piece on an LX.

Our 01 Civic is getting an MCU this week, too. Add that to your list of parts to save for. And brake pads since the wear indicators are driving me nuts.

Damn - I've pumped a bunch of cash into this car.

cvriv

Thanks for all the info! Sorry for the late reply. Been busy. So yea, i told my girl to start saving her money for these repairs. I can do some of it myself. I just dont have the time to do all of it. I going to have her do the timing belt first. You mentioned water pump as well. I can only assume the water pump runs off the timing belt and thats why it need to be replaced. If it seizes it will kill the timing belt. It might be 2 weeks maybe 3 before she gets that done. Should i go ahead and change out the engine oil now. Or just wait? Do they drain the engines oil to do the change? Ill probably do brakes and then engine mounts after the timing belt and pump is done.

dpetro1

no need to drain the engine oil for a timing belt job. you will need to drain the coolant before you take off the water pump though.

dr_spock

Sounds like all the same problems with my 2002 LX. I don't think the previous owner changed the brake fluid. Mine came out blackish:

m_shake

Op, why are you surprised a 10 year old car w/120k needs work?! This car IS the decline of Honda and it shows through most dealers(including ours) for the stuff that goes wrong sooner then previous generations...we do A LOT of head gasket jobs on 01-05 civics too.
**** that goes wrong:
Compliance bushings
Seat belt buckles
Shocks/struts
Early year manual trannys
Head gaskets
Motor mounts(to be fair ek's suck here too)
Door lock cylinders
Otherwise pretty solid cars

cvriv

Im not familiar with honda's. I had my 2000 toyota tacoma for 8 - 9 years I think? Drove it all the way up to 220,000+ miles and engine mounts were fine. No compliance joints problems either. I actually had no major troubles with that truck other than a possible failed or failing sensor or something that had the engine bucking a bit.

Before that I owned porsche 944's. Those cars are 20+ years old and most of the time the engine mounts and compliance bushings are fine. I'm not surprised at all that work needs to be done. Its just the mounts and bushings really that had me scratching my head. I drove the crap out of my truck as well. I only gave it up because toyota gave me nearly 10,000 for it due to rust under the truck. I drove my porsches hard as well. The previous owners drove them hard as well. Just dont get why the mounts and bushings failed on an eco car.

m_shake

It's a Eco car, cheap for a reason The engine mount thing is cause Honda thought fluid filled mounts were a great idea, and if you look at a compliance bushing and it's range of motion you understand why they fail at such low mileage.