Honda Civic SI 2006. Blew up on a drive back last night from central Florida. $7000 quote, which is coincidentally what that model and year are selling for right now on the used car market. Has 127,000 miles on it currently.
So, spring for it, or spend it on another individual vehicle in the same generation (2006-2011). Engine will be warrantied for 1 year and 12,000 miles, whichever comes first. Would need to rip out the custom stereo and put it into a new one, fwiw.
What might you recommend?
Back in my days, you could go to a bone yard (salvage) and they would swap an engine from a wrecked car.
Don’t know if they still do this.
I did this with an '87 Subaru, back in '98, and got another 100,000 miles out of it. Only cost $3,000. Damn good investment for me, at the time.
Can’t really say whether it’s right for you, today, but I’d certainly recommend considering it. I’ve got an '05 Ford Focus now, and, once the engine starts giving me problems, I’m planning on a new engine, not a new car. It worked well for me once!
Ten year old car… what’s the scrap value to a wrecking yard? Take the $1k and buy something else (and take better care of it… Honda engines don’t blow for no reason).
If you can get a lowish mile used engine swapped in, it might be worth it.
But I don’t think $7k for a vehicle only valued at that WITH the new engine is reasonable.
Kind of like Porsche 944s. Good ones are about $15k. An engine rebuild on one can run $14-18k. You see fewer and fewer of them around…
What is “blown” about the engine? There are still companies that will rebuild them rather than replace them.
I had a 2003 Camry engine totally rebuilt 4 years ago–$3000.
Had a 2004 Accord engine redone the top half. $1700 this year.
$7000 is crazy. Keep asking around and find someone to do it for $3-3500.
Roger on price-checking. Busy day today alas, more time tomorrow.
Yeah, a 10 year old car with 127k miles isn’t something worth putting a lot of extra money into.
The other thing to consider is the value of your own time; you could probably sell that car and invest the proceeds into something else a lot faster and with a lot less hassle than having someone swap a new engine into the old one.
The final thing to consider is that if the engine crapped out, the other car systems are probably not far off- do you know the transmission is solid? How about the cooling system? Brakes? Electrical? Suspension? 127k is in the range when stuff starts breaking due to age and wear, even on well maintained vehicles. You may well be swapping out the engine, only to suffer other breakdowns in the near future.
Ten year old CIVIC with 127K–just getting broken in.
This. Honda, Toyota, Subaru… well worth major repairs at 100k, assuming no unusual damage or conditions (e.g. no snow rust or collision damage).
OTOH, spending the vehicle’s entire equity on a repair needs judgment. Half equity, probably good move.
Here’s how I would look at it:
You can spend $X fixing your car, leaving you with a vehicle in presumably known condition (maintenance done/maintenance due, etc.) with a replaced (new? rebuilt? good used?) engine.
Or you can sell you car as is for $Y (which may not be much at all), and spend $X+Y getting a different car.
Which would you then expect to be happier with – your car fixed, or its replacement?
That strikes me as mighty high for an engine replacement. It might not be out of line for a new engine, but still…
I generally recommend replacing a bad engine with a good used one. It essentially restores the vehicle to its pre-breakdown condition. Often it will have less mileage than the original one. I gather that some shops avoid used engines because they can’t find good ones that are reasonably convenient to acquire, though I believe they could find them with a bit more effort.
I assume a new (I mean actual brand spanking new) engine would have to come from Honda and wouldn’t be cheap. There are various companies that offer rebuilt engines. Some of them have a good reputation (Jasper Engines is one), but some of them have unreliable quality and I have heard nightmare stories about shops and customers trying straighten out the mess of a poorly rebuilt engine. When it comes to used or rebuilt engines, cheaper is often not a better value. New, used, or rebuilt, I would expect the shop to have confidence in their supplier and the quality provided, and would not try to compare the price with bargains found on the internet or elsewhere.
did you miss the part about the blown up engine? and no, no car is “just getting broken in” at over 100,000 miles.
I daydream about the day that my 10 year old sub-compact throws a rod. In my dreams, I garage the car for a couple of weeks while I build a budget stroker motor on a stand, and do the swap in a couple of days. My car’s aftermarket has provided a 200 bhp recipe with off-the-shelf parts. I would bet the Civic aftermarket is even better.
Get another quote. $7k seems really high.
Me … I wouldn’t put 7 grand into a 10-year old car. I’d get another, and newer, car.
A few years ago, the replacement engine (used obviously) for my wife’s Corolla was $1200 plus $800 for installation. I wouldn’t have guessed that a Civic would have been 3 1/2 times as much.
Will call around tomorrow some more since I will have the time.
If you do go with a used or rebuilt engine, make sure the knuter valves have been tightened and reseated properly. Vanishingly few mechanics know proper knuter valve set up. And don’t let them talk you in to topping off the blinker fluid, either - it must be drained, flushed and replaced. Otherwise you risk blinkers that go “climp-clunk, climp-dimp-clunk” instead of the ever pleasing “tick-tack, tick-tack”.
All meant in fun, John! Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been there, done that with an older vehicle.
I went to eBay and searched for K20Z3, which I believe is the correct code for the '06 Si engine. Looks like good running engines are going for about $2k. I haven’t worked on any newer Hondas, but when I was into them they were VERY easy engines to swap out. I would imagine if you want to keep this car, you can make it happen for much much less than $7000.
If you have trouble finding a normal shop to do the work for a good price, maybe you can find a local place that commonly imports engines and does performance-focused Honda engine swaps, they could end up being a good bet, as they are used to swapping out engines and a straight replacement like this (ie no changes like when swapping out an engine from a different car) would likely be easy as pie for them.