Civic Gets Torn Down to Nuts & Bolts–For Science!
Tenth-gen 2018 Civic Hatchback gets ‘iFixit.com’ treatment to see how durable they really are.
If there is one thing virtually everyone in the world can agree on, it’s that Honda is synonymous with reliability. However, very few people go in-depth to find out how true it really is. Luckily, these folks went ahead and did just that. This 2018 Honda Civic Hatchback with the 1.5-liter turbo engine has only 62,000 miles on it. To see how things are coming along, they completely disassembled it. To be more accurate, it had about 62,137 miles on it when it hit the milestone they wanted for disassembly. That’s because this Civic is in Germany, and that’s 100,000 kilometers. So, how’s it looking in there?
The German automotive Youtube channel Auto Bild is where you’ll find this deep dive. If you’re like us, it’ll leave you wishing you’d pay more attention in high school German class. Luckily, Youtube has an auto-translate caption feature. Though, it still takes some context gathering to understand what’s going on. If you speak German, feel free to correct any misunderstandings we’ve got on the Honda-Tech forums!
An interesting inside look
In Germany, the Honda Civic is not the commonplace car that it is on our side of the pond. In fact, they aren’t prevalent at all, according to Auto Evolution. The video starts with one of the hosts driving the Civic and explaining how it doesn’t have the greatest ride quality. The infotainment system already seems dated with lackluster graphics and GPS performance. Additionally, he remarks that the CVT transmission is not all that stellar, which is a common thought among worldwide critics. However, despite the negative remarks, it’s clear they maintain a fair and unbiased outlook throughout the disassembly process.
As we said before, this is no hum-drum moderate disassembly. Every single nut and bolt was removed. The engine was torn down all the way to the bare block, and everything was cleaned and inspected for wear and tear. Furthermore, doors and interior were completely removed and disassembled as well. What we’re left with is an ensemble of parts resembling carefully laying out a model car before beginning assembly. Except, this has way more parts.
Is Honda still reliable as ever?
As one might expect, they didn’t have anything negative to say about how the engine held up. After a thorough inspection of the camshafts, cylinder walls, rods, pistons, and every single engine component in between, they conclude that there’s nothing abnormal to report. Additionally, despite the uneventful driving experience of the CVT transmission, they report that, again, nothing abnormal or detrimental is found. However, there is one area that has an unfortunate fault.
During disassembly, they peak into the chassis with a borescope camera. What they find is premature rusting of the chassis. Towards the end of the video, they reveal that it isn’t any detrimental damage for the time being, but it is likely to be a problem in the future. We’ll admit, it’s sad to see a car beginning to develop rust at only three years old.
In essence, this video proves what we already know. Honda builds durable, reliable cars and engines that you can depend on for hundreds of thousands of miles and decades to come. Though, if you live in an area where rusty cars are common, you may want to keep a close eye on your rocker panels!
