Repair or punt - what would you do?

[eltax91]

Good to see you've made a decision, but one question, if it isn't that noticeable and only at high revs, is it likely to seriously get worse and quickly? If you kept it, didn't fix it and then declared it as a fault next year, would that be such a bad thing?

[TheJimi]

battered said:

TheJimi said:

If I repair it, I'll have spent c£5.4k on a what is realistically a 4k car, that I bought two months ago.

I'd be VERY lucky to get £4k back on it, if I kept it a year. Meaning, I'd be looking at a minimum of a 1,400 quid loss.

If I punt it now, for say, £3.6k, I'll restrict my losses to a £1k, which I can swallow.

So losing £1k for 2 months' motoring is OK, but £1400 for a year isn't? How does that work?

That's a *minimum* of 1400. In all probability, it'll be more than that.

I can't be talking total bks; 21% of you agree with me!

[battered]

Make it 2400, the point stands. Still, your choice. Your money.

[Toaster Pilot]

It CAPs clean at less than three grand so it's worth even less than that to the trade with gearbox issues and I can't see a private buyer touching it at all - you'll take a proper bath if you sell it faulty.

[rich85uk]

Without sounding daft have you changed the gearbox oil? many FN2 owners on the forums have said this drastically improves any resistance/3rd gear crunch they had before

Clutch/gearbox will need doing at somepoint anyway with the EP3/FN2 but £20 on oil and a few hours of your time is worth a go surely?

[vrooom]

£780 is nothing. go and fix it.

[Momentofmadness]

vrooom said:

£780 is nothing. go and fix it.

This - st happens, get it fixed and chalk it up to experience.

[Levin]

I voted 'Repair'. From your post it seems like you have a good enough example of an EP3 Civic in one of the best colours. They do seem to wreck synchros - I've seen plenty of posts on Facebook from people looking for gearboxes, etc. Not many of them can say they have a car with a near full history, whereas you can.

By the time you go to sell it next year, I suspect there will be fewer EP3 Civics on the road. Honda aren't making more of them, there are bound to be a few crashed or written off, and some will be broken for parts. The £4000 figure you're expecting when you go to sell it on could well increase, reducing the amount you put into the car. As someone else pointed out, why get rinsed for £1000 in two months when you could lose £1400 over 12 - assuming you only get £4000 for a well-kept car?

[Pulse]

No question for me - spend the money. If the car was worth £500, and it wasn't a good car, then you wouldn't bother.

I just sold my MR2, which was only worth £4,500, but I spent c.£600 a few days before I sold it. I don't see why you'd worry, since there's no doubt I got a better price for my car by having it in good order.

[TheJimi]

(sigh)

Right, sod it, I'll get it fixed.

But if this thing throws more borkage at me after I've fixed the gearbox, I'm gonna hunt you lot down

[Toyoda]

Good man! You know it's the right thing to do.

Disclaimer: If car fails after this expense, I told you that punt was the way to go.

[soad]

Repair the fker, then thrash it to death!

[caelite]

TheJimi said:

(sigh)

Right, sod it, I'll get it fixed.

But if this thing throws more borkage at me after I've fixed the gearbox, I'm gonna hunt you lot down

Haha mate trust me I know the feeling. Ive just had the exact same thing THREE TIMES this year.
-Bought a MG ZS V6, Lost power and broke down half way home & had to tow it, spent £150 replacing inlet mani after misdiagnosis, it broke again & we figured out the issue that the top of the fuel tank & filler neck had no rust protection and had all rusted through (Thanks Rover!). Needed new Tank,Neck,Lines,Filters and Injectors totaling the best part of £1500 on a £900 car. The fault had deliberately been covered up by a dodgy dealer (fuel cycled & filler neck hole had been covered with black tarp so you couldnt see it on the inside of the neck). Tried to enforce SOGA/whatever it is now they told me I would have to take them to magistrates court and to 'fk off'. Decided it wasnt worth it for a £900 and sold it for £500 as spares.

-Then replaced that with a Subaru Forester XT 'project', £2300 for the car & £600 for a low mileage WRX suspension & steering rack. As soon as I fitted 2 weeks after purchase that the clutch started slipping (auto adjusting unit so you cant feel its going until its gone), replaced the clutch (£350) and immediately after the pull fork (£28) shears off, replaced that (gearbox out job no.2) and it chucks a CV joint (£150), replace that and it starts experiencing gearbox syncro issues. Sold the WRX bits to a mate for £450 (and he helped me with the clutch). Absolutely hated driving the thing and hated working on it, put me off subaru for life, especially after I had part-owned with my cousin a 2000 Turbo which had the exact same chocolate drivetrain issues. Traded the car for a Mitsubishi Shogun SWB, which is nice & working with a few niggles but really not the kind of vehicle im looking for. Shogun is currently for sale for £2200.

Bought a low mileage 207 GTI for £2300 2 weeks ago. (Got a FANTASTIC deal on it since the exterior paint was a bit worse for wear & im currently restoring it now it looks great). However the day after I bought it it throws an Check engine light, fault code looked like fked turbo and I shat myself. Turned out to be a buggered BOV (£150) and Boost control solenoid (£60). Hoping nothing else goes wrong since I now have literally £20 to my name until the shogun sells.

Lifes a bh. They all looked immaculate and drove fine during test drive too. Hell the pug fault can happen at any time with no warning, I just have some sort of gypo curse.

