I’m posting my Honda Civic for sale and I want to disclose the known maintenance issues. The issues were handwritten and I’m not sure if I’m reading them correctly. Can you please correct any mistakes:
Pass inner and outer tie rod w/ boat
Front Struts
Align
P/S fluid ex
Brake fluid ex
Dist Ass.
Isn coil
Cap & rotor
Isn wires
Plugs
By the way Honda quoted me $2,500 to do all of the above.
Isn would be Ignition (Ign)
The “Isn coil” and “Isn wires” should actually be “Ignition coil” and “Ignition wires”.
The other items seem to be fairly self-explanatory, except for the first one:
“Pass inner and outer tie rod w/boat”??
My best guess is that it means “Passenger side inner and outer tie rods with boot”.
Get a second opinion. There are dealers that try to milk the public for unnecessary repairs. I’ve been to a few.
PS fluid ex and brake fluid ex: ex means "exchange," or replace.
Brake fluid? Maybe. PS fluid? No.
Dist. Ass = Distributor assembly. Don't know why you'd need that.
This could probably all be done for less by an independent mechanic.
inner and outer tie rod ends with boot - passenger side
power steering fluid exchange and brake fluid exchange
New distributor assembly
New ignition coil, new distributor cap and rotor, new ignition wires, new plugs - all this amounts to a "tune up".
I'll assume the car isn't running too good and that's why it needs a new distributor? The alignment is needed after replacing the tie rod.
All the above work isn't so bad. A handyman, DIY'r could do much of the work with parts from any auto supply store. The new tie rods and removing and replacing the distributor might be "level 2" jobs for more experienced DIY'rs. Nothing here that is that scarey and all the parts would be $200 - 300 dollars. The distributor is the most expensive part, the rest is about $100.
Grossly inflated by a service writer who can’t spell. My mechanice would do the NECESSARY work for $400 or so. When you sell a vehicle, you should fix safety-related items (like the boot) and items the engine actuaslly needs to have REPAIRED.
The rest of the mainteance, if required, can be done vy the next owner.
Thanks for all of the comments.
318,500 miles - 1996 Civic LX
So far it drives fine -- however ocassionally it hesitates... like one second there is power going through the engine and then the next second it loses power. Generally I just pump the clutch and give it gas and its fine.
I was going to sell it privately to see what I could get. junkmycar.com offered $350 for it without looking at it yet.
With that mileage, sell it for parts or take the $350! My wife’s 1996 Nissan Sentra has 135,000 miles on it and is is very good condition (needs nothing).
The best I can get for it is $0 wholesale (Net trade-in) and $1050 retail. But it deos not need anthing what yours needs.
My guess would be that "boat" actually means "boot". This could mean dust boot on the inner tie rod.
Whoever wrote all of that out was likely in a hurry and things such as grammarin', spellin', and any semblance of details went to the end of the line.
Seeing as how all of that stuff is of the wear and tear variety I'd just list the car for sale with a Make An Offer blurb and let any potential buyer decide for themselves.
Common sense says that a vehicle with well over 300k miles needs work and even without seeing the car myself I would bet you the laundry list of repairs will be much longer than what you list. At what point do you stop telling someone about problems and potential problems? (Timing belt for example?)
Put it on craigslist for $1000 as is. You will have it sold in an hour.