I'm nearing the end of the extended warranty I bought for my 2000 Honda Civic I purchased in June of 2001, and most parts are working pretty well as far as I can tell. However, I'm not a mechanic and I don't know much about cars, so I'm not sure what to look for. I have a feeling that if I take the car to the dealership they won't find much wrong with it, because they won't want to do warranty work for free if I don't have any good complaints. So... does anyone have any recommendations for what I can complain about so I get the most out of my warranty when I take it in?
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Take the car to the dealer and don't let on that you have an extended warranty. Tell them you are taking it on a trip, and pay them to give it a complete inspection, and to let you know what they find. If there is nothing wrong, you will have purchased peace of mind, if they find something you can always then have it repaired under the warranty.
I can be of no help, I've only had 4 issues arrive on my 1995 Honda Civic (outside of routine maintenance) - New Radiator (~$700) in 2001 (due to a bad soft plug that didn't blow out resulting in a cracked radiator, then in 2002 I had to replace the O2 (~$250) & MAP (~$250) sensor because they failed, and in 2005 I had to replace the part of the starter (~$700) that had worn out.
In summary, check the radiator plugs, starter system and emissions control system. Good call with the Honda!
For what it's worth, we've a 1997 Civic that hasn't had any serious maintenance issues, and it's up to 155,000 miles. We've also got a 2000 Civic that's been great so far as well. Hopefully things will go as well for you.
Yes.. you have a Civic. There's little if anything to worry about. Just change the fluids and filters when they're supposed to be changed (re: what the car's owner manual says, buttressed by common sense.. not what the dealer says) and you'll have nothing to be concerned about.
The owner's manual for my 04 Accord says I don't have to change the oil for 10K miles. The dealer says I should change it every 3K miles. Neither one is probably correct.. so I split the difference. Of course, these days, my daily commute is less than 10 miles, so I end up changing my oil every 3 months instead at a certain mileage interval.