ClareQuilty

It is a '93 Civic, guys, as it says in the topic title. Thanks for your advice, I think since it is such an important and yet not-very-expensive repair I might go to the dealer for this one. I'm kind of blown away by how nicely the car drives, so I think it would be worth a dealer visit for this.

Just picked up a very good running and driving old Civic very cheap, but I've no way of knowing if the timing belt has ever been replaced. Though I generally doubt odometers in Thailand, this is a two owner car with 154,000 km, so it might be accurate. If so just overdue for its timing belt. As I've read these Honda motors are 'interference' engines, and so updating the timing belt before it breaks is vital.

Does anyone know if this is something that's easily checked, or will they need to take the engine apart to do it (in which case I might as well have them change it regardless), and also does anyone know how much this typically costs?

Got the car back today, drives super (as one would hope and expect). Particularly out on the open highway.

You spent up to 10,000 PA on the KE70 wow.

I'd say on average I spent less than 5,000 per year in repairs on that reliable old car, including oil changes (every six months). I stated that I consider a reasonable budget for car ownership in general, aside from fuel and insurance, to be 5-10k. I was just really lucky with the KE70.

Anyway update about the Soluna - I went ahead and bit the bullet. While I had the car in for new brakes the mechanic discovered the brake shoes and some bearings were bad, so I guess the car was a bit neglected. He offered front struts for 2,500 each and back shocks for 1,500 each, which was about as cheap as any quote I'd had so far, so since he had everything off and apart I decided to go ahead.

He just called at closing time to say the car was ready, so I'll be picking it up tomorrow and let you all know how it turned out. The total bill with the four shocks, an engine oil, oil filter, and gearbox oil change, all new brake pads and back shoes, and new rear 'bearings' totalled about 11,500 baht. Quite an investment, hope its good for a long while. Should be the only remaining thing to replace for a good long while might be the tires.

How much are the pads ? how much is your budget for running a car?

B-Quick quoted 1,250 baht per side for new brake pads! I thought it would be like 300-500 baht. Anyway I took it in to my local mechanic guy, told him to put all new brakes and do an oil change/filter/lube. We'll see.

Normally I spend maybe 5,000 to 10,000 per year on a car, aside from the fuel.

Yes, had the tire rotation and balancing done, car drives fine. Just a slight hop at high speeds due to bad shocks. Will replace when I can afford it - struts or shocks, whatever they are, they're pricier than I expected.

The brakes are down to 1/4 of whatever they're supposed to be, according to the mechanic. Not gone, but in need of imminent replacement. Perhaps this week or next. Seems brake pads are pretty expensive as well.

I went on an hour's journey today, and the car drove pretty well at 80-90 kph on the way. I tried to show the bounce to the fellow in the passenger seat by going 100 kph at times, but to be honest it wasn't very noticable or consistent. After the journey, I took it to B-Quick, where I had them remove the tires in order to rotate and spin balance them (a 300 baht operation). I'd already had another shop look at the shocks, so I knew the diagnosis was they were all bad, but B-Quick also comfirmed this. They also showed me that the front brake pads, while not yet gone, were very low. While the tires were off I had a look at those, and in my opinion, while they showed no signs of unusual wear patterns, they didn't look like they had a tremendous amount of tread left either.

The other shop had quoted 8,600 for a full set of 4 new shocks (or struts as they're called), while B-Quick quoted about 6,000. The first shop uses Kyocera or whatever, so presumably a better brand than what B-Quick was offering. In any case, this was much higher than I'd been hoping for/lead to believe, and I hadn't the money to spend so will delay the shocks till after income-tax time, but will probably have the brakes done soon (was a bit shocked to find those were to be 1,250 baht per each!)

After the spin balancing and rotation I must say the car drove very well on the way home, just as it had before but perhaps slightly better, straight, true, no vibrations, and at least with my fat friend in the passenger seat helping to weigh us down, not much repetition of the 'freeway-hop' at 90-100.

Just bounced it a bit today. It seemed to me the back ones were OK, but the front ones not good. I'll take it in tomorrow and encourage the idea of just doing the front ones, and rotating and balancing/aligning the tires.

