My family has a 2001 Honda Civic, 4 speed automatic, with 208K miles. The car has been (and still is) used as a daily driver in my family ever since brand new. It needs a new timing belt, front wheel bearings, valve cover gasket, and a rear main seal. I am going to try AT-205 reseal for the rear main seal leak. I was quoted about $1200-$1400 to fix the other items. Is it worth putting that kind of money into this car or is it time to say goodbye?
Also FYI - the engine still runs perfectly smooth and does not burn any oil. The car is also hail damaged, but that does not affect how it drives.
If you were to add in the cost of repairing the rear main seal by replacing it PLUS adding in the cost of the repairs you listed I would say it would be better to sink your potential layout into another newer car. Your probably going to get next to nothing on trade in but that money is your concern whether you might keep the old car and fix it eventually if thats an option. If your not going to keep it then its decided...move on with the NEW prospect and start lookin' around!
Thanks for your response. I'm still going back on forth on what to do.... I'm hoping AT-205 will address the rear main seal leak since Scotty's videos suggest it works quite well. I do not want to actually replace the seal because that will add another $1000-ish to the cost 🙁
I would not put that money into that car. Also, the 01 Civic is known to have the transmission blow up every 100k miles or so so even if you do fix it the tranny will go out very soon I would use that money to get a newer car, better yet a newer Civic.
Good point. The car is on its 2nd transmission, which was put in for free by Honda when the car was 4 years old. That transmission now has 163K miles on it and it still shifts great, but I suppose it's just a matter of time before it goes out... Unless Honda wants to give me another transmission for free 😉
@ad99
I don't believe that is happening loL. 163k miles is already a lot on the transmission I don't think the car is worth more than 1500 bucks in the real world so that kind of repair cost seems unncessesary. You could either sell it like this or drive it till it just stops and never starts again. I personally would upgrade to a lets say 2011 or 2014 Civic.