Is it too late to take good care of my car now?
 

Hey,
Just wondering if it is too late to take good care of my car now after it has been abused by the previous owner.

Not that the previous owner drove the car like a madman, just the fact that he doesnt know how to take care of the engine and tranny.

There was around 150,000km on the civic when I first got it. Previous owner hardly ever tuned up this car, dude didn't even know there was manual tranny fluid to be replaced every so often. He probably averaged 1 oil change every like 30,000km!

Has this done a lot of damage to the engine and tranny already?

yes, it is a good idea to take good care of a car

only way to tell if its badly damaged the engine is to drive it so u can know for yourslef. We cant just assume it runs like crap after that

u tell us how is the car?
give it a good tune up, and start taking care of it...
no point to continue the abuse...

Why the hell did you buy it in the first place?

Start taking care of it. It will run better after you take care of it. Run some premium gas and rev it up to clean some gunk/carbon out. Keep ontop of the Fluid's and NEVER NEVER NEVER gun it when its cold. I hate people that do that.

Sounds like a plan! Well I got it thinking I was gonna do an engine swap right away.

I mean the body is in great shape, very clean and plus i got a good deal as well.

You can always rebuild the engine....

well maybe later when i have money, ill swap a b16 in. right now there's close to 170,000km. I've started taking good care of it since i got it, I want to drive it till 250,000km.

Run a can of Seafoam through it to clean out all the crap. Maybe even start using that high mileage oil. It's supposed to be just as good as synthetic, but formulated for older engines.

lol that's what im using now! =)

alright thx for the advices!

but y woudl u buy it if it was beaten liek a bitch

i hope you din fork out a whole lot for it...
was previous owner like hey wanna buy my ride, i drove it like a bitch and never took car of it...

i've got a 96.. 170,000Km on it, runs perfect, frequent oil changes, treatments, and tune ups...

but the seafoam is a good idea and i reccomend it b4 ur next tune up as spark plugs will need to be changed... i wouldn't mind doing the seafoam...

i started taking care of my car after i got it. it had 270k on it. i used seafoam, oil changes every 4k, changed spark plugs, tranny fluid, anti freeze flush, and plan to change the oil filter and wires soon. right now it runs like a champ :thumbup: and doesn't burn nearly as much oil as it did before i seafoamed it. it also runs a lot smoother too from the first day i drove it.

my 98 dx hatch has 320,000km ,doesn't burn oil or leak runs like new

it was my dad's friend who practically gave me the car for $3000 and it past emissions and was certified. So I couldnt say no to that offer when these 98 dx hatchs were going for $5000-6000 on autotrader.

I'm just glad he was honest bout the car and how it was treated rather than him bsing me like all car dealerships. So far this car runs fine and has no problems at all!

BTW, do you use seaform after an oil change?

in fact, how you use seafoam?

ok well you get one bottle from car quest. they're like 15 bucks. you put 1/3 into vacuum line. feed it slowly and everytime when it's about to choke ease off on it. it helps to have a friend revving it. once the 1/3 is in, shut the car off. put 1/3 into crankcase and the other 1/3 into gas tank. wait 5 mins, then go for a spirited drive and see that baby smoke! you should have a friend take a pic of you rolling off the driveway then gunning it down the street just for kicks because there will be A LOT of smoke. it's easy but scary at first because i heard mixed things about sea foaming high mileage engines. overall my engine runs much smoother now and doesn't burn nearly as much oil. and you seafoam BEFORE an oil change. i changed my oil after and had chunks of bits in the oil which is a good sign i guess? i hope that helps.

Alright, where's the vacuum line and crankcase? Definitely gonna try it out.