It's a 1990 175,000 miles. Haven't seen the car yet, but over the phone I was told body is in relatively good shape. New plugs, wires, distributer, tires, and battery.
The car has an exhaust leak at the header, and the whole exhuast system probably needs replaced (I'm in the business, so this is no big deal.)
My question for you 3rd gen guys is.
1.)Is the rear fender well a common rust spot on the maxes like most jap cars? If not what is the most likely place to look for bondo?
2.)For some unknown reason this car "lacks acceleration". You can floor it and it just puts along. She claims she has been told that it's probably a clogged cat, but not sure. Is this common? Usually a sensor or mechanical issue?? Fuel pump maybe?
3.) Leaks power steering really bad. Racks or pumps a common problem??

She claims it doesn't overheat, doesn't burn coolant. She claims it doesn't use any oil, but I don't buy that. (no biggie, it's an older car)
Anyhow, They have it for sale for 800. I was thinking about looking at it and maybe offering $500 cash for it. Thoughts?? Opinions?? Thanks in advance.

 

1. rear quarter and doglegs do tend to rust
2. could be a clogged cat, check the inlet vs outlet temperatures.
more than likely a bad injector or 3. http://www.internetautosupply.com/ca...1246_1247_1248
3. power steering hose has my bet. http://www.internetautosupply.com/ca...1078_1102_1103
I'd only offer about $200 for it. but confirm the injectors before any offer is made

 

The cat is fine, no sensor or mechanical issues, it's simply called a VG30E.

Is it running smoothly or does it feel like it's running on 5 cylinders? Injectors are a common thing to go bad with those miles...

And as long as it was maintained, it shouldn't be burning any oil. These engines are good for half a mil as proven on this board.

Oh, and don't forget to automatically subtract $200 from the price since it was owned by a female. Ok that was pretty bad.

 

Nor sure how it idles. Will find out this weekend though. Oh, and it's missing the spoiler. It vibrated off from the "subwoofers or whatever they are called that she had in the trunk"

Does the design make it easy to get to the injectors to do pulse test??
Oh and is there a schrader valve on the fuel rail anywhere?

 

no shrader valve that I recall.
the basic injector test is to unplug each cylinder and see which one DOESN'T affect the idle

 

Heyyyyy.....

VG's have feelings TOO you know?
________
HOW TO MAKE A PORTABLE VAPORIZER
________
Ffm Redhead

 

I have 179K miles on my car and it doesn't burn oil, nor use coolant. IMake sure the timing is set correctly.

 

with an exhaust leak "at the header" I would say it has broken manifold studs and it sounds like a bad case of it. This might also be contributing to the loss of power. There are probably several factors working together on this, though.

It is a somewhat difficult fix to do yourself (labor intensive, but not that expensive) or it is pretty expensive to have done at a shop.

Unfortunately, it is fairly common with all 3rd gens, both VG and VE.