Unexpected repairs
 

I went to go to work this morning and my trusty Accord whined and complained vociferously. Took it to my mechanic who diagnosed a failing power steering pump.

Now, with 158k on the odometer, I'm not complaining at all... I mean, the car is paid for, so today's repair is still cheaper than a monthly car payment. He also checked over the rest of thhe car and reported that everything else looked great. That said, my wallet is a bit lighter today, so I guess I'm looking for people to commiserate (misery loves company and all that).

What was your last unexpected repair?

Right now at 96,500 miles I am looking for a new PS pump since mine is failing also.

At 146,000 miles the exhaust pipe cracked while I was driving. Went to the dealer to get a quote and it was a bit over $700 for just the two pipes and labor. Decided to buy an aftermarket Magnaflow cat-back exhaust instead for $320 and another $100 to have it installed.

I'm happy with it, sounds great and also increased my fuel economy a bit too.

I'll be getting new fuel lines in a month or so. There is just a small vapor leak in the line just in front if the Evap Canister. Just enough now to smell a little, but not enough to drip or make the mileage off.
"I guess if it's a month or more out, it's not really unexpected now is it."

During all the rain from Sandy, after dark, I hit a raccoon. Lost the bezel around where the foglamp goes. I guess it's not a big "repair", but it's unexpected.

You came out better than me. During/after Sandy I got a leak in the roof. $500 patch/repair job and a quote for a new roof, it is on its last leg and I knew that.......oh or are we talking about just the cars? I've got a leaking injector on the 89 LXi, does that count?

I had to chuckle when I read your post. I have a 2011 Accord I bought new. At 5,700 miles, I took it in for its first minor service. They found a leak in the steering system. It stayed there for two days while they replaced the entire rack & pinion steering system under warranty.

That is Crazy. The same exact thing happened to me on my 2008. I used to have a 1993 that had no such problems. I'm glad this was covered under an extended warranty I had for this car. I also had the rear brake calipers blow a seal with only 21K on the car. I am fairly sure my next car will be a Toyota. I already gor rid of my Odyssey after THREE transmissions blew and bought a Toyota Sienna. I hate it because I really Love Hondas but it seems that they have probably been getting some poor part suppliers for some of their products. The calipers and rack and pinion on my car both failed with seal leaks. I don't know what to say about the three transmissions though. That is just bad design on Honda's part.

"I am fairly sure my next car will be a Toyota."

I hate to say it but that won't solve the problem - which is nothing is made the way it used to be as more & more parts are outsourced for cheaper manfacture. My sister bought a new 2011 Toyota Camry. At 40,000 miles, she had to replace front end parts and a water pump. Total: $750.00.

I know, I know but I'll tell you this, the Toyota shifts much better than my Honda. I see differences in the way the two manufacturers go about putting these cars together. Honda uses much more machine thread screws whereas Toyota uses self tapping coarse thread screws. I found this out when removing the tail lights on each of the cars. I prefer the machine threads. I like the way that Honda lays out the engine compartment better and things seem to fit better on the Honda IMO. From my wallets experience though, I just can't keep on affording to replace Honda transmissions on my Van, so we got a Toyota. That is probably the main reason I will be looking at a Camry.

Every manufacturer has their problems.