Welp, I bought a stupid cheap car off Facebook

[RamIt]

For a variety of reasons, I needed to acquire a dumb cheap A-to-B car. My budget was $4500 max. I lucked out and came across a guy selling a fairly mint 1998 Civic EX automatic coupe....for $2500.

Perks of working for a dealership, I booked the car out and pulled carfax.

4 owners. Cali and Arizona. Religiously maintained every 3-5k miles. No major mechanical. Straight body. Clean title.

Car needs some work, radiator fan switch is bad (or car is missing a thermostat, not sure yet), needs tires, passenger window looks like a bear attacked it, and the tint needs replacing. But interior is incredibly clean, car drives straight, AC is ice cold, transmission shifts great, motor sounds excellent...all for 192,000 miles. Walked away at $2150. 5 year plates are $25. Tires are $150 new. Fan switch is $13. And it gets 40mpg.

Wife has wanted us to have a car we could wrench on together for years..couldn’t have picked a better option. I’ll randomly post about this piece on the OT forum as I plan to overhaul this car on a small budget and make it into a practical, good condition daily.

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[DDP]

We also have a car just like that it definitely does not look as good as yours though. It is a 2001 Toyota Camry that everything is just about wore out on but it just will not die. Clearcoat is that ugly faded red/maroon color, leaks a little bit of oil transmission fluid hasn’t been changed in years shocks and struts are all shot but it still keeps going. We also let it sit for months and sometimes a year at a time until we need it and then it always starts right back up.

Your car should be the same exact way from what I’ve seen. My next one if I ever get another beater car is going to be a Honda.

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[RamIt]

We also have a car just like that it definitely does not look as good as yours though. It is a 2001 Toyota Camry that everything is just about wore out on but it just will not die. Clearcoat is that ugly faded red/maroon color, leaks a little bit of oil transmission fluid hasn’t been changed in years shocks and struts are all shot but it still keeps going. We also let it sit for months and sometimes a year at a time until we need it and then it always starts right back up.

Your car should be the same exact way from what I’ve seen. My next one if I ever get another beater car is going to be a Honda.

Toyota’s and Honda’s will literally run forever. This thing has no leaks, but the suspension is definitely shot. The radiator cap I think is bad. And the brakes need some attention. But other than that, its in surprisingly great shape for its age.

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[650ram2500]

My daily is a gold 2000 Civic with 240k and runs awesome....I love that mf'r.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

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[RamIt]

I'm actually excited to work on this thing. Found out last night that the fan switch is bad so gonna grab one of those and a new radiator cap tonight and see how that goes. Then on my next day off probably do a total flush of the cooling system and drop a new thermostat in it just for good measure.

Grand total on parts will be like $26 LOL gotta love old cars with cheap parts!

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[Electrojake]

Dang nice Civic you picked up @RamIt,
I’ll bet you will be driving it a LOT more than you ever thought you would!

A month or so after buying my new Longhorn (and quickly realizing it was not the daily driver I hoped it would be), I reluctantly bought a little rice burner (RAV4). Thought I’d hate it, but turns out I love it!
It does everything better than my Ram... other than haul my 3800 pound slide-in camper.

Please keep us posted on your Civic rehab project. I put a new dash & instrument cluster in that same year Civic a few years ago!
I think I have a print shop manual for that year if you need it. Let me know if your interested and I’ll see if I can find it.

Regards,
-Jake-

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[RamIt]

Dang nice Civic you picked up @RamIt,
I’ll bet you will be driving it a LOT more than you ever thought you would!

A month or so after buying my new Longhorn (and quickly realizing it was not the daily driver I hoped it would be), I reluctantly bought a little rice burner (RAV4). Thought I’d hate it, but turns out I love it!
It does everything better than my Ram... other than haul my 3800 pound slide-in camper.

Please keep us posted on your Civic rehab project. I put a new dash & instrument cluster in that same year Civic a few years ago!
I think I have a print shop manual for that year if you need it. Let me know if your interested and I’ll see if I can find it.

Regards,
-Jake-

I'll honestly likely use it for driving to work, I live 8min from my work and while the truck does great on fuel, this car will do so much better. Plus it'll give me a chance to park my truck for a bit and square away some suspension issues.

I don't mind driving old cars, it's what I grew up on! I'll definitely keep this thread updated as I work on some things. Tonight I'm doing the fan switch and a new radiator cap to see if that solves a coolant overflow issue I'm having. Next will be updating the gauge cluster with some LEDs as most of the cluster lights are burned out. Then I desperately need to get some tires on it which I'll try to do this week.

If you don't mind sending off that manual though, that would be super helpful! I'm a total noob to Honda's (I'm a Nissan guy) so I've got a decent learning curve on this car.

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[Electrojake]

Greetings @RamIt,
I have the "shop" manual and the "electrical systems" manual.
* Note that I do NOT have the body shop dimensions supplement, but you can certainly get that info off the internet.

Your Civic is a 6th generation, 1996 to 2000 so my 1997 books should be close enough.
PM me where you want these manuals sent and I will package them up and get them out to you.
Minor issue. . . I am currently tied up in lovely COVID infested Manhattan on business for a few days (no, I'm not protesting), but soon as I get back to my dear home in 'Cesspool' New Jersey I'll get them packed up and sent out to you.
Regards,
-Jake-

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[RamIt]

Greetings @RamIt,
I have the "shop" manual and the "electrical systems" manual.
* Note that I do NOT have the body shop dimensions supplement, but you can certainly get that info off the internet.

Your Civic is a 6th generation, 1996 to 2000 so my 1997 books should be close enough.
PM me where you want these manuals sent and I will package them up and get them out to you.
Minor issue. . . I am currently tied up in lovely COVID infested Manhattan on business for a few days (no, I'm not protesting), but soon as I get back to my dear home in 'Cesspool' New Jersey I'll get them packed up and sent out to you.
Regards,
-Jake-

Awesome thank you very much! I do really appreciate it. I'll PM you with my info.
And no worries on the time frame at all.

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[Electrojake]

Awesome thank you very much! I do really appreciate it.

Mechanical & electrical manuals will ship Monday!
No problem.
-Jake-


PS, I have a complete 5.9L Cummins engine in my shop.
If you pay shipping and promise to install it in the Civic you can have it for free!
Okay... just kidding.
-Jake-

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