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Thanks in advance, guys. I have a 2002 Honda CRV with 200,000+ miles on it. Not asking for anything free, but just being female and taking my car into a shop is un nerving to me. I have a diagonostic done and my cat converter reads faulty(engine light comes on and off for a while). Had it checked before and nothing came up. I know I need to get it replaced but is it an emergency?
Lately 5 issues have cropped up-doors don't lock except by hand, brake light stays ON(no brake is on), intermittent wipers dead(otherwise OK), interior light works but not when you open the door, chime for when head lights are on when you open the door is not working. AND compressor for AC out(I don't care too much about that). All the electrical or computer issues started one morning all at the same time. Any ideas what happened? Any idea of the cost to repair?
I feel like a sitting duck when I take my car in......just waiting to be ripped off because I have no knowledge(and no interest to learn).
In your humble, but wise opinion-what takes priority, is it unsafe to drive and what damage will it do to the vacation budget.
No-I don't have a mechanic I can trust-even the one I use all the time. Still feel like I am being taken advantage of. The dealership here has a bad rep so don't want that!
Thanks again!
Depending on where you live, you could just remove the catalytic converter. you won't meet emissions testing and you will probably still have a check engine light, but you won't have a bad cat converter.
If all the electrical issues happened at once, did you have a water issue?
No power locks is just a pain
brake light sounds like a failed sensor
Sounds like the door switch might be failed, that would be your interior lights and chime sound (could be a fuse)
remember to turn your headlights off or get a jumper pack/jumper cables
No AC sucks when it is hot
Your car has 200,000 miles, you can expect things to die when they are old...
Not directed specifically to you, why can't people put even a generic location on their profiles so we can have an idea of what is near you?
Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes
I think you can just leave the cat converter as is. You don't have to remove it. But your check engine light will remain on. If your state requires it, it won't pass emissions though.
They are hugely expensive to replace, I replaced two in my aging xterra and it cost around $3K for both.
Yes-we had a ton of rain that week that everything went bad( and we are in Raleigh NC area-sorry for that). Yes, I expect things to trickle and die-not all at once so that was why I thought is was "something".
The engine light comes and goes so I will get it inspected during the off time so I can take a bit of time for these issues to be fixed. Yes-most of them are inconvenient at best. Just did not know if they were a sign of a massive decline if I did not hurry to fix.
Thanks!!!
Are your battery cables and/or terminals corroded? That can create some weird electrical issues in cars.
Nothing too big to worry about. You are missing a few electrical conveniences but that happens on a car that has 200k on it. It is probably not worth fixing unless it is simple, but it will be hard to tell what the deal is if you aren't mechanically inclined to go poking around yourself.
The cat convertor won't hurt the car, and yeah they are expensive to replace so if you can pass emissions I would leave it alone.
Drive her for another 50k till she blows up then throw her away. No point putting much money in a car with that many miles. I like older cars and don't mind high miles, but I don't put a bunch of money into fixing them, just not worth it.
Not directed specifically to you, why can't people put even a generic location on their profiles so we can have an idea of what is near you?[/quote]
Yes! I put it in my sig line. I really wish people would do this in the classified section. I wonder how many people live near each other and never know it.
The OP may want to get a male friend to drive her car in for some estimates.
I have a 2008 Honda Fit and had the same thing happen with my check engine light and catalytic converter. When the issue first started, the light would come and off periodically and then finally came on and stayed on. It took about 2 years of on/off before the light stayed on permanently and I drove it close to 18 months or so with the light on full time. I was able to pass emissions (in IL) when it was fluctuating between on/off but did finally fail once the light came on full time. The repair was quite expensive ($1,750 or so) but since I didn't want to replace the car, I had the repair done. So in my experience you will be able to drive the vehicle with no significant issues with the light on. However, Honda kindly defaults to a "safety" mode when any indicator light is on so you may get less than ideal gas mileage and may see some performance decreases.
I wouldn't spend any money on that car.
Start saving up for a new one.
Pretty much agree with what is ^^ re: the catalytic converter. For the electrical, I'd start by looking at the group of wires that runs into your driver's door. 200K is a lot of opening/closing of that door, and many of the electrical issues you've listed would be a part of that wiring harness. It will be covered by a rubber boot, but you can pull it back from either end and look for a broken wire. Pretty good chance you will find one.
For the AC - did this happen at the same time as the other electrical issues?
If there is a Pep Boys (or similar) in your area, you can likely go there and have them hook a scan tool to your OBD port and get a list of fault codes and what they mean. I don't think they would charge for this, none of the places around here do. You might get some information from the scan that is useful in further diagnosis.
There is nothing you've listed that would require it to be serviced at a Honda dealership. Check out some Google reviews for service shops in your area and see what your options are.