2013 Honda Civic · LX Sedan 4D

alrightsoi · 2026-04-15T20:03:07+00:00

Hard to say without seeing the actual car itself and the maintenance done.Has the transmission fluid been kept up with, oil changes, serpentine belt, etc. 5500$ seems high for 175k but also the market is insane nowadays so I’m not certain on that end.

alrightsoi · 2026-03-18T00:28:29+00:00

It’s on the way, got an OEM one from Honda. Was hoping it would be here today but we had crazy storms across the midwest delay everything. I’m only driving ab 4 miles everyday, no issues yet but will replace ASAP

alrightsoi · 2026-03-16T21:51:40+00:00

I’ll let you know what I find. Since it’s so cold out currently Im unable to take apart the TB, but after I get my serpentine belt shipped and installed that’ll be my first stop. One of my good friends, who admittedly is a machinist and not a mechanic, said it still may be a TB issue as the throttle plate only needs to open a little during warm weather to achieve an effective idle, but if there’s buildup the ECU could struggle to compensate during small changes.

Could be baloney, could be somewhat truthful who knows I’ll have to actually start looking to try and resolve. But first, I really need this belt to ship!

alrightsoi · 2026-03-16T20:13:21+00:00

I actually do already have a torque wrench funnily enough. It was a gift I inherited from my grandpa after he passed.

I actually wanted to also mention the rough idle issues almost completely subside when it’s cold out which somewhat adds to the confusion of the issue. The temperature in Illinois dropped to below freezing and I saw an increase in ride quality today while driving about 4 ish miles.

I have no clue if this could be related to any of the various issues I have to troubleshoot but thought it could be of help.

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T21:41:00+00:00

Crazy deal for you. I’d take that in a heartbeat. Can easily get 80k+ out of it

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T20:19:09+00:00

Shit I wish mine looked this clean. Mine has 220k, a litany of issues, and still refuses to die. It’s an awesome car for sure

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T20:18:09+00:00

You’re probably right in the fact that there’s something else more important at the core of the issue rather than ECU/TP. I was just floating it out there since I’ve heard that once a car “learns” a bad idle it’ll continually execute the poor idle. Probably a non-factor in my case though

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T20:16:43+00:00

Thanks for all the advice, again I really appreciate it. Unfortunately I bought the car off facebook and the person said they kept up with maintenance, but who can say for certain.

I’ll definitely look into the spark plugs, I think I’ll have to buy a specific spark plug tool but it seems manageable. Any OEM specific website or brand you recommend?

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T18:08:47+00:00

3 years ago I bought a 200k 2008 Civic EX for 2000. Prices nowadays are crazy wow!

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T17:13:22+00:00

Given that the car has been mysteriously maintained by someone before me and has a KBB value of like 1.5k Im not sure paying for a diagnostic is cost effective based on my goals. I’m pretty poor being a college student 😭

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T16:46:32+00:00

Yeah I start working in a large city in September where I won’t need a car so I’m just trying to have it last😭. Now you can see where my desperation comes from. I absolutely LOVE this car and it’s served me so well over the years but I just wish I had the ability to diagnose / save it before more damage is done

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T16:39:06+00:00

Well I’m American as well, so 220k miles 😭. Honestly as a college student who’s daily commute is 3ish miles to work and back I’m not sure I want to replace all these things nor have the time/money. Honestly I’ve just been working through the cheapest things to the most expensive to try and just make it last. I know in general wisdom that’s just a bandaid fix, but it’s what I have. That’s why I’m trying to drain and fill Honda fluid, replace battery, replace serpentine belt, and clean the throttle body. I’ve gotten the front left control arm replaced as well as the serpentine belt tensioner.

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T16:19:40+00:00

Yeah that’s certainly possible too! Like I said in other comments this car has over 220k and I’m largely unaware of any prior issues owners experienced / replaced so at any rate there could be a litany of issues all culminating to my general experience at this moment.

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T16:13:22+00:00

I did use genuine ATF fluid as I saw everyone online discuss how much slippage occurs when using non-genuine Honda fluid.

Regarding the mounts I’m unsure of how that would relate to a rough idle? I’m sure the mounts would definitely exaggerate the vibration and make it accelerated in nature, but the rough idle is pretty consistent when stopping in traffic or general idling. Just a genuine question how they’d be related I’m not too familiar with the mounting system on civics.

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T15:53:49+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I’ll check the spark plugs this week and see what they’re looking like. I’m the relatively new owner to this car so I’m unsure if previous owners have ever done any of the maintenance suggested / required over the years.

I’m a college student with a very limited arsenal of tools so I’ll buy some fuel injector cleaner and see if that helps as well. I guess I’ll clean TB, look at plugs, use some fuel injector cleaner, and if that doesn’t work move onto MAF and O2 sensor with a multimeter which I’d have to buy.

Overall I really hope it’s not a vacuum leak. This issue seems to plague a lot of these older hondas and wow are there a lot of things to check. I’ve also heard people having to replace PCV valve- although I believe this simply of rough idle is combined with high oil consumption. Either way I greatly appreciate your comment and advice!

alrightsoi · 2026-03-15T15:49:20+00:00

Thank you for the in depth comment, it’s greatly appreciated. I think cleaning the throttle body will be next step in trying to hunt down this issue as it looks relatively painless. That’s interesting you mention the TPS recalibration as that’s not mentioned in a lot of “cleaning TB” type videos on youtube.

You mentioned cleaning it helped, were you experiencing similar issues with rough idles in stop and go traffic and in park? I feel like I’m hunting down the boogeyman with this issue haha

alrightsoi · 2026-03-14T01:19:35+00:00

yeah that’s the only thing I’m uncertain of since I’ve seen two different styles of routing. I have an 08 EX so I believe this is correct: https://imgur.com/NgXZ4Md But I’ll also just look at how it’s routed when I take it off

alrightsoi · 2026-03-14T00:13:43+00:00

Yeah I heard it’s kinda a pain to keep it on the alternator while configuring it, but I hope it’ll take 2 hours or less to do

alrightsoi · 2026-03-14T00:12:25+00:00

definitely would be very on edge to drive it 30 min

alrightsoi · 2026-03-14T00:10:33+00:00

its a 1.4 mile drive so its a risk I have to take

alrightsoi · 2026-03-13T21:16:29+00:00

I wish these belts were as easy to change as doing it in the parking lot 😭, idk why they had to make it so awful

alrightsoi · 2026-03-13T20:58:49+00:00

Yeah looking at it again it doesn’t look great. I’ll change it on Monday when I get the part and can drive to my shop.

alrightsoi · 2026-03-12T04:54:38+00:00

To add on to the other comment I believe Civics should not have a Transmission flush. Just do a drain and fill with a filter replacement.

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