jcaldwell

I'm looking into buying a 3rd gen but he says it was involved in a small intake fire and now the car won't start. It has a rebuilt engine with about 64k miles on it and in the add he says it is still good. Just wondering what would cause an intake fire, and what could have gotten burnt to cause the car to not start. I haven't looked at it yet and I know I won't know the extent of the fire damage untill I do but just trying to get an idea of how bad the car could be. Thanks.


Jeff

DamonB

If it wasn't bad or expensive he wouldn't be selling the car.

If you can get it cheaply enough, fine. Any damaged car is only worth something if it's CHEAP though.

spurvo

It could be REAL REAL REAL bad. Expensive too...

Now wasn't that helpful?

Anyways, there were/are two main causes for fires in the engine. One is fuel related, most often the fuel pulsation damper. If this caught fire, the fire likely went until the gas burnt itself out. Even if the engine stopped running as a result of burnt wires or loss of fuel pressure, enough fuel was around to cook things nicely. So you will be looking at all new solenoids for the turbo and emissions control, new hoses for the vacuum/pressure stuff, new ACV gaskets and sensors, likely new upper manifold sensors, new coolant hoses, new spark coils, new oil filler neck, possibley new alternator and air pumps, new insulation for the hood, new injectors for the engine (primaries and secondaries) new fuel pressure regulator AND damper, likely new solenoids for throttle control (AWS, double throttle, ISC, etc), new ECU wiring harness. More or less.

The other cause is coolant leaks on the turbo coolant hoses. The coolant dries to a nicely flammable green powder, which flashes over on hard turbo usage. This can take out fewer components, as the fire is usually limited to only those components immediately available to burn in that area, and there aren't many. Air pump (EXPENSIVE!!), belts, some wiring, maybe a solenoid or two, and coolant hoses. HOWEVER, the heat may or may not have damaged any or ALL of the things listed above, and usually replacement is the only way to truely eliminate incorrect function. Turbos miiiight be ok.

So for this particular car engine fire, it REALLY helps to know most or all of the systems in the very tightly packed engine bay, and to have a rough feel for their cost. You need to have a discount parts connection. You need to be able to wrench WELL, and maybe need a source for a whole used engine. A LOT of patience. A fair degree of money. More patience. At least one other car to drive. Getting the patience thing?

Helpful at all?

jcaldwell

Yes thanks alot. He is asking $5k and it has alot of miles on the body so I'm kinda starting to think a no go on this one, but I'll probably stop by and take a look anyway, you never know.

Jeff

alberto_mg

unless you are prepared to drop another $5k or more into it, don't even bother.

remember to get receipts for any supposed work especially the engine rebuild. 64k on a rebuild is enough mileage for it to be blown again. given that he did not fix whatever fuel issue there was to cause a fire, i'd be very skeptical.

skunks

hmmm then again, 5k is pretty cheap and you do get what you pay for. if the body is straight (64k isnt really high millage man, when it comes to 150-200k then i would start to worry) i think it would be a good deal as FD's are worth much more then that (more then double). If you cant afford 5k for a FD, i woudl seriously start to think about other means of transport (bicycle, motorcycle/bus) because 5k is fairly cheap for a car. I know some guys on this board are paying about 2-3k per year for insurance alone plus youll need about 1k a year just for maintainance stuff as this is a 11+ year old car... most new civics will also run you about 15-20k. a new engine does cost 5k installed so why not just buy a brand new long block engine and have someone install it... well that is if you can afford to buy it. As with everything else in life, you gotta pay to play!

BTW: how old are you?

in ancase, good luck with your search

clayne

Go look at the car first. No use speculating about it. For all we know "intake fire" could mean the stock intake piping was involved in an oil-related fire.

turbojeff

iTrader: (30)

I've fixed two engine burn cars.

One still ran after the fire.

The repair cost all depends on how cooked the car got, period.

Is the paint fried on the car? On the hood? On the fenders, on the firewall?

The hood isn't that big of deal, if the paint on the fender or firewall is burned you've got a bigger issue.