[white_goodman]

I can't really see your logic. You wanted a CTR and this is a really late EP3 and exactly the spec that you wanted but you're prepared to take a 1k hit without ever really having had the opportunity to enjoy it? If it has done that mileage and been driven quite hard (who wouldn't drive one of these hard), that's not unreasonable wear and tear. Any recompense with the seller or was it a private sale? Anyway, get it fixed, enjoy it and move it on in a year if you wish and sell it safe in the knowledge that there are no major issues with it.

Caelite, that 207 sounded like a pretty decent buy. However, don't expect to buy an above average performance car for peanuts and not have any issues. If you want something "normal", then sure, you should be able to get something fairly decent for 1k-2k.

I know that you hate Subarus but I had a 2004 Impreza WRX as a daily for 2.5 years. Took it from 60k to 80k including a trip to the Nurburgring and it never missed a beat. No drivetrain issues whatsoever. Sure, parts aren't cheap and it needed some expensive wear and tear items for the MOT but other than that fantastic. By far the best car that I have owned. Sold it to a colleague when I emigrated for a smidge under 3k and as far as I know, he is still running it 3 years later with no major issues. If you had bought my car, then you may have felt different about Subarus but a cheap Forester turbo with north of 100k is going to be trouble. You may have found that an NA Forester in that price range would have been driven a bit more sympathetically and had less issues?

Not knocking your choice of vehicles or budget but cheap "performance" cars are usually cheap for a reason. I've been there myself though. Mention VW Corrado or mk4 Golf or Jeep Grand Cherokee and I still get a bit twitchy!

[Escy]

A gearbox is £200 and a clutch kit is less than £100. Surely a Mr Clutch place would do it for a couple hundred, it's a few hours worth of work.

[QuickQuack]

Good luck with what I think is definitely the right choice you'll enjoy the car much more knowing it's properly sorted. You never know, when it's properly sorted, you might enjoy it so much that you might end up keeping it for a lot longer than a year. Every extra year you keep it, the average annual loss will be lowered

[SidewaysSi]

Old cars cost money. Just pay and do it - don't sell it without telling a prospective buyer.

I am about to drop £5k into a £2k BMW but I keep my cars - don't see the point in chopping and changing too often.

[TheJimi]

SidewaysSi said:

Old cars cost money. Just pay and do it - don't sell it without telling a prospective buyer.

I am about to drop £5k into a £2k BMW but I keep my cars - don't see the point in chopping and changing too often.

I've already said numerous times on this thread that I wouldn't do that; not my style

[EP3vMk3RS]

I'd fix it! But I may be biased 😂
This really is a perfect opportunity to get a LSD installed. Now I know that they are big money but it will make it feel like a totally different car. You won't believe the grip. By the sounds of it, if you invest in this, then the car will keep going and keep giving for years and years yet. Remember that old Hondas don't die, they just get faster!
If things start to get a little bit too expensive, then just ask yourself this...
"Do I really NEED both of my kidneys?"

[caelite]

white_goodman said:

I can't really see your logic. You wanted a CTR and this is a really late EP3 and exactly the spec that you wanted but you're prepared to take a 1k hit without ever really having had the opportunity to enjoy it? If it has done that mileage and been driven quite hard (who wouldn't drive one of these hard), that's not unreasonable wear and tear. Any recompense with the seller or was it a private sale? Anyway, get it fixed, enjoy it and move it on in a year if you wish and sell it safe in the knowledge that there are no major issues with it.

Caelite, that 207 sounded like a pretty decent buy. However, don't expect to buy an above average performance car for peanuts and not have any issues. If you want something "normal", then sure, you should be able to get something fairly decent for 1k-2k.

I know that you hate Subarus but I had a 2004 Impreza WRX as a daily for 2.5 years. Took it from 60k to 80k including a trip to the Nurburgring and it never missed a beat. No drivetrain issues whatsoever. Sure, parts aren't cheap and it needed some expensive wear and tear items for the MOT but other than that fantastic. By far the best car that I have owned. Sold it to a colleague when I emigrated for a smidge under 3k and as far as I know, he is still running it 3 years later with no major issues. If you had bought my car, then you may have felt different about Subarus but a cheap Forester turbo with north of 100k is going to be trouble. You may have found that an NA Forester in that price range would have been driven a bit more sympathetically and had less issues?

Not knocking your choice of vehicles or budget but cheap "performance" cars are usually cheap for a reason. I've been there myself though. Mention VW Corrado or mk4 Golf or Jeep Grand Cherokee and I still get a bit twitchy!

Haha dont get me wrong with the pug im still chuffed to bits with it, they tend to sell for £2-3k with 60-90k miles, mine is on 50k miles but some scrote has attacked the passenger side with a key & the bonnet is rather faded, both issues ive pretty much sorted now. I just had to laugh when I discovered 24 hours after purchase that it gets an issue that can literally happen at any time without warning (and cant really be covered up as it pops an eml 60seconds after startup).

The scoobys.... yeah a lot of people say that, I disagree . I just hate everything about them and it would take a lot to sway me otherwise. They are really a marmite car, everyone I know has had issues with them but some people love them regardless. As I said that last one will be my last.... unless I get drunk and bid on a gt86 on ebay once the prices come down (thats how I ended up with a mitsubishi fto I couldnt afford to insure )

And yeah cheap performance cars, ask any renault sport drivers how often a bit of cheese components melts in there cars (pug is the same ), its the price we all pay for something a bit fun.