MadScientistMatt

Recently my Civic started making a clunking sound from the front end. Usually I do my own repairs, but I'd spent a lot of the past month chasing down problems with the cooling system. (A while ago I'd posted about an overheating issue and got a half dozen suggestions for possible problems. Turns out it was all of the above, all at once!) So I dropped it off at a mechanic, thinking it was the CV joints. They gave me a call saying that it was a problem with the brakes and they wanted permission to do a complete brake job since the rotors were worn, a wheel cylinder was leaking at the back, etc. So I authorize the repair. A couple hours later, they call back saying that the parts they ordered didn't fit.

Turns out the Civic had DX brakes on one side and EX brakes on the other. Seems the car had been in a bit of a fender bender and the previous owner fixed the suspension with parts out of the first Civic he found at the junkyard, and overlooked that he was installing rotors that were nearly an inch smaller than the ones on the car to start with. Amazingly, it didn't pull to one side with such a mismatch.

It's back to the EX brakes that it should have now. Anyone else got stories of finding out their Honda had mismatched parts or really bad repair techniques?

redrim

thats the worst thing ive ever heard.
i dont have anything crazy like that, just shitty wiring and random holes drilled everwhere for some stupid reason.found a pick tool wedged underneath my subframe and the chassis of my em1.kept that.
uuummm, alot of random wiring.stupid noob mistakes

civics4lyfe

bought my 95 coupe from a kid who put a stereo in the trunk himself. made the box by caulking particle board, no nails, screws, etc. found 37 holes in the trunk floor from him putting brackets on to hold the box in place. it was held in by two brackets that had 3 holes each (im wondering what the other 31 holes were). removing that, i found the jack and other stuff in the spare tire well were wrapped in bubble wrap, i assume to keep from clinging around.

he also made a *custom* intake. he said it was a cai, but it was just a cai FILTER on a piece of pvc pipe bent in the shape of a sri. then he had it zip tied to the strut bar to keep it from drooping.

and the l.e.d. light on the spoiler had a few burnt out bulbs. instead of replacing it for inspection, he cut the wires and put a piece of black electrical tape over it.

BryanM.

iTrader: (1)

Friend of mine bought a '94 EX from a used car dealer. The gauge cluster had one of those covers (don't even know what they're called lol) on it to make the gauges look a different color. Of course it looked like **** so I removed it for him and underneath was an AUTO EX cluster!

Eventually found out the car had been in an accident and was peiced together with salvage yard parts!

Buyer Beware! CarFax FTW!

SiR18EG

haha where do I begin... I just bought a 1994 CX and it has a D16Z6 swap with a stock cx P05 ECU..... Exhaust hangers were welded onto the gas tank itself!!!..... Had to replace a CV joint that was about an 1 1/2" too long for the car and was leaking tranny fluid and tore up the axle seal.... Chased a flashing battery light for a while and found out the tranny ground wasnt connected after they did the swap .... I have a map sensor CEL b/c they obviously lost the MAP plug so they installed a TPS plug and got the wiring all wrong burning out the sensor.... That's just what I've found in the last 2 weeks!!! surely more to come.

Frickr

not on my car, nor a honda. but i was working on a 69 mustang putting in a ratchet shifter. and got under it to get at the linkage and on the hydrolic stearing ram there was washers stacked up 2 1/2 inches to make clearence for the header.

dividedas1

i got you beat... last owner of my hatch decided that 2 bolts would be good enough to hold the engine mount to the motor.. and one of those bolts was helicoiled and the bolt it self was too short....

long story short i was granny shifting into second and my motor mount ripped clear off the motor breaking my axle and leaving my engine sitting in my bay all sorts of [freak]ed up...


also i was told that the exhaust on the car was "new" and i really didnt want to look under the car when i bought it i figured if it wasn't too loud its alright... he hacked a bunch of random sized pipe together for an exhaust... and he used bolts welded together for exhaust hangers... WTF?! lol

i wish i had a pic of the exhaust every one on here would laugh their ***'s off. i will look later it might be on my camera still.

95vxtealhatch

I've only had good suprises. I own a vx, and it came with a/c, and passenger side mirror.

94EG8

Not my civic, but i've seen a couple of '92 - '95 civcs using 2x4 to keep the seats from falling through the floor where it rotted under the back of the front seats, scary thing is i've seen it done a few times. Also have seen old inner tubes and adjustable hose clamps used to hold tie rod ends together.

FG2 chilotz

My 92 CX had a VX motor in it with the same one wire o2 censor on it and he ran it with a P28 chipped for a B series; he claim it to get more power. He also plugged up his radiator leak with clay and the radiator was held in with shoe string. Yes this guy is a dumb ***.

halocore

if it wasn't for me a year ago, my buddy would of have brought civic ex that the owner claims it has a turbo on it. I finally found time to go with him and when we got there, it was one of those ebay binge blowers (electronic turbo) that blows air into the intake.

The owner also claim that he was running a gsr ecu in the civic and it gave him 20 Hp at the wheels.

