Car is a one owner, well now 2 owner car. Original owner got it new back in 97 I guess even though the DMV Reg says first sold 00/00/1996 and for the first 15 years or so she had Honda do all the work to it. The last 5 years she has had local shops do little work here and there on it, either way the car now has 336K miles on the clock and counting. Car belonged to my mom's best from from childhood, I kid you not it has been adult owned and never abused other than over a quarter of a million miles being put on it. I was summoned to drive it to the dealership where she was going to trade it in for a 2016 Honda Fit. Before arriving I knew there was some sort of brake problem and possible engine damage from lack of oil. I looked around, all looked good except for the oil leaking from the distributor area and engine sounded great even though it was supposedly out of oil for a period of time. So I drove it to the dealer and let them do their business and helped her work a deal out for the new car and then they offered her $300 followed with $400 max for a trade in. At time she asked if we could have a moment while we discussed things over and at that point I pulled the trigger on it at $400! I told her it needed at least $400 to $600 to get it back up and running in good order as it needed brakes badly! Damn things on the driver side were metal to metal and then some on the inner pad. The pass side was within a few hundred miles of being the same. I knew it needed axles or ball joints since the steering wheel vibrated at 60 MPH+ on the freeway and the o-ring or new distributor at worst.

So far I have replaced the brake pads, o-ring on the distributor, threw in some old 6X9's I had laying around in my closet and tail light bulbs oh yeah the transmission fluid too! I know I need to do the axles as the cv boots are torn, the ball joints upper and lower are shot too and I am certain the tie rods are garbage too. I spent an extra $200 or so between smog, dmv transfer/fees and those parts. I was told the radio did not work, well it works but not the tape player and it will pop and make noises too, so you have to play with it a little in order to get it to work. I know the timing belt and water pump was done 5 or so years ago around the 280K mark, so that could be something else I look into doing myself as well.

The body is pretty straight minus a nice dent on the passenger door and little door dings from being in the City and commuting around the Bay Area for 20 years. The headliner is peeling near the visors and will probably just be spray glued back on and the door handle area to open and close the door is busted but usable still so yeah.

Thanks for looking and or reading my ramblings, hope to see you guys around.

 

Why did all my pictures end up being upside down? In the manage attachments area they came out fine, or is it just me?

 

Not sure, but when I right clicked and "view image" it was right side up.

That's definitely stock and unmolested! I have a 96 and recognize a lot of that, including the stock spare tire cover! two of the foam blocks have fallen off, but hey who expects glue to last 20 years? lol. And yup it's the distributor leaking, typical. From personal experience with mine, you'll need to check inside the distributor housing to see if the main bearing has the "red dust of death" and/or it's leaking oil internally. If not it's just a $2 o-ring to replace. oh and also have to add, those wheel covers are definitely the stock dx wheel covers! wow..

Are the brake lines in place? Or rusted? I know on mine I had to drop the subframe to get the brake lines in. Honda put those onto the body of the car BEFORE the subframe.. oh thank Honda!

but.. for $400, you have a extremely CLEAN slate to start fixing it back up! good for you and your find!

 

I already fixed the o-ring, I did not look inside the distributor though. I pulled the plug wires and plugs today and they look fine, no oil seeping or burning.

I have seen other DX's around, but none of them have those covers. I really want some 04 EX/SE wheels or some HX wheels for it.

The brake lines are all good, this car has spent 99% of it's life in CA. It has been to AZ and that's about it for out of state travel, so no rust anywhere.

Yup, I hear you and thanks!