Firstly, I had my V-AFC stolen from my car about 4 years ago. I had the car towed, because it wouldn't drive.. Replaced the V-AFC and everything seemed okay.
Then, I hydrolocked my '98 Prelude in Florida on spring break almost 2 years ago. At the Honda dealership in Florida, they replaced my engine with a junkyard H22A that had 100 less miles than my previous engine. Ever since that trip to Florida, my car has had acceleration lag in all gears, especially first gear and especially when the gas is low. My check engine light goes on and off sproadically.
Recently, I took my car to be tested for emissions. Little did I know that a check engine light will automatically fail emissions. So I took my car to the dealership where I bought it. They told me that the check engine light was for a faulty o2 sensor and a problem with the spoon valve causing a vtec leak. They offered me a $3300 repair bill that they claimed would "probably fix the problem" but not for sure. Of course, I politely told them to **** off and now comes the serious dilemma: If my car doesn't pass emissions by 12/31/2006, my license is suspended. Here are my options:
A) Fix the Prelude myself with a mechanic friend.
- This requires purchasing all the necessary parts individually which would take a little while, thus my license would be suspended and then re-instated once the car is fixed and re-tested. Of course I love my car and want to keep it, and being a broke college student I'm not looking forward to downgrading my car to something cheap and efficient (which the prelude already is!).
B) Trade in the Prelude and buy a new car.
- My mother has been very generous by offering to help me pay for a new car. She said she could afford $8,000 for a new car. That's just enough for me not to buy a beater. With a trade-in value of only $2-3,000, that leaves me roughly $10,500 for a new car. Keep in mind I am a college student and I don't have the time or money to be constantly working on and/or fixing my car.
C) Fix the Prelude, sell it privately, buy a new car.
- Other than this check engine problem, the car is in pretty decent condition. Spending about $4,000 repairing the body and all necessary engine components, I feel like I could sell the Prelude for at least $7,000. The engine has ~98,000 miles on it, but everything is still damn reliable. The engine lag is the only problem worth calling a problem. Everything else is in good condition. I've gotten all the check-ups and tune-ups that are suggested by Honda for 6 years now.
So here it is:
I've been looking at the new Civic SI's (sedan to make it practical) and they are pretty damn nice, but a little pricey. I've always loved the Mitsubishi Evo's and they are practical being a sedan and AWD, but not gas efficient. I would really appreciate to hear anyone's opinion. What do you guys think is a reasonable replacement car for the Prelude? Is it a better idea to try and re-sell it? Obviously you guys love Preludes so you're going to be a little bias, that's fine. I just need to hear some second opinions.
P.S. - I'm back in town in Chicago for another 2 weeks. I go to college in Champaign, IL. The trip is 2.5 hours from Champaign to Chicago or vice versa. That definitely impacts my decision.
Firstly, I had my V-AFC stolen from my car about 4 years ago. I had the car towed, because it wouldn't drive.. Replaced the V-AFC and everything seemed okay.
Then, I hydrolocked my '98 Prelude in Florida on spring break almost 2 years ago. At the Honda dealership in Florida, they replaced my engine with a junkyard H22A that had 100 less miles than my previous engine. Ever since that trip to Florida, my car has had acceleration lag in all gears, especially first gear and especially when the gas is low. My check engine light goes on and off sproadically.
Recently, I took my car to be tested for emissions. Little did I know that a check engine light will automatically fail emissions. So I took my car to the dealership where I bought it. They told me that the check engine light was for a faulty o2 sensor and a problem with the spoon valve causing a vtec leak. They offered me a $3300 repair bill that they claimed would "probably fix the problem" but not for sure. Of course, I politely told them to **** off and now comes the serious dilemma: If my car doesn't pass emissions by 12/31/2006, my license is suspended. Here are my options:
A) Fix the Prelude myself with a mechanic friend.
- This requires purchasing all the necessary parts individually which would take a little while, thus my license would be suspended and then re-instated once the car is fixed and re-tested. Of course I love my car and want to keep it, and being a broke college student I'm not looking forward to downgrading my car to something cheap and efficient (which the prelude already is!).
B) Trade in the Prelude and buy a new car.
- My mother has been very generous by offering to help me pay for a new car. She said she could afford $8,000 for a new car. That's just enough for me not to buy a beater. With a trade-in value of only $2-3,000, that leaves me roughly $10,500 for a new car. Keep in mind I am a college student and I don't have the time or money to be constantly working on and/or fixing my car.
C) Fix the Prelude, sell it privately, buy a new car.
- Other than this check engine problem, the car is in pretty decent condition. Spending about $4,000 repairing the body and all necessary engine components, I feel like I could sell the Prelude for at least $7,000. The engine has ~98,000 miles on it, but everything is still damn reliable. The engine lag is the only problem worth calling a problem. Everything else is in good condition. I've gotten all the check-ups and tune-ups that are suggested by Honda for 6 years now.
