virfighter

Hey guys,

I went to check out an '89 GTU today and everything about the car was great except for one little thing (well kinda big actually), it overheated on the test drive! The person selling it is a smaller dealer than owns maybe 5 cars, real nice guy, but when he was pulling it out and we were taking it down the block it hit the red. He said he would check it out and get back to me. Turns out there was little or no coolant in it, which explains the overheating!

The dealer said he was using it as his personal car for about month after he first got it and said he never experienced any problems (which could be the truth, could be a lie, hard to say).

The car is an '89, 131k miles on it and looks and drove just great before the overheat. It had the cleanest engine bay I had ever seen on any car, period (well outside of extreme show cars)!

Other facts about the car: racing beat exhaust and what felt like a short shifter, so the previous owner could have been enthusiast and treated it right, or could have been a jackass and abused the hell out of it (although the condition of the car would suggest the former). The car was purchsed from an auction so whoever had it couldn't afford it.

The asking price was about $2100. I'm not sure how much the guy would be willing to drop given the overheat (I read the information on Aaron Cake's site about what to do after an overheat but haven't had a chance to go back and inspect the car). Basically my question is, should I do the smart thing and just walk away or investigate further and try to get this thing cheap? If the latter, how cheap?

Thanks guys!

(The car is in the Raleigh, NC area, so if anyone around wants info on it, just shoot me a pm)

WAYNE88N/A

I wouldn't touch it now. With no coolant, the gauge in the red means that she was even hotter than that (the sensor doesn't respond as well to air temps versus coolant flowing over it)...

She could have warped housings because of this, depending on how soon you shut her down after the gauge pegged...

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

Anytime an 89-91 temp gauge reaches H, the engine is toast. That's about a $500 car now. Get it and rebuild it from the ground up, which is what you probably should have planned on doing anyway...now you get the car cheap to begin with because of it.

archh

i got my overheating s5 for 150 dollars

pinkin

Toast?! My engine hit the H and its fine after a new radiator,water pump,and gaskets. It was only smokin abit when i popped the hood. but she drives and feels great now. sorry to hijack, but is it possible i still have unseen damage?

vicious525E

check your coolant seals, my old s4 motor died to a stuck thermistat

beefhole

iTrader: (29)

Wouldn't the buzzer go off if there was little or no coolant?

Funkspectrum

iTrader: (5)

Happened to my old S4 motor too but I also had a massive coolant seal leak....
Two local rotary mechanics said that the primary cause was combustion blow-by thru the coolant system...stuck thermostat was secondary.......

deadRX7Conv

Yep, the buzzer would scream if you're a couple ounces low in the radiator. I know from experience.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

...unless it were bypassed/grounded in the wiring, which is common.

beefhole

iTrader: (29)

Why would such a bad idea be common?

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

because people dont know how to properly bleed the system, or dont know how/cant afford to properly fix the root of the problem to begin with. So they find the wire responsible for the buzzer and bypass it by bolting it to the chassis in some inconspicuous place...potential buyers are none the wiser.

virfighter

See, thats one of the strange things. No lights or buzzers went off at all the whole time!

Is there a way to confirm that the housings were warped? Would a pressure test on the system indicate this (ie if the housings were warped then coolant would leak in)?

Zach

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

yes, a pressure test will confirm the leak, be it internal or external. Also other things you might possibly notice would be white residue around the coolant fill cap indicating a history of overheating, white smoke on startup, hard starting or no starting after sitting for a few minutes (flooding with water), water on the leading sparkplugs after bumping the starter a time or 2 (not starting it), or air/bubbles/pressure in the system with the coolant cap left off while cranking the engine.

kenn_chan

Beg, borrow or steal a cooling system pressure set, it consists of a pump, with pressure gauge, and an adapter to fit various radiator, put it in place of the cap, pump it up and let it sit for 30~40 minutes, if it goes down at all, offer them 500 for it and rebuild the motor. if it holds then its your choice, remember the orings could be damaged, but not leaking yet, and could start to leak a couple of months later.

kenn

jhammons01

If you can't find a pressure tester. Then go to the dealer b4 they open and wait for them to arrive. Once they do (nicely) ask to hear the motor again. If the coolant seals are blown that car will fill his little car lot with white smoke. The reasoning is that the dealer may start the car in the morning and burn all the coolant out b4 any customers (like you) arrive. So the car will smoke considerably less after it has warmed for the day. But if it is burning the coolant, that explains the reason it no coolant in the reservior. The radiator still had coolant in it and that is why there was no buzzer. The system had not sucked up enough air to make the buzzer sound.