Advice greatly needed...

[87DXHatch]

I am having doubts about the future of my car. I need as much advice as you all can give me. Here's the deal:

I loved my car when I bought it... I still do, in some respects. But lately it has been giving me so much trouble I don't know what to do.

1. The transmission. I just have this feeling that this isn't going to last. It does so many weird things that I have never experienced before that it just can't last... these things include hard shifting, random "kickdowns", sometimes a little less than 3 second wait between shifting it into D4 and it actually engaging, and sometimes it seems to slip out of gear if I go around a corner at like 20 mph and then step on the gas.

2. The carb. EASILY my biggest headache. EASILY. The cold idle circuit doesn't work right, it is prone to revving rediculously high when I've been driving it for a while, and... I just hate it. This having higher revs I think may have contributed to problem #1. But it has never failed to start or failed to get me where I needed to go... it's just that the transmission paid the price once in a while.

Other than these two things, I love the car. The suspension needs a little work but it is still pretty "tight" it just lets a lot of the bumps in the road come through. The car is in next to perfect cosmetic condition too...

So here's my delimma:

I have an 85 Prelude that is pretty much mine. It has about 190k on it and it overall is in pretty crappy looking condition, but it runs ok, save a faulty distributor...oh and a ton of little things wrong, mostly cosmetics. However, it has a perfect shifting transmission, that is a direct bolt on. BUT... I don't know anyone to remove the transmission from it or help me do it. I want to put out like an ad or something saying "If you remove the transmission, you can keep the car" sort of thing but I don't know how to go about doing that.

As for my carbeurator... I know, you are going to say "Go to the junkyard and grab some carbs and try them all" Well this simply is not at all practical for a 17-year-old student. The closest junk yard with 3gees is like 40 miles away and I wouldn't know where to start, being the first in my family to try to do anything myself (my parent's don't even change their own oil). The local (80 miles away) Honda dealership said that it might be the base gasket of the carb that is faulty... a part that would cost about $200 labor included for them to fix. I am seriously considering this.

The second option, beyond fixing these two major things, is to just say "to hell with the car" and get another car, preferably a white with blue interior 89 Lxi Hatchback , or another Honda.

Limiting me in these decisions is the almighty dollar. With my next check I would have about $300... not nearly enough to get a transmission installed at a shop. I think I would have to take a loan out for that... And I don't know about removing the tranny from the Prelude, either...

So what should I do????? What would YOU do???

I have until November to make a decision about the Prelude because that's when the ordinance kicks in making it so you can't park on the street. So I am starting to get a little stressed.

Please, ANY advice would be appreciated, I just need a few different opinions this. (And sorry for the long long post, I just needed to include as much as I could)

[Neuspeed87lx]

if you had the money i would go out and get an 89 lxi 2 door....fuel injected .... if you dont have much money i would rebuild the carb yourself...thats what i did..i didnt have enough money to have someone fix it and not nearly enough for a new car ...so i went out and got a carb rebuild kit and a bottle of carb cleaner ..total about 20 bucks ..took all those hoses off the carb (marked them carefully) and got the carb out ...blew air threw all the hoses and cleaned it up all good and re installed it on the car and it purrs like a kitten now ..it wasnt to hard ...it was kinda time consuming though...if you keep your current 3g i would just drive it till the tranny goes..then replace it with mabey a 5spd

[bigpoppa88]

Don't sweat about changing the carb....it sounds harder than it really is. Get the used carb, then give yourself like 3 hours tops to do the job. Sure there are a lot of hoses/wires just concentrate and label them if you have to or if you have a digital camera take a bunch of pic's before hand from different angles to reference as you go along. I stalled at changing my carb all summer and finally did it, once you put the other one on all the hoses seem to want to just fall back where they were anyways. Seems monumental, at least it did for me, but it was ok and then you can refer to yourself as a gearhead! Besides if it doesn't turn out (it will) you'll end up getting it done from someone else anyways ...

[87DXHatch]

well... actually, my friend's dad could be a big huge help in changing a carb, considering he builds hot rods for fun, knows a bunch about carbs, and is aching for work right now...

How do I know if the carb is good or not? How much should I pay if I pull it myself? How much should I pay if I have to let the people at the junkyard do it?

