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800,000+ miles and still going strong

659720 Views 1834 Replies 633 Participants Last post by  MaXpeedingRods
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Mileage update: Feb 11, 2011
600,447 miles


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I have a 2006 Honda Civic LX sedan 5spd manual, I purchased it used from a local Honda dealer with 22,000 miles on the odometer on 05/26/2007.

It's currently at 203,284 miles, mostly interstate/parkway at 75 mph (occasional 110 + mph) but it still has a lot of city miles as well. Over 90% of the miles were with cargo in the trunk and back seat (rear seat cushion removed for extra height) comparable to 2 passengers in the back.

When I first purchased the car I was getting around 42 mpg but then sometime down the road it dropped to it's current average of 34 mpg (I have no idea why it dropped).

Sometime in June of 2007 I hit a separated tire tread form a semi that was coiled in the middle of the road (newly paved - black) in the middle of the night at approximately 75 mph, it felt like I hit a dog -- it did over $3,000 in damage: front bumper tore in two (replaced), A/C condenser destroyed (replaced), kinked A/C line (replaced), washer reservoir cracked (replaced), passenger side sway bar bracket on lower control arm bent (Dealership actually said the sway bar itself was bent, body shop said otherwise -- bracket was just bent back into place), and internal gearing of the steering rack was damaged (replaced rack assembly).

A deer ran into the passenger side of the car while I was doing about 60 mph. It shattered the rear view mirror glass (absolutely no damage to the housing or the housing paint) and put a good size dent in the rear quarter panel (no damage to the paint).

An oncoming car was across the center line on a curvy back road, our rear view mirrors hit (thank god that's all the contact our cars made) shattering the mirror glass but again, absolutely no damage to the housing or housing paint (these f#ckers are built :p)

Paint is in superb condition, no cracks, chips, or fading. Windshield is another story, countless chips and a half circle crack in the upper passenger side (g*d [email protected] dump trucks!!!!!). Factory tint (at least I believe it's factory tint) is in mint condition, no peeling or bubbling. Interior is mint expect for shoe scuff marks on the passenger dash board thanks to my fiance and the silver paint is wearing off of my shift knob. There's no fading of the plastic and the upholstery is still in mint condition.

I have always used Mobile 1 full synthetic 5w20 motor oil with a K&N hp-1010 oil filter, I change the oil approximately 1,000 miles past the maintenance minder. I've just recently started using Lucas oil stabilizer. The only parts I've replaced have been the spark plugs (NGK laser iridiums at 80,000 miles), Duralast Gold - lifetime warranty :p - front brake pads at 120,000 and 180,000 miles (it's impossible to find rear shoes that actually fit from any of the local auto parts stores, they were all too wide -- you can get them from Honda, but they're $15 a piece), Tokico shocks/struts at 180,000 miles (absolutely love them -- still have factory springs though, but plan to drop it with Eibach Sportlines and Skunk2 control arms), and got the rear upper control arms replaced under warranty (new alignment specs) at 190,000 miles (they paid for labor and parts, I had to pay for the alignment) I think the car looks much better with practically zero rear camber, and I love the way it handles now. I have not replaced any belts or hoses yet but will replace them soon along with a coolant and brake flush, new full synthetic gear oil and full synthetic Lucas oil stabilizer for the manual tranny, and a valve clearance adjustment (slight ticking at idle). The engine burns about half a quart of oil per oil change (has always done this since I bought it). Other than the ticking at idle, the engine is silent but idle is a bit rough (I think I need to get the idle speed adjusted -- anyone know how to do this, or should I just have the shop do it?). The factory clutch is still holding strong with no noises from the bearings or tranny.

I absolutely love this car and have had no other problems that I can think of at this time. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
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First of all, what an amazing talk you guys are having here!

exactly one year ago I bought a 2007 Honda Civic, manual, and it has just got 150k km (around 94k miles). I was worried about how much longer I could drive my blue baby, but now I know that keeping this pace of 8k mi por year I’ll be dead and the car still have life to go! Incredible relatability!

Best regards from Brazil!
Atenciosamente e boa sorte!
It's funny about the R18, some people like the OP and EdNaviEx go 100's of 1,000's of miles on the original engine but then a few don't even make it 100K miles before the block just cracks.
My opinion though is if any car makes it to 200K on the original engine and trans, they got their money's worth from the car.

Back on page 11 I think, there are photos of the damage. Turns out there was just some piece of metal jammed between the starter pinion and the flywheel, which had locked up the engine.

Kind of reminds me of the time I replaced the water pump on my 95 Corolla. I had almost everything apart (pretty much everything on the top and side of the engine has to be removed, including the timing belt) and why was there coolant leak? Some stupid clamp connecting a hose to the water pump had come loose and I didn't think to check it.
So, a repair that could have taken four minutes ended up taking like four hours, not including a minor complication that happened after all was said and done.

Funny how sometimes we get real deep into a job just to find out it was something simple. Who the hell would even suspect that a tiny piece of crap would be stuck in the starter gear though?

I guess one must rule out even the silliest possibilities when thing mess up.
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I WANT to say the way the car is driven has some bearing on it the block fails. My car normally doesn't go past 3,000rpm and I'm very gentle with it. Beside religious maintenance (oil/filter/ATF/etc), my rig has been good to me. I'm eyeing changing the thermostat and MAYBE the water pump. Jury still is out on that. Yes, they are original.
Hard to say if the cracked blocks were driven hard. Of course for some odd reason, these younger guys get into a Honda Civic and suddenly Dale Earnhardt's spirit wants to take over.
I would think a rod would be thrown rather than a cracked block but who knows.

