Help a girl out! 2003 civic EX
#1
07-30-2015, 11:55 AM
Help a girl out! 2003 civic EX
Sorry in advance for the freakishly long post!
Backstory on me; literally 0 knowledge on cars. When I bought my car, I had no clue on how, where, or when to do maintenance- and had nobody to inform me. I don't even know how to change my own damn tire. SMH. That'll change soon...
So; here's the story with Stacy (My car's name- because stacy's mom has got it going on
)
Bought her in 2011 from a dealership after being owned just once.
Literally drove it from Virginia all the way down south through ATL, through TX, and up through NV and OR to get home to Seattle with NO problems.
Continued driving for about a year with literally no issues. Kept up (not that well, tbh.) with oil changes. That's it
Fast forward another half a year: overheating problems start occurring in the summer after long/hard drives. Overheating issue would generally go away after adding coolant. No other issues the rest of the year until the next summer when it started overheating again, same deal; went away with added coolant.
Fast forward half a year: alternator goes out; my ex who doesn't really know anything about cars replaced it and surprisingly it worked. Car also starts to do this thing where when I'm driving and try to accelerate the rpms jump up to 3-4 for just a bit before (what I assume to be) the gears switching and the rpms go back down. Not ever an issue until like a week ago.
Fast forward another year to this summer: Wasn't overheating for the first few hot months, took it to a grease monkey oil change place where the mechanic told me I had a blown head gasket. Mysteriously overheat later that day and every day thereafter progressively overheat until it's so bad I can't get it started one time after having to shut it off quickly upon seeing it start to overheat.
Finally take it to a mechanic that seemed to have decent yelp reviews. They replace the head gasket, have the head machined, replace radiator pumps, and the spark plugs (or so they say.) and one other set of pumps that I can't remember the name for. They were going to do the timing belt, but said they decided not to because mine looked almost brand new (Which is weird because I haven't had any work done on my car other than the alternator since I bought it.)
I leave the mechanics with my car after paying $1600 and about 15-20 minutes after driving my engine light comes on.
Next day my car is a little weak starting (little whirring sound as the dash lights fluttered a bit), but does start up. Drove for about 30 minutes and parked for an hour, came back to drive again and car wouldn't start. Doing the same whirr noise and dash lights fluttering dimmer and dimmer every time I try to crank it. I get out of the car, look under the hood (don't know what I expected to be able to see..) shut the hood, get back in my car, try to start up- and it starts up just fine.
Next few days I drive it just fine and it starts up just fine.
About 5 days later (from when I got it back from the mechanic) I'm driving down the highway and my car starts to do the rpm stall thing where it goes up to 3-4 and holds before (what I assume to be) the gears switch and I keep driving, except this time at the end of the brief stall, my acceleration just stops working- gas pedal not responding, had to drift dangerously to the side of the road.
Took it to the mechanic again; this is the part where they really show their incompetency:
Right off the bat they charge me $120 for "diagnostic time"
Then I get a voicemail saying it's the crankshaft sensor & they ordered the part.
Then I call and speak to them and they say "we put the sensor in and it wont start up, seems the engine works better with it off actually. We're going to keep looking into it to see what's the issue"
Then I get another voicemail saying "it was the crank shaft sensor, there's a timing mechanism on it that had to be retimed"
They say they spent FOUR hours on my car "but only billed me for two"
The mechanic delivers my car with a jump box on it saying it was a bit hard to start up. I'm like ..............k. They tell me to get a new battery- so I'm planning on doing that today.
This morning my car was hard to start again: First time cranking- strong whirr sound- dash lights on bright but fluttering
Following times cranking- little to no whirr sound and dash lights almost all the way dim.
Stopped for like a few seconds and turned the key in the battery on position for another few seconds before trying to crank again, and it started!
Drove it to work and the engine light came on...again..
It's been off and parked since. Planning on going out after this post to try and start it up.
What the heck could be going on? Is it just the battery? Will a new battery fix the issue?
Are the mechanics ****ing with stuff so I have to keep coming back?? I've already spent $2200 on these repairs so far and I'm hella embarrassed to even admit that! I'm getting tres' fcked and I know it, but I don't know what I can do to stop it!!!
Backstory on me; literally 0 knowledge on cars. When I bought my car, I had no clue on how, where, or when to do maintenance- and had nobody to inform me. I don't even know how to change my own damn tire. SMH. That'll change soon...
So; here's the story with Stacy (My car's name- because stacy's mom has got it going on
)Bought her in 2011 from a dealership after being owned just once.
Literally drove it from Virginia all the way down south through ATL, through TX, and up through NV and OR to get home to Seattle with NO problems.
