1991 Honda Prelude Si 2.1 B21A1 DOHC from North America

Summary:

Rice rocket

Faults:

Replaced half shafts.

Window wiper broke.

Antenna won't go up anymore.

Seat belts won't stay buckled.

Brakes froze up.

General Comments:

Win a lot of races, but I wish it had a taller 1st gear.

Speed and handling all rapped up into one.

I got D C headers for it, a exhaust kit, Eibach lowering kit, 17 inch chrome and brand new money green paint..

Flashy.

Tons of looks for it's age.

Starts smelling hot at 130 mph.

Sweet e braking car.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 29th February, 2004

20th Jan 2006, 21:03

Deffinently a sweet e-braking car!!!

22nd Mar 2006, 03:49

1991 Honda Prelude si

I loved my prelude, was very quick, corners great too, was very reliable, and it never left me stranded. Have nothing, but good things to say about the Prelude si. It ROCKS!!!

1991 Honda Prelude Si 2.05 from North America

Summary:

Fun to drive, but expensive to repair.

Faults:

Rust has started in the rear quarter panels.

Engine burns oil more than it should. I plan to have the dealer look into the cause. If it is valve seals, then I will have it repaired.

Exhaust system needs replacement every 5 years, which is very expensive at the dealer.

If the oil burning can be reasonably repaired, I plan on fixing the rust. The body is in mint condition otherwise; with no dents or leaks.

General Comments:

The car is still very fun to drive, even though I've had it for 13 years.

Other than the oil burning; the car has been extremely reliable.

Changed the timing belt at 80000 miles.

The seats are comfortable for short trips, but not for long distance traveling.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 23rd January, 2004

5th Apr 2006, 21:01

I plan on buying a 91 prelude, but burns oils as you mentioned. Were you able to rectify the issue or is it a general flaw with prelude?

1991 Honda Prelude S 2.0 from North America

Summary:

4 years of payments, 12 years of fun!

Faults:

Seatbelt recall at 10,000 km.

Valve train noise when engine is cold, has done this from new, no problems from this "fault".

Both door and glove box switch's gave problems after first year.

Cooling fan timer went out at 102,000 km at a cost of $178.00.

Key and tumbler failed at 105,000 km and 5 days later and $350.00 later car was on the road again!

Rust is forming on lower rear quarter panels.

General Comments:

This car has been serviced and maintained since new and is only starting to cost more to drive.

Back seat is too small, even for a child!

Sits so low you can't see traffic lights when driving behind a Mini!

Fun to drive in all weather!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 14th November, 2003

12th Jul 2009, 01:13

This car has been restored to near new condition, 10 thousand dollars can do wonders!

1991 Honda Prelude Si 4WS 2.0 16v from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

You can't go around a roundabout any quicker (without coming off that is).

Faults:

The whole Aerial with electric motor needed replacing when I first bought it. Aftermarket replacement item is much cheaper than factory genuine part. as is the case with parts for any Honda. Don't say I didn't warn you.

General Comments:

Even though I have many sports cars to own ahead of me, I think I will always have fond memories of this car. Even though the 4WS is the talking point, this car is one of those cars that is more than the sum of it's parts. For a two litre of it's age is quite astounding, here in Australia it was seen as being ahead of it's time, like most Japanese sports/luxury cars of the time. The only complaints is the lack of "grunt" down low, under 3500rpm Most cars will leave you in their wake until you hit 5000rpm, by then their long gone, so forget about the traffic light Grand Prix.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 31st October, 2003

1991 Honda Prelude SR 2.05L from North America

Summary:

Great car, change the timing belt every 100,000 km

Faults:

The timing belt went at 167,000 km. When I bought the car, the seller said he had changed the timing belt. I doubt this is true, since it was an original Honda belt and several Honda technicians said they have never seen one go before the recommended 100,000 km mark.

The belt went on a vacation, just outside of Calgary. A Honda Dealer in Calgary said "When the timing belt goes, the pistons will hit the valves, causing valves to break and likely the piston to crack and even the connecting rod can bend." Their solution was to buy a used engine for $3,500 and spend $1,500 having them put it in, total bill $5,000. I told them, no thanks.

