Quiksilver540

yesterday I drove way out in BFE to test drive a 93' BB touring with tan interior. The car has only had 2 owners. The 2nd owner is a college student who has had it for less than a year. His father wants him to get something bigger for college despite the fact that he doesn't want to sell it. This is what I noticed:

Body: Good condition, the paint is pretty nice (he just washed/waxed it). Only a couple scratches and a small dent on passenger rear 1/4 panel.

Interior: Bose cd player removed and a cheap Clarion deck was replaced with the new cubby hole on the bottom din slot. Overall interior was in good condition except for major wear on the leather shift **** and boot. Also the driver's side bolsters were significantly worn. Nothing was broken from what I saw.

Electrical: Everything worked

Engine: 100k miles on the original (which scares me). No reliability mods at all, completely stock except a red top optima battery. Recent service at 97k miles done at a MAZDA Dealership. I think all they did was fluid change, plugs etc.

The Test Drive: I drove the car with the windows down and the sunroof open so I can hear the engine. We went on a nice windy road, so I could get a feel for the car. It seemed responsive, turbos kicked on around 2800-3000 rpms and the sound of them spooling was louder than the engine.

Is that normal? When the turbos kicked in, they didn't seem to have the acceleration like it should, possible vacuum leak? Since its stock its not very likely they replaced the hoses. I had a stock 99' GS-T and I think it boosted harder than the RX-7 I drove.

I took her up to around 80mph and never hit 5th gear. The tranny seemed to shift fine. When I asked about the synchros he was honest and said that sometimes reverse can be a PITA.

Other than that the brakes worked great (a little rust on the front rotors). I had to hit the brakes pretty hard to stop from hitting a couple deer. The engine seemed healthy, stable idle on startup. The guy said he had never overheated it and has never had the hot start problem. After the test drive I couldn't smell any burning oil or coolant.

Price? $9500....and he is only semi firm so I could probably work with it. What do you guys think? Take the risk and start doing reliability upgrades immediately (downpipe, aluminum AST, silicon hoses etc)? It sounds like he got a pretty good deal on it himself. His best friend's dad owns a dealership. The first owner traded in the FD for something else and his friend's dad sold him the FD for cheap.

Well let me know I got pictures that I need to downsize.

dexmex88

Sounds alright, talk him down a little.

SleeperRX7

iTrader: (2)

Thats not to bad of a deal, as long as he has kept up on the engine and everything.i paid $12000 for mine. 100k is pretty scary though. I bough my fd about 7 months ago with 95k and the guy took care of it and babied it very well, and i haven't had many problems with it yet. I would say try and talk him down on it though. Good luck.

turbojeff

iTrader: (30)

Nope mine is a better deal. Trust me, 97K miles on the motor = rebuild really soon ($3-4K or so with you doing the work). Paint isn't the best = paint job will either be OK while you own it or need a paint job ($2-4K depending on the quality of paint job you want).

So add that up, somewhere between $4-8K to make it nice and ask yourself if you want to be paying insurance on a car that needs a motor while it sits around waiting for parts...

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

The dent on the passenger rear 1/4 may be fairly easy to push out by hand if it's near the antenna. You just remove the interior panel, drop the antenna mechanism, and reach your hand in there. Of course, the paint may be cracked or delaminated, but that's life.

Shift boots are not hard or expensive to replace, but shift ***** are. The dealer replacement **** is just over $100 Nearly everyone has a worn down shifter or has replaced it.


See if you can get the records for replaced parts. Or, take the VIN to this dealer and have them list the records for the car. Things like water hoses, pillowball bushings, motor mounts, etc tend to get shaky around 100k. It's good to know if it's not necessary to replace something.

You didn't mention a boost gauge. You need to buy one now - they are not expensive. A basic mechanical Autometer works fine and is under $40. That's really the only way to know 'normal'. Vacuum leaks are very common, as you may know.

Like any manual tranny car, reverse sometimes doesn't mesh on the first try. Put it in neutral, lift the clutch, then put it back into reverse and try again. Normal.

If it's in good shape, I'd say that's a great buy. Has the compression been checked? If not, get it done.

Either way, plan to keep $$ handy for a future rebuild. Will this be your daily driver?

Dave

Quiksilver540

Daily Driver? No way! I've got a protege for that.

Are you talking about the red base Jeff? Are you still asking 15k obo for it? Send me a pm and maybe I can come look at it. Although that is sorta out of my price range if that is what you're still asking for it. The salvaged MB FD you had was more of my price range, but maybe we can work something out.

I forgot to mention it has a clean title, if you guys wanted to add that factor on the price. As for the motor, I'm not mechanically gifted, but I'm also not dumb. I have a garage with a wide selection of tools available and an engine stand. With the praise I've heard about Bruce's Rebuild and R&R video, I might even be able to rebuild the motor myself.

Who knows just throwing that out there...

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

You probably could. The videos are excellent, and coupled with the FSM there is plenty of info. I would rebuild my own, except I have a tiny garage and no space for tools

Start by doing the hose job, downpipe, and radiator installs. If you don't screw up those, pulling an engine shouldn't be tough, just tedious.