I bet most of you guys haven’t ever spent this much money on parts for a Prelude

$16k over 27 years is about $600/yr. You would have spent less if you owned a Civic, but that's inexpensive. For comparison, the average car payment for 2022 is $7800/yr for a new car and $5400/yr for a used car.

I haven't beaten that figure (yet ) but I haven't owned a Prelude for that long.

Stub said:

$16k over 27 years is about $600/yr. You would have spent less if you owned a Civic, but that's inexpensive. For comparison, the average car payment for 2022 is $7800/yr for a new car and $5400/yr for a used car.

I haven't beaten that figure (yet ) but I haven't owned a Prelude for that long.

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Yeah I guess $600 a year sounds a lot better.

You'd be surprised at how much some of us have put into these cars over the years. Most (like myself) don't want to consider the exact amount.... but man do I have an idea and it's not pretty.


The way I see it, if you enjoy the car, the cost isn't a concern.

Wing8806 said:

You'd be surprised at how much some of us have put into these cars over the years. Most (like myself) don't want to consider the exact amount.... but man do I have an idea and it's not pretty.


The way I see it, if you enjoy the car, the cost isn't a concern.

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Yeah you are right. For my opel gts I keep putting money in them, but then again they have been abandoned for 20 years. But man do I like them. Same with my lude. I am planning on keeping it forever and maybe engine swapping it way in the future.

The last time I tallied up the receipts for my car, I got to the $8,000 mark and then stopped counting. That was 7 years ago, and I've owned my 5th Gen for 15 years.

Ignorance is bliss.

All pretty sad I must say. Owned my base prelude since 2010. Had 100K roughly 235K now. The most I spent was to overhaul the engine 1600. Brand new wheels and tires 1100. Regular maintenance maybe 200 a year. Total $5,100.00. After the engine was overhaul brand new Lude. You have to change rings. Oh I did put in Yonaka Coilovers 500. Still worth it. The car used cost 10K.

I lost track on my 86si bought in 91 it's got over 500k with timing belts due @60k and high cost of California being reliable enough for a daily driver is expensive and the mods like S2k cluster swap does add up!

I bought my non-running '91 Si in January 2020 for $1000. Three years later, my tally (excluding the car and cross-country transport) is around $3k. I've put in a new head gasket, resurfaced the head, new hoses, new seals around, new plugs, new shocks / springs, new tires, new radio speakers, new radiator, replacement alternator, VSS, IACV, OEM JDM lip, and probably some other tidbits. Obviously not a year-round car, but it will see mileage during non-winter months.

Any idea as to why the alternater keeps breaking?

My guess is it's just a wear item that's seen over 30 years of abuse. Rotors and stators are inevitably going to wear out.

Indaba7 said:

Any idea as to why the alternater keeps breaking?

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The battery kept on dying. I think it was because she wasn’t closing the drivers door all the way. You really have to slam it and it is heavy. She was in her 70s when this happened. And I am guessing the shops knew that she would keep on spending money and they just kept buying alternators for it. Before I bought it she would start it up every morning so the battery wouldn’t die. Well that was because she didn’t close the door all the way.

ttcheung97 said:

My guess is it's just a wear item that's seen over 30 years of abuse. Rotors and stators are inevitably going to wear out.

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Yeah but 5-6 alternators in a 2 year time frame is pretty crazy!

im not trying to compete for any rewards or anything... theres probably a few guys here who will outbid me, but my story is a little more rough.

I purchased my SH for about $9k.
I put slightly more than $20k in parts (upgrades and performance) in the car.
Car was stolen and recovered in 2009, nothing left but a chassis.
Insurance paid back $11k (felt like getting stole from twice)
spent $9k fixing the body and paint (still not totally finished actually)
Another $10k in suspension and parts to make it a rolling chassis again
$12k having a new motor built and sleeved.... again

So im around $50k in a car thats nothing more than a glorified painted rolling chassis atm.

^ I think I'm more impressed with you keeping the motivation to stick with the car. Having an already extensive project gutted must have been devastating.

I've been keeping a list of every dollar spent on my project. Not a Prelude, a '93 Accord wagon, but it does have an H22 and I'm at about $27k in it, from the end of 2012 to today. That includes the estimate for the full custom exhaust that's currently being welded up, but not the dyno tuning that will come after. Not horrible if you average it out to monthly/yearly cost. Car itself was $1500 in January 2020.

I'll never see most of that money back, but to me it's a lifer and something of a dream build, so it's worth it. It's still a very long way from finished.

I have 15 grand worth of parts for my build sitting in the garage

F204ws said:

I have 15 grand worth of parts for my build sitting in the garage

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Wow!

CyborgGT said:

I think I'm more impressed with you keeping the motivation to stick with the car. Having an already extensive project gutted must have been devastating.

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yeah im stubborn AF. I was going to buy an rx7 at the time, but I decided I did not want to let that car go out like that. I love that car, and refuse to let it die. Considering the prices now though, i should have bought the rx7 LOL.

Sam91 said:

The battery kept on dying. I think it was because she wasn’t closing the drivers door all the way. You really have to slam it and it is heavy. She was in her 70s when this happened. And I am guessing the shops knew that she would keep on spending money and they just kept buying alternators for it. Before I bought it she would start it up every morning so the battery wouldn’t die. Well that was because she didn’t close the door all the way.

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You know that could be why in my lude driverside door the switch which turns that door light on is wired backwards to stop the light from being on all the time.