Depending on the year, the clutches are really bad for slipping early especially if its had a tough life. Easy to check on a test drive, try and get up into 6th gear and floor the accelerator. If the revs jump up or its revs faster than you are actually accelerating, it's a sign its on its way out. It might have a while till it goes or it could have been like that a while.

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Clutch is #1.

Also check for a rusty roof at the top of the windscreen.

 

Let the car warm up. Turn off and start again, if it hesitates before turbo kicks in then EGR problem.

From cold, start engine open the bonnet and rev it up and down a bit. See if any smoke comes out of the engine bay or you can smell fumes. If so then cracked exhaust manifold.

 

Personally I wouldn't buy another one, although mine is a petrol the issue is not the engine.
Very good car and been super reliable so far but it's the cabin that drives me nuts.

Maybe the EX will be different from the Type S.

 

Whats wrong with the cabin?

 

Dashboard is probably one of the areas that's not so bad

 

Well then your rattles will be items in the storage compartments, for this just apply non slip matting to the base and trust me having owned a rattle free FN2 for 2 and a half years I do know what I am talking about you just cure one area then you find and pinpoint the next rattle and over 2-3 goes your cure this easily enough and to be fair 90% of the 8G Civic dash rattles will be cured with the 2 areas just mentioned.

 

Will cure it all in one go when it's sold.

Sorry OP for hijacking your thread

 

EX is great trim and has built in sat nav. If you prefer not to have this and have more options to replace Stereo etc you can look at other trims, the big seller for me on the ex was factory HiD headlights. The sport trim did do these as an extra tho I believe.

Look at the wiki page on here that lists the spec options and see what suits. Depending on budget and what age car the type s gt's are lovely and have the panoramic sunroof.

The wiki also lists some pre and post 2009 differences. Such as phone/music connectivity etc

 

I've had my 2.2 EX for about a year now and the only thing that bugs me about it is the Sat Nav not having a 3D option for the view, its all topdown 2D maps. other than that I enjoy the car daily. not had had major faults with it apart from the HID control unit failing.
Just look out for the main 2 things as stated above (Clutch and Rust at the top of the windscreen roof area)

I'm getting around 50mpg with a mix of motorway and town driving. used to be 54 - 56 mpg so I'm waiting for a nice day to get the EGR cleaned out to see if that helps at all.

 

thanks for the advice so far, il keep an eye out.

 

I understand that glass roof is an option on the EX vs standard on the ES.
The ride is supposed to be harsher on 17in wheels vs 16in.
Some say clutch issues are less-common that more recent models.
Mine's 08-09 with 60k and perfect.

 

Skip a general and buy the MK9, 2.2 diesel in Ex trim. Bloody marvelous car.