So here it is:
I've been looking at the new Civic SI's (sedan to make it practical) and they are pretty damn nice, but a little pricey. I've always loved the Mitsubishi Evo's and they are practical being a sedan and AWD, but not gas efficient. I would really appreciate to hear anyone's opinion. What do you guys think is a reasonable replacement car for the Prelude? Is it a better idea to try and re-sell it? Obviously you guys love Preludes so you're going to be a little bias, that's fine. I just need to hear some second opinions.
P.S. - I'm back in town in Chicago for another 2 weeks. I go to college in Champaign, IL. The trip is 2.5 hours from Champaign to Chicago or vice versa. That definitely impacts my decision.
honestly it would be cheaper to fix the lude, and if in good condition is a great car.... but if you want somthing new i would go with a tiburon or somthing i would NEVER drive civic...and this is comming fomr a HONDA lover....civic is the epitamy of ricers car. And i love the fact i drive a lude, its like driving a s2k ricers dont drive them
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Of course I love my car and want to keep it, and being a broke college student I'm not looking forward to downgrading my car to something cheap and efficient (which the prelude already is!).
Since you are a broke college student, I don't think you should buy a EVO.......
honestly it would be cheaper to fix the lude, and if in good condition is a great car.... but if you want somthing new i would go with a tiburon or somthing i would NEVER drive civic...and this is comming fomr a HONDA lover....civic is the epitamy of ricers car. And i love the fact i drive a lude, its like driving a s2k ricers dont drive them
Everyone's sooo quick to bash the civic. This may be a big suprise to most of you but the new civic is a very good car. It's no prelude, but it is definitely a nice car. My dad owned one briefly (10 months). He had an EX, it got great gas mileage, looked good, and has one of the best resale values of any car.
Toward the OP, if you HAVE to sell the prelude, and you have the funds to pick up a new SI without breaking the bank too much, I'd say go for it. The car's got some decent power and is fun to drive. It's not worth it for you to lose your license over a car that's having serious issues. You probably should've sold the thing a long time ago.
Is it possible to unregister the car and just not drive it til you get it fixed? That way it's not on the road, and doesn't have to be smog tested? If so, I'd consider that as well.
__________________
97 Prelude SH
98 Camaro Z28 *SOLD 4/30*
thanks for the responses guys. im on my phone right now so excuse my poor typing (yes my phone has the internet its awesome). i knew that most people would suggest fixing the lude and that was my first choice too, but at the same time, the car has some confusing problems.
let me just say, i could care less about being a ricer. i am part asian and i have never worried about that ****. the civic is a nice, practical, realiable car. an evo is more of my dream car. thanks again guys. keep it coming, i cant do much for the next couple of days anyways cause i have some apartment **** to take care of.
I'd fix the Prelude and get that EVO once you're out of college. If you feel that you need to get rid of it, maybe consider getting a base model Civic. It's not the Si by any means, but they're definitely cheaper, great on gas, and super reliable.
I bought a base Civic about two years ago and I don't know how I lived without it. Second day I had it, I t-boned a Saturn sedan that pulled out in front of me at 60mph...her car was totaled. I had the Civic back and in perfect condition a week later. Of course, I have my Prelude to drive, but it's nice having the Civic as a backup when things go wrong.
thanks for the responses guys. im on my phone right now so excuse my poor typing (yes my phone has the internet its awesome). i knew that most people would suggest fixing the lude and that was my first choice too, but at the same time, the car has some confusing problems.
let me just say, i could care less about being a ricer. i am part asian and i have never worried about that ****. the civic is a nice, practical, realiable car. an evo is more of my dream car. thanks again guys. keep it coming, i cant do much for the next couple of days anyways cause i have some apartment **** to take care of.
i dont see your point about being asian is ok to be a ricer...im part japanese, and i dont see how you could be ok with your car being rice. Being rice has nothing to do with ethnicity...The civic is nothing compared to a lude...and i dont care what some one says sure its a nice car......but how many riced out ludes do you see? in comparison to civics its ALMOST NONE
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I really don't see how buying a civic automatically makes you a ricer. To me, rice is about what you do TO a car and the attitude towards the car, not WHAT car you own.
Like Wsteun said, I also don't get why so many people hate the civic. Yes, there are people that rice out the car, yes, it has somewhat of a bad rep; but it's got honda reliability and gets great mileage. Heck, with the money you save in long term and short term costs you can get a subtle/tasteful kit to go with the car. I guess if you can afford to worry about being grouped in with ricers then you can worry about being grouped in with a sterotype.
In my opinion, I'd sell the prelude and get an inexpensive, reliable car, like the civic; base or SI, whichever fits your budget the best. If you're working on your education in college there are better things to have to worry about than getting a car fixed, and then hoping that it won't go wrong on you at a bad time.
