Plus And Minus About Honda Crv 2000

udana_k · July 4, 2014

Hi all,

i'm planing to buy a CVR (YOM 1999 or 2000). this is going to be my first suv. i have heard it's a better vehicle. but i'm not aware about the known issues.

if you guys know about the CRV, pls contribute your thoughts. it would help me to make better decision.FYI, my budget is just 1.9 , 2 million only.

please mention the other things you know about CRV as well. (like fuel efficiency, maintenance cost, places to buy spares)

thanks in advance

udana

iRage · July 4, 2014

You are looking at a first gen (RD1/RD2). I distinctively remember writing about them in a different thread so you might find more details by searching the forums.

In summary; well built, interior (seats) feel more comfortable than same era RAV4 and the ride quality is much nicer too. It has a real-time AWD system and I used to get stuck well before my friend's RAV4 did when driving on beaches of East Timor (although the RAV4s full time AWD was not that much superior to begin with and granted Honda's real time system has come a long way since then) so stick to the not so adventurous soft roading and you will be fine. Driving it was nice although the gear box needed some getting used to.

Things to look out for ? As always make sure you buy a well maintained unit. Apart from that pay attention to the rear differential....those things had a habit of whining and howling every time the AWD started working and the fix was a simple diff oil change (although recommended service interval was 80000+km the change was usually required at around 50000). The issue is that you HAD to use Honda diff oil (I am told that now there are similar OEM oils which were not available during that time). Not using it resulted in the diff going bad. So make sure the diff has been properly serviced. Check for howls or whines from the rear and that the AWD actually works. At the time I had one (around 2006) I bought the oil at the SL honda agents and took it to East Timor (no agents there) and the price was not too bad.

Edited July 4, 2014 by iRage

xXx · July 4, 2014

iRage solely out of curiosity, i have noticed that you have worked in some exotic parts of the world. Mind if i ask what you do for a living? Its not every day you come across some one who has worked let alone been to East Timor.

iRage · July 4, 2014

On 7/4/2014 at 6:03 PM, xXx said:
i have noticed that you have worked in some exotic parts of the world. Mind if i ask what you do for a living? Its not every day you come across some one who has worked let alone been to East Timor.

Exotic...I don't know...out of the ordinary...definitely. I work as a systems analyst in the development sector if that explains anything. Also there were about Sri Lankan cops and Special Task force guys (totalling about 100) in East Timor as UN Police so you might come across a few more

udana_k · July 5, 2014

On 7/4/2014 at 12:22 PM, iRage said:
You are looking at a first gen (RD1/RD2). I distinctively remember writing about them in a different thread so you might find more details by searching the forums.
In summary; well built, interior (seats) feel more comfortable than same era RAV4 and the ride quality is much nicer too. It has a real-time AWD system and I used to get stuck well before my friend's RAV4 did when driving on beaches of East Timor (although the RAV4s full time AWD was not that much superior to begin with and granted Honda's real time system has come a long way since then) so stick to the not so adventurous soft roading and you will be fine. Driving it was nice although the gear box needed some getting used to.

Things to look out for ? As always make sure you buy a well maintained unit. Apart from that pay attention to the rear differential....those things had a habit of whining and howling every time the AWD started working and the fix was a simple diff oil change (although recommended service interval was 80000+km the change was usually required at around 50000). The issue is that you HAD to use Honda diff oil (I am told that now there are similar OEM oils which were not available during that time). Not using it resulted in the diff going bad. So make sure the diff has been properly serviced. Check for howls or whines from the rear and that the AWD actually works. At the time I had one (around 2006) I bought the oil at the SL honda agents and took it to East Timor (no agents there) and the price was not too bad.

thanks iRage... pretty much thank about the things mentioned about diffs... do i need to use 95 octane particularly?

iRage · July 5, 2014

On 7/5/2014 at 10:17 AM, udana_k said:
thanks iRage... pretty much thank about the things mentioned about diffs... do i need to use 95 octane particularly?

Well like I mentioned I owned one in East Timor and the petrol was quite dirty and was not high octane and it still worked fine...sometimes they had 90 octane shipped from Australia but it was most of the time out of stock.

udana_k · July 5, 2014

On 7/5/2014 at 11:45 AM, iRage said:
Well like I mentioned I owned one in East Timor and the petrol was quite dirty and was not high octane and it still worked fine...sometimes they had 90 octane shipped from Australia but it was most of the time out of stock.

supperb ...

xXx · July 7, 2014

On 7/4/2014 at 7:29 PM, iRage said:
Exotic...I don't know...out of the ordinary...definitely. I work as a systems analyst in the development sector if that explains anything. Also there were about Sri Lankan cops and Special Task force guys (totalling about 100) in East Timor as UN Police so you might come across a few more

ah ha that was one of the two areas i thought you might be attached to.

oh yes i remember the SL peace keeping force, wasn't there some disciplinary issues and sexual assault allegations?

iRage · July 8, 2014

On 7/7/2014 at 9:01 PM, xXx said:
oh yes i remember the SL peace keeping force, wasn't there some disciplinary issues and sexual assault allegations?

