Hi everyone!

I'm a new poster here but I am looking for a place to post some problems I have had with my 2002 Honda civic 2-door LX.

The front struts are totally shot. Most of the oil's gone out of the left one and the right one is still dampening a bit but it's leaked most of its oil out too. This is my main issue but there are others as well. The alignment has gone out on it twice. Front tortion bar link needs replacing on the left side. Sorry if I don't have all the correct names but I am not really an enthusiast, just a guy who needs to get to work reliably every day.

There is a creak in the steering rack that my mechanic says we should keep an eye on.
The rear two brake cylinders are also leaking and need to be replaced.
Driver's seat belt does not latch easy. Takes several tries to get it to latch.

I live in London Ontario Canada and bought the car from London Honda. I'm afraid to take the car there because everytime we went for an oil change or something there, we'd have to go back because there would mysteriously some other problem crop up with the car.

I've searched the internet but I have not found that these are really common problems. I've also looked through the TSB's on this site (is there a way to ge the full TSB text?) but I have not found anything there either.

This car has only 65000kms (40 000 miles) on it. Unfortuneately it's off warranty because we've owned it since Sept 2001. The mechanic says that he is shocked that the struts have failed. The car has never crashed or even really driven hard I would say. Being in a northernly climate our roads so suffer over winter and we do have many tire eaters here but I'm sure no worse than many other areas of the country.

Anyone else having these issues? We bought a Honda thinking we would have a reliable car that would not have these kinds of problems.

Thanks for listening!

 

Sorry to hear of all the problems you are having. That is very unusual for a Honda. The first piece of advice I can give you is to stop taking it to that dealer. If you don't trust them, don't give them your business and certainly don't let them play around with your car. As far as the struts, just get them all replaced. A set of Tokico HP struts for front and rear won't run you very much at all (around $389) and they have a lifetime warranty.

Let the mechanic you trust work on the rest. I actually used to have the same car (it was an 03 EX though) and I haven't heard about these issues before. I know the suspension isn't as good on the 7th generation Civics (01-05) because that is when they changed the suspension set up. Good luck on everything!

 

a set of hps will run you 200 on ebay, pretty cheap and they have a good ride. i dont like going to the dealership, like same said find a shop that you trust. i only trust one shop that i go to for everything.

 

For Gods sake man...fix the brakes first...leaky wheel cylinders....an accident waiting to happen. Then get to the struts. Just a thought

 

^^^ yes absolutely, but I was meaning to have it all done at once. Granted it will be solid bill, but it will be well worth it.

 

Yep ... the brakes were done today! I have to walk down to the shop to get it ... it's been snowing here all day so that should be fun!

It's at a private mechanic that has worked on my previous car. I found that he is fair and does not seem to be ripping me off. I've not had an issue with the quality of work either. It seems to be the dealer ship garages that rip you off the worst. Not just Honda ... all of them. Ford and GM garages have both ripped me off and the quality of work was appauling. "Oops ... put the wrong wheel nuts on and stripped the threads ... sorry, we didn't mention it! Safe driving!"

Hey, thanks the the replies .. i didn't expect to get any that quick! The only struts I was able to get were the Monroe Sensatrack. The local auto supply shops don't even carry replacement struts because no one ever orders them (I called around too). How could I have got two lemon struts? I've had this car from new and can't see why this happened.

thanks again

 

Don't limit yourself from buying locally. Look around the internet and order parts. Have your mechanic install the parts.

 

There was a problem with the struts on the 01 and 02 civics. Honda Canada was warranting them for 100K I think. I have an 01 civic, I had 2 upgrades on mine. I think there was a problem with some washers that caused them to leak. They beefed up the washers and they still leaked. The 2nd revision they beefed up the strut rods, I guess in the cold months the steel contracted and the oil leaked out.

I already posted about an exhaust manifold issue this morning. Seems they have been replacing a lot of them. They are cracking around the welds where it bolts on to the engine. I heard they are warranting them for 130K or 8 years. Keep an eye on yours. BTW, I didn't even know mine was cracked until the check engine light came on. A mechanic found it, when he revved the engine up I held my hand close to the left side of the manifold and sure enough I could feel the air leak, this is a $1000 part. If you check it be careful the exhaust is Extremely HOT.