I'm eyeing changing the thermostat and MAYBE the water pump. Jury still is out on that. Yes, they are original.
The thermostat is easy enough, I did it on mine recently because it was not closing properly. During warm weather it would raise 9 marks on the gauge but come winter it was maybe 4 or 5 usually. Back to 9 now though.

The water pump though - you are probably well aware of the difficulties some people have had with that stupid pivot bolt on the tensioner.
I would say if you decide to do the water pump yourself and before it fails, maybe buy the tools like a few 8 mm hex bits, drill bits designed to drill into hard metal (have them at Home Depot and probably other stores), tap, new bolt, etc just in case the worst happens and you have to drill out the old one. Of course budget plenty of time.
You may get lucky and it will come out without much hassle but do not count on it.

If I ever have to do the water pump on mine, I am going to plan as if that bolt will break.

If you can easily afford to have a shop do it (probably $500 or more), maybe go that route.
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Hard to say if the cracked blocks were driven hard. Of course for some odd reason, these younger guys get into a Honda Civic and suddenly Dale Earnhardt's spirit wants to take over.
I would think a rod would be thrown rather than a cracked block but who knows.



The thermostat is easy enough, I did it on mine recently because it was not closing properly. During warm weather it would raise 9 marks on the gauge but come winter it was maybe 4 or 5 usually. Back to 9 now though.

The water pump though - you are probably well aware of the difficulties some people have had with that stupid pivot bolt on the tensioner.
I would say if you decide to do the water pump yourself and before it fails, maybe buy the tools like a few 8 mm hex bits, drill bits designed to drill into hard metal (have them at Home Depot and probably other stores), tap, new bolt, etc just in case the worst happens and you have to drill out the old one. Of course budget plenty of time.
You may get lucky and it will come out without much hassle but do not count on it.

If I ever have to do the water pump on mine, I am going to plan as if that bolt will break.

If you can easily afford to have a shop do it (probably $500 or more), maybe go that route.
Good to know! The thermostat looks easy to do, although mine isn't "doing" anything. Same with the water pump. Then again, they are original. Some say to leave it alone, others say to replace them for good piece of mind.
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Same with the water pump. Then again, they are original. Some say to leave it alone, others say to replace them for good piece of mind.
The thermostat is a little trickier than it looks but isn't horrible. Of course it was like 15 F degrees out when I did mine so that didn't help matters.

I do not remember if your car has 2 or 300 K on the clock.

My opinion though is if it isn't broke, do not fix it.

Anyone who has ever fixed anything knows - when you start digging into something, it possibly invites other problems that would not have come up otherwise.

Also I do not know if this applies to our Gen 8's but some water pumps have a weep hole that will start leaking if the pump is on it's way out.

Yeah, "weep hole". Sounds like it could be the name of an adult entertainment webpage. ANYways...
Yep, i have 300K on the clock. I've drained and filled the engine coolant like 2x now, pretty sure it's due about now. I'm going to have to go over my records to verify. If I tackle this (thermos), it WILL be nice out, I hate wrenching when it's cold out.

Pretty sure our cars have a weep hole.................. that does seem strange typing that............ LOL.
The water pumps do have a weep hole at the bottom. It should've been called something else different lmao.
Some replacement pumps do not have one for whatever reason.
My 95 Corolla, I had to replace the pump and the new one from O'reiley did not. At one point I thought it was leaking again so I swapped it under warranty and that one DOES have it.
Thing is, on the Corolla when the pump was going out, it was just a real small leak.

My room mate's 2000 Bonneville water pump had one and it leaked BAD before I replaced the pump. One day it was mostly fine and the next it was making huge puddles and going through a gallon of coolant every three days.

When the pump fails on the Gen 8 civic, I wonder how bad it leaks?
LOL, I don't want to find out the hard way. With my luck, I'll be 3 hours away when the weeper starts to badly leak. Yep, don't need that..................

The first sign of seepage, the water pump is out. What's good about them is they "tell you" when things are about to "get interesting".
LOL, I don't want to find out the hard way. With my luck, I'll be 3 hours away when the weeper starts to badly leak. Yep, don't need that..................

The first sign of seepage, the water pump is out. What's good about them is they "tell you" when things are about to "get interesting".
Once it overheats, the engine block will take a ****. Any signs of coolant leakage not coming from the block has to be addressed immediately in my terms.
Totally hear ya. Once someone lets the block overheat, it's lights out. Unfortunately, I randomly look at my temp gauge, I guess time to pay attention to it.
Totally hear ya. Once someone lets the block overheat, it's lights out. Unfortunately, I randomly look at my temp gauge, I guess time to pay attention to it.
I don't really pay attention to it either unless I push it hard. I hope I never have to see the temp gauge go higher than usual on my car lol.
I WANT to say the way the car is driven has some bearing on it the block fails. My car normally doesn't go past 3,000rpm and I'm very gentle with it. Beside religious maintenance (oil/filter/ATF/etc), my rig has been good to me. I'm eyeing changing the thermostat and MAYBE the water pump. Jury still is out on that. Yes, they are original.
I would think that the constant expansion and contraction caused by thermal cycling (both metal and coolant) would be a more likely cause than being driven hard. My last Civic, which I suspect had minor cracks but never verified, would leak a little bit every night in the winter but not in the summer. It also was originally an Ohio car - I wonder if northern cars fail more than Southern?
Wow, this is really awesome , you are such an amazing guy.
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