2002 Honda Civic EX 90k Maintenance Questions
 

Hi folks,

I purchased my 2002 Honda Civic here in Colorado in 2006 and so far it's been the best car I've ever owned. When I purchased it in '06 it had ~35k miles on it, 3 1/2 years later, I'm approaching 90k. I have taken my car in for fairly regular changes but have driven it in pretty adverse conditions; I took it to the Grand Canyon, down through South Texas in the heat of summer (and back) and up to Wyoming. It's been driven hard but taken care of, just recently I replaced my first set of tires with some siped Pirelli P4s.

As such, I am approaching some maintenance milestones and was hoping I might be able to get some feedback. According to Edmunds Maintenance, 90k scheduled maintenance should include the following:

• Replace Air Filter
• Flush/Replace Brake Fluid
• Replace Cabin Air Filter
• Inspect/Adjust Drive Belts
• Change Engine Oil
• Rotate Wheels and Tires

I have a buddy who is fine with taking me to an autoparts store to buy the requisite air filters, so I think primarily I would just be having the brake fluid replaced, belts inspected, and engine oil changed. As I just replaced my tires, I'm not sure having them rotated would be recommended.

So far I have received the following price quotes:

Jiffy Lube: $87 for all services filter replacement + transmission flush/replace.
Honda Dealership: $305 (lol) - Pretty laughable, when I heard the same services quoted for hundreds of dollars less I'm pretty sure I'll never take my car to a dealer for service again
Green Mountain (local auto care place): $250.

I'm thinking that I should take the vehicle to Jiffy for the oil flush and fluid inspections they offer, as I don't want to deal with that myself, then do the air filters separately.

However: I do also know that I'm within about 20k miles for when I need my timing belt inspected and possibly replaced. I have gotten wildly varying responses from people as far as cost for this goes (or when I need to do it), some people have said immediately, some people have said at 110k, some have quoted $350 (p+L), some have quoted $750+.

All that said - are there any other services or inspections you would recommend I get as a part of my 90k maintenance that I may be overlooking?

Everything about the car still runs great, although I do notice a little bit of shakiness when I'm running about ~55 on the highway, but I am chalking that up to breaking in new tires (I've only had them for ~1,200 miles or so), unless someone has any ideas why that'd be happening. Most of the vibration is around the steering column. This shakiness disappears completely above or below 50-60 mph.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Re: 2002 Honda Civic EX 90k Maintenance Questions
 

Gotta love the Honda dealership. Why not do the work yourself. There really isn't much to it.

The cabin filter takes about 5 minutes to change, it's located behind the glove box.

Oil change you can do yourself in about 20 minutes with a few simple tools.

Brake fluid flush Jiffy Lube will not do properly, I assure you that. It's cheap, and easy to do. It just takes a little while with a friend helping.

Inspecting the drive belts is basically a visual inspection, then they put a gauge on it to see if it needs to be tightened. Most shops skip the gauge part, if the belt looks okay with no cracks or anything. They just leave it. It's a huge, huge waste of money to have them do it.

Wheel rotation can also be done in the driveway for free.

All this will cost you about 45 bucks in the driveway :)

Re: 2002 Honda Civic EX 90k Maintenance Questions
 

Hey tbohar,

Thanks for the quick reply, I appreciate it. :)

I'm okay with changing the filters and such, but anything more than that is beyond me. I admittedly know nothing about car maintenance other than it's a good idea to make sure they're maintained (and not get screwed in the process) and aren't breaking down. Which is why I'm okay with Jiffy Lube doing fluid flush/top stuff. The other parts I'm okay with handling.

That said, do you have any other recommendations for maintenance around this mile mark? Anything I'm overlooking here?

Re: 2002 Honda Civic EX 90k Maintenance Questions
 

Your pretty safe following your maintenance schedule. The only thing I'd recommend is changing the spark plugs more often than it says which I think is 100k miles.