Otherwise for a small fire you'll need a engine harness, injectors, some solenoids (not all usually), ACV, misc hoses and that is it. Buying all that stuff new at the dealer can cost thousands. Engine harness is $900, injectors are ~$300 ea ($1200 total), etc. The estimate by an insurance company including labor can quickly total a car.

jcaldwell

Called and talked to him and said the engine still turned over and had about 7.0 kgf/cm/\2 compression on each rotor. And it was a fuel related fire.

I understad it will take AT LEAST another $5k but considering it is pretty hard to find a decent fd for 10 grand this may not be a bad deal.


I am 18, graduating high school this may, and this will be something me and my dad do together. And don't worry I have wanted an FD since I first read about one when I was 12. So when I finally get one I will treat it with nothing but respect. And cost of owning won't be a problem either. My mom is a State Farm agent so I get a good discount on insurance and my rent next year will only be about $250/month. If figured most of it out .

Thanks for all the help.


Jeff

DrunkenBowler

Good Luck.

fd3s_rx7

iTrader: (13)

it would be more than 5 K on a rebuit and harness.

2a+RoN

I'm graduating in May too! Anyways, I just finished a burn car and did it for ~500, but that's not a brand new harness and brand new injectors. The burn wasn't too bad on it though, all the paint and hood were pretty ok.

I have seen the one you are talking about on autotrader, it looks nice, just the 160k miles scares me... as well as the speed holes in the bumper...

911

Don't buy that car. I know what site you saw it on. The site with all the salvage-title cars right?? The vandalized, the stolen, the fire, the flood damaged. Do NOT buy a car from there. they are overpriced and you will never get your money back from what you put in. Although that is ALWAYS the case with cars. In this case, you will just REALLY be pissing money away. Spend the extra $2K and wait for the right 3rd Gen to come along. It will be WELL worth the 2K in the grand scheme of things to have a clear title.

If that is NOT the car, then you must be talking about the autotrader car. I wouldn't buy either. Buy one that is in working order so you can enjoy it first and figure out what you want to do with it. You MAY end up not even wanting to mod out the car. You may find you don't have the time or money.

Just my opinion.

jcaldwell

It is the autotrader car. And yea I'm kinda stuck between a car that really needs work or a car that is already in good shape. I would like a car similar to this just so I could start from scratch and know everything is being done right and the way I want it, but then again your right, it will be awhile before I get to drive it, so in that aspect I would like a nice running car. Decisions, Decisions.

Jeff

TwinTriangles

Dude it couldnt have been too bad, the paint on the hood looks near perfect unless it was repainted, And it looks like its sitting really nice, If they didnt report it to there insurance and just have it sitting there then the title should be clean, I would check it out if I were you...

areXseven

iTrader: (1)

You don't know what your getting yourself into until you take a good look at the fire damage. If you can't inspect it in person, have the seller provide you with many photos of the engine from different angles. Usually, when a fire initiates in the Engine bay, the Driver will have a chance to pick-up the Hood. Therefore, the hood may not demonstrate a lot of fire damage.

Look for stock intake and IC hoses to have deformaties caused by excessive heat or direct flames. Also check for damage on the vacuum hoses. Look at all plastic components for heat deformaty. These components will tell a story as to how intense the fire may have been.

Electronic connectors/wires leading to the fuel injectors may have sustained damage which might explain the reason for the Engine not being able to start up??

Also, check the interior for warpped plastic mouldings/parts. If you've got that, the fire was pretty big and intense.

Bottom line,.... get all the visual information possible and try to assess the damage as best you can. Good luck.

wiblergt

DON"T waste your money. if you even THINK it may have a problem,

DON'T TOUCH IT!

you have better chances of it being a CRAP CAR-MONEY PIT, than you do of it actually being worth something!

take your time and look for the PERFECT car that fits what YOU are looking for. Even if it takes 6 MONTHS...

JUST WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPOautos

For 5K if the engine has good compression I'd buy that bitch up. All you need to do is switch it to non seq to ditch all the rats nest thats prob burned up, install a new wire harness ($700). Then if it were me and the injectors were bad I'd buy some good used ones on the forum for $300 total.

That would be a FD with a good title and running good for $6000. Even if the rest of the car was in bad condition it would still be worth $9K easy.

STEPHEN

clayne

And pay 12,000$ more? Yea, great idea!