Thanks guys, did a little research online and it sounds like shocks are by far the most likely culprit, and since this is what the seller suggested, it might support the gathering evidence that he's an honest fellow (my colleague after all) - he kept telling me the car needed shocks, even though I hadn't test driven it fast enough to notice the 'hop' before buying it. Oh, Kartman you asked how much I finally paid - 65,000.

Now, the other thing the seller told me was that four new shocks would cost 3,000 baht all in. What do you fellows think of that claim? Sounded just a little on the cheap side to me, but it is a very economical model for parts and repair, I've heard.

OK, thanks guys, I will take it in for a wheel balancing soon, and perhaps at that time they can determine if one of the wheels is bent. Is there any benefit in rotating the tires while its in for the balancing? We used to think rotating was pretty important back in the day, but I'm not really familiar with these little front-wheel drive vehicles - do they require rotations?

Yeah that's the idea, I will take it to a shop and want to be prepared with some ideas of things for them to check - which is why I ask my question here, eeeya.

As some may have noticed from a previous thread, I recently purchased an old Toyota Soluna, about a 96 or 97 model. The car is doing great, but driving it at 100 kph recently I discovered that at this high speed (or higher) it has a mild case of 'freeway hop' - that is, tire or wheel hop. It seems to come from the front, and it isn't detectable any lower speeds.

The previous owner suggested new shocks all around, and another friend suggested rotating the tires. I realize it could be anything in the suspension, tires, etc., but anyone have any idea what are the most likely things - things to check first anyway?

I'm supposed to be buying a Soluna tomorrow, about a '96, for 65,000. Also was offered a 95 Civic for 50,000. In researching the market before deciding to buy one of these, I spent an hour with a Thai friend looking at Thai language classifieds. I wasn't sufficiently well-informed to judge, but my Thai helpmate is a dealer in cars as well as numerous other things, and he said 'these prices are much cheaper than a year ago'. So much so that he recommended that I offer 35,000 for the Civic and 45,000 for the Soluna I was considering.

Very remarkable plummet of prices for all used cars here in central Isaan. Thai businessmen I know report it is due to an 'extremely bad overall economic situation'. They state that few consumers now have money to buy, and a fair percentage of sellers are in desperate financial straights, so prices have dropped precipitously.

Thanks guys for all the advice. To clarify, as I said in the original post, the car is a 5-speed manual. Also, the car doesn't produce any smoke, either dark or white. The mechanic and I did check the oil - it was full, very clean, and the consistency of the oil was quite normal.

I also checked the pedals as suggested, and they look, while not pristine, barely worn. The kilometers read 132,000, which is about 85,000 miles - one would expect slight wear I guess, not heavy wear. I still don't believe in mileage in Thailand, for the most part, but the seller never 'hyped' the car, that is never made any claims about the mileage or anything else, and in fact only mentioned 'oh yeah, my brother hardly ever drove this car' after I'd already put down a deposit. (The seller is selling the car for his brother)

All in all I'm becoming more confident about the car's mechanical condition now, the only thing which remains is whether the title and so forth is in good order, but I feel I've safeguarded myself on that front by having the car professionally financed - thus, we will transfer ownership at the government office, with the finance man present. So, it will be in his interest to ensure that the paperwork is legitimate and correct.

I've put down a 5,000 baht deposit on a older 5-spd Toyota Soluna, sale price 65,000 baht, not sure the year but it is the first generation I suppose. The car runs and drives great and is in very good condition, and I had it checked out by a mechanic. He said its 'fine'. The mileage reads 132,000 kilometers, but that's a trifle unbelievable given the age. As the mechanic said 'who knows about kilometers in Thailand, everyone fiddle that here'.

Anyway, he also said there were no obvious signs of being in an accident or flood that he could see, and the car drives straight and true down the road. The only minor peccadillo I've noticed in extensive test driving was that the idle, which 90% of the time is correctly low (say 300 rpm or so), is sometimes around 900-1000 rpm for a bit. I couldn't tell if this made sense for some reason, or was just something a bit aberrant in the engine control electronics. The engine is so smooth its hardly noticeable.

