Hey guys - I'm going to be trading my civic (http://www.hondamarketplace.co...29530) for this integra (http://www.hondamarketplace.co...29356). My problem is this - the Integra has 181k on the stock motor. Mine has an unknown number on a recently replaced motor. Wish I knew the number, but it's surely less than 181k - the chassis has 250k.

So I'm not made of money, of course, and I'm wondering how these b18b1s usually fare at this mileage. Should I have it professionally inspected before I buy it? Should I just go for it? What should I look for?


Thanks,


Sam

 

I asked a similar question here before and from what I remember, they said that it really depends on the previous owner and how the car was handled. The Integra engines are suppose to last you a long time if taken care of.

A few people also said that either you go with an Integra that has a lot of mileage and get it for a really nice price and then do a swap in the near future or...get one with low mileage, pay a bit more, but you have a good starting ground for your modifications.

Also, they recommend that you get a compression and a leakdown test done so you know how much life is on that engine. It is is 100% accurate but it is better than just judging the longetivity of the car by reading its specifications and pictures.

Good luck with it. I am also looking for that one Integra.

Take care.

 

Hrmm, thanks. I'm not looking to modify it in the future. Really just using it as a daily driver for this year until I'm off East. So I'm just hoping for it to last me the next 10 months

 

mine was 170k miles and running strong...

cant really say anything about the integra your trading with...does he have service records??

it all depepends on how he dorve it and if he took care of it

from the pics..it doesnt look all that taken care of...but i could be wrong

 

He does say it has been owned by a mechanic for the past 3 years, and that he bought it for a crx worth 1400 + 1500 cash... which is significantly more expensive than I'm getting it for... it seems pretty legit, if the truth is being told...

 

wow, i can tell you already that its going to be pretty pricey putting that thing back to stock, paint job, new fenders all around, four matching wheels, new tail lights, etc etc... with all the mileage and aftermarket parts i wouldn't buy it for less then 1500, the body work looks like crap and his "mechanic" skills probably are too, i wouldn't trust it, but thats just me-

 

I'll be honest though - I like how it looks, in some ways. It's going to include the stock green bumper, which looks pretty okay in person with the blue. And, the blue passenger door just needs a tiny bit of work to be remounted, and then it will be, all in all, just a stock-looking integra with some crazy fenders and tails. And I'll just leave it at that.

 

honestly by the way that thing looks...it was prolly pushed the hell out of and not taken care of. but i have a 173k miles on my teg with plenty of races and redlines...i had this engine since 124k miles and done nothing but drive it hard, the engine was swaped into a different teg at 165k. i take car of my car, oil changes every 2500 miles...transmission fluid changes at 15k miles. i do that because i push the car harder so fluids break down faster.


btw my engine is the same type(obd1 b18a1)

 

Hrmm. Certainly, your engine does look nicer on the outside... doesn't mean anything, though...

 

I agree with some other posters that you might want to consider passing on that Integra.

 

Really, for the price that I'm getting? Why do you think so? Remember that I'm upgrading from a stock lx 4dr automatic... with almost 400k kilometers...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sottilde &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Really, for the price that I'm getting? Why do you think so? Remember that I'm upgrading from a stock lx 4dr automatic... with almost 400k kilometers...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, the decision is yours, but I would personally search for something that looks like it has lived an easier life. At least with your current Civic, you more or less know what you have, and there are no real surprises. I understand that your budget is tight, but for the 10 more months that you stated you will need the car, you might even want to consider keeping the Civic and just making sure that it is up to date on maintenance.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sottilde &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Really, for the price that I'm getting? Why do you think so? Remember that I'm upgrading from a stock lx 4dr automatic... with almost 400k kilometers...</TD></TR></TABLE>

its kinda like a stereo-type. that car LOOKS like its been pushed and not taken car of....i mean for one thing look at the damage to the body....if someone could do that do think they think twice about not taking care of the engine?

this is the head on that same engine(172k)

mine looks good on the inside too

 

Hrmm. I appreciate the responses. Kind of bummed, though, because I really enjoyed driving the car - ride was really smooth, clutch was great, it was fast, etc... tad loud, though. You all honestly think it's not worth trading the civic for it?

