Hi all, I've recently found a 1994 Prelude SI with 89,xxx miles on it for $4,000 dollars I went and test drove the vehicle and it ran well so I put a deposit down on the car to hold it until I went and got a cashiers check for the rest of the money for the car ($300 deposit). Before I went and made out the cashiers check, I took the car over to my local auto mechanic (whom I feel is trustworthy he's been my families mechanic for atleast 10 years) to have the car inspected.

I come to find after the inspection that the car needs all 4 Lower Control arms replaced on the vehicle + Timing Belt + Water Pump + Radiator & Hoses + Oil Pan + Spark Plugs, Cap & Rotor along with Spark Plug Wires.

My mechanic said all of this stuff would probably cost me another $2,000 to replace (after labor ect.)

I would have a buddy do all the installation for me, but I'm still really worried about the price of parts for all of this to get the car in good running condition again.

What do you guys think I should do?

I like the car otherwise, but I don't know if the car is worth $5,500+ in the end for me...

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Well offer him like 3 grand and tell him what your mechanic said. I paid 4500 for my 92 si with 112k miles. Its only worth 3500 in BB.
But
i didnt care, the motor was clean as a whistle. 1 owner, Just great condition over all, and all stock. Well maintained. I spent a little under 500 bucks after that just getting the car tuned up.

 

Is this from a private party or dealer? Get an estimate to get the car fixed and tell them to subtract that from the total price. If not then you flip two fingers and peace. I got my near mint 94 VTEC lude for 6,000. (And that was like 3 years ago) I would say to look elsewhere if they don't agree to drop the price.

 

How does your mechanic know that the car needs its timing belt, and water pump replaced ?? Did he take the Valve cover off and inspect for you ?? It sounds that he is trying to get some money off of you for some maintanance work. Ask the seller when the last time the timing + water pump were replaced.

You can do without a new radiator if it doesn't leak. If hoses are worn out, then yes replace, but that should cost you tops $45.00 for upper and lower radiator hose. Spark plugs, cap, and rotor are all tune up replacements ... I replace those right after i buy another car, so that shouldn't count as "Extra" money spent, its just maintanance. Overall, good price, good mileage, I think you should go ahead and purchase it, don't worry about what your mechanic told you, You shouldn't trust mechanincs anyway. Thats what I think.

 

That's why I came here to ask. I'm honestly just not sure, and when it does come to things under the hood I'm quite ignorant to the subject. The car is completely stock.

I'm able to do my own spark plugs & wires (I gapped 'em and installed them in my old Civic with no problem).

EDIT: They may have came to that conclusion because of a slight ticking you could hear while the car was running.

Also the seller is a Private Party seller. He was asking $4,500 initially but talked him down to $4,000 (however that was before the inspection).


Modified by P!cKl3$ at 2:31 PM 10/5/2007

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by street_ride14 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
How does your mechanic know that the car needs its timing belt, and water pump replaced ?? Did he take the Valve cover off and inspect for you ?? It sounds that he is trying to get some money off of you for some maintanance work. Ask the seller when the last time the timing + water pump were replaced.


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It's common knowledge, any shmendrick knows to do the timing belt every 80-90K. I pushed it and learned the hard way. If it hasn't been replaced yet, then it definitely needs to be done asap.

 

yeah 89k is just about time to do the 90k service lol.

the ticking you're talking about is PROBABLY your valves asking for an adjustment.

oil pan?
radiator? &lt;-- this looks hella weird at 90k.. it shouldn't need a new radiator unless if its leaking or cracked or something else wrong with it..
4LCA's? are they broken or something?

90k service is normally around 800 bucks IIRC

we havent personally seen the car so we can't judge exactly whats needed, but shop around and ask your local mechanics. If this mechanic's been making bread off your family for the past 10 years, why would he stop now right? not saying that's the case but it's definately possible.

I had some *** hat mechanic install my master/slave cylinders for 150$, noticed my P/S were tied off and offered me a refurbished P/S pump for the low low price of 433$.

 

an oil pan...

 

I don't know what the symptoms would be of 4 LCA's acting up, but I'm assuming they would give a pretty rough ride...

They car ran fine, and I'm happy to do the 90k tune up... that just come's with the territory of a used car.

All my mechanic said was the ball joints for the lower control arm were loose. Saying this would require the entire lower control arms to be replaced. however, I don't think he's trying to make money off the situation as he suggested to me not to buy the car for 4k. I wanted a second opinion on here due to the fact that I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna find another Honda/Acura that I'm looking for for under $4,000 (I have quite the limited budget) and under 100k miles.

I appreciate the responses so far. Thank you all whom have helped.

 

if u want quality at 4k... get handy with a wrench and build your own honda. most cost effective way to get quality because you know what went in. the trade-off there is the time you spend of course.

 

You need to find a new mechanic. He's definitely ripping you off on the control arms and overall prices. The dealer would charge $2000 to do all this. The balljoints can be replaced separately from the control arms. Unless these have already been done, at 90k you will need to do these. Most definitely only use OEM parts:

Timing belt (and balancer, alternator/ac belts) and Water pump
Valve adjustment (should be done every 30k miles)
Spark plugs and wires (only use NGK plugs and wires)
Distributor cap and rotor should be done every
Fuel filter
Brake fluid (should be changed every 2 years)
Coolant (should be changed every 4 years)
Oil change
Transmission fluid

I don't know if the radiator is bad or not. Get a second opinion. Wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the radiator hoses though, since the car is 13 years old.

Take the parts to your mechanic. You can get Honda parts at 30% off retail at Majestic Honda http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com . Shipping is very reasonable. They should be able to tell you the quantities you need, otherwise just check back in here.

 

vinuneuro, and everyone else thank you for your input.

I will definately check out that site. Like I said before I have a buddy who is a certified Jaguar Mechanic (Whom worked on my previous honda with no difficulty) that would do the work for me for little or no cost (probably a case of beer and a $20 spot).

I was more looking at the price of what the parts would cost to see if this was a good idea to purchase or not. Thanks all once again.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vinuneuro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Spark plugs and wires (only use NGK plugs and wires)

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Why NGK? Oem should be fine, at least for the wires no?

 

Oem is NGK, you could also use Denso.

 

Get a second opinion, and then decide. Better safe than sorry. If shes in alright shape the price seems reasonable. Goodluck with it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BlackCatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Get a second opinion, and then decide. Better safe than sorry. If shes in alright shape the price seems reasonable. Goodluck with it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

x2

 

The last question for you guys on this, is if all 4 LCA ball joints are loose, what is the urgency of repair on something like that? Also, what is the likely hood of all of 'em being bad at the same time? I just want to get my ducks in a row on this car if it is as the mechanic says.

Once again thank you all for the quick and supportive resposes.