It's been a long, rough relationship with my Accord over the past 5 months and every time I fix something, something different breaks. Here's what happened in the first 5 months of ownership (but only about 3 months of operation):
1. One week after I started using the car, the ABS light comes on during my drive to work. On the way home it clears, so I didn't get a chance to pull codes.
2. About two weeks after that, the check engine light comes on. Pull the codes and it's for the evap system. Cleared the fault and it hasn't returned.
3 The ABS light came on again during my drive to work and cleared on the way home.
4. The starter decided to get cranky (or not) and failed twice about a week apart. Replaced the starter.
5. Rough idle at cold startup. Tried the usual suspects and when it finally decided not to start on 7/23, traced the problem to a bad head/head gasket. "Fixed" this by replacing the engine with a JDM F23A.
6. The new motor had two bolts sheared off inside the block. Naturally, I find this out early on a Saturday morning on the day I was going to drop the new motor in and when nobody is open for business. This issue costs me about 4 days of schedule and $140 to get fixed.
7. Radiator that didn't leak before the engine swap decided to start leaking three days after the engine swap was completed. It wasn't damaged during the installation - it leaked at the seams.
8. The replacement radiator was dinged up during shipment by the bag of nuts and fittings, as I found out once I got the radiator home and out of the box. A simple two hour job turns into 5 hours trying to find another new radiator. I still have a slight leak at the tranny cooler fittings that I'm afraid of stripping if I tighten too much. I ordered some flared fitting copper seals and plan to put those in in the next few days. Couldn't find metric JIS, so I'm hoping SAE flare fitting seals will work.
9. Registration expires during the engine swap process and an emissions test is required. After the swap, the car throws a code on the way to the emissions test. Turn around and go back to the parts store to get a code reader. It's a transmission sensor code. Reset and hasn't popped up again.
10. Car leaves an oil spot on the driveway about 4 days after the swap. I fear the worst and find the power steering rack is leaking. Haven't fixed that yet. I just make sure to park in the garage, not the sloped driveway.
11. I find another oil spot. This time from the rear corner of the pan where there's a big hole in the pan rail that apparently isn't there for any reason (it's not a bolt hole). I'll fix this at the next oil change. I'll take credit for this failure.
12. A week after I start using the car regularly after the swap, the left rear power door lock makes the infamous buzzing sound. No two-wire actuators at the junkyard, so I have to get a 4-wire actuator, swap the 2-wire connector from my old actuator and shrink wrap the 2 unused wires so they don't short on anything. Took me a while to figure out how to remove the connectors without breaking anything. The procedure in the manual wasn't quite right and the job takes me longer than it should have.

It's been almost an entire week since something hasn't broken, but I know that I still have to do control arms, lower ball joints and the power steering rack eventually. Meanwhile, the precious and scarce good weather up here in the PNW is just about gone. I've run out of time and money to do the deck I had planned to do this summer - the car has consumed both. It feels like the car has me beat.

 

Never give up if you love your car..work on it till you get it the way you want it some day..

 

Always a tradeoff: Fix 15-year-old car vs. new-car $300/month car payments for the next four years.

I wouldn't worry too much about the rack unless you're going through a lot of PS fluid. You may be able to wait 'till next spring on the other stuff depending on how bad the control arms & ball joints are.