Edit: In person, the body's actually pretty clean - cleaner than my civic. The reason for the red door is a recent string of break-ins to the car. He has a security system though, and I live in a small town, so that wouldn't be a problem. I thought, when I took a look at it, that the looks of the engine were just from age. I'm sure it hasn't been babied, but if it'll last me a year, that's all I care for...

 

I wrote a long long write up..but i forgot to login so it is gone. I have personally checked out the car and if yours run straight and have no problem then it aint worth it.There is so much wrong with it. There is bubbles of rust going on. The owner does not know how low the car was lowered. The hood is sticky(meaning that it won't lock sometime...we were out in the cold and after i check the engine bay he tried to close it and would not lock. Took some time.) The car leans to the right like crazy...i had the steering wheel turned 90 degrees from the mnormal to drive straight, owners says "it needs camber" I think the axel is bad. The key hole in the trunk look like is was tried to be stripped(the metal around the keyhole is gone!)

 

Oh, how strange to have someone who's actually see the car on here. Great. I didn't see the rust, but I'll take your word for it on that one. The camber problem was indeed worrying, I would have to get that checked out. My alignment is a bit off too so it's not the biggest of deals, I'm used to that kind of thing, but I know what you mean. Definitely would need to be fixed. As for the latch on the hood, he showed me that sometimes the "cable gets stuck" and he pulled on something near the hood release and it closed right up. He filled the trunk keyhole because he not only didn't have a key to fit it, someone tried to break it open a few weeks ago, so just killed the hole. I suppose it doesn't matter considering you can just pop it from inside.

He wanted my civic + 300 - I'm thinking now that it's not that great of a deal. Maybe, straight up, it wouldn't be so bad, then I could use the 300 to fix those niggling problems. What do you think, R34?

 

Bump for an anxious guy...

 

i wouldn't worry about the mileage. i had a b18 in my old ef that was beaten on daily with over 200k and never had a problem. now if you were going to boost it, i would definitely look for something with lower miles.

 

My sister has the same civic as you do (5speed,purple) with 250K on it and that thing runs like a champ. I would consider keeping yours if for only 10months. Generally if someone doesn't take care of the exterior, they prolly didn't take care of the engine. You can also consider looking for an older teg (89-91) or an older civic (88-91). If you look around you can find those in really good shape for next to nothing on the price teg. Good luck either way.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RIX982DRLS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My sister has the same civic as you do (5speed,purple) with 250K on it and that thing runs like a champ. I would consider keeping yours if for only 10months. Generally if someone doesn't take care of the exterior, they prolly didn't take care of the engine. You can also consider looking for an older teg (89-91) or an older civic (88-91). If you look around you can find those in really good shape for next to nothing on the price teg. Good luck either way. </TD></TR></TABLE>


you understand that you just listed two different gens of integras right? 89-91 would mean gen1 and gen2. gen1 was 86-89 and gen2 was 90-93....gen3 was 94-01.

 

if the motor doesnt eat up oil, and passes smog, i think it shouldnt too much of a hassle... it will eat up more gas than the civic

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 7mile &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if the motor doesnt eat up oil, and passes smog, i think it shouldnt too much of a hassle... it will eat up more gas than the civic</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol, tell that to my teg that gets on averages about 380 per 11.5 gallons of gas...lol

gotta love the 33-36 mpg city

 

Wow, love your guys responses. Just want to let you know, yes, the body doesn't look all that great. I will admitt that. My friend I bought it from, did it by himself in his own garage. It was his first project car out of automotive schooling and he didn't do the best of jobs, but I know it was taken care of. He never beat it because it was "his baby" Throughout the 3 yrs he had it me and many of our friends tried racing him but he would never race it. And I beat on it very little. It has been very well maintained. And yeah, the paint on the engine is peeling, I've seen that on almost every B18 I've seen that hasn't had a head replaced or repainted! Even my friends 01 GS-R is starting to do that with only 33K Miles on it...The paint has bad heat resistance... But thanks for all the comments

 

I had the same kind of cable problem with my old eclipse but with the trunk and the gas door. It is not the cable. I read somewhere on the forum it was the motor that releases the lock and .....Trust me it aint worth it. I most likely won't work during the winter and you don't want your hood to pop up and hit the windshield when your driving. Mines didn't work good during the winter but fine during the summer.