Yeah...but relative to the other forces our guys were some what well behaved

Edited July 8, 2014 by iRage

xXx · July 8, 2014

On 7/8/2014 at 4:48 AM, iRage said:
Yeah...but relative to the other forces our guys were some what well behaved

ah so they were peer pressured lol.

blkr6 · July 11, 2014

we have two 99 CRVs in our household and i know everything about them......they are great vehicle but you have to pick one that's been well maintained.

few common problems in these:

Door Locks: door lock actuators kinda get stuck and needs replacement (may be in SL it shouldn't be an issue since locks act up cold months)

Transmission: if not maintained they are known to give problems (always use honda Z or DW 1 ATF)

Differential: if not maintained well it starts acting up whole car starts vibrating when making a U-turn (most times old Diff fluid is replaced problem gets fixed, use only Honda DUAL pump Fluid)

Center Clock always burns out

sway bar links and rack and pinion as some bushings and they goes out frequently

Valve cover gaskets start leaking every 50k miles may be its the fluctuation of weather where i live but in SL i assume it shouldn't be a problem.

udana_k · July 11, 2014

On 7/11/2014 at 12:36 PM, blkr6 said:
we have two 99 CRVs in our household and i know everything about them......they are great vehicle but you have to pick one that's been well maintained.
few common problems in these:

Door Locks: door lock actuators kinda get stuck and needs replacement (may be in SL it shouldn't be an issue since locks act up cold months)

Transmission: if not maintained they are known to give problems (always use honda Z or DW 1 ATF)

Differential: if not maintained well it starts acting up whole car starts vibrating when making a U-turn (most times old Diff fluid is replaced problem gets fixed, use only Honda DUAL pump Fluid)

Center Clock always burns out

sway bar links and rack and pinion as some bushings and they goes out frequently

Valve cover gaskets start leaking every 50k miles may be its the fluctuation of weather where i live but in SL i assume it shouldn't be a problem.

your answer was full of information. thanks so much dude.. now i'm thinking how to check on these matters before buying.especially on transmission,.. for diffs i think i can check it by myself by a U-turn ?? anyway i still feel CRV is a good choice than a RAV4 of same age(1999) yeah?

by the way have look on what these guys has done.. its a 3rd row seat modification

they have used the 3rd row seat of Avanza.

iRage · July 11, 2014

On 7/11/2014 at 4:28 PM, udana_k said:
your answer was full of information. thanks so much dude.. now i'm thinking how to check on these matters before buying.especially on transmission,.. for diffs i think i can check it by myself by a U-turn ?? anyway i still feel CRV is a good choice than a RAV4 of same age(1999) yeah?
by the way have look on what these guys has done.. its a 3rd row seat modification

they have used the 3rd row seat of Avanza.

For the diff what is essential is you doing anything and something to lose front-end grip so that the rear wheels get power. The usual symptom is a whine when the diff starts up. The shuddering does not always happen and happens at a specific point of the whole thing going bad and will not happen if the diff is completely pooched.Do a google search you will see tons of resources on it and how to do some simple checks.

Don't just stop at doing a U-turn on a normal road as the front may not lose grip and not necessarily engage the rear wheels ...so it would be just like a normal 2WD car doing a U-turn thus with no knowledge of if the diff ever worked (it might be difficult to tell if the diff is completely broken see NOTE below). I would say also go to a gravel/slippery patch and do an aggressive U-turn or start-off (you can go to a muddy pit but I don't think the seller would appreciate that), if the diff is completely pooched the front wheels will spin excessively (you know like spinning in one place with dust kicking in the air before moving like in the movies); if the diff does work then the front wheels will have a very small slip/spin before the rear kicks in. When the rear kicks in listen to whines, or shuddering/shaking.

Not sure about what to say about the transmission...I would say for starters make sure it shifts up and down properly (keep in mind the CR-V has a funky hill climb something gear box so by nature it feels a bit different and doesn't always have that jerky shift on normal A/Ts) and check for maintenance records. It might help if you go with someone who knows cars.

