Changing Coolant from red to green for '91 Civic

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daytoncapri - 03 May 2006 22:22 GMT

After an oil change, my trusty independent mechanic told my wife that

1. Radiator and heater hoses need to be replaced since the Honda Civic
is now 5 years old :

$350.

2. He says that the coolant system should be flushed from red to
green. Red is bad, Green is good, Red eats gaskets, he says.

$109.95.

3. Power steering fluid is dirty and should be flushed -

$80

Good Advice from this chatboard:

Priceless.

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Eric - 03 May 2006 23:13 GMT

Did you mean to write that it was an '01 Civic in the subject line instead
of a '91 Civic?

> After an oil change, my trusty independent mechanic told my wife that
>
> 1. Radiator and heater hoses need to be replaced since the Honda Civic
> is now 5 years old :
>
> $350.

I wouldn't do it. The factory OE hoses can last a lot longer than that.

> 2. He says that the coolant system should be flushed from red to
> green. Red is bad, Green is good, Red eats gaskets, he says.
>
> $109.95.

The coolant does require periodic flushing. One common recommendation is to
run the factory fill for 45K miles and then flush it with Honda's coolant at
30K mile intervals after that.

> 3. Power steering fluid is dirty and should be flushed -
>
> $80

Power steering fluid should be done at about every 50K miles or 5 years. It
is imperative to use only Honda's PSF as other fluids, especially ATF, will
cause the seals in the power steering rack to leak.

I can't comment about the prices you've been quoted but I will mention that
it's not too hard to flush the power steering fluid especially if you
regularly work on cars. If not, then it might be better to have someone
else do the work.

Eric

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