1989 Honda Civic DX from North America - Comments

The air conditioning broke about two monhs after I got the car. Now almost a year later, the A/C isn't working again and it may either need freon or it may have a leak. Also my biggest problem right now is that I feel the brakes getting bad. The emergency brake light comes on for no reason, when I make turns and when I first turn on the car. The squeaking isn't too loud though, yet.

Has anyone else had brake problems?

You had asked about brake problems. When I had mine, (which I've since gotten rid of), it was great until the entire brake hydraulics system went out.

Unfortunately, I ended up having to sell the car after that to a dealer who fixed it, resold it and then the brakes went out again.

As far as brake problems go. I have had my civic for 2yrs, 212,000 miles on it. I replaced the mastercyclinder 6 months ago and now its going out again. other that its great.

I have had my '89 Honda Civic for about 4 years now, which has about 125,000 miles, and last year I had to replace the front brake system (which ended up costing me about $700.00). I noticed recently though, that the brakes are squeaking something terrible. I know the brakes can't be bad already, any suggestions?

The main problem with the 89 civic dx is its brake system. because of the weight and center of gravity on the car, the brakes have uneven amounts of pressure and weight displaced on them. This means that since the front of the car is so heavy from the engine, the brakes tend to need to be pressed in harder to gain the amount of stoppage you want. when you use the brakes really hard time and time again, they heat up and become warped (misshaped) out of propportion. when this happens, your brakes work improperly or even fail to work completely. I would suggest getting an aftermarket brake disk. which is cross drilled and cut in such a way that air comes in contact with the brakes more, causing them to stay cool for longer periods of time, thus keeping your brakes in better workig condition for longer amounts of time. if you need any more info, contact me at jyardan345@aol.com.

My 89 Civic DX had rotors that would continually warp until the true cause was discovered.

It turned out that one of the calipers was not releasing on the inside; this is not easy to notice, so most mechanics missed it. That was in early 2002 and I have had absolutely no brake problems since then, even though I have added about 40,000 miles in mountainous terrain.

(Unfortunately, the front end just got run over by a truck and will cost about $3,000 to do a rough fix. I don't want to part with my beloved civic, but it may be time.)

We have a 1989 Honda Civic that we have owned since about 1990 and it has only 29,000 miles on it. Recently, the interior brake light started coming on. An auto repair shop replaced a switch. The problem persists. It seems somewhat intermittent. The master cylinder fluid level is nearly to the 'Max' line. The brakes do not squeak or squeal. This evening I noticed that with the key in the 'II' position and with the parking brake released, the brake light did not come on immediately. But after letting it set for about the count of 3 or 4 it started to come on, from dim to bright red. It was almost as though electrical leakage was occurring or a capacitive effect was taking place. More to come.