I bought a 98 base Prelude in March, and it has been nothing but problems for me. It was used with 75,000 miles on it, and it had a lot of modifications (CAI, Header, suspension/lowered, front/rear sway bars, VAFC). After a month, I hydrolocked the engine due to the CAI and a huge puddle, and had to replace the engine with another used one with 80,000 miles on it, which my insurance paid for luckily. That cost me $500 (deductible) Next, the shift cable broke and I had to replace it myself due to lack of funds ($275). Then I had to replace an EGR valve that cracked and broke when I took it off for cleaning ($50). Just this weekend apparently some wires wore down and shorted, which fried my alternator, and I had to get a shop to replace the alternator and wiring since I was out of town ($530). I still have a couple problems which I can't fix yet due to lack of funds/ability, including a 3rd gear grind, and a pinging-like sound in low RPMs.

I have spent $1300 fixing this car over 6 months, and it's hard to keep up with the expense, and scary to think of what might break next. I have planned on selling this car next summer since I bought it, but I don't know what to do right now. Should I try to sell this car now and buy something I won't have to spend so much money on to maintain? How should I go about selling the car? How much can I get for it? Would it be better to save up and fix the remaining problems before selling? Anybody with advice or similar experience please help!

 

lol..I'm going through the same issue as well man. Not so much of things breaking and things having to be replace (Thank God), but more so insurance. Insurance right now is kicking my ***, and I'm up to the point of wanting to sell the Lude. Another factor is my turbo build at the same time, it's like it's putting a strain on my wallet. Honestly as much as I may say it, I'll never sell the Lude. Don't give up on the Lude so fast...especially if you plan on selling the Lude and buying another used car. Hang in there man, somethings usually have a way of working itself out.

Buying a used car = Buying someone else's problems

 

sounds like it would have been a good car if you didn't suck up water on the original motor.

 

true could have changed it to short ram if its raining all the time there.

 

fix the crap before you sell it or youre gonna lose $$ bigtime

 

The thing is I'm gonna have to sell the car next year no matter what, since I plan on moving out of the country. When I bought the prelude I was hoping it would be somewhat reliable, as I hear Honda's in general are, and that it would maintain a lot of value so that in the end I didn't end up spending a whole lot of money for a car that I was only gonna own for a year.

Now it looks like I'm gonna have sink more money into the transmission and hopefully not too much more, and hopefully be able to pay off the loan when I sell it. I just worry that a car with so many problems is likely to develop more problems. Anyway, it helps to have people's opinions, so thanks for the posts.

 

You think thats bad?
Its worse when you do the work yourself (unless you did)

Bought my prelude 3 months ago. Bought it with a intake manifold that was going bad. the secondary valves wernt opening. so, i spent $300 on a skunk2 manifold, had a buddy help install it since i dont know hondas (at least, at the time), we couldnt get the idle right.. spent a weekend on it, finally got it right..

then i start going into limp mode.. then the TPS straight up fell off somewhere in the road and i had to have a tow home.. then once i got that fixed, it rained REALLY hard, and water got ALLLLL up in my car.. but, i didnt notice, so i started it, drove it down the road, and KLUNK!.. had it pushed back home, looked at it, couldnt figure it out.. aside from the 3" of water in the floorboard on the passenger side (that happened to fry my computer). then i checked the starter, well, i noticed, it didnt move.. the starter had locked up and chipped teeth off the flywheel.. had to pull the whole motor.. decided to turbo and rebuild while I was having it out..

spent 4k buying it. (which, is too much, its not good condition IMO, except for the h22a motor with 40k miles) then spent another 4.5k on turbo parts and rebuild parts.. and now, im still not quite running.. it'll take another 1k or so to get the tunes, put back togeather, and so on before it'll run.. it's been down 2/3 months i've owned it.

 

get some GM synchromesh friction modified tranny fluid from any GM dealer to help out your grinding issue. i heard it will take around 2-3 weeks for break in period for the grind to go away. 2 qts of syncromesh @ $15-20 each qt for our cars. kinda expensive but it will prolong the life of your tranny

 

Should have got a civic, parts are every, cause you take something off and parts strat breeding.

 

You should always try to buy a car in stock condition. If it has mods, chances are it has been raced and beat on. Also, I'm surprised that you had to replace your engine after hydrolocking. You must have sucked up ALOT of water. Usually you can just take the spark plugs out and crank the engine and the water will splash out. Did you throw a rod or something?

 

A True hydro lock usually involves rods bending and sometimes being forced through the side of the block. Just keep pecking away at the problems, eventually you will run out of things to fix.

 

I agree with buying a used car is like buying someone elses problems. We bought my fiancees hatch for 600 bucks- guy said "it just needs a hood and fenders" about $2500 later we have a comfortable, nicely painted, reliable motor soon to be built and turbod before december. I bought my lude' with a jdm h22, headers, short ram, and full catback. Day before i bought it, windsheild cracked all the way- *130 installed with warranty*, 3 days after enjoying finally having a honda with ac compressor blew out, had to order a new one *100bucks*, and before that car started idling very low, and is somehow linked to the brakes as in i pump the brake pedal and idle shoots up to 1200 than bounces up and down I know it'll stop sooner or later, the civic was far worse, but i did pay $2000 for the lude that also needs a paintjob *100 bucks hooked up* and a new sunroof *45 from a friend* I also dont understand why you guys would dump money into a turbo system if it makes things harder for you money wise? Weve been slowly gatherin parts here and there for the hatchs turbo setup, but we wont just drop 1400 so we can be in debt- sure it takes longer, but its much more easier on the wallet

 

My story isn't as bad. I bought a mint 93 Prelude Si-VTEC shell for $750, which came with a hydrolocked motor. Bought a JDM H22 for 900 bucks, spent about 60 bucks on misc. crap. Did the swap at a buddies house, started it up, sounded nice but rev'd like crap. Found out my TPS was cracked, threw one on from an IM i had in my backyard. Took it out for a drive, and it popped every gear i threw at it. Moved some cables and hoses that were in the way, tried again, problem went away, only to have the thing slip at about 2-3k rpms, in every gear. Hoping it's just a new clutch i need...

