SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

Oh, and @lovemytacolots, look into better tires than 4 for $240. While I realize you are trying to do this on the cheap, get a decent tire since you live in a wet area. The tire is the only part of your car that touches the road and it's responsible for how well steering and braking work at the end of the day. The generic tire of the day at a discount shop is never the way to go IMHO. Check out a couple of websites like TireRack.com and others to see what fits your price range and has a good rating. Then call around until you find a shop that prices the tire where you can justify the cost to afford it for the Civic.

 

Civics are reliable, but anything made of metal with four wheels that is over 20 years old isn't going to hold up without it's own pension plan coming out of your wallet.

 

we made it to the 200k club! where do we sit? what kind of benefits do we get and stuff? where's the old farts like @Dirty Pool @keakar and company? ps-thanks for the door handle @koditten , they easily outweigh the cheap knock offs...could've done without the bbq sauce smeared all over 'em though

 

knowing K that was blood and not BBQ sauce lol
he tends to injure himself a lot lately

congrats on 200k

 

Alright, did ya have to announce the BBQ thing for all the world to see???? Poor @koditten !!!

JK. Not a speck of BBQ sauce on those babies. Just some nice looking handles that even match the interior better than the aftermarkets.

And I'm not sure why he chose "old farts" as his term for you guys, but hoping you all know he meant it affectionately. Well, not affectionately like weird or anything. Although not that that would be weird. Nevermind. You know what I'm trying to say!!

 

Well, the Civ seems to have repaired itself, at least for the moment.

Yesterday on the phone, Oreilly assured me they were ordering a NEW distributor this time for us. I very nicely explained that we've had lots of issues with wrong and/or damaged parts from them lately, and really want to keep shopping there because over the years we've done just fine and peachy with getting good parts from them, plus they are convenient and super nice. He promised this distributor would be NEW and waiting for us when Eric got off work.

Guess what? It wasn't new. Eric brought it home anyway and intended to give it a shot, but I didn't see the point. Another potential evening wasted on a potential bad part again. I won that debate.

He decided to go ahead and drive it today and see what it did. And no wacky RPM needle!!! So far anyway. After reading a little about this problem, it seems like it could be caused by a wire loose or connection inside the original distributor. So we are wondering if just simply taking out the original one Monday evening, then putting it back in (after realizing the Oreilly replacement was worthless) may have "fixed" whatever was wrong.

Stay tuned though - you know how it goes for us!!! I'm sure another Civ crisis is on the horizon!!

Switching back to gate building mode for now - woo hoo!!

Happy Wednesday TW Even to those of you that rip on me and my Civ. There - see how nice I am????

 

HEY! I resemble that remark, oops I meant I should resent that remark lol

 

No ripping, you were the one who suggested replacing the old girl .

Have fun with the gate .

 

Oh boy.

Better brace myself big time for this:

The Civic is dead.

For real.

No, for real real this time. I swear.

The transmission went out when Eric was driving home from work yesterday. Thank goodness nothing bad or dangerous happened - he was on a small residential street. After waiting the better part of the evening for the AAA driver to arrive, he and the Civ finally made it home nearly 3.5 hours after he got off work. Another wasted evening, and a dead car to boot. OK, ending the pity party, and moving onto.................

Bracing myself. OK, ready, set go! I know, I know. Some of you completely and totally right about the Civ. Time to put on my big girl pants and admit that I was wrong. Hey, at least we kept it in check. I really don't have regrets - we spent a couple hundred in hopes that it might buy us another few months. It didn't work. At least it wasn't a couple thousand.

More than anything, both of us are RELIEVED. The agony of making more decisions about it is finally over now. It's a no brainer this time. I feel like the car did me this one final service, to end the misery of figuring out what to do about it! No more decisions to make about tires, crap distributors from Oreilly, split boot vs half shafts, rubber cement and paper clips. It's all just done. Almost feels like we should have some kind of funeral for her. She's just sitting dead in the driveway now, waiting to be towed away for good. This month was the 15 year anniversary of when the Civ became my side kick.



And suddenly the Toyota Yaris is looking better and better!! Honestly though, when push comes to shove, I am terrified to buy anything but a Honda or Toyota. Or MAYBE a Subaru. I realize plenty of people would think that's foolish brand loyalty, but it's my comfort zone, and Eric's too. And I just don't see that changing.

Then we realized how great it would be to have a hatchback - great MPG, but some of the convenience of a wagon or SUV with the back door - great when loading dogs or groceries, which happen quite a lot around here. We love our food and dogs. And whiskey.

So. The Honda Fit is just too damn ugly. Can't get past it, tried my best. Not happening.

We really like the Toyota Matrix, but the models with AWD are worse on gas than my 93 Civic! I'd consider one that didn't have AWD (they are pretty good on gas) but I can't find one!! They don't make them anymore, and I'm guessing people that have them must be hanging onto them.

