My first post here, and I feel this might not be the correct forum for this, but I'll try.

I am looking to buy a 1988 Civic Wagon 4WD that has 257,000 miles (yes, that's a quarter of a million). I drove it today and it rides nice and the engine still has good power.

The current owner has some maintenance records, but not the whole vehicle life. He says it's still on its original engine. I didn't see any water on the oil, and the exhaust color has the usual color you would expect on a high mileage car, nothing alarming.

A/C doesn't work, but I life in Fairbanks, Alaska and could care less about a/c, the heater is what I need and it works fine. The brakes are good, interior is fine considering the mileage, there's some rust eating through the metal on the rear left fender and a few other minor spots, the hood has a few dents.

The hood latch is so worn it won't latch the hood but the hood release keeps it from flying open. I tested it at 70 mph and it does fine...

The Civic comes with two sets of tires mounted on steel wheels, one for summer, one studded for winter, plus the doughnut spare. There is also one brand new front CV shaft that is in the box.

My main concern is there is some shimmy at low speeds, up to 20-some mph, and that same shimmy comes back up at 40-60 mph. It's very light shimmy, not alarming again, but what could be its cause? Wheels unbalanced or bent? CV shaft or bearings bad? The bearings sound good, no road noise.

The guy is asking $1600 for it, which I know it's too much, but here where I live people pay a premium for good economic cars as most vehicles for sale are large V8 trucks and we also pay a premium for anything with all wheel drive like this wagon. I figure I'll offer $1000 for the Civic.

Anything specific for this model year (1988) that I should look for? What are the costly repairs for this vehicle?

Is there another forum that I could check out? What is a good site to buy parts for older Hondas? Does anybody manufacture a 1 or 2 inch lift kit for this model Civic? (no that was not a joke, I would like more ground clearance). This will be my first Honda if I do buy it.

Here's the waggy:




Thanks for any help!

 

Sweet looking wagon dude!

Shimmy could be from bad tie-rods. Not hard to replace, but its not exactly cheap to buy the parts. If you get a Haynes manual or something from a car parts store ($20ish) it should tell you exactly how to do it, what length it should be, etc.

Whats that hanging out of the hood?

 

Dam, wagon is sick. I know nothing about them, nor do I know of any available lift kits... I do know the 4WD Wagons are rare. And that rear quarter rust will only get worse and worse in the rear...

If you pick it up than replace hood latch asap, That is very dangerous. And shimmy does sound like tie rod ends. Look into it.


haha I wanna see a lift kit on it hahahaha. Good luck with buy OP.

 

It's the cord for the block heater.

 

I would pick that up in a sec.

Then rebuild it.

I dont know of any lift kit for any civic.

 

i pretty much agree with all the posts above, and yes you can buy coilovers and adj them up and it will lift the civic, ebay is a good place to buy stuff and any auto part stores. the shimmy can be from bad tie rods, bad tire, unbalanced tire. offer 1000 and grab it

 

If it's possible to raise it with coilovers then do that. But when looking on eBay as 94chb suggested, make sure to get only name brand parts. Knock-off brand suspension is a big no-no. It will ride like crap and can be dangerous to drive. You should also look into getting some cheap 15" wheels with some nice 205mm treadwidth tires since you'll be raised up. I think if you raise it on those stock width tires you'll risk rollovers and such. Or you could keep the stock wheels/tires and use wheel spacers to widen your wheelbase.

I think it would also be pretty cool if you take the block heater and redo the wiring more professionally... make a cutout in the front of the bumper and have like a rubber cover over it when you aren't using it.

You can buy a new hood latch assembly from Honda. Installation is simple and it shouldn't cost too much. You may have tested it the way it is and had no problem, but it still is a big risk.

 

Word.

Driving on a one time drive at 70MPH is not realistic.... its only gonna get worse and sooner or later that hood will hit windshield, possibly causing a huge incident. Not worth it for such a small fix IMO.

 

That thing is awesome! If you have the money to fix what needs fixing, ****** that up. Offer him $1000 and slowly creep up the offer if he says no. AWD Civic would be great. And yeah, get that hood fixed bro.