Looking at buying a civic, few questions :)

Hi, need a little help guys please, we went tonight to look at a 1.4 96 civic for sale, it was an ek d14a2 engine i think.

the whole car was ok, but for one thing, there wasn't very much coolant there. are civics known for losing coolant through any means? or is it most likely head gasket failure?
it had no other signs of head gasket failure, the oil was a good colour and the engine was running quite well. plenty of pressure blowing out the oil cap. there was just a trickle of coolant in the bottom of the expansion tank and very little in the radiator but what was there was a healthy colour.

the car has been parked up for over a year, and not even started in the last 4 months.
it wasn't too bad other than that.

only other question is, how bad does the rust have to be around the back arches at the bottom for it to be an NCT failure. there's a slight bit on the car but its still firm to touch.

Id say just find a 1.4 civic without rust under the arches I found a few with no rust when buying mine

just buy mine

with the coolant it could be a little leak somehwere just let it run for awhile and have a look aorund the enigne to be honest id stay clear of civic that old with no nct and rust its nt a good combination you could be buying a money pit

check under the spare wheel as water gets in there from gaskets and tends to rust the shit out of the boot floor

make sure its idling correctly

check the chassy for rust

To be honest its not a car im looking to be driving.

I'm only buying it for a promo/advertisment car for Vinyl Styling so i am not looking to spend more than €700 on it!

For that reason the rust doesnt really bother me as for that price what can you expect, we have had a good look around it it is running good just dont want the coolant issue to turn out to be related to the head gasket......

The car shouldn't lose coolant, it might just be a leak somewhere, no nesicerilly the head gasket gone, another way to tell is if the car is at temperature, turn on the heating and it might blow cold if the head is gone, also if you open the rad cap there might be an oil slick on top of the water, or you can smell oil from the rad as its comming to temperature
Rust wise, once there are no holes you will be fine

start the car stand behind it smell the exhaust fumes if they smell sweet the head is gone ther is coolant being burnt (head gasket is gone) hope that helps you out good luck

Thanks lads good few ideas for me to look at tomorrow!

Think it is actually quite a good (cheap) little find!

Fingers crossed!

Don't be smelling that exhaust to much Fiona lol not good for you :-P

I was thinking that the lad im buying it off will think i'm a nut job!!

Got some looks earlier when I was on the ground looking under the arches haha!!

have a laugh while with him i love doing it put your head close to some part of the car and say ssssshhhhh then wait and tell him you were listenign to the car and then say .... never abused pffffft

As long as there is no holes from the rust it will pass the nct.

Make sure to to give to give wheel arch a good tap at the end of the sill if ya get me?? Honda's rust from the inside out so if ya see rust on the outside of the 1/4 panel chances are there rotten on the inside.

Head gasket is cheap from honda. If ya can change it yourself it's not a big problem.
I might just need to be topped up.

did ya find one after??
try on adverts.ie seen a few on that..

Luke why do you always bump old threads?

Amandaf675 wrote:Luke why do you always bump old threads?

Its not like its an ancient thread,maybe he is curious

Two threads up he posted sayin to change the wheels on the Civic so obviously her answer would be yes she got one

He asked a simple question about if they found a civic. Don't see any issue with it. Luke doesn't have much time for forums these days so he's catching up, also he had posted in this thread first. No need at all to be questioning peoples posting habits