1997 Honda Civic

Civic Coupe

1.6L 4 Cylinder Gasoline Fuel

Automatic

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Front Wheel Drive

Gasoline

Adjustable Steering Wheel

We have owned this car since 1999, when it had 20,000 miles. It has been an excellent, dependable car. It is due for inspection this month and I decided I did not want to put the money into it that it needs to pass. It has been driven daily until about a month ago when I bought another vehicle. It is running very poorly and I am not sure what is wrong with it. I suspect that it is either the coil or distributor, but I just don't want to put the money into a car with such high mileage. At first, I thought maybe a valve was out so I pulled the head and everything seemed fine. I put a new head gasket on it and put it back together. I ended up messing with the plug wires and it started running right again. I drove it for a few months and the same problem came back. I just put another new set of plug wires on it but it didn't fix the problem this time. As you can see by the photos it has a few rock chips, etc., but really pretty good for the years and miles. There is no rust. Somebody apparently backed into the rear bumper. If you look close you can see the outline of a receiver hitch. There is also a door ding on the driver's side. Three of the tires are like new. One has some wear. One of the CV joints makes some noise sometimes if you take off at a sharp turn on a hill. There is also a joint or bushing that rattles on our gravel road but with the other problem, I didn't even look to see what it is. I was taking a jug of used oil to the parts store a while back and it fell over and came open in the trunk, so it is kind of an oily mess. The trunk also leaks if it is left out in heavy rain. I never did anything with it because we have always kept it inside until I quit driving it recently. Last time I got it inspected, I ended up putting a new windshield in it and some other minor things. It has the original single disc CD player and AM/FM stereo. When it is cold out, the volume control doesn't work right. Somtimes it gets louder when you try to turn it down and other times it gets quiter when you try to turn it up. In the winter I just tried to leave the volume alone and got along okay. It was really frustrating though. The passenger window works fine 99% of the time but came off track a couple times. I didn't want to get caught in the cold or rain with the window down, so I unplugged the switch. It can easily be plugged back up. That is all I can think of now. If you have questions, feel free to send a message. I will be checking for messages daily. We have loved the car. If you are mechanically inclined, I think you could put a little time into it and it would still be a good car. If Missouri didn't have this crazy safety inspection law, I would get it fixed and keep driving it. But it just needs too much before the end of this month.