I bought the service repair manual from Honda at a cost of $100. This was probably the single best investment I made on the car. I followed the manual to the letter and took the head off the engine. I had 3 bent valves. I had the head serviced at a block shop in Edmonton and the total cost for head servicing was $400, including knurling of the value guides. There was no damage to the pistons or to the connecting rods.

After buying new gaskets for everything I took apart, new belts and new thermostat, the total cost for parts and head servicing was about $800.

Total time for me to fix was about 120 hours over about 6 weeks of evenings and weekends. I am not a mechanic, but am no stranger to fixing the odd thing on my car. It was tough to do at times, but saving $5,000 over taking it to Honda, helped spur me on.

My advice: Change the Timing Belt every 100,000 km, or when you buy the car, if you are unsure.

The oil pan gasket was leaking. Took off the oil pan and found the gasket was cracked, possibly due to our cold Edmonton winters. Replaced the gasket and the car hasn't leaked any oil since.

Transmission is now having some difficulty going into first gear, from neutral, when I am stopped. I know it is getting old, so I try to put it into first, before the car comes to a complete stop. I figure if I baby the transmission, I can probably get another 100,000km out of the car.

It burns some oil now, about 1L between gas fills, not great, but oil is cheap.

General Comments:

Great little car, good on gas and it still looks great after all these years.

Just starting to show the first signs of rust, but just over the wheel wells and very minor rust at that.

I drove a 2000 Honda Civic a few weeks ago and found that my 1991 Prelude is a far more comfortable car.

I wish Honda still made the Prelude.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 31st July, 2003

6th Aug 2003, 02:09

I also have the SR (Canadian) model, and found a few things that have gone wrong:

Driver's side dome light door switch often sticks. If I keep it oiled with WD-40 I usually don't have a problem.

Retractable antenna wouldn't extend or retract fully. I disconnected power to the antenna while it was in the 'UP' position, but I later broke the antenna when opening the trunk. This was of course my own fault, but you would think the brilliant minds at Honda could have designed an antenna that didn't interfere with the trunk mounted spoiler.

Blower motor (interior car fan) stopped working after about 250,000km (150,000 miles). Honda wanted C$350 (US$250) for a new blower. Canadian Tire auto parts wanted $87. I simply replaced the brushes, springs and cleaned the commutator. Cost of the brushes and springs was $17. The replacement brushes are slightly narrower than the previous original brushes, but it still works. The blower makes a faint ticking sound, likely due to the narrow brushes not having as great a field of contact. I can live with the slight extra noise and feel good about not giving Honda $350.

A/C compressor warning light comes on intermittently. Oddly enough, after I repaired the blower motor (one week ago), the A/C warning light hasn't come on. Normally I would have expected the light to come on at least 4-5 times by now. I do not know why it appears fixed, I did start to remove the evaporator unit (next to the blower assembly) and wiggled the unit several times before I realized that I did not need to remove this unit. I did clean out a small leaf or two from the unit, once I had the blower was out. Could there be a connection, who knows? Maybe its just dumb luck (heavy emphasis on the 'dumb' part).

Paint on the hub caps started to fake off about 1998. As of last week nearly 50% of the paint had come off. This might have been due to driving on the occasional gravel road, but I am not sure. I took the hub caps off, sanded them down and have started to repaint them with Exact color match paint from Canadian Tire. It has taken me about 1-2 hours per hub cap to sand and then repaint. They look nearly brand new. Honda wanted $76 for a new hub cap and $40 for a new center cap.

HELP: I have a rattle in the sunroof, when driving about 100 km/h (60 mph). I don't know how to fix this. Has anyone else experienced this problem and know how to fix it?

HELP: Retractable Headlights sometimes wait up to 4 minutes before going 'UP' after I turn on the headlights. I can turn if off and on again, but it still will wait about 4 minutes. Could the switch be starting to fail? Has anyone else experienced this problem and know how to fix it?

HELP: My right side fog light works intermittently. I took it out and everything looked in working order with no corrosion on the contacts. When I was working on it, the light worked, then about a week later it started acting up again. Has anyone else experienced this problem?