1989 Honda CRX

Hatchback

1.5L 1493CC l4 GAS SOHC Naturally Aspirated

Manual

JHMED8363KS021018

Clear

For bid, Rare 1989 Honda CRX HF in mostly original condition with 237,000 mi with A/C and Cruise! Been a good, very reliable car, I just need something bigger. There is no car out there that will be cheaper to own than this one! Rust free southwestern car. Honda did not make many of this model, and of those few that still exist, most have been stripped and hot-rodded, since they were the lightest model Honda made. Let me make one thing clear: this is a cheap, tinny, noisy, underpowered, crappy-riding, stripper of a car that is made for one thing only, squeezing the most mpg out of a car at the cost of ALL luxury! It has the weird, super tall 5-speed manual gears that make it not a very good city commuter (you work 3rd, 4th, & 5th gears when you get into the hills on the hwy). Now the fuel economy, it will pull some impressive number IF, and only if, you really baby the throttle. Have a lead foot, or get into some hills on the hwy, and it is like any other Honda Civic. On my country road commute to work, I average about 43mpg. Typical city is about 38. On a flat hwy doing 60-65 I have gotten 50mpg out of it. As you can imagine, the fueling is very lean, especially in the first third of throttle, you can feel some lean surging, but it is not a problem as long as you tip in the throttle fairly slowly. Now all that said, it is a fairly good cornering car, it can carry a surprising amount of cargo, and easily cruises at 80mpg on flat highway. It scoots around town fairly easily, it's just no hot rod at 62hp. The engine: the previous owner said that the original engine (the 8-valve one) blew a head gasket at around 165k, so he put in a JDM (direct from Japan) D15B 16-valve motor, basically a DX model motor. It now has about 70k miles on it. It has been converted back to an 8-valve motor by removing 1/2 the rocker arms and putting spacers in thier place. This is necessary with the stock PM8 ECU and to get it to run like it should. Neat thing about this set-up is that in about 100k miles, if you want a free valve job, just switch all the rockers and spacers around and use the other set of valves. Tranny: has the original 5-speed with the super tall 2.95 diff gears. About 30k mi ago, I pulled it apart and gave it a full overhaul, new bearings and seals (gears and sync's were great). A/C: making this car ever rarer still, I adapted on an A/C system off of a DX model (the HF never had A/C). I made my own elec circuit with a theromostat and a switch that turns off the condensor fans in 5th gear to save a bit of wear on them. I would call the system mediocre, it works good on the hwy, but gets hot easily in stop-n-go traffic. It also leaks a can and a half of 134 a year, so you need to keep it topped off. (probably leaks at the compressor body seals, all the tubing o-rings are new). A/C robs at least 5mpg and most of what little power it has left over. Cruise: I also add on an aftermarket cruise control system. It works really good as long as the hwy is fairly flat. The Good: New parts in the last 60k miles: Windshield, fuel pump, front axle shafts, timing belt, waterpump, rear round taillight conversion kit, seats re-upolstered, new Brembo brake rotors, radiator, OX sensor, alternator. Rear tires are at about 75%, Alpine CD-MP3 player head unit. Dash relatively good for its age (I always cover it with a shade when outside), a few small cracks, + plus 4 screw holes left by a previous owner repaired. Very light duty hitch (I only pulled a small single dirt bike trailer) 13" alloy wheels The Bad: Paint is shot. Carpets fair, Door panels fair (taped over at the top). Windshield wiper stalk broke off, there is a screw stuck in there to work it (operates the same), Windshield washer stuff is there, just never re-connected. Looks like it took a very minor hit on the left front fender: some small cracks on the bumper fascia, outer fender has been replaced, but inner fender pushed down at the front about 1/4", corner light is not the correct one. Structure underneath is straight. Front tires are about 25% (these pee-wee 13s are cheap to buy) Crinkle at rear of drivers door, but rest of car is mostly ding free. I will throw in some miscellanous spare parts: distributer, blower motor & housing, new rear brake shoes, alternate tailight panels, manuals in pdf format. Buyer is responsible for shipping. Cash only upon pickup.