Honda Civic won't move, knocking noise under throttle

[geekman]

A friend of mine given me this beast to dispose of:

I know, I know, try to contain your jealousy, not everyone can be as lucky as me.

It's currently abandoned in a carpark as it broke down and won't go anywhere. It starts first time and the engine sounds perfect and revs nicely out of gear, but when you engage gear and build the revs, you can hear/feel a knocking from underneath the centre of the car and it doesn't move at all.

I don't really have any intention of fixing it (current plan is to stick it on gumtree at £200 and see if anyone's interested) but it would be good to know what people think is wrong with it - if it's something terminal then I guess it won't even be worth £200. My instinct is that it might be the driveshaft but I know very little about mechanics so that's a pure guess.

 

[geekman]

Thanks for those responses - really helpful. I'll go and have a look at it when I get time and bring a jack and some axle stands - maybe it'll live again, who knows

 

[geekman]

I'm going to try to get down there and have a look tomorrow. I'll definitely keep the thread updated

 

[geekman]

I'm not sure, but I think I might have found the problem



Drivers side driveshaft has completely snapped. How much do we reckon this will cost to fix then?

 

[geekman]

Great - looks like it'll live again! Do we think it's worth DIYing this bearing in mind I'm relatively inept? The car hasn't cost me anything so I'm happy to pay someone to do it considering I could probably sell the car for £600ish, but if it's a fairly easy job I'll have a go at it myself.

 

[geekman]

Thanks

Just bought a driveshaft for £30 - probably not the best quality but they've sold loads of them and had good feedback, so I'm sure it'll last several months at the least.

There isn't actually anything else wrong with the car - the guy who gave it to me was driving it right up until the driveshaft snapped and said it was fine. He's actually owned it pretty much since new and although he hasn't taken much care of the cosmetics, it's been serviced every year etc.

 

[geekman]

what do they make those driveshafts out of? cheese? never seen one snap like that on a relatively newish car

must have been spinning the wheels up

Trust me, this car has never had its wheels spun in its life, I'd be surprised if it's ever been taken above 30MPH

I found a guy online who will come on Thursday and fit it for £80 so I've decided to go for that, as I've got a huge amount of work this month and I suspect that even if I could do it, it'd take me quite a while. Overall, that'll mean I've paid £110 for the car, so I should be able to make a decent profit out of it.

 

[geekman]

It lives!

Fair to say the old driveshaft was past it's best.

Gave it a quick clean and it now looks vaguely respectable:

Annoyingly, since towing it, the ABS light has come on. I tried clearing the codes but it's come back on since. Not sure if maybe the broken bit of driveshaft constantly hitting stuff has damaged the sensor, but either way, probably not going to bother sorting it out as I'd imagine people would expect stuff like this on a £500 car anyway.