I still love the look and AWD of the Subaru Impreza, but it'd have to be a 2012 or newer because earlier models are not good enough on gas. For a type of car I'm not familiar with and I'm guessing is expensive to repair, a used one would have to have less than 50K miles for us to even consider. And base model new ones, or low miles & has frills used ones, are $20K+. And it scares me to think we could run into expensive repairs on a car that was at the tippy top end of our budget, and not have a Subaru mechanic lined up that we could trust and count on (like we do for any Toyota).

So that leaves the Yaris as our only remaining option in a hatchback by Honda or Toyota, since we've decided against a hybrid.

Yaris pros:

• Affordable
• Great MPG, which saves even more $
  
• It's a Toyota! We already have an awesome Toyota mechanic!! And you all now what we went through to find that person!!! Would love to NEVER have to mechanic shop again.
  
• Not the most attractive car to me, but not the ugliest either. Like their looks way better than the Fit. Their ridiculously teeny tiny size makes them kind of cute.

Yaris cons:

• The tiny thing is pretty much it. Wondering how Eric will fit in that tiny thing. Also wondering what it will feel like to drive that thing on the interstate in the pitch black night and POURING rain, with a semi passing you. Thinking I'd be cursing their ridiculously teeny tiny size instead of calling it cute right about then.

Plan is to test drive them this weekend. The timing is good, because for the first time in months it's supposed to rain here! I want to test drive any tiny cars we are considering during the heaviest rain, if we can time it right. See what it would actually be like, preferably on the interstate, with semi's around us (@Mod , can you come down to Portland and help us out? We could orchestrate a whole Smokey & the Bandit thing and scare the crap outta the car salesman in the backseat of a Yaris!! ). Anyway - if it's just too ridiculous and terrifying, I guess we're gonna have to start searching for a Subaru mechanic. And if it's not, we might be toasting to a new Yaris by Saturday evening. Now we actually have to make a decision ASAP - I'm gonna get sick of being stuck at home pretty fast.

Happy Thursday TW!!

 

Have fun test driving. You won't see poop flinging from me on the Civic. No use rubbing in what you've learned about cars that could legally vote.

Don't buy the Subaru. It comes up really shit hot in the reliability reports because those are usually done before the 60K service. So many Subaru's need work on the clutch packs and AWD system as they get older and that stuff is expensive. I've never had a Subaru fan keep one for more than 5 years because it just gets to expensive to fix, much like the last few years of VW production.

Buy whatever you are comfortable with. My other suggestions were strictly from a bang for buck perspective, considering that seemed to be your original goal. Something cheap, reliable, and with a good options package. The Yaris, while a bit expensive for what you get IMHO, will make a great car especially if you buy one new on warranty for your purposes.

 

Yep, that's EXACTLY what my fear is with the Impreza. They did not get great reliability scores. And having AWD would be great, but it's not totally necessary since we have the Taco - and having AWD means more costly items to repair.

I'm seeing new Yaris' for ~$14K around. Assuming there was some room to negotiate, that seems reasonable to me - a brand new Toyota anything for less than $15K

 

You are going to hate me for this suggestion, but have you considered the Nissan Juke?



I bought mine in Canada for less than 23K, I'm guessing you could find one new in the USA for just under 20K. Turbocharged motor with decent mpg, AWD, and it's fun as hell to drive. Literally with the CVT, Turbo, and torque vectoring AWD it feels like driving a luxury go cart on the road. Safe, 4 door, hatchback, it meets a lot of your criteria. It's also a Nissan so financing is super cheap right now (at least up here) and it has that import name on it you might trust a little more. Mine held up just fine and I know a lady with one still. She has no issues after 100K.

 

Trying. To. Like. This. Photo.

Not working very well yet. Will keep trying though. At least it doesn't have the Pancake Syndrome going on with the windshield, right?

 

You either love them or hate them. Trust me, prepare for .

However I lent it out to friends all the time to see why I bought it. After the test drive, not a single one of them had anything bad to say about it. Too bad the Nismo is way out of your price range if you like sexy:

But check out this grey, this is what I had:

 

OH yeah, I've seen what people think about the Jukes before. They are a Joke!!

 

Anyways, sorry for another suggestion, but try hopping in one for a drive if you go out this weekend. It's a lot of fun if nothing else. The Juke is the only car at that price point right now I can think of that is fun as stink to drive yet has AWD, high performance, and good reliability.

 

I'll consider it, and I appreciate suggestions!! We have not paid attention to what cars are out there for a lot of years, so it's all somewhat foreign to us still.

First step will be showing it to Eric. If he says no way, it doesn't get to the test drive round.

 

At least the Civic sacrificed itself before you bought new tires. Part it out on craigslist.

 

RIP Civic!
Sorry Jen!

 

cheer up girl, you were doing the right thing, you just had shit luck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jne9t8sHpUc