Continued driving for about a year with literally no issues. Kept up (not that well, tbh.) with oil changes. That's it
Fast forward another half a year: overheating problems start occurring in the summer after long/hard drives. Overheating issue would generally go away after adding coolant. No other issues the rest of the year until the next summer when it started overheating again, same deal; went away with added coolant.
Fast forward half a year: alternator goes out; my ex who doesn't really know anything about cars replaced it and surprisingly it worked. Car also starts to do this thing where when I'm driving and try to accelerate the rpms jump up to 3-4 for just a bit before (what I assume to be) the gears switching and the rpms go back down. Not ever an issue until like a week ago.
Fast forward another year to this summer: Wasn't overheating for the first few hot months, took it to a grease monkey oil change place where the mechanic told me I had a blown head gasket. Mysteriously overheat later that day and every day thereafter progressively overheat until it's so bad I can't get it started one time after having to shut it off quickly upon seeing it start to overheat.
Finally take it to a mechanic that seemed to have decent yelp reviews. They replace the head gasket, have the head machined, replace radiator pumps, and the spark plugs (or so they say.) and one other set of pumps that I can't remember the name for. They were going to do the timing belt, but said they decided not to because mine looked almost brand new (Which is weird because I haven't had any work done on my car other than the alternator since I bought it.)
I leave the mechanics with my car after paying $1600 and about 15-20 minutes after driving my engine light comes on.
Next day my car is a little weak starting (little whirring sound as the dash lights fluttered a bit), but does start up. Drove for about 30 minutes and parked for an hour, came back to drive again and car wouldn't start. Doing the same whirr noise and dash lights fluttering dimmer and dimmer every time I try to crank it. I get out of the car, look under the hood (don't know what I expected to be able to see..) shut the hood, get back in my car, try to start up- and it starts up just fine.
Next few days I drive it just fine and it starts up just fine.
About 5 days later (from when I got it back from the mechanic) I'm driving down the highway and my car starts to do the rpm stall thing where it goes up to 3-4 and holds before (what I assume to be) the gears switch and I keep driving, except this time at the end of the brief stall, my acceleration just stops working- gas pedal not responding, had to drift dangerously to the side of the road.
Took it to the mechanic again; this is the part where they really show their incompetency:
Right off the bat they charge me $120 for "diagnostic time"
Then I get a voicemail saying it's the crankshaft sensor & they ordered the part.
Then I call and speak to them and they say "we put the sensor in and it wont start up, seems the engine works better with it off actually. We're going to keep looking into it to see what's the issue"
Then I get another voicemail saying "it was the crank shaft sensor, there's a timing mechanism on it that had to be retimed"
They say they spent FOUR hours on my car "but only billed me for two"
The mechanic delivers my car with a jump box on it saying it was a bit hard to start up. I'm like ..............k. They tell me to get a new battery- so I'm planning on doing that today.
This morning my car was hard to start again: First time cranking- strong whirr sound- dash lights on bright but fluttering
Following times cranking- little to no whirr sound and dash lights almost all the way dim.
Stopped for like a few seconds and turned the key in the battery on position for another few seconds before trying to crank again, and it started!
Drove it to work and the engine light came on...again..
It's been off and parked since. Planning on going out after this post to try and start it up.
What the heck could be going on? Is it just the battery? Will a new battery fix the issue?
Are the mechanics ****ing with stuff so I have to keep coming back?? I've already spent $2200 on these repairs so far and I'm hella embarrassed to even admit that! I'm getting tres' fcked and I know it, but I don't know what I can do to stop it!!!
#2
08-06-2015, 04:50 PM
To me it sounds like the hard start could be a fuel pump issue. This could be why you're having issues starting but it starts fine after you leave the key in the "on" position for a while be fore starting it. That is usually a good sign that the fuel pump is getting weak. First thing I'd check is fuel pressure. Your dash lights could be a bad ground, battery or alternator. I know you said the alternator was changed recently so I would take the car to autozone and have them test the battery and charging system. If it comes back ok then check your ground point on your negative cable from your battery. There are 3 major sensors on any car that will put your car into "limp mode" (computer cuts back engine timing to prevent damage) and prevents the car from starting. The three are cam sensor, crank sensor and knock sensor. They can be tested with a ohm meter to see if they are within tolerance. I would go to autozone and pick up a haynes manual which would tell you what those tolerances are. If you have anymore questions let me know.
#3
08-08-2015, 01:42 PM
if the engine light is on then have the engine codes read that will tel you wher your problem is generally.they will check codes for free at most car parts stores like napa or advanced auto parts.
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