AM I MAKING A RIGHT CHOICE ?

[Lude-baz]

Hello guys, I'm new to this as I was thinkin of getting insured my honda prelude 4G 2.0i auto, its only £100-150 dearer than my peugeot 306 1.4, so talking to the lad at work he sed honda is more reliable an better, my one is on a L reg uk model and has covered 118000 miles, as usual arches were rusty but sorted them out the best I can, my over all questions are , is the 2.0 auto a good car, is it reliable ( my peugeot blew engine and since then work needs doin all the time), what are the running costs like ( peugeot gives me £40 half tank it's a 1.4 but tank capacity is 60 litres) just want to knw the common faults to and how much will the tax cost for a year, all help will be appriciated thanks guys

[rob quilter]

Its a very reliable car, engines are bomb proof. The only issue that can happen is your auto box can go (common problem when they are not serviced). Get the gearbox oil changed and that will prevent premature wear and failure.

The fuel tank holds around 60 litres if I remember rightly, but will obviously have a higher MPG then you pug. Road tax is around £120 for 6 months, £220 for 12.

The Peugeot WILL be cheaper to run, but will be less reliable, slower and not as much fun.

[toadster]

LO

Def the correct choice

I have a 2.0i Auto 5th Gen

I would think as Rob says as long as you change and use the proper Honda auto trans oil you should be fine.

Also as the 4th Gen Auto box isn't tiptronic it's prob more reliable Only guessing this is the case

I would never buy French , in fact i would never buy anything non Jap

Cheers

Toadster

[wurlycorner]

Welcome.

Preludes are generally very reliable, with only a couple of common faults.

The only one really of note that I can think of that's may occur on a 2 ltr auto, is the 'main relay' fault. Many owners never have any problems with it, but it is one of the few common trends. It tends to only appear if making lots of short journeys in short succession and if so, it will intermittently prevent the car from starting. It doesn't tend to cause any problems if you only do long journeys or have a decent length break between any journeys (say an hour +). In any event, it's pretty easy to fix. The main relay is mounted under the dash, near the steering column and usually just removing it and re-soldering a couple of the pins will sort the problem (a 'free' fix if you do it yourself) or you can of course replace it.

Aside from that, the back brakes can tend to slowly seize slightly over time (as they dont do much work) which doesn't affect normal driving particularly, but means the handbrake doesn't work as well as it should which may flag up at MOT time. Again, this is a simple fix, just requiring the pads to be removed, pad carriers to be cleaned up and regreased and pads put back in. (Again, 'free' if you do it yourself, or inexpensive if you get a garage to do it)

Does it have 4 wheel steer? There's one other common fault that can occur with that system where it flags a fault saying the ECU is faulty but actually it just needs a couple of terminals re-soldering (again, 'free' if you do it yourself).

Either way, these are all very straight forward simple issues to deal with and by no means should you 'expect' to get them.

Fortunately the 4th gen auto box is also generally very reliable, whereas the 5th gen box has a bad repuation.

Fuel economy wise, the 2.3 and 2.2vtec prelude's aren't great (around 32mpg on a cruise really is all you should expect to get, low to mid 20's around town). I'm afraid I don't know what the 2.0 is like though, particularly in auto. There are a couple of owners on here with that setup though, so hopefully they'll be along to feedback.

[rob quilter]

2.0's don't have 4WS.

[Lude-baz]

Lol your right as I replaced so much on my peugeot I now given up, being my first car wants to make it perfect but realised no point throwing money down drain, this honda was owned by a elderly gentleman so hoping he been good, he had it for 13 years, I'm so lookin forward to it but will do full service once up and insured, could someone te
Me where il find the fuel filter, and also how to put the gear box fluid in from thank you

[Lude-baz]

Toadster, yours looks nice, I dnt think my one is 4 wheel steer,I will need to clean brakes out as the ABS light is showing, I was doing delivering job in my peugeot but not with my prelude as mentions short stops n journeys will mess the main relay, I think I will need guidance to how to keep this beauty going and I appriciate you guys helping

[wurlycorner]

Fuel filter is right at the back of the engine bay, up against the bulkhead on the passenger side (behind the suspension turret).



Another bonus point on the prelude is that the genuine full Honda service manuals are available free - check in the wiki-lude section via the link at the top of the page. That'll tell you excatly where everything is and how to change them etc.


If you have an ABS light up, it's more than likely a sensor. Again, fortunately the prelude is very easy to diagnose, you only need a paperclip and you can get fault codes out of the engine and ABS ECU (it flashes lights on the dash at you and the manual tells you what they all mean and how to diagnose further).

[mills]

As already said, your Lude won't have 4WS so thats 1 less thing to worry about going wrong

On a manual Lude, the gearbox sump plug is on the side of the gearbox, you just undo it and take it out to release the old fluid, then put the new oil in through the same place. I imagine it will be the same on the auto box, but not 100% sure someone will know for sure

Fuel consumption is about the same as a 2.2 vtec, when I swapped from my 2.0 to a vtec I didn't notice any difference.

[indigolemon]

Drain plug is exactly there yes, easiest way to fill it is via the dipstick hole

Also, short journeys won't break the main relay - but if it's already broken they will make the problem obvious!