The day I bought it the car it blew a water pipe and dumped the entire coolant system on my driveway! The car had been sat for a while before I bought it and the pipe was just old and cracked. The system had a pressure check and was all fine.
The car came from New Jersey (wet climate) to North Carolina (dry climate) and has several spots of cancer on the wheel arches and in front of the rear wheels.
The sunroof seal has died and lets water in when it rains. When you stop at a stoplight the roof empties it's contents into the cockpit! (and usually onto mine and my wife's heads!) I've stuffed a hand towel into the roof lining to prevent this from happening as I cannot justify a new seal for the sunroof and all of the work that goes into this repair right now.
The exhaust system was replaced at 132,000 miles.
The oxygen sensors needed to be replaced at 136,000 miles.
It's just started to overheat when stuck in traffic (the heat here in North Carolina adds to the problem as the car is probably not used to the climate change yet). I am having the compression checked next week by a specialist. I fear that the water pump may need replacing and seeing as you have to take the timing belt off during this repair I'm going to get that replaced as well as all belts, gaskets and seals. I've been quoted $495.00 US all included.
Apart from the work that I've had done, the car 'IS' reliable.
It has GREAT gas mileage, cruises very nicely on the highways. (I used to do an 8 hour round-trip every weekend for two months straight and the car never let me down!)
Having read reviews from owners who are getting 200,000 miles out of their cars I am very happy to have bought a Prelude that has stuck with me these past few years.
The Sunroof leak is simple, I had the same issue. The seal itself may need to be replaced. However, in the trunk behind the lining on the sides, you will find a clear hose that runs out behind the rear bumper, this is the sunroof drain and needs to be cleaned out, just pull out the hose from its black fitting and use a screwdriver to clean sticks or other debris... it cleared out my problem. (P.S the other two sunroof drains are behind the front fenders)
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