Teach me the ways of the 1990 Honda Civic

I have a friend who is in the market for a new car. She blew up her last one (a 2001 Chrysler Sebring with the 2.7 V6 that I told her NOT to buy ) so I told her that this time I would check out whatever she was buying. I recommended an older 90's Civic/Corolla/etc. because they seem to be indestructible. I see them on my commute every day with all sorts of terrible mods to them, and they seem to keep powering through whatever their inept owners throw at them, so they have to be unstoppable in stock form.

She has found a 1990 Civic 4-door sedan that appears to be in nice shape that she can pick up cheap. It is owned by an elderly person that can no longer drive, and was offered to her. I've only seen one blurry pic of it, so no specifics yet, other than it's got hubcaps and is red.

What should I look out for? I'm assuming that it's an automatic. Any major issues I should be aware of?

Rust behind the rear wheels, but that's about all I can think of. An old girlfriend had the same model, and I think it was close to 300,000 miles before she finally retired it due to the auto transmission going out - the engine still ran well, the interior looked like new and other than the rust in the rear quarters the body still looked pretty good.

I bought a '90 Civic 22yrs ago.

As mentioned, check for rust around the wheel wells and also the fuel filler door.. Look in the trunk; make sure to move the carpet around and check the spare tire well. Check the entire under-side of the car. I'm presuming it's always been a northern car, so everything is suspect. Mine's always been a southern car and it doesn't have any of these issues, but I've seen many, many examples that do.

The engines are pretty robust but the valve seals are a known weak point; they tend to go bad around the 150k mark. When they go, you'll see the expected blue exhaust smoke and higher oil consumption. Timing belts should be replaced every 60K, or so. They can last longer but keep in mind they're turning an interference motor.

Low-traffic interiors hold-up well. Check the driver's seat bolster for excessive wear. It's a convenient leverage point when exiting the car. Fortunately, duct tape and color co-ordinated seat covers are everywhere.

There may have been a recall or TSB for ignitor problems. After this long, it's likely to have been addressed. There was also a recall to fix the front seat belts; see above.

Don't know anything about the automatic other than it will be slower than the manual version.

The cars are reliable and capable of great mileage. They're also a couple of decades old and are susceptible to the usual issues expected with any car of that vintage.

My wife had a '94 accord when I met her. It got oil changes once, maybe twice a year( w/ alot of miles driven daily), never left her stranded and took all kinda abuse in-between. The only issues we had w/ the car were window regulators, a leak we never found when it rained hard and constantly warped brakes.

I can only imagine that the civic would be as good. I say buy it.

I inherited my 1990 Civic Sedan with 95,000 miles on it. The only thing that it needed were new CV joints, which was easy to do because the entire shaft is replaced and there are tons of affordable aftermarket options out there. Get them at Rock Auto and if a shop takes more than 1 hour to do the job they are ripping you off.

Rust was an issue around the rear wheel wells, but it never crept up other places. Other than that, I beat it, I raced it, I rallycrossed it, I swapped in lots of go-fast parts, and I neglected it and it just kept running. The guy it eventually got sold to did the same for a few years, and probably still is. They won't die.

I'd personally go with a 91+, the generation after the square like one. Specifically a DX. There's nothing to go wrong with it all, we never averaged less than 42mpg completely stock on normal tires, and the aftermarket part support is massive.

A 4door version will be supa cheap as they are less popular with the racer crowd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_civic#Fifth_generation_.281991.E2.80.931995.29_-_EG.2C_EH.2C_EJ1.2C_EJ2

Hit or miss. I hate those "dual point" TBI motors. Wife's car did really well up to about 250k. I bought a 4-speed hatch with leaky valve seals. Kept up with the oil but it started running like E36 M3 one day and ventilated the block with around 200k miles. Reliability will largely depend on the PO, but hell yeah, I'd jump on a low-mile grandma driven one for $1k in a heartbeat and drive it till it dies. They are perfectly boring reliable sewing machines. Don't skimp on the tbelt and water pump. I've had really good luck with genuine hon-duh belts...as in 150k on the one in the integra. I should probably get on that.

I just got word that it has zero rust and is $1000. Seems like a no-brainer. I'm honestly a little jealous. I'd love to get rid of my car payment.

SilverFleet wrote: I just got word that it has zero rust and is $1000. Seems like a no-brainer. I'm honestly a little jealous. I'd love to get rid of my car payment.

If she doesn't want it, I'll buy it.

Sky_Render wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: I just got word that it has zero rust and is $1000. Seems like a no-brainer. I'm honestly a little jealous. I'd love to get rid of my car payment.

If she doesn't want it, I'll buy it.

LMAO if she doesn't want it, I'll buy it myself and ditch my car payment!

She does need a car, so I'm 99.9% she will buy it.