Hi, new to the forum. My parents gave me the family car not too long ago, a 2000 civic LX. It has 240,000 miles and I want to get another 100-150 out of it. I have a list of things that we've done to it, as well as a list of parts I'm about to buy.

I want to know if I'm doing what I should be doing, as well as any additional tips or things I should check while it's in the garage. I want to trust this thing to take me across the country.

We have kept up with oil changes and did the timing belt at around 100k. Other than that, we've only fixed the things that broke. Transmission has original fluid.😅

Recently new:
power steering rack & pinion as well as engine cradle with all motor mounts (Ohio car, cross member was rusted out)
Radiator
distributor cap & rotor
spark plugs
all control arms
Suspension is a few years old.

My list of new parts that I haven't yet ordered:

Head gasket with head studs(I plan to have the head machined flat)
valves & springs
Oil pan gasket
Timing belt & water pump kit
Valve cover gasket (mine seeps)
Fuel pump (should I replace the whole housing???)
fuel filter

Thanks a lot, I know I'm asking a lot of questions here but any advice is appreciated!!!

 

I also am about the same amount of miles on my car. I am doing the list besides the head and oil pan gasket. I would suggest looking of the sticky of quality parts because thats what I did. Found some good prices on amazon and well as rock auto. ordered my fluids from a website called autohauzAZ.com. Used them before when working on my 08 honda.

 

Manual or automatic transmission?
If it's an automatic do a 3 x 3 drain and fill. However, if it's original ATF with that many miles some feel it's best not to change it as it may cause sediments to get stuck in valve bodies and cause shifting issues or pressure differences. Here's a read: https://www.cars.com/articles/2013/0...mission-fluid/

The only routine/preventative maintenance items on your list is the fuel filter and timing belt kit.
Does it need a new headgasket or valve springs..any symptoms or compression loss?
Follow the service manual (free download) per mileage chart .

Inspect trunk wheel well for water and/or excessive rust. These cars tend to develop leaks in the trunk's drain channels, back glass seal, rear tail lights.

 

Thanks for the info and links. The transmission is automatic. I think I'm going to go ahead and change the fluid now because it doesn't really shift hard or slip at all. That tells me it is in at least okay shape, so hopefully there isn't too many sediments to loosen.

It does not show any signs of needing a head gasket or the head rebuilt. But with the amount of miles it has, I feel like they will fail soon and I just want to ensure that I can trust the car.

 

Keep track of those CV axles.

Since you live in the rust belt. Oil your car's underbody.

You can go crazy.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/mai...iy-waxoyl.html

Or just go regular.


Also look for a good used head and swap it.

 

3x3 ATF change: https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...dually-903027/
You may want to do the atf change gradually instead of three drain and fills in one day.

There's really no way to predict when a head gasket will develope a breach..it could happen tomorrow or could happen years from now. If there's currently no symptoms (main one is loss of coolant in radiator and gain of coolant in the reservoir) IMO it's best to leave it as is and approach it when/if symptoms arise.

Two things that may help is to:
1) Inspect coolant hoses every four months or so..especially the heater hose that is attached to the head directly under the distributor (remove the air intake hose to inspect). The distributor's o-ring is common source of an oil leak...leaking hot oil deteriorates radiator/heater hoses prematurely. You may even want to consider replacing all of the coolant/heater hoses if they have over 125k miles on them
2) Change coolant every 50k miles or four years and use eiether Honda type 2 (blue dye) or Pentosin's Pentofrost A3 (blue dye) coolant along with bleeding the coolant of air per service manual.

 

 

To add to this OP: either use Honda DW-1, Valvoline Maxlife (full synthetic), or Castrol Multi-Vehicle Import (MVI) in the correct weight, I used Lubegard Red (10 ounce) additive on one of my past 6th gen EX's and it seemed to smooth shifting a bit.. ran it it for 40k miles with the Lubegard additive without issue before I sold it.