Any opinions? About this idle issue (could it be a sign of anything?) or about the model and price in general. Or, any advice about things to look for in evaluating the car before I finally commit to the purchase. The seller is a sort of colleague I've seen every day for years, so there is some small level of trustworthiness there (its not a tent-dealer or anything like that).

...or it might be that your router is not up to the job.

I doubt that's the case, I'm at a university, and the internet here is extremely fast.

Get firefox, install 'youtube downloader' extension, save and replay at your leisure. AA

I use Firefox, but whenever I've had those downloaders they slow everything down terribly.

I always get this problem on my computer - when I play youtube videos, they have very slight 'catches' in the play - tiny pauses that interrupt the song. It isn't noticeable when when watching non-music vids. Terribly annoying and seemingly unfixable. It wasn't always this way..

Anyone else have this problem, and/or any advice?

PM me your bank number and I will transfer 70baht so you can get the carb cleaned on the beater bike.

" ...long trips (8-10 kilometers)." 5 5

Haha, good point, about the 70 baht. About the short trips, well believe me, these little 105 cc Honda Novas aren't exactly intended for driving from town to town, more for just putt-putting around inside the town. They are reliable, enjoyable little bikes for what they are, however.

The awful beater I mentioned, though it cost only 3,000 and I've been stingy with repairs/fixing up, it still starts easily every time, drives well, and has good brakes (dual disk brakes). What makes it a 'beater' is that it has a little bit of a noise in the engine... I'm not sure what causes it, but its kind of 'clattery', and the mechanic said this engine is unrebuildable because of whatever that is that makes it sound this way. However, it runs fine and has very adequate power (about as much as my other Nova which runs/sounds normal).

'its really benzine'.

Color?

It is a bit hard to tell peering into the tank hole, but it seems to be a reddish color.

A thanks guys. Yes I think he meant the 'brushes' when he said 'bushings', and the 'relay' may have meant the solenoid.

PT sell 95 benzine. Esso have dropped it nationwide, and upcountry is more varied... My 2007 GS requires me to use benzine...

Yeah I stick to PT benzine quite strictly with the car and with my 'favorite' bikes, but with bikes I rent out or otherwise don't care so very much about I fill up at this mom-and-pop station - its only something like 37 baht per liter for their benzine, but the mechanics have told me 'its really benzine'.

I can now report having gotten the last of the three bikes back and all are fine now - the two better ones I had a full 'carb cleaning' and resetting of the mix, idle and so forth at a trusted mechanic (70 baht for each one), and they're running very sweetly now with no over-revving. The last bike is such a rough looking old beater I've resolved to spend no money on it, so I just stopped off when it was revving and had another shop set the idle down (free) and it seemed to do the same trick. The idle's now almost too low, but its showing no tendency to over-rev at idle after long trips (8-10 kilometers).

OK, just got the car back today, the shop owner said they rebuilt the starter, replacing the bushings and the 'starter relay', but I couldn't pin him down about the solenoid due to a bit of communication difficulties. The total bill was 1,400 baht... perhaps a bit high?

Anyway, the car's working great now, we'll see if this fix sticks over the next days and weeks.

CQ , i know the age / standard .of your bikes , and there will be wear on the throtte slides The slides may also be sticking if there gummed up , or cable is rusting / sticking..All 3 bikes at the same time would suggest poor / dirty fuel or water contaminated fuel. Try sticking (no pun intended ) to Shell fuels. With the cold / damp weather there is also more water it the air , possibly causing "carb freezing" , where the water forms frost / ice , and freezes carb butterflies open. A fuel additive would solve this if you can get it - Silkolene Pro FST. Air leaks also possible , but on 3 bikes the same time ?. Please keep us posted .

Fuel wise, I've just been avoiding gasohol.. I'm not sure whether Shell stations around here sell 'real benzine'. I'll take a look. Its a good theory as I've been using super cheap 'benzine 95' from a local non-brand station on the recommendation of my mechanic who was encouraging me to avoid gasohol (stating that PTT benzine is often actually gasohol put into the wrong tank).