Worth fixing?

[formzy]

I have a lady customer who has a "love affair" with this car. It's a '87 Honda Accord lx model. She has owned it since new in 11/86. I have done some work for her the last several years and last fall the transmission starting acting up. She asked me for advice and I said I would be carefull how much to spend. She fixed it for $1600. Then last week the rack and pinion seal gave way and she has quotes from $600-900 and probably when done $1000 bucks. I think she shouldn't fixed the trans. for that price as I advised her against, and now this major repair. She thinks nothing else will fail now.??

What does anybody else think about this? I advised to go as far as $500 on the trans. (which is unlikely today anything serious can be fixed for this) and she seems she'll keep fixing this car till it 50 years old. I know it's a personal decesion, especially if she can afford too(which she can) but I hate to see her mislead on the worth of this car. It has 150.000 plus miles, to me very hard to work on ( I work on allot of gm's) and nothing special in condition. I guess my question would be for some advice from similar Honda owners and there exeperiences. Thanks, Formzy

[hxgaser]

Tell her the whole car is worth less than $1000. I guess it is up to her if she wants to spend money on it, but with 150K miles it will start having miscellaneous problems. I guess if she took care of it, then the motor should last for awhile. But drive train, such as u-joint should be going soon. Also suspension might be sagging by then. Look for any unusual tire wear, typically inside tire wear. Any usual maintenance stuff, such as water pump, timing belt, valve clearance should be looked over as well.Anyways I have seen many Honda's lasting 200k miles easily, but still, it will need work.

[AccordCodger]

U-joint? On an Accord? CV joints maybe, though I'm sure they'll have been replaced at least once in 150l.