What would cause a 96 civic to...
 

Overheat and start shaking???

Guy at work told me he was driving home and all of a sudden his car was over heating and shaking. its a civic ex with 120K and auto. He took it to a mechanic and they told him his head gasket is blown.

Any idea what it could be, they wanna charge him 1,200 to fix it...Are they ripping him off. i would guess it would be easy to replace a head gasket

have him take it to another mechanic...getting another opinion is best in this case... 1200 seems pretty damn expensive though...oh wait...it is. I think theyre scamming him big time...take it to the dealership (though the work will cost more they wont jerk him around w/ crazy prices like 1200 for a gasket)

i wiuld start by doing a compression check. if one one piston the compression is way less than the other 3 then i would say it's a headgasket. and there is a lot of work to do the head gasket. you are paying 5-600 just for a timing belt replacement, and you need to change that too.

:yes: I agree. I always take the dealer route...a little more expensive but pdiggitydogg is right, they dont jerk you around. They are doing a lot of work to my Teg and it is right around that price of 1200. 1200 for that one repair is VERY high.