Hey I found a 96 Accord EX coupe 5 speed on Craigslist (See http://gulfport.craigslist.org/cto/928334015.html for the details.). The lady is selling it for $2300 and I would love to have this car since the 5th gen coupes are one of my favorite cars, but the catch is that the car has a spun bearing. I called her and she told me that her neighbor thinks she has a spun bearing because of the knocking and told me that it may cost $200 to fix the problem. She has also replaced some parts such as the water pump, radiator, VTEC head, timing belt... I'm beginning to think this car was dogged out, but I really love the car because it's a 5th gen coupe, and I don't see many of them around here. Anyway, what is your input? Should I get this car and try to fix the "spun bearing" problem if that's the problem, or should I just pass this up and find something better? What exactly causes a spun bearing, and what goes into fixing it? I mean I really love this car, but if it is going to cost too much time and labor to fix, I'd rather try to find another 5th gen coupe instead. I'm willing to do a little bit of labor though to fix the problem.

Anyway it all boils down to what my parents say because they're the ones who choose whether I get the car or not.

 

Pass on it ..... a spun bearing can also mean that it needs a new crank ..... if that's the case, it would be cheaper to replace the engine. There are a few ways to spin a bearing, but the way that I am most familiar with is due to over boosting. For example, the bearings are the weak point on my tC's engine ..... you start to enter the danger zone when you push about 350 bHP constantly. The stock engine puts out 160 bHP. That said, I have a buddy that was putting 310WHP down on stock internals from a tC ..... DD, but he also has a spare car and is ripping that turbo system out now and is working on a fully built 500WHP Scion.

Bottom line, walk away.

 

If you can do a rebuild on the bottom end it may be worth it. That is a lot of car for the money. A good part of the rebuilding cost of a 2.2 goes into the head.

 

I don't know that every person in the world boosts their engines;
However most of the time I've seen bad bearings have been from oil starvation.
But then, I am a career term tech, not a YARDER.

Pass on the car unless you have an engine to swap into it.