So far i have spent about 1700 bucks, and im already tired of throwing money at it, hopefully i can have it running soon, i'm tired of seeing the poor thing sitting in my driveway.

 

Heh, not to be an *** or anything... but it seems to me as though you walked right into trouble yourself. If you don't have the mechanical experience to fix a car, find a friend who can help... don't do it blindly yourself.

Buying a modified vehicle 95% of the time means trouble... you can almost guarantee that the person drove it really rough... so why would you not look for a stock one?

Second, most of the problems you mentioned were caused by *you*. WTH is this "I thought honda was reliable" crap... no car with a CAI is immune to puddles... seriously.

If you try to sell a broken car, you'll lose big money. While my speech may seem harsh, I still wish you the best of luck, Hondas *are* reliable if you treat them well.

 

The engine was my fault for not avoiding the puddle, but I don't see how I was the cause for the shift cable, transmission, and wiring/alternator breaking, besides that I bought a used car.

In any case, I'm not saying Hondas in general aren't reliable just because mine isn't. It's true I shouldn't have bought a modified car. I was just pondering on what to do now. It looks like there's not really too much to do besides stick with it though.

 

I agree with maks.

If you subtract the things that you caused, you're not talking about much in the way of repairs of a recently purchased used vehicle. It should be quite reliable after you've attended to all of the existing issues.

 

Atleast your car isn't sitting in the driveway with the front end body parts in the garage and a motor you wouldn't trust on your garage floor.

My 92 S goes into the shop tomorrow to get worked on while I am in Afghanistan, then I will be able to drive my baby when I get back.

 

I also think once you fix the problems everything should be fine, atleast thats how it should be. Unless you have the worst luck in the world and things just keep going out on you. My cars just sitting in the backyard waiting for my ac compressor and gas/temp gauge i ordered- once i get that, im going to fix the low idle *idles at about 3-400rpm but ive searched and im going to do everything ive read so far*, order a new sun roof since mine has rust on it, take it to body shop, have it painted, redo suspension on it, than order the jmags. Its just my daily driver so i want it to be more comfy than power, which is why im going all motor and not F.I. gl with your car though and hopefully one day it'll be running fine

 

Honda's are as reliable as the person taking care of them. Some douche-bag kid bought a Prelude , modified it himself with no clue as to what he was doing, sold it because he knew it was a pile.....thats where you came in. That's why when I finally bought a Prelude, after a owning a couple of Accords, I waited and watched carefully till I found one that I was 99% sure would be reliable and was taken care of.

 

true hondas are very tempermental -- everything has to be about perfect for them to run correctly but once you iron out the problems everything is fine. I would relook at the ecu wiring and make sure everything is ok there. I one of the best honda tuners in the nation show me how breaks in a honda ecu wiring can cause all kinds of grounding trouble. just recheck everything and make sure the connections are good with no stray wires hanging out. The best is to solder them then crimp them then file (yes file them down) make them as smooth as you can and then heat shrink over that... takes time and is a pain but do it right the first time and you do not have to redo it.....

 

i bought my 94 lude si for 3700. then one day the crank pulley came loose and grinded the crank key down. decided to get a jdm h22. 2800 there including installation, shipping, new water pump, etc. then i had to get the a/c recharged, new pads, and new calipers, that was about 350 total, and i work at a shop. next i found out my a/c condensation was not draining out the bottom of the car because the hose was clogged. i didn't realize this until my friends got water dumped on them when i turned, pulled up the carpet and found a good inch of water there. my ecu and all the wiring on the passenger side were dripping. at the same time, my rpms started dropping real low whenever i hit the clutch, and it would stall, hesitate, shake, etc. i wet-dry vacced everything and dried it out as much as i could, and the rpm/idle problem stopped pretty much. now, however, vtec only engages about half the time. i also have to get new front and back bumpers, and some other bodywork done. i've already put almost in the car as i paid for it. i feel your pain.

 

i have honestly heard nothing but trouble from people buying pretuned cars becasue usually the other owner is trying to get rid of them for a reason. Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the prelude and hopefully the mayhem stops soon!

 

ive had major problems to....u should sell it..i plan on selling mines too...since ive bought it i have spent 990 for first bent valves...1250 for second bent valves...850 for new clutch...went through 5 or 6 ignition setups (cap, rotor, plugs, etc)....dude its a load of stuff...ive fixed other things i cant even remember...but get rid of it as fast as u can..it's a nightmare..

 

you think your honda is unreliable? try owning a volkswagen...they have wiring and grounding problems friggin everywhere. my friend just replaced 3 window regulators in his jetta