Guys, I'm considering purchasing another RX, an '88 GXL with 140,000 miles on the original engine. It's insanely cheap -- $500 -- the owner (second) is retired and he doesn't like it because it floods once in a while when he's running errands. (He knows how to unflood it by pulling the fuse, but finds doing so to be a pain in the ****.)

He hasn't been able to find a buyer in two months because he thinks people are afraid of the "high miles." (I didn't have the heart to tell him my '87 wasn't even broken in well by that point!)

Here's my comments/questions:

1. It idles extremely low when warmed up, about 550 RPM, but *very* smoothly. My take on this is that that probably indicates the engine is in pretty decent shape. Is this a good assumption?

2. Starts quickly when warm or cold -- it did not flood when we stopped for gas during a test drive -- but does not fast-idle at all; you have to flutter the accelerator to keep it above 1000 RPM for about ten or fifteen seconds after a cold start. This doesn't seem like a major problem to me. Would it be necessary to have the fast-idle operational in a cold climate?

Thanks in advance.

 

vaughnc, I considered a compression test, but for only $500 --

Plus the fact that the engine remains running smooth at only 550 RPM made me guess the engine must be in pretty decent/good shape internally.

Even I can adjust the warm idle later -- is the fast idle at startup even necessary?

 

Felix_Wankel, funny you should mention that! $1500 was his original price -- the car's actually in pretty good shape body-wise, except for the window trim and a missing rear wiper -- it crossed through the grey matter that taking care of those cosmetic issues alone might raise the market value! But I'm not quite *so* ethical that I would suggest that...