Well, my 97 3.2TL is starting to become a bit of a money pit.

Got it out of the shop today after Timing belt, AC belt, stabilizer bar and brake switch for the cruise control: $1000

They tried to sell me a water pump as well, but after interrogation they said there was a tiny bit of coolant evidence in the weeping hole. After further interrogation they admitted I still have one or two more years before it'll be ready to actually go.

I think that since they already had it ripped apart they figured to get another $600 out of me.. WRONG!!!

And sometime before winter hits I have to get the interior fan motor replaced - $1200

Now some of you who have spent thousands and thousands of dollars tweaking, tuning, lowering, replacing wheels and blowing engines up while racing are probably laughing at me right now, but us regular guys who haven't modded the living hell out of our TLs are trying to get as many miles per dollar spent as possible...lol

 

Timing belt and water pump should be done together, but for the price you paid, it should've been included. Mine was $800-$900 for timing belt and custom AC, PS, and alt belts from Gates. Plus install on a part I had made somewhere else. Belts only ran an additional $40.

~Cheers~

P.S. I didn't blow it racing!!

 

go90go you blew your engine? if so what happened unless that is like a full page reply lol? Btw i think half of the post for these forums involve you, good teamplayer

 

Few things had happened, and there were a long thread about it. Basically: blew radiator, spun a bearing, broke a wrist pin, knocking like crazy, motor dead. I blew it a little over three months ago, and here's the thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/how-much-do-people-pay-lunch-during-weekdays-155731/

~Cheers~

 

where are you going to get these prices??? and i don't really know the CAD conversion to USD so i can't gauge how expensive your tab was... but i always change water pump with timing belt... everything is already open so just get it done at the same time... if you have some bad luck and your water pump goes within the next year, you are screwed with having to pay labor for them to do all that again... that is unless u know that you will go 105k miles within the next two years to need another timing belt change... i learned that the hard way on my ex's car...

if u can find a place to do the labor, just buy all the OEM parts online through our vendor... Tim at hondacuraworld.com has great prices with free shipping... my mechanic charged me $250 labor so my complete timing belt, water pump and all access belts job was under $600 USD...

 

^ Live mid-market rate is currently USD$1.00 to CAD$1.04. Ridiculous, isn't it? I remember when it was USD$1.00 to CAD$1.50. Good time for you Canadians to trade in those looneys for greenbacks.

~Cheers~

P.S. I didn't realise that the thread referenced above had over 1000 views!

 

Thanks, but I'll keep my loonies, and you can keep your greenbacks.. lol

I average about 5000 miles per year, and I'm going to be trading the TL off in a year or two. I think I'm safe, considering the service manager's estimate of 2 years, multiplied by the average usage of 12,000 miles = I'm safe (I hope).

If I'm wrong, there's just another life lesson...

And if the water pump does go, I have a couple of gearhead buddies, and they both owe me big time...

 

art you attention whore..

j/k bro

 

The frustrating part is that I originally took it in to get the cruise working, because I'm leaving in a week to go camping in the Rockies. I'm too old and lazy to drive 14 hours without cruise.

It's intermittent. It was dead the day I took it in, they replaced the brake switch, it worked great. Until the next day. Dead again. Today it worked for a while, but now it's dead again.

I have to strip a few things down and try to re-seat all of the connectors I can reach. Maybe just disturbing a few oxidized connectors will do the trick...

 

Sask: Sorry to hear that your car is at end of its life. I am going to see just how long one of these babies can run!! Just bought my wife an RSX-S and "traded up" from a 1992 toyota P/U to her 1998 3.2 TL. It has 243k miles on it right now. Will be interesting to see how it does on the "longer haul".

 

Sorry to drag up such an old thread but did your re-seating of the connectors help fix your cruise?

 

No it didn't help. I took it back in and got an estimate of 600+ to get the cruise working. I sold it a while later and bought a new 07 Mazda3 Sport. Would have liked to stay in the Acura family, but since they've decided to discontinue production of the RSX, I had to. I needed something with better cargo capacity and MUCH better fuel economy. The Mazda fit the bill perfectly...

 

Here's the thread covering what I did

 

What kind of mileage are you getting in the 3? My Civic and my TL get the same mileage, haha. I've been forced to drive the Civic, though, since I can't get my bumper support back on. Stupid idiots backing into me...

~Cheers~