3 wheels in the grave?

[wombosi]

i have a '94 civic dx.

it's BADLY rusted and will never pass inspection this february.

recently on turns it's been making a sort of terrible hollow knocking noise, first only on left turns in the back, then the front, now on right turns in the right wheels as well.

is this a wheel bearing thing? axle? what else could go wrong?

the question is, is it even worth looking into repairing, or should i just drive this old mule into the ground for the next few months (like i've been doing).

the engine runs beautifully with about 156K on it.

sell it on ebay for parts? try to fix up the rust and whatever is making the noise?

the body along the right side where the little black strip used to be is completely hollowed out. you can give it a little tap with your foot and huge chunks of the body will fall right off. pretty disconcerting.

thanks.

[FritzR]

All FWD car's front axles will eventually start making a clacking sound on turns when the CV joints wear out. If you are mechanicaly inclined you could probably get rebuilt axles for about $75 a piece and install them yourself. If you have them done you are probably looking at $300 minimum.

If they start making noise when you are going straight they need to be replaced now. I've driven a couple of Corollas for 50K miles with the axles clacking and never had a problem. As for the knocking in the rear maybe you mistaked it for the front. Give all the wheels a good shaking to see if there is any play. Check the boots both ends of the axles for rips. Don't just replace the boots. It's not worth it.

[wombosi]

Originally Posted by FritzR

All FWD car's front axles will eventually start making a clacking sound on turns when the CV joints wear out. If you are mechanicaly inclined you could probably get rebuilt axles for about $75 a piece and install them yourself. If you have them done you are probably looking at $300 minimum.

If they start making noise when you are going straight they need to be replaced now. I've driven a couple of Corollas for 50K miles with the axles clacking and never had a problem. As for the knocking in the rear maybe you mistaked it for the front. Give all the wheels a good shaking to see if there is any play. Check the boots both ends of the axles for rips. Don't just replace the boots. It's not worth it.

thanks.
a few months ago when i replaced the front brake pads i notice that one of the boots had a gaping rip it in. my friend and i just duck-taped it as a temporary fix and i had forgotten about it.

do you think i can get the car to pass inspection? if i can't, then there's no reason to replace the boots, cv joints, axles, whatever.

peace.

[FritzR]

In California there is no inspection except smog so I have no idea

[wombosi]

Originally Posted by FritzR

In California there is no inspection except smog so I have no idea

i think technically over here there should be no holes as a result of rust. i basically have a 10th of my body missing from rust, and the rest about to turn into dust.

so i dunno.

that's one great thing about cali.

here they do seatbelts, ebrake, all electrical stuff, tires, brakes, wipers, horn, the whole nine yards. a royal pain in the *** for most folks.

[mrmad]

I don't think anyone here can really answer the question whether to get rid of your car or not. You know how bad the car is and your financial situation. I personally think that parting a car would would be a PAI - taking it apart, storing the parts, posting the ads, and then shipping a bunch of items.

Since your engine is in good condition, you might consider looking for a shell. You might get a rolling chassis for around $500-$700 and put your engine and transmission in that and end up with a working car relatively cheap, but then that's alot of work.

[01_fast_ride]

I think regardless of the value of the car it still makes sense to fix/hang on to a car as long as the repairs are less than the cost of a replacement vehicle. Meaning if a car is only worth say $400 and you're facing a $500 repair, it still makes sense to fix it. Because $500 is cheaper than another car (most of the time). It starts to make sense to sell a car when a) you can sell it for more than its face value or b) when you can afford another car out of pocket.

[VetteOwner]

Originally Posted by mrmad

I don't think anyone here can really answer the question whether to get rid of your car or not. You know how bad the car is and your financial situation. I personally think that parting a car would would be a PAI - taking it apart, storing the parts, posting the ads, and then shipping a bunch of items.

Since your engine is in good condition, you might consider looking for a shell. You might get a rolling chassis for around $500-$700 and put your engine and transmission in that and end up with a working car relatively cheap, but then that's alot of work.

thats why you post ads saying parts car, you come and get it. have whoever wants it take off the part. id say try to sell the engine /tranny and junk the rest. or pull off the headlights/tailights and put those on ebay, thier always in demand sicne tards who cant drive back into stuff all the time or hit stuff...

[SVOboy]

If you wanna give it away I'll take the shell!

[Telco]

What I normally do is add up everything that has to be fixed, guesstimate the number of hours it'll take me to fix that, then multiply the hours by what I make on overtime at work. If it costs more to repair than I can replace for, then it's replacement time, unless I like the vehicle in which case there is no wasting time figuring stuff like this out. Also need to take into account how much work a newer car would take to maintain, mileage from a newer car, ect.

Considering a large part of your car is rusted out and you aren't sure about passing inspection, then I'd have to say it's time to part ways with the car. It'll cost a fortune to fix large rusted areas properly, and the car will be unsafe if it's half-assed.