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Hmmm, most lenders won't lend to anyone below 18. I don't know if you can get a loan from "bank of mom and dad"
My first choice would be to get a new accord. Then I'd look into fixing the one I have. If I didn't have a messed up back I've offer to go to a junk yard for you and pull a carb, but I can't. I will say that pulling a carb from the junk yard would be a good experience for you and would help you to be able to better put it in.

[Toby]

get a new 3rd gen Accord, 89 2 door sounds nice

[87DXHatch]

I would LOVE to get a fuel injected accord... but it's all about the moolah. Another issue is parking space. We have a two car garage with limited area around it. My parent's cars go in there. And my mom has specifically said she doesn't want the yard to become a "junk yard" of cars.

So I would need to find someplace to park my current 3gee when I got the other... and even then, after I get my current one fixed, what would I do with two??

As for a loan, it would probably come from the bank, but with my parents co-signing. That's how my friend took out a $6500 loan for a 97 Saturn. Maybe I could get something out of them... I don't know.

I am seriously considering this carb swap thing. I am going to call the junk yard tomorrow to see if THEY pull the part or if I do. Then I will talk to my friend's dad and do the swap Friday or Saturday.

Could someone give me an estimate on how much a used carb would cost me? Also, no one has answered how I know if the carb from the junkyard is good or not. Aren't they usually going to be ruined from un-stabilized fuel being left in them?

I really want to keep my current car because I have done quite a bit on the car audio side of things, and it's a hatch... great car audio environment.

Thanks so much for the replys so far, keep 'em coming!

[Neuspeed87lx]

there is really no way of telling if the carb is gona work from the junkyard....you just gona have to put it on and see ...before going threw the trouble of mabey getting a bad carb from the junkyard...try rebuilding the carb you have now yourself..its not hard

[87DXHatch]

Well I have some good news! Today my friend told me that his dad would totally do the transmission swap for me! Granted it will still cost me a few hundred, probably, but this is really nice. And an added bonus is that he is out of work right now so I might have a Prelude transmission in my car as early as Friday!! Good thing too... my transmission is just getting worse and worse.

Maybe I will look into that carb rebuild kit... where can you get one from? Somehow I just remember someone on here saying a while back that they weren't worth it... I dunno, I have yet to come to a conclusion about what I am going to do with my carb.

But thanks so much for all the advice everyone, I really needed some new viewpoints on this

[Neuspeed87lx]

you can get the re build kits from autozone ...or most local car places around you ... . it was worth it in my case...my car ran like crap before i did the rebuild ..now it runs like a honda should

[87DXHatch]

Define crap, please? I just want to know what the difference was, from before to now.

[Neuspeed87lx]

idled weird ...spuddered ...after rebuilding it ...the car started better, it felt smother idled much better, better responce

[87DXHatch]

The only thing is that I have NO experience with anything like this... I wouldn't know where to start... how long did it take you? How much mechanical experience did you have going into it? How comprehensive are the instructions?

Thanks!

[Neuspeed87lx]

well there was no instructions really ... and i had no experience when i did this ..if you do it just take your time ...when you dissconnect a hose ...mark the hose and where you dissconnected it from, make sure you mark everything ..it will make reinstalation much easier...after the carb is out there are some screws holding the sections of the carb together...just take it apart and replace all the gaskets that the rebuild kit comes with ...spray carb cleaner everywhere ... wipe all the crud out.....blow air threw holes to get dirt and stuff outa holdes..put the carb itself back together ...throw it back into the car and connect all the hoses.... i didnt have much time when i did mine so i only got to work on it about an hour a day and it took me like a week ...so about 5 hours

[87DXHatch]

Can anybody else second this idea? It sounds quite a bit cheaper than any other route... maybe I could get my friend's dad to help me with this too? I dunno.... goodness, I gotta come up with a decision pretty soon, though.

[87DXHatch]

The only thing is that I have NO experience with anything like this... I wouldn't know where to start... how long did it take you? How much mechanical experience did you have going into it? How comprehensive are the instructions?

Thanks!

[87DXHatch]

Define crap, please? I just want to know what the difference was, from before to now.

[87DXHatch]

Ummm... I have no idea why it reposted what I wrote again... could a moderator delete those please?

I am going to call around today and get some pricing on carb rebuild kits, junkyard carbs, and whatnot.