Hello, I'm a long time honda owner, I am looking to purchase a 2001 Civic LX. I'm only using it to save on gas so I'm not worried about performance, only reliablity. I'm going to look at the car tonight, is there an common problems I should look for? It has 137,000 miles, its a 5 sp, with AC, and power windows and locks. Any help would be great!
thanks in advance

 

See if the tranny has had any work on it. Like input shaft bearings, throwout bearings, or other bearings being replaced. That seems to be a common theme in this model, Tranny issuses

 

ehhhhhh if you want reliability, buy a 6th gen or a 5th gen... these things seem to get up in the milage and break transmissions or blow headgaskets.... especially the 01s, they're also notorious for blowing struts, bad strut bearings, and some other seemingly MY 01 problems... curse of first year production i suppose. If you're hell bent on a 7th gen, then 04/05 is the way to go.

 

yepp.. my auto tran jus blew i just threw in a manual and my front struts are gone go now im gonna go ahead and throw some d specs in there... jesus were does my money go...

 

I went to look/drive the car tonight. The only reason I'm considering buying it is b/c of the price, $4250. There are some things wrong with it that are easily fixed.

They told me the rear struts needed replaced. After driving the car I can see why they would think that. There is a loud humming coming from the rear. Apon investigating both rear tires have broken belts in them. The tread is wavey. I'm thinking they thought the struts were bad when it just needs new tires.

The front end also needs aligned, the steering wheel is cocked to the right, and it pulls that way too.

The factory stereo appears to be slid into a aftermarket mounting kit, I guess they had another stereo in there and didn't feel like taking the dash apart.

So basically, it needs 3 new tires (the one front one is bald), I have some 17" rims with good tires I can throw on there, I needs a aftermarket stereo put in so no one can steal the factory one out of it (it just slides right out) and a front end alignment, and I have one of those 3 year free alignment deals with NTB with 1 transfer, so I can just transfer it to this car. Blue book on it is 5500, I think its a pretty good deal.

What does everyone else think?

 

Lookout for the INFAMOUS tranny noises (Input shaft bearings and throwout bearings). Also the popping noises from the front of the car by going up ramps and over bumps and what not. Trust me, do those "rough" roads test and it'll be very beneficial for you in the long run. Also CARFAX if it's that cheap, got my 01 EM2 for 5000 and I thought it was good until I found out the title wasn't "clean"

 

The tranny sounded good. What is the popping noise in the front end from?

 

sounds good, any car with that many miles on it will need struts and all that stuff, but since your getting a 5 spd , you wont have any transmission problems which end up costing a lot of money to replace..

its sound good to me

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94sol &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The tranny sounded good. What is the popping noise in the front end from?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The steering bearings gone bad will pop and clunk.

 

doesn't sound that bad. I have a 01 and my tranny is strong and I put 40k on it in about 1.5 years. Altough I think the stuts could get replaced here soon. Just becareful of the alternator bolts. For some stupid reason they use those as grounds and if the bolt breaks or slides out it will fry your ECU. I had it happen to me once

 

My ECU fried too . I have an 01, I have had my share of problems, but nothing serious, besides the ECU thing, yet...