Last edited by DudewithaLude; 12-25-2006 at 05:46 PM.
i wrote a ton of babble and now am editing it down to this
i know the car is giving you a lot of issues as far as the motor goes.. your license is gogin to get suspended unless you swap the o2 sensor and give it another try.. but that still won't fix the real problem which is the engine
find another h22a4 ($1100), do all the maintainance while the motor is out of the car ($300) for timing and ($$$) if you decide to do the clutch and fly while you at it, put everything back together and then have a reliable car for another 4-5 years
that's just one solution and i know it might cost more then you want to spend on the car
but this is all coming from a person with 5 ludes of his own that goes broke keeping them all in tip top shape
i wrote a ton of babble and now am editing it down to this
i know the car is giving you a lot of issues as far as the motor goes.. your license is gogin to get suspended unless you swap the o2 sensor and give it another try.. but that still won't fix the real problem which is the engine
find another h22a4 ($1100), do all the maintainance while the motor is out of the car ($300) for timing and ($$$) if you decide to do the clutch and fly while you at it, put everything back together and then have a reliable car for another 4-5 years
that's just one solution and i know it might cost more then you want to spend on the car
but this is all coming from a person with 5 ludes of his own that goes broke keeping them all in tip top shape
best wishes
john
Damn, you have 5 Preludes? What years do you have and why do you have so many?
At the Honda dealership in Florida, they replaced my engine with a junkyard H22A that had 100 less miles than my previous engine. Ever since that trip to Florida, my car has had acceleration lag in all gears, especially first gear and especially when the gas is low. My check engine light goes on and off sproadically.
Recently, I took my car to be tested for emissions. Little did I know that a check engine light will automatically fail emissions. So I took my car to the dealership where I bought it. They told me that the check engine light was for a faulty o2 sensor and a problem with the spoon valve causing a vtec leak. They offered me a $3300 repair bill that they claimed would "probably fix the problem" but not for sure. Of course, I politely told them to **** off and now comes the serious dilemma: If my car doesn't pass emissions by 12/31/2006, my license is suspended.
None of this makes any sense to me . . .
1) What is a spoon valve?
2) VTEC is "leaking"?
3) How in the world would your car not passing emissions be grounds for a suspension of your license?
But a bum o2 sensor could definitely be the cause for laggy acceleration. A replacement one shouldn't be more than $100 - or $60 for one that you wire up yourself (not hard), and about 20 minutes to install. From your description of the problems, I can't imagine why you'd get a $3300 repair estimate - even through a stealership.
So yeah . . . I guess more information on what exactly is wrong with your car would help. Without knowing any more, it doesn't sound like there's an issue anywhere near big enough to warrant selling it.
Fix that Lude. If you have had acceleration problems since the engine swap one of two things happened. 1. There is a mistake in the wiring somehow and that is also why you get a CEL. 2. The replacement engine is junk.
Learn how to pull the CEL codes yourself and try to diagnose any wiring or sensor problems yourself. It could be an O2 sensor problem. But I wouldn't replace mine unless I pulled the CEL codes and it pointed to the O2. Pulling the codes is easy. Get some wire with two small blade terminals on either end to make a jumper. Insert it into the blue two pin connector on the passenger side of the console. Then count the flashed by the CEL light. Then go to this Toronto Prelude Club article to find out what the code means. Take it from there.
If you want to check the shape of the motor internals take it to a shop and have them perform a compression test and leakdown test. Those should tell you if the motor internals are beat or not.
__________________ Paul
2009 Mazdaspeed3 | 1995 Miata | 1999 Crystal Blue Base - bought 6/13/02, sold 3/11/09
- don't let anyone else's opinions of you or the car you drive affect your decision to buy/drive a car. If so you might as well just hand your nuts over to them (doesn't sound like you have this issue but thought I would add it for the benefit of others)
- it sounds like you have already made the decision to buy another car. You would be stupid to not take up someone on the offer to help you financially here.
- no broke college student should have a phone with full internet capabilities unless you or family work for a cell phone provider. as such it sounds like you may not WANT to work on your car all the time but money isn't/shouldn't be as much of an issue.
- I personally think you would be foolish to not try and fix the car with a mechanic friend, but let's hope he's better than the dealer or at least their description of the problem. I think someone is full of crap here.
- a bad O2, as mentioned, can cause all your problems. I suspect the dealer may be trying to get a few extra bucks out of you.
Yea, I'm with the others on this, how could you not at least try a $60 o2 sensor before writing off the whole car as unrepairable? Worst come to worse, you're out an extra $60, but then again, if the o2 sensor REALLY doesn't help AT ALL, then take the nearly brand new one back out and sell it, and then you've basically lost nothing but a little bit of time. It's worth the effort to not lose $5,000 of value on the car.
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