[spadix]

I had grounded the car for 5 weeks - didn't even start it once - because of the whole sun film ban issue.

Anyway, today I removed the film and in the process, had to park the car the other way for a few mins to sun-bake windows on the shady side. The car started in one crank. The engine idled as smoothly as ever. I didn't raise the revs at all. Let the car idle for a minute first, then stopped it, and then started it again for the actual parking manoeuvre. A known car driver back home advised this for cars that have been grounded for a long while. The engine bay area was clean, as were the battery terminals.

The only issue is what seems to be a coating of rust on the front left brake disc. Perhaps it's there on the other discs too, didn't check. I hope it goes away after a few rounds of braking and doesn't develop into something really serious.

Don't know whether I should be surprised to see rust in bone-dry Gurgaon, or whether I shouldn't be surprised to see rust in humid due to trickle-rain and not much wind in Gurgaon. Or whether I'm just confusing the brown dust so typical of the kind that raises up and blows around here every evening with rust. It definitely didn't go away when I lightly wiped the disc with my fingers, and the colour of the deposit was definitely more rusty than dusty.

Regards,
spadix

[sgiitk]

@spadix; discs are cast iron, so rust on 'not in use' condition is normal. It will wear off in a jiffy once you drive the car a bit.

[ramanak]

Car had 2 big incidents of bottoming out under full load.1st incident on an offroad stretch at Sasan Gir on a rock (tried to maneouvre over the smallest pieces of the lot but alas) and other on a diversion on Rajkot -Ahmedabad stretch. Both incidents gave big screeching noise much more than anything I heard before. Car seems to be holding up. No Dents or leakages.Fingers crossed.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by ramanak

Car had 2 big incidents of bottoming out under full load.1st incident on an offroad stretch at Sasan Gir on a rock (tried to maneouvre over the smallest pieces of the lot but alas) and other on a diversion on Rajkot -Ahmedabad stretch. Both incidents gave big screeching noise much more than anything I heard before. Car seems to be holding up. No Dents or leakages.Fingers crossed.

Don't worry about it. Mine had an almighty body length scrape when I was forced off the Nahargarh ghat road near Jaipur by a tourist bus on a tight curve. It was so bad that a Sumo cabbie behind said bus grimaced hard on hearing the sound.

The G-CON shell is solid metal underneath.

The exposed bits are as follows -

1. Engine, specifically oil sump and AC condenser. There is a big double-layered rubber splash guard just behind the front bumper which will prevent most mud, slush, dust, pebbles and stones but isn't 100% effective for our conditions (Professor can attest to this).
2. Steering and suspension bits and bobs
3. Exhaust assembly
4. Fuel tank

A scrape of the kind you have mentioned will usually not affect 1. and 4., and also *most* of 2. and 3. You need to ensure that there's no sharp protrusion or boulder or hard earth bang in the centre of the wheel track that you're driving over. Even if you do, the front bumper will catch it before any of the exposed bits.

As long as you don't see anything leaking, or you don't hear the sound of something dragging underneath the car, and all the tell-tale indicators and car's behaviour is normal, you'll be fine. The car is built tougher than those bad scraping sounds suggest. I've been through so many of those now that it hardly matters.

Regards,
spadix

[sandeep108]

Anyone has any experience with Bosch wipers? I have been replacing the wiper rubber blades by Honda, but they last only few months and tend to 'chatter' after few weeks. So am fed up of this silly cycle and thinking of changing to Bosch.

[manim]

Originally Posted by spadix

The car is built tougher than those bad scraping sounds suggest. I've been through so many of those now that it hardly matters.

+1 to this, I have been through many bad scraping/knocks, and during every 5K service personally check the under-body after it is lifted. Though there are some tell-tale dents, there are absolutely no functional problems so far.

[ramanak]

Returned this morning to Bangalore after a 4966 KM trip covering Gujarat (Sasan Gir, Dwarka,Ahmedabad, Somnath),Rajasthan (Udaipur), Maharashtra(Shirdi).Car gave a flawless performance throughout the trip (including about 3 km of off-roading at Sasan Gir and Near Off-roading just before Dhule in some horrible village roads which had to be ventured into due to a massive traffic jam on NH6).Car took a lot of bottom scraping and hits but never broke down (Will examine the damages at HASS shortly and report findings). Thanks for all the inputs regarding precautions before the journey. This gave me the confidence of doing most the drives in night time.

[Tempelhof]

Not sure if this is discussed before...

What's the prognosis for a Civic?

How long into the future can one keep and maintain the car? (well after Honda stops production and servicing).

What's the long-term outlook?

Some details: My Civic (1.8 MT V) is about 4 years old now, run about 40K kms, and is flawless now) - the question is, how long can I maintain this car this way? 10 years? 15 years?

Is it worthwhile keeping this car for a very, very long time?

Thanks in advance.

