completely stock 5 speed with 170k mi. runs awesome, but the engine light is on. very smooth running & drives very straight. brother in law took very good care of it with religious oil changes. getting a very good deal on it, but just have a few q's:

*what are the common problems to check 1st for the engine light being on?
*i carfaxed it & it comes up as an hx model. is this the lowest model for this year civics?
*what arte the differences between hx & dx?

 

Things to look for...

Obvious accidents. So look over the car from top to bottom. Look for good flowing paint for signs of paint jobs. Check the engine/tranny are good. No gear grinds etc. Compression? How many owners, clean title, conflicts in mileage. Also the price is a big factor.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RhombeusGSR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">completely stock 5 speed with 170k mi. runs awesome, but the engine light is on. very smooth running & drives very straight. brother in law took very good care of it with religious oil changes. getting a very good deal on it, but just have a few q's:

*what are the common problems to check 1st for the engine light being on?
*i carfaxed it & it comes up as an hx model. is this the lowest model for this year civics?
*what arte the differences between hx & dx?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The car can tell you what the check engine light is on for. There could be a billion gazillion things. Take it to autozone and have them flash the codes for you (its free). This works as long as it's a 96+ car. HXes are all 96+

The DX has a D16Y7 non VTEC. The HX has the economy VTEC. I'm not TOO familiar with this engine, so i'll leave it to the D series cronies . I believe the HX also has power windows/locks/mirrors where as the DX does not.

The HX gets better gas mileage than the DX.

The HX is higher in the food chain than the DX since it comes with more options. The DX is generally considered "base".

 

The HX is a great commuter car. It has the VTEC-E motor, which (to say the very least) utilizes the valves/cam in a different way to get a lot better gas mileage. You should be getting mileage somewhere between 40-50mpg. I don't feel like typing anymore, so I'm done. Take it to Autozone and go from there.

 

find out what the CEL is...

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/1901557

 

he's gonna give it to me for $2k. check engine light is on & has a few other issues: i deal with the check light & smog, windows coming off track when u roll em up/down, dings on the driver's fender & rear quarter panel...

so i guess the hx has the better engine than the dx-economy v-tec

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RhombeusGSR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">he's gonna give it to me for $2k. check engine light is on & has a few other issues: i deal with the check light & smog, windows coming off track when u roll em up/down, dings on the driver's fender & rear quarter panel...

so i guess the hx has the better engine than the dx-economy v-tec

</TD></TR></TABLE>

The HX is the one with the economy vtec. It has a little more HP than the DX, but it's best attribute is it's fuel economy. Mine makes a great daily driver.

 

For more trim differences explained, click the link in my sig.

 

Definately worth it for 2k. Those problems are easily fixable. First, take it to autozone as suggested. Then, remove the door panels and put the windows back on track. I've had to do it many times on my 2000 civic. There's a DIY on this topic posted on here somewhere. Will only take like 30 minutes.

 

do u have the link to the topic about the windows coming off track?

 

It's really best that you learn to search the forum yourself rather than always have to ask others for links and such. For example, you could have been looking at that thread hours ago had you looked for it yourself (which perhaps you did by now).

Search for "diy window" and narrow your search to only look in the '92-'00 Civic tech section.