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Didn't you just have the thermostat, hoses and water pump changed? If so, there is no need to replace them again assuming there is nothing defective with them and even if there is, it should be covered under the parts warranty. At least $150 or so of the estimate is tied up in those parts that you already replaced.
The timing belt only needs to be done if you haven't had it replaced in a while. It needs to be done I believe every 7 years or 105k miles on that year Civic. If it hasn't been done, it needs to be done. If you are at the point where it needs to be done in the next year or 15k miles, then I would go ahead and do it. If none of that applies that you can leave it, though there's not much savings there, maybe another $200 assuming he's not double dipping labor.
If the car has 200,000 miles it has reached it lifespan. You could install another engine but then the transmission will go out. The car will become a money pit and you will spend more money on the car than what it is worth. Get what you can for it and buy something else. Nothing last forever.
I never got the whole point of spend more than its worth. It's worth almost nothing, but it still gets the job done nearly as well as a brand-new $18,000 Civic. As long as you can keep it running for less than the $400/month payments on a new Civic, have at it. Of course, most of us would rather have a new car than a ten year old one money being the same.
Basically, it sounds like the mechanics don't exactly now what is wrong. On a car that age, that's not that unlikely. Everything is pretty worn. Overheating and loss of coolant is certainly a sign of a blown head gasket. But it might not be. Is the car smoking, what's the oil and coolant look like? So you got a second opinion to change an almost-new water pump, thermostat and hoses. They're just repeating the same steps the first mechanic did for the same reason. No particular idea what the problem is, start with the cheap stuff and work the way up to the more expensive. The timing belt probably needs to be done, but there's no sense changing a timing belt on a motor you're going to junk in a month because the head gasket wasn't THE problem. If the head gasket doesn't fix the problem. then what? You're back in to have the top half of the engine rebuilt. A leak down test would tell you a fair amount but won't necessarily be decisive.
As I see it, there's three options.
1) Replace stuff until it works (what they are currently doing). Could be cheaper, could just end up costing you $1000 or so before it becomes apparent that #2 needs to be done in which case you've pretty much just wasted most of the money as its more labor than parts.
2) Rebuild the entire engine or buy a rebuilt or used (cheapest) engine. Those 30,000 mile engines from Japan are not usually under 30,000 miles. You might get lucky, or you might put a worn out engine in the car.
3) Drive it until it falls apart and do #2 or buy a new car. Possibly will cause further damage that will be more expensive in the long run if you chose to rebuild the engine. But it's usually more cost effective to buy a rebuilt engine than have the shop due it anyway so I wouldn't really worry about that. I mean you've already put 5,000 miles on it. If it's the head gasket you've been basically driving around with oil that isn't lubricating as it should (coolant in oil - bad). How bad depends on how much coolant is in the oil. What'd the oil look like when you had it changed last?
Didn't you just have the thermostat, hoses and water pump changed? If so, there is no need to replace them again assuming there is nothing defective with them and even if there is, it should be covered under the parts warranty. At least $150 or so of the estimate is tied up in those parts that you already replaced.
The timing belt only needs to be done if you haven't had it replaced in a while. It needs to be done I believe every 7 years or 105k miles on that year Civic. If it hasn't been done, it needs to be done. If you are at the point where it needs to be done in the next year or 15k miles, then I would go ahead and do it. If none of that applies that you can leave it, though there's not much savings there, maybe another $200 assuming he's not double dipping labor.
After that, it all looks correct.
True enough, but if it was me, no way would I put a used timing belt back on that interference engine.
It should be possible to get some objective evidence that the head gasket is going, for example a simple chemical test of the coolant. If the shop has an emissions "sniffer", that could be used to identify exhaust gas in the coolant as well.
Also agree with Malloric - the "more than the car's worth" argument is for accountants. If you put a fresh head gasket and timing belt on the car, *assuming* that all else is in good shape, the head will be essentially as new with new valve guide seals (doubt it will need more than that) - the car should be good for several years and tens of thousands of miles of service. So you take the car as it is, worth, what, $200 for scrap metal, and $1000 cash, and end up with a good car to drive. IMHO a good deal for your money, and a better car than you would likely be able to buy for a simlar amount of money.
Again, assuming there is nothing bad wrong with the rest of the car.
Sometimes this works out well, sometimes not. In some cases you can get a JDM engine that won't even bolt up to your NA market transmission.
Depends on the model of the car, yadda, yadda.
This is a good route in some cases though. Just know what you are doing and what you are getting.
