service maintenance for 2000 Civic

Georgia in MS · 04-15-2009

I have a 2000 Civic with 150,000 miles that my son drives. I have an appt to take it this afternoon for a wheel alignment ($70) and oil change ($30) at the Honda dealership. Now he also says it is stalling some and is sluggish.

I called about a service maintenance to be done at the same time as a checkup to find anything that might be wrong. The Honda dealership said I could have a 30,000 mile service maintenance done on it for $430, plus the $70 for the alignment.

$500 seems steep, but at the same time, I do not want a broken down car and I would like to get another 50,000 miles out of this car. I am a believer in preventive maintenance. This Civic had an extensive maintenance done at 110,000 (the service that included replacing the timing belt).

I have to take a car to a shop to have repair work done. I have no knowledge about working on vehicles. I don't think the 30,000 includes a tune up? Does this car even need a tune up?

If this were your car, what would you do?

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gearbox · 04-15-2009

i think you should do a tuneup yourself. its prolly just getting old. get some new spark plugs ($2 each for NGK v-power), new plug wires ($50 NGK), new distributor cap and rotor (maybe $40), and then take apart the intake sensors like idle and fitv sensors and clean them out with carb cleaner. get an air filter too. i bet that would help quite a bit more than whatever the dealership does.