About the key hole... I saw a 2-3 days ago and he said he did not know what happened and did not even know it was there. The night before his alarm went off and he did not even see that damage.Lying right there That means you can't trust the seller. Not to bash the guy. I'm sure he just wants to sell the car but he don't have to lie about it.


I don't think 300 will cover the problem that the car has. Honestly the motor seems like it runs good(you may never know unless you do a compression test). I'm sure that you are not a person who can fix alot of stuff in the car if you had to ask about if a 180k+ integra will casue problem( no offense, i am just assuming that you have some knowledge of cars but not too much). To get the axel fix is $160+ for each axel and $200+ for labor for each axel to be put in(this is more than 300 already). The car with rust will cost you some money cause labor will be expensive. I had rust on my eclipse and you have rust on your civic. you know how it is. You don't want to deal with it. I think if your civic runs fine. I'm sure it will be able to take from places to places so you should just keep your car. But if you get the integra you may get many headaches.


I checked the car out at night. So these were the things that i noticed. If it was in the day time i might be able to find more problem but i decided to not get it. Also fogged up front headlights. Fiberglass wide body was not put on good. You may think of these as little things but you should look at it in a big picture and consider all of them together as one picture and not little stuff here and there. I say save up money adn buy a decent shape integra. Cheap is not always good.

For example, you eat alot of candy and you have tiny cavity here and there in your teethAnother person has a black teeth from tooth decay. Which would be easier to fix at the dentist. The one with tooth decay would be easier cause all they do is pull it out, put in some fake ones or whatever. The one with many tiny cavity will take longer to fix because it has to get it all filled. Dentist charges alot and you go there once to get your tooth pulled out is expensive enough, imagine going there a few times to get your teeth filled so there are no more cavity. Now think of it as the one with many cavity to be the integra with many prblem. You will go through to the shop many times or try to solve it your self and may just waste money. Think of the one with the tooth decay as your civic with a dead motor from high mileage. Drop in a new d,b,h series motor would cause you less headache cause you know that is the only thing you need to replace.


What i would do is not trade and keep it cause it will be your future beater car also. Your project car is never reliable so you need a beater on the side.

My rule is Never pick up someone else's project unless you got alot of money to buy the ones that are professionally put together of fix your project car. Project cars are never as good as stock when starting to mod.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm not too concerned about the cable problem or the thing on the trunk. I will certainly ask him about that though. The hood seemed to be as he described.

He told me that the axles were recently replaced... within the past 2 years, if I remember correctly. I have no way of knowing if that's true or not, if he did lie about the trunk hole.

He told me that the two front wheels, the white ones, were from a friend with the tires, and that the tires may need replacing soon - and something with the camber was causing that hard pull. Would this be a likely story, and what do you think the price would be on something like this? I will have some extra money coming around soon, but I probably would be better off not spending it if I can.

You're right in that I probably am better off being happy with my poor little auto civic and just using it to get from place to place. But the idea of a fast blue integra (stick, too :thumbsup sitting in my driveway is hard to resist. The question is whether it'll make the year or so I have it before I pass it along...


EDIT: I always thought he was honest, though. Your comment on the lock got me thinking. I pulled this out from an old email:

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">"One last thing...The other night, someone tried breaking into the trunk. Doesn't matter cause my key didn't work for that lock anyways cause that lock was all messed up. So now there is a patch that is primed because I took the lock off and had the hole filled in...I'll take a pic if you really wanna see it. I'm sorry, I didn't even notice til last night when I went to show another guy the car. But the problem is fixed, and now it's a little safer because they won't be able to go through the trunk now...Remember, the car does have keyless entry/alarm too...Talk to you later"</TD></TR></TABLE>

Guess he didn't lie. I just suck at remembering