[sandeep108]

I am in my 6th year and feel I have no issues keeping the car for at least another 4 years. I yet do not see much signs of corrosion (I stay near the sea) thanks to Wurth anti-corrosion (including door panels) done at the time of delivery, which is most important for me. Since Honda has not yet upgraded the model in any major way, parts ought not to be an issue for at least 4-5 more years.

I do get tempted by some of the new germans, but a few horror stories allow me to feel good about my old car and keep my money invested.

[nair]

Originally Posted by manim

+1 to this, I have been through many bad scraping/knocks, and during every 5K service personally check the under-body after it is lifted. Though there are some tell-tale dents, there are absolutely no functional problems so far.

I once did a trip of about 280 kms from Kannur to Kakkanad over monsoon devastated Kerala roads with 3 heavy baggage's in the boot and 5 adults. Needless to say there was lot of scraping no matter how careful I was. I took the car for service the very next day and asked him to check the under-body. The SA told me everything was fine. Additionally he said not to worry to much about scraping the middle and back portions of the car. He said that hitting/scraping at the front portion of the car will be much more serious as, I quote him "There is a lot of hot pipes at the front, which can burst if you scrape the front portion". I am not sure if that is true, maybe the experts here can throw some light. But in my experience, I have never scraped the front portion of the car no matter how bad the bump/road. The scraping seems to begin from just behind the front seats. Have scraped the bottom end too once but that could have been avoided, it was my mistake.

Originally Posted by ramanak

Car gave a flawless performance throughout the trip (including about 3 km of off-roading at Sasan Gir and Near Off-roading just before Dhule in some horrible village roads which had to be ventured into due to a massive traffic jam on NH6)

3 km of off-roading?? Every 3 months I take the car to my native place where the last few 100 meters is the hardened red sand with rocks of varying sizes scattered. My heart will be in mouth the entire time and I even get down and move rocks out of the way if necessary. I can imagine how you must have felt those 3 loooooong kms.

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by spadix

I had grounded the car for 5 weeks - didn't even start it once - because of the whole sun film ban issue.

Same here. My Civic has been on cold storage for the last 4-5 weeks due to the same reason and I still haven't found the time to crank the engine in the last 2 weeks. Managing with my Esteem (with sun film removed, of course) and my Unicorn. Hoping for some respite once the Supreme Court is back from its holidays.

[manim]

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

How long into the future can one keep and maintain the car? (well after Honda stops production and servicing).

Is it worthwhile keeping this car for a very, very long time?

I plan to keep mine for at-least 10 years/2+ lakh kms.

I estimate that there will be NO major problems for 10 years from my previous experience with the 1999 Honda-City-1.5 (It started getting problems in the seventh year, I sold it after eight years at 1,26,000 kms). One reason was that I had tampered with headlights, music-system, horn, etc during its life-time (I was younger then!).

Now I am keeping my Civic 100% stock and it is 100% self-driven and mostly on highways. Also I think the Civic is much more modern technology compared to the OHC.

But if reliability becomes an issue for long drives with family, I might consider dumping it for a new Civic!

I also remember reading somewhere that Honda will stock/manufacture spares/parts for at-least 10 years after a model is discontinued.

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

What's the prognosis for a Civic?
What's the long-term outlook?
Is it worthwhile keeping this car for a very, very long time?

Civic, for that matter Honda is known for their reliability or longevity.
They upgrade the generations and mostly do not stop or withdraw a model.

A very practical reference is the US and European market, where in multiple generations of the Civic can be seen running in significant numbers.
Having maintained a 6th generation accord there, personally, there was no instance of any maintenance issues or part shortages.

Easily the Civic's can last 10-15 years, especially at the hands of petrol heads

[Tempelhof]

Originally Posted by sandeep108

I am in my 6th year and feel I have no issues keeping the car for at least another 4 years.

Originally Posted by manim

I plan to keep mine for at-least 10 years/2+ lakh kms.

Also I think the Civic is much more modern technology compared to the OHC.

I also remember reading somewhere that Honda will stock/manufacture spares/parts for at-least 10 years after a model is discontinued.

Originally Posted by sarathlal

Civic, for that matter Honda is known for their reliability or longevity.
They upgrade the generations and mostly do not stop or withdraw a model.

A very practical reference is the US and European market, where in multiple generations of the Civic can be seen running in significant numbers.
Having maintained a 6th generation accord there, personally, there was no instance of any maintenance issues or part shortages.

Easily the Civic's can last 10-15 years, especially at the hands of petrol heads

Thanks all. My biggest concern was parts (unlike in the US, where I do see lots of old Civic variants still running).

I always send my car to the HASS; are there other steps that I need to take to keep the car for 15 years or so?

[gaurav_diavolo]

Ditto, me too shall keep it till 200000 kms.....it has currently done 65000. I doubt the engine will ditch like my Ford Ikon.