notveryhappyjack

iTrader: (4)

Today me and a friend went to take a look at a 89 GTU's for sale and I wanted to ask the club what its worth selling and buying price.

Here is a rundown of the things I took notes of:
Not sure if engine has been rebuild or not but it has 132xxx chassie miles and 113psi compression tested, quite many small dings in a otherwise shinny black paint, paint is chipping (not to bad) behind the passenger door, minor dents and scrapes which come pretty standard with a older auto, previous owner swaped great contition cloth turbo II seats in, driverside door lock will trip the factory alarm off if it is used to unlock the car, black carpet is in good shape.

Only rust I could spot was in the hatch area where the spare used to sit, looks to be surface rust only so not a big problem, It has a aftermarket glass sunroof, shocks/struts are in good condition, new tires with over 90% tread left, minor curb rash on stock wheels, a/c doesn't blow any cold air and the switch doesn't light up when I pushed the button.

driving the car:
I didn't have a chance to drive this but my friend that is interested in buying it did drive it and he said it drove great, steering was true, clutch was firm, firm brake pedel, no hesitation under acceleration, no bucking motions, car has only had under 1k miles put on it in last 6 months so it has been sitting a while.

Only thing I was concerned about is after the owner and my friend came back from there 25 minute test drive, was the fact that they got out and we let it sit and idle for about three mins while we converced about the car, the owner got back inside the car to pull it in to the driveway and park it when alot of coolant started pouring out of the catch can located in front of the radiator,

Is this normal ? stock temp gauge read normal temps right in the center but I wonder how acurately they read after this many years/miles.

so given this information, along with how hard this car is to find what is a good price to sell and alternativly what Is the good price to buy/pay for this car?

Thanks in advance, and thanks if you took teh time to read this

micah

Well, definately not normal..... Could be a bunch of stuff.. Could be as simple as air in the coolant system steaming up (wrong mixture maybe?), or it could be as terrible as the engine dying and pushing combustion gases into the coolant system.. forcing water out. You should be able to tell which one it is by looking at the quality of the coolant. If it has carbon residue in the bottle, or... oil in the coolant... thats bad news. If not, it could be a simple cooling system problem that you could fix pretty easily.

eriksseven

iTrader: (6)

That sucks about the pissing coolant... I would be immediately hesitant, since that could very well signal blown (internal) coolant seals. What happens is that combustion gasses/pressure push through the internal coolant seals, over-pressurizing the cooling system and therefore pushing coolant out into the overflow tank. Another symptom of this problem would be the reverse... Once the engine is not running, coolant will seep into the compression chambers--so once the car is started, you're greeted with a nice puff of sweet-smelling coolant "smoke", which is the other indicator of blown internal seals.

I would ask the owner if you could be present for a "cold" start, to see if there's any unusual, sweet-smelling smoke out of the exhaust on the first start-up of the day (after coolant has had time to push past the seals and into the combustion chambers). Have him start the car while you get ready to dive towards the muffler to do your "sniff" test.

You could also remove the water-pump housing radiator cap and start the car. If coolant geysers and bubbles out of the opening while the engine is first running, you're looking at a serious problem. If the coolant seals are REALLY toast, the extreme would be that the amount of combustion gas being pushed into the cooling system is enough to literally force large amounts of coolant ouf of the system as the car is running, creating a downward spiral of low-coolant and the increasing occurance of overheating due to the lack of coolant (therby toasting the seals even further). Granted, you can make a blown coolant seal'd Rx7 run for a while if you had to, but expect to be constantly refilling the coolant on a semi-daily basis or worse, and deal with increasingly difficult starts as the amount of coolant in the combustion chambers increases as the seals die.

I know he's asking $3500, which is a fair price. However, with blown seals you should probably just move on, because I'm sure the seller isn't desperate to sell a GTUs at a discounted price (even if the engine needs to be rebuilt).

Omixeo

iTrader: (1)

$3500 is too much for it, even if the engine is in good shape. A lot of people try to mark up the price on the GTUs, but they are retarded. The car is hardly worth much more than a standard NA S5. Tell him theres no way you are paying extra for the GTUs name. If he refuses to come down in price then pass it up.

micah

I'd love to live in one of these states where 3500 for a running S5 is too much. You can barely find an S5 in oregon, let alone one for under 5000.. They really are RARE here..... None in the junk yards...

You'd think Pineapple racing and Atkins would have picked a better location to start their business.

eriksseven

iTrader: (6)

Haha, I'll just wait until you try to sell yours and then I'll refer everyone back to this post.

notveryhappyjack

iTrader: (4)

back from the dead.
I didn't buy the car. I saw it on craigslist a week ago and person who did buy the car put about 7k miles on it and now it officially needs an engine rebuild. Who knows if it was related but I'm glad I passed.

Omixeo

iTrader: (1)

Haha, well since this is already brought back from the dead, I'll just go ahead and say I probably wont be selling mine any time soon, and when and if I do decide to sell it, it will be worth what I ask for it :P.

P.S. Go buy it now that its got a blown motor and have it rebuilt. Get it for as cheap as possible.