Servicing/Parts costs Focus/Laser VS Honda Civic

[falconboy]

Hi all,

Unfortunately my misses bought a 97 Honda Civic before we met, and its alright as a shopping trolley/second car, but I'm a little concerned about servicing and parts prices, not to mention from reading the Honda forums surprisingly most people seem to suggest using genuine honda for fluids and parts, all of which are EXPENSIVE. $60 for 4L trans fluid, $52 for 4L premixed ready to use coolant, $197 for spark plug leads (yes, only 4 of them). I also have a very slight water pump leak, and I've been quoted $671 for water pump, timing belt and labour from Honda. Even a non genuine water pump from Repco is $121, timing belt $85 supply only. Non genuine leads are still $105.

The other thing that concerns me is the transmission in these are non servicable/adjustable other than drain and replace, basically its drive til they die then replace (and I hate to think for how much)

Its only got 60,000 k's - yes, at 12 years old, so its probably still worth something. I've been considering upgrading to a slightly newer (around 2000) Laser or a slightly newer still Focus. How are they for parts and servicing? Do I assume the Lasers are pretty good and maybe the Focus, being newer and less common, and maybe less non genuine parts around (or harder to get) that they might be a bit more than the Lasers?

I don't know much about Ford small cars unfortunately.

The other problem is getting the misses to sell her baby she bought new!

Thanks

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by falconboy

Hi all,

Unfortunately my misses bought a 97 Honda Civic before we met, and its alright as a shopping trolley/second car, but I'm a little concerned about servicing and parts prices, not to mention from reading the Honda forums surprisingly most people seem to suggest using genuine honda for fluids and parts, all of which are EXPENSIVE. $60 for 4L trans fluid, $52 for 4L premixed ready to use coolant, $197 for spark plug leads (yes, only 4 of them). I also have a very slight water pump leak, and I've been quoted $671 for water pump, timing belt and labour from Honda. Even a non genuine water pump from Repco is $121, timing belt $85 supply only. Non genuine leads are still $105.

With such low km I would be inclined to keep the Civic if it is working well and just service it yourself with comparable products from Repco / Supercheap etc.

You have no warranty to worry about, so why would you want to be paying for genuine Honda?

Slight water leak? When is the timing belt due? 100,000km?? Either try using a 'stop leak' additive and get as close to the time you need to do the timing belt then do em at the same time.

I just got the timing belt done for the Festiva. I elected to not change the water pump, seeing as my cooling system has been very well looked after and the timing belt plus installation kit was $360 fitted, and about $550 with the water pump done as well. Thats at my local independent service centre.

Shop around. It is a very 'run of the mill' car. No reason why any competent mechanic can't do the same work that Honda will do for a more reasonable price.

Oh... and it will keep you in the good books with the misses :

[falconboy]

Thanks mate.

For some reason they seem to think that the quality and suitability of genuine honda stuff is superior. For instance trans fluid is ATF-Z1 - there no actual ATF-Z1 non genuine, and I think noone wants to risk expensive failure due to non-genuine stuff etc.

[Tj-zetec]

from my experiances with my LR focus [plug] which is for sale [/plug] parts aren't too bad.

Provided it's nothing major.

Having said that, it's only now that you can get aftermarket spares for some things, in the past, i've had no option other than to go genuine.

Some examples.

Thermostat housing incl rubber seal (just housing no thermostat) round the $90 mark.
Valve cover seal (another rubber jobbie) $40-50
Battery strap 40-effing-dollars
Leads (top gun [i think] not genuine) bout $50-60
plugs (platinum, therefore only need to be replaced at 100,000kms) bout $90
you need the "red" coolant too, cant remember what it cost but it wasn't cheap.

As for oils there's no special type, as long as its the right grade which i think is 5W20 but i could be wrong. I've been using penrite and its about the $40 per 5L
Oil and fuel filters are cheap. my parts place stocks cooper and i can't fault them.
Don't know about air filters as i run a K+N panel but i'd imagine they were cheap.

There's a few threads on here about brake rotors, which will if genuine wear out at around 40k and the general consensus go aftermarket ie dba or rda as they're a million times better, cheaper and you will get several times more mileage out of them.

Things like transmission fluids and brake fluids etc generally don't need to be serviced on the focus until later in it's life, and even then, once you've done it, you wont need to for quite some time.

i've had almost nothing go wrong with my car in the 4 or so years that i've owned it (except for headlight globes, it eats more of them than Oprah does baked hams) and a general service, which i carry out myself costs around the $90 mark for oil, filters and whatever else i've needed.

as for what is the better buy, that's entirely up to you. I'm a bit biased, as most on this forum are, and I'm on my second focus.
I've just tried to give you some figures on what it cost me to run that car. I'm sure there's others on here that will share their experiances too.

[melbzetec]

5w-30

[NZ XR6]

Honda's are generally extremely reliable, so if she likes the car, keep it. My wife has had many Hondas over the last xx years (long time) and we've had very few problems, apart from rust on the early ones. And they're generally a good drive.

I'd use the genuine Honda ATF but the right aftermarket coolant should be fine - there's a Japanese spec it should meet. Use a synthetic 10W-30 oil, which is better than the Honda stuff, if it has a VTEC engine. Otherwise a decent semi-synthetic like Helix 10W-30 will do.

I've never had a water pump problem in a Honda, so you've been unlucky there. Never had to replace a plug lead either.

[Mullett]

Unless you hanker for something newer, keep the Honda. Lasers are junk (in my opinion) and parts are VERY expensive for them, along with being hard to work on. I know a girl who has a 2000 model, very expensive to do the timing belt etc on it.

For the water pump leak, if it's only slight, it's most likely the gasket. Get some *good* RTV silicon, pull it apart, re-make the gasket with the silicon, paying attention to surface cleanliness and drying times. While you've got it apart, it'll be easy to check for corrosion. For coolant, use the genuine stuff, it's not THAT expensive, and you'll only replace it every 50,000+km. Likewise the trans fluid, $60 isn't that bad for a decent trans oil, and it's not like you have to replace it every 10,000km as you do engine oil.

I'm a great fan of hondas, they make fantastic engines and the build quality on their cars tends to be spot on. If she's owned it from new and it has that few km on it, I'd be very reluctant to swap it for another 2nd hand car that you don't know the history of. For the sake of a few $ worth of parts you could be opening a huge can of worms.

-RM.

[falconboy]

Yes, you're right on all accounts. However I'm under the impression it is due (at least age wise) for the timing belt, and if they go it can cause catastrophic (meaning expensive) engine failure. Whereas if we spend the dough to do the pump and belt, It will pretty much last another 12 years given the usage.

I think its just now at that age where its getting some k's on it, although 60 isn't a lot longevity wise, its getting close to major service type k's where all these fairly routine things should be done. I've done the oil with new synthetic shell helix 10w30, trans drain and replace, spark plugs, leads, fuel filter. If I do the pump and belt that should be the end of it. I hope. Oh, I need to do the front brakes, but pretty sure thats easy enough (I've done it on the ford) and sure I can get aftermarket parts safely enough for that. Given its had no problems at all in 12yrs, 60,000k's, I really shouldn't be complaining should I.

[Mullett]

Yeah, I'd get the timing belt done, it's pretty cheap for peace of mind. Make sure you do the idlers as well if they need doing.

-RM.