Yeah and would he not have to swap out the ECM to a JDM version since the DOHC versions used in the SI are quite a difffrent than the DX/LX SOHC engine and the DOHC SI version is a totally diffrent engine where pretty much only the displacment stay the same and he would have hope it passes NA emissons and pretty sure they your right and use diffrent transmissions due to increased power and the increased torque and the RPM in whichnthey make power at would be alot diffrent so they must have diffrent shift points and the SI tranny might be totally diffrent than the SOHC version.
all I know about engine swaps is my 91 F250 needed a rebuild and I went with another slight cammed and aftermarket GT-40 heads and intake manifold on a Re-man 5.0 with forged internals to beef it up a bit but now regret not going with the 5.8 (351 windsor) since it would of bolted right in and the 351 windsor has alot more down low torque where the 5.0 lacks
in fact in hindsight I would actually get better fuel economy out of the 5.8 over the 5.0 which likes to get up into the lower mid range power before it has any thing useable... the only thing that make it even decent to drive and have some feeling of a low end is having 4.11 gearing in the Rear andto reaplce the factory 3.55 with a very nice and aggresssive limited slip in the massive sterling 10.25 Rear diff but I run a 6" lift and 35" tires and over built the truck to take some decent abuse off-road and still get me home.
True enough, but if it was me, no way would I put a used timing belt back on that interference engine.
It should be possible to get some objective evidence that the head gasket is going, for example a simple chemical test of the coolant. If the shop has an emissions "sniffer", that could be used to identify exhaust gas in the coolant as well.
Also agree with Malloric - the "more than the car's worth" argument is for accountants. If you put a fresh head gasket and timing belt on the car, *assuming* that all else is in good shape, the head will be essentially as new with new valve guide seals (doubt it will need more than that) - the car should be good for several years and tens of thousands of miles of service. So you take the car as it is, worth, what, $200 for scrap metal, and $1000 cash, and end up with a good car to drive. IMHO a good deal for your money, and a better car than you would likely be able to buy for a simlar amount of money.
Again, assuming there is nothing bad wrong with the rest of the car.
I agree, my car is old but it is in a good condition. I'm the only owner of this car bought it in 2000.This car never give me any trouble untill now just regular maintenance (like brakes, radiator change etc). Reliable used cars is very expensice these days with over 90K miles cost least 6 to 7 thousand.
I have zero knowledge about the cars but i think its time for me to spend some money and make it little reliable for few years. Transmission is still orignial.Anyway mechanic has already surface the head and change the water pump. I will get my car on tuesday and i let you guys know how it runs..
darn it. Just got the car yesterday. Today drive to work in the morning and the car heat up again. When i reach the work, i openned the reservior box and saw coolant is still there. Before the headgasket job water/coolant boils out when the car heats up. I don't know what the hell wrong with this car. Is this could be a sensor issue? About 15 days ago engine light came out and i took it to autozone and they point to oxygen sensor. Next day engine light goes away.
I know there were multiple issues because machine shop says head was bend and mechanic showed me the broken water pump. One thing i notice is , my car runs very smooth.. its a like new car when i bought it in 2000. I'm fixing to call my mechanic in few minutes.
Just curious if anybody has any other ideas. Is this could be fan issues? Fans do turn on and works maybe it is not working properly.
darn it. Just got the car yesterday. Today drive to work in the morning and the car heat up again. When i reach the work, i openned the reservior box and saw coolant is still there. Before the headgasket job water/coolant boils out when the car heats up. I don't know what the hell wrong with this car. Is this could be a sensor issue? About 15 days ago engine light came out and i took it to autozone and they point to oxygen sensor. Next day engine light goes away.
I know there were multiple issues because machine shop says head was bend and mechanic showed me the broken water pump. One thing i notice is , my car runs very smooth.. its a like new car when i bought it in 2000. I'm fixing to call my mechanic in few minutes.
Just curious if anybody has any other ideas. Is this could be fan issues? Fans do turn on and works maybe it is not working properly.
Just stop by the mechanic, he change the radiator without charge and ask me to drive tomorrow and see if it heats up
If the car heats up only when you are stopped in traffic, it might be the fans, the wiring to them, or the switch that turns them on/off. The switch is the most likely culprit and the place I would look first. But if the fans run at all, probably that means the fans are not the problem.
Fan issues won't affect the car's operating temperature as long as you are moving above roughly 20-30 MPH.
Possible that the cooling system needs to be bled on this car and that was not done right.
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