ROCKART

hey, new to this forum,

-i just bought a 1997 honda accord Ex with 96k on the engine for about 2k less than what it is bluebooked at. the car itself is in great condition, there are virutally no dings or dents, everything is clean and new and all the ammenities (sunroof, cd player, power windows, etc) all work. the most glaring problem is the actual driving smoothness of the car. between first and second gear the car seems to jump or lurch and i hear a dampened popping sound coming from the undercarrage. its most definetly the transmission but i want to know what kind of money am i going to have to throw at this thing. i am pretty sure the tranny does not need to be replaced but i am not sure what exactly is wrong with it.
-also, seeing as how its a 96k car and the previous owner was an old lady, the timing belt is going to need replacing. how much am i looking to spend there, all said and done?
-the idle is rough. sitting at a light the whole car shakes. what causes that and what can I (me) do to fix it?
-it has an aftermarket exhaust. how much is it going to cost to have it removed and a stock one installed? can i then sell it?
-there is a repetitive squeaking noise when i turn the ac on at idle. like a gerbil running on a wheel. is there a quick fix for that (lube something?) or do i have to have a pro look at it

im not looking for exact figures here just ballpark figures. any suggestions would be appreciated. of course i would love to do these repairs myself so tell me if that is even an option.

flatline911

I would say bad motor mount. If that is the case you should be able to find a used one pretty cheap at a junk yard.

chuckgregory

an old lady with an after market exhaust? exhaust will probably be <$500 if you want a stock one put on at a honda dealer.

flatline911

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chuckgregory &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">an old lady with an after market exhaust? exhaust will probably be &lt;$500 if you want a stock one put on at a honda dealer.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I was thinking the same thing about the old lady with the exhaust. Maybe her grandson or something.

Turboduck

if the aftermarket exhaust not that noisy, you better stick with it. Not worth it for &lt;$500 just for it.

junk yard is your friend ...

Slunk

The full timing belt job (t-belt, water pump ect.) should run you 500-700 depending on where you go. If you are up for doing it yourself there are a few good write-ups on this site just use the search feature.

professorman

That doesnt sound too bad given the mileage on the car. Most of those seem like relatively easy fixes except the transmission.

Have you ever driven an Accord before? I am not sure if you have an actual problem with the transmission or if you have just never driven an Accord before? With first Accord, I thought that the transmission was going out, because the shifts felt rough. I sold it intending to use the money to get another Accord with a good transmission. When I went on my car hunt, I realize that all 5th gen (possibly 4th gen as well) Accords felt rough shifting. After reading the user manual for the Accord, it says that the Accord has "positive shift feeling to help prolong transmission life", which causes the user to feel the shifts compared to other cars. My friends had Camrys, and those drive really smooth, and you hardly feel the shifts. On the Accord however, you can feel when it changes gears, and since 1-&gt;2 is a big RPM drop, you will feel that shift more than the others.

EDIT: Sorry, a jumping and lurching is definately a problem. Carry the car to Aamco. Go on their website and print out their coupon for a free transmission check and go to them and see what they say about it. They will just drive the car, but they should know what it should feel like.

A used transmission is about $250-$300. Check out your local junk yard or http://www.car-parts.com . You could try changing the transmission fluid. If it hasnt been changed regularly, that could have been the issue. I think there is a certain transmission fluid that I always hear recommended which helps a dieing trasnmission. I am not sure if it is GM readline or something like that. I know Honda ATF is pretty good though.


It might be the engine mounts as mentioned before. Maybe the engine needs a tune up though. Any new car that I buy, I always do a basic tune up. Change the spark plugs ($8-$10), wires (~$50+), air filter(~$10-$16). At ~100k miles, you have some maintenance to do to get you through the remaining 100K miles. I would go ahead and change the distributer cap ($16) as well. Put some fuel injector cleaner in the gas as well. You may just have a car that really just needs a tune up. Probably go ahead and get a compression checked as well, just to verify to yourself that you have a good engine before you go investing money in the car. A compression tester cost about $15 at Harbour Fright or &lt;$25 at your local parts store. The difference between each cylinder should be no more than 10% difference.


haha, she probably had her grandson driving the car. He probably got it as a present and had it in her name for cheaper insurance. lol. You probably cant get too much from selling the muffler, especially if its a ebay no-name muffler. Even if its a decent on, probably can get $25?- $50?-$75? out of selling it. If its not too loud, I'd just leave it. I would just try to find one at the junk yard. Might be around $15-25 if they are willing to give it to you. Installation is where it cost though. If there has not been major work to your muffler pipes, you local muffler shop should be able to just unbolt the old muffler and bolt the junk yard on in. Most junk yards do not like to sell mufflers though, because they rot easily. You can get a cheapie muffler for about $125, or up to about $250-$300 for a decent aftermarket one. Nothing is better than a brand new Honda muffler though, but thats a arm and a leg.

If the A/C blows cold, its probably just your A/C belt squeeking. You local parts store will sell something called "belt dressing" which you can spray on your belt to lubricate it. I've used it a number of times. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.
When you are doing your timing belt change, they will change the A/C belt and the power steering belt as well. They are about $12 each. If you are handy, you could probably just change them yourself. About an afternoon of work if you are doing it for the first time.

Most of these you can do yourself, other than the timing belt job. If I were you, I'd go ahead and spend about $500-$700 now and do a FULL COMPELTE 100k miles tune up which will give you another 100k miles on your car. Most of the work you can do yourself to save yourself some money. I wouldnt recommend changing the timing belt/water pump yourself since this requires a decent amount of work if its your first time. I still havent gone inside my engine so deep as yet, but I do most of my work myself.

You are in Florida. Everything is cheaper in Florida. I took my car to get it tinted in Florida. I paid $45, where as up north, I would have paid $120-$150. I had my car interior detailed $35 with 4 guys working on it at once, up north, I would have paid $100-$150.

ROCKART

thanks people. i appreciate it.