At the end of the day there is no such thing called a perfect car. Even the RAV4 has its faults (although personally I found the RAV4's permenant power split a bit more fun to drive and making it a tad bit more capable off-road. Also if you are lucky you might be able to find a version with the sportier 3S-GE BEAMS engine)

As for the 3rd row seat conversion, the same topic was discussed on the forum in regards to a Vanguard. I believe the same sentiment would apply here; that third row seat is a safety hazard so it is highly inadvisable. The car was not designed for it. The bottom of the 3rd row would be hollow so the seat is mounted only on its sides with some serious customization of the plastic paneling and laying on the plastic cover of the hollow floor (if you look at 3rd row seats of a Pajero, Land Cruiser, Vanguard etc you will see that the seat pretty much lays on some solid flooring and latches on). So the only way out of it is to customize the hollow floor to accommodate secure latching of these seats. Even having done this I seriously doubt the rear crumple zones would accommodate the 3rd row of seats in case of a rear-end collision in which case the rear-end is pretty much going to collapse right on to that 3rd row of seats (so yeah....that youtube video looks nice and impressive but seriously consider the consequences...also that is a 3rd generation CR-V which is somewhat larger than the 1st gen you are looking at). If you want a 3rd row of seats you might be better off buying a SUV that originally came with 3 rows of seats (or get a 4WD mini-van for the extra seats.

NOTE: From memory Honda's first Real time system used a dual pump and multiple clutch system. There is one pump at the front of the diff driven by the front wheels through the prop shaft and another behind it driven by the rear wheels via the diff. When front loses grip the front powered pump will spin faster than the rear one creating hydraulic pressure which opens a valve and engages the clutches. If the diff is broken the dual pumps simply do not work and create the required pressure to activate the clutches so the prop shaft just turns.

udana_k · July 14, 2014

On 7/11/2014 at 7:21 PM, iRage said:
For the diff what is essential is you doing anything and something to lose front-end grip so that the rear wheels get power. The usual symptom is a whine when the diff starts up. The shuddering does not always happen and happens at a specific point of the whole thing going bad and will not happen if the diff is completely pooched.Do a google search you will see tons of resources on it and how to do some simple checks.
Don't just stop at doing a U-turn on a normal road as the front may not lose grip and not necessarily engage the rear wheels ...so it would be just like a normal 2WD car doing a U-turn thus with no knowledge of if the diff ever worked (it might be difficult to tell if the diff is completely broken see NOTE below). I would say also go to a gravel/slippery patch and do an aggressive U-turn or start-off (you can go to a muddy pit but I don't think the seller would appreciate that), if the diff is completely pooched the front wheels will spin excessively (you know like spinning in one place with dust kicking in the air before moving like in the movies); if the diff does work then the front wheels will have a very small slip/spin before the rear kicks in. When the rear kicks in listen to whines, or shuddering/shaking.

Not sure about what to say about the transmission...I would say for starters make sure it shifts up and down properly (keep in mind the CR-V has a funky hill climb something gear box so by nature it feels a bit different and doesn't always have that jerky shift on normal A/Ts) and check for maintenance records. It might help if you go with someone who knows cars.

At the end of the day there is no such thing called a perfect car. Even the RAV4 has its faults (although personally I found the RAV4's permenant power split a bit more fun to drive and making it a tad bit more capable off-road. Also if you are lucky you might be able to find a version with the sportier 3S-GE BEAMS engine)

As for the 3rd row seat conversion, the same topic was discussed on the forum in regards to a Vanguard. I believe the same sentiment would apply here; that third row seat is a safety hazard so it is highly inadvisable. The car was not designed for it. The bottom of the 3rd row would be hollow so the seat is mounted only on its sides with some serious customization of the plastic paneling and laying on the plastic cover of the hollow floor (if you look at 3rd row seats of a Pajero, Land Cruiser, Vanguard etc you will see that the seat pretty much lays on some solid flooring and latches on). So the only way out of it is to customize the hollow floor to accommodate secure latching of these seats. Even having done this I seriously doubt the rear crumple zones would accommodate the 3rd row of seats in case of a rear-end collision in which case the rear-end is pretty much going to collapse right on to that 3rd row of seats (so yeah....that youtube video looks nice and impressive but seriously consider the consequences...also that is a 3rd generation CR-V which is somewhat larger than the 1st gen you are looking at). If you want a 3rd row of seats you might be better off buying a SUV that originally came with 3 rows of seats (or get a 4WD mini-van for the extra seats.

NOTE: From memory Honda's first Real time system used a dual pump and multiple clutch system. There is one pump at the front of the diff driven by the front wheels through the prop shaft and another behind it driven by the rear wheels via the diff. When front loses grip the front powered pump will spin faster than the rear one creating hydraulic pressure which opens a valve and engages the clutches. If the diff is broken the dual pumps simply do not work and create the required pressure to activate the clutches so the prop shaft just turns.

it's really amazing your contribution on my thread. I have taken a hard copy of these important facts to use when selecting a one. plus i realized the importance of taking somebody knows about this better. thanks IRage. Thanks autolanka for the facility provided..