Free car it has bad gaskets and may need a new ecu How much

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>>17153556

>free car
>needs $1500 worth of repairs

Scrap the thing or part it out and use that $ towards a $3000 civic

Which gaskets?

I mean its free, worst case you could just put in the effort to actually sell it as a parts car or something on craigslist and make a few hundred bucks.

>>17153572
I don't actually have that information, how would that change the job?

Is it feasible to do gaskets myself? I don't have any know how or instruments to do it and no mechanic or car minded people in the vicinity.

How much is it to get an ECU? can you install it yourself or is there a process a professional needs to oversee

I wouldn't need the car IMMEDIATELY, so it is a thing that I could work on over time ( two months, just a summer before i go back to uni)

>>17153556
>$1500 in
Junkyard ECU
> $200 or less
Gaskets
> less than $20 each for part. Its all labor

>>17153598
Engines have lots of gaskets anon. Valve cover gaskets are a bit less labor intensive then head gaskets.

>>17153646
Oh that's what you meant. I'm pretty sure its the heads.
>>17153605
so I need $1500 for an ecu?

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>>17153598
>I don't actually have that information, how would that change the job?
changing a valve cover gasket usually just involves removing a few bolts, changing a head gasket usually means taking half the engine apart and sometimes requires removing the engine entirely (depending on the car). It matters a lot.

>Is it feasible to do gaskets myself? I don't have any know how or instruments.
Unlikely, but again depends on which gaskets it is. If it's a real eazy one and youre not completely retarded you could probably pick up some tools and a service manual and learn.

>How much is it to get an ECU? can you install it yourself or is there a process a professional needs to oversee
usually a few hundred dollars. If it really is just the ECU that's the issue it should just be a matter of disconnecting the cables from the old ECU and plugging them into the new one. No harder than swapping out a power supply in a desktop computer. If its not really the ECU that's the issue youre kind of fucked though because chasing down electrical problems is always a nightmare.

>>17153661
The thing with the ecu is that it was taken out and put in another Civic i believe, so I'd imagine the cables in the free car still work.

This civic is a seventh generation, one of the earlier models. I believe its a base model so it has the D17A1(?)

Anyone here with experience can say whether or not changing heads is very hard or not?

Also thanks for being helpful

>>17153655
No, idk why the fuck my phone automatically deletes words.
I was qouting this phagoat
>>17153605
He saud $1500 when an ECU costs less than $200 from a junkyard. Idk how much is a system reflash. You could also buy one preflasbed to your vin and skip all the gay reflash shit.

>>17153701
Fuck i meant THIS FAGGOT
>>17153564

>>17153681
>Anyone here with experience can say whether or not changing heads is very hard or not?

difficult. Especially if you dont even own a set of tools yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePvOJ8MyjCo

Someone recorded themselves doing the entire job and posted it on youtube. There's part 2, skip to the middle of it to give yourself an idea of what you would be going up against. It essentially requires disassembling the entire top half of the engine.

>>17153705
Are you ok

>>17153725
My piece of shit Samsung had a system update and is acting like total shit. I'm sorry

also probably worth mentioning that a car can still run with a busted head gasket, depending on how bad it is. My dad's got a Subaru Forester that's been running with a leaky head gasket for the better part of three years now, its just not worth the money to replace it so he just tops up the oil every now and then and lives with it.

For a few hundred bucks you could get yourself a used ECU and potentially have a running car that you could just drive into the ground.

>>17153747
>trusting a used ECU

>>17153747
I'm not too informed but
in this instance this car mainly has issues with cooling?
So if I were to buy it, put in an ecu, but not fix the gaskets then I'd need to keep topping it off with coolant and maybe oil pretty frequently

>>17153758
Some used ECUs have warranty. Depending how much you want to spend, you could get up to 5 years warranty

>>17153774
as someone who works in a junkyard with a bunch of idiots who are smarter than the average idiot ill have you know when we get a car with a good ecu we make sure to flash it to do fucked shit and dick around in the few running cars we have, then leave the ecu in the yard

>>17153758
its a free beater civic with a blown head gasket who gives a shit about using premium new parts

>>17153767
>in this instance this car mainly has issues with cooling?
That's not good, if a leak is bad enough it can cause the car to overhear often and basically be undriveable. If it's overheated badly enough if the past the whole engine head might be warped and need replacing as well.

>>17153788
That's where the warranty comes in though? Also using and ECU doesn't fuck it up...?

>>17153799
The problem was noticed during a road trip so the previous owner kept his eye glued to the temp gauge and made sure not to stress the engine while turning off a/c and such things. topped the coolant off at every stop and then when he got back from the trip it's sat aside from small start ups to keep it somewhat healthy

>>17153556
No. Don't buy this piece of shit. You're gonna have a bad time. Get a clean stock civic for 2500-3k

>>17153814
I don't want that/can't afford it

>>17153814
>Don't buy this piece of shit

Its free. But I agree, probably not worth spending the money to get the head gasket fixed.

If I were OP I would take the car, get a cheap ECU and just keep a gallon of coolant and oil in the trunk at all times... and dont go on any long roadtrips lol. For $200 bucks you get a piece of shit car that you can at least drive around town.

When you save up enough money to buy a car that isnt a total piece of shit, sell it "as is" on craigslist or for parts. You'll at LEAST make back whatever you spent on the ECU to begin with, will probably even make a profit on it.

>>17153851
But I want to keep the car forever
Also I do need it for trip to college like once a semester


Is it really that bad?
I used to have money for a car but it was taken from me but I still need a car

I have $400 to my name

>>17154211
Look it up and fix it yourself, prolly take you a weekend to fix a headgasket your first time

>>17154211
>Is it really that bad?
Its really hard to say without it running. It could be just a matter of topping up coolant every now and then if it isnt a big leak, or it could be a really major issue.

But if you only have $400 and you need a car you dont really have much of a choice. Free car is a free car. Even if it turns out to be a massive undriveable piece of shit just sell it to a scrap yard and you still end up with more money in your pocket than you started with.

>>17154235
>prolly take you a weekend to fix a headgasket your first time
For someone who has no tools and no basic mechanical knowlege? From OP probably doesn't even know what a head gasket looks like or where it is in the engine (no offense intended OP). If you've never even changed a battery or a spark plug you shouldnt try to tackle something as big as removing and reinstalling a cylinder head.