I had a good laugh and test drove the car. and after we left i convince my buddy to find a better deal.

owneyboy

iTrader: (1)

bought a eg shell for $500 and while i was looking for a motor i bought a gsr from the same guy 2 months later for another $400, legit swap. the first day i started her up i began to drive and i had soo much wheel hop it wasnt even funny and it pulled like there was a snapped axel. i jacked up the car and the caster nut that holds the upper arm was gone and the shock just popped off and i was like man i woulda died if i took a corner. other things were the shift linkage popped off when i was popping gears because oil ate away the bushing. looks like this guy didnt know how to take care of his car or what it was worth.

punkinbeck

I bought a civic hatchback that someone had a sound system in.. They took all of the interior out and sprayed spray foam inside the doors, filled the quarter panels and under the dash so it they rattle.. Then they stuffed about an entire hamper full of socks and shirts in the headliner and other places it rattled.. The sprayfoam in the quarters held moisture and made it rust, as well as the doors.. I had to replace the dash and chisel the foam out of the doors and quarters, and basically remove the entire interior

WHO THE HELL SPRAYS FOAM INSIDE OF BODY PANELS????

dnc8203

so i just got another civic, besides the flat black overapray all over the car except were the didnt take the license plate off and it is still red underneath and the sanding gouges.........the exhaust ow3ns


the shifter....couldnt be any shorter, or broken (takes the cake, the threaded part was cut off and welded to a plug that fits inthe shifter hole)




and here is the super short intake ( that was turned down so the filter was by the speed sensor........? i dont know? before i moved it back up)




then there is the wiring. the light dimmer plug harness was cut off, but the dimmer unit was there???????? there was a radar detector hardwired......somehow....of course didnt work. overall SHITTY but the price was right bitch.......


Modified by dnc8203 at 6:11 PM 11/14/2008

wangkata

funny hehehe we bought 95 cx hatch swap with D16z6 they use cx wire harness, vtec not wired up either with cel on 10 and 41 they use P06 ecu and cx header and secondary catalytic under so basicly it has 2 catalytic converter the owner is a mechanic but couldn't figure out to fix the cel he keep resetting it with his high tech scan tools the snap-on one even expensive than the car itself so anyway, we just bought the car with cel on minus the Price cause the cel...what I had done change the ecu to P28 wired the vtec and bought new air intake sensor for the cel 10/ change the harness to oem D16z6 harness for cel 41 oxygen sensor 4 wire cause cx has only 1 wire and wallaaa no more CEL.....good thing do it came cold ac.......

Rok_Stok

Once I bought a '93 Prelude Si from my girlfriend (ex now) and she told me she waxed it regularly.

Then one day I waxed her new car for her and later she asked me why I was rubbing the wax off with a towel.

That explains why the Prelude was more Milano Pink than Milano Red.

geneeunit

my car has everything wrong with it and then some.. ebay springs with stock struts of course, bootleg ebay intake, runs horrible, clutch is baddddd, wiring is taped together, like just electrical tape.. strictly electrical tape, everywhere... anything you can think of my car has it, or had it.. and half the interior pieces were snapped, or cracked, burns in the seats, i can go on and on.. random holes in stuff, missing motor mounts, t

but most of all, the oil was disgusting... came out like mud when i first brought the car home..


yeah, its kind of bumming me out to think about it..

mormonboy

i found a fleshlight in the back seat.

Maverick2K4

I found a screwdriver in the airbox of my Integra. It wasn't from the previous owner, it was from my dad checking the air filter to see if I put the K&N replacement filter in correctly. My dad has no trust in me, now I have every reason to have no trust in him.

sr20hardbody

ewww


my 92 dx 4dr came with aftermarket cruise control installed and they tapped into pretty much every switch for the pedals and of coarse it doesnt work prolly never has so i had to take the dash out to undo their doings. they also drilled a few holes in one of the dash pieces trying to find the right spot to mount the switch! luckily that piece is replaceable

sol2hatch

this kind of post should really be in GDD.

punkinbeck

I had a 93 teal hatchback that was previously wrecked.. Every now and then it would hesitate.. maybe once a month.. Well after i had the car a couple years I crashed it, and parted it out.. The entire time i had it there was one of those metal clips that holds the headlight together stuck in one of the #1 intake ports sideways.. Just barely big enough that it didn't get sucked into the combustion chamber.

Koopa Troopa

My Civic...

Original Japanese owner used the car for a sound car but when he sold it to the next guy removed all the stereo equipment minus a head unit that didn't work.

The next Japanese owner used thew car for gymkhana but left all the interior, the wood grain Nardi wheel and everything else in it but installed some gymkhana brake pads, Tanabe sustec dampers and a 98 spec ITR transmission with Mugen LSD.

My friend then bought the car without knowing it had gymkhana pads on it, proceeded to take the car on some mountain roads and ended up putting the car *** backwards into a tree. Resulting the the car getting a whole new rear end...

My Silvia

Japanese shop the built the car did the worst wiring I've ever seen, my friend who bought the car from that shop blew 3 motors and a 2540 turbo and then I junked it because the Stack cluster drew too much power through a faulty accessory harness and started a fire...

NOFX

Weirdest thing I have found on my car is that the owner took decent care of it. Not great, but it was washed at least. A big step for your average car driver. It was previously owned by a female teacher IIRC.

Oh, and the first time I changed my air filter there was about one mockingbird worth of fluff in it. It was under the filter though.

hondaman1320

I found 2 pints of crown royal under the passenger seat of my del Sol the night I bought it. Turns out the original owner liked to drink and drive. My friend and I drank it while we cleaned the living hell out of my Sol. That was fun!!!