Bladed
Proven Member
- 44
- 3
- Dec 11, 2022
-
Chicago,
Illinois
This is a long story and a lot of stuff happened so bare with me, I’m aware I’m kinda at fault for most of this, it’s my first DSM however I have some experience with them from family who owned multiple.
So I went out and bought a 97 GST Spyder with 160k miles, replaced belts, replaced seals, replaced water pump, new Konig backbones and good tires, small oil leak on the right side (seller suspected cross threaded bolt or loose bolt of some sort), a power drain somewhere (suspected something with the convertible so I switched top to manual mode), automatic but it shifted fine, 100% rust free even strut towers, and bone stock besides a 16g turbo. I drove it for about a hour at highway speeds and long story short, I rear ended my friend at maybe about 10mph (owe him a bumper and scuffed up mine but it was super scuffed before so I wasn’t too worried).
The car threw a few lights up but they went away immediately and the car continued to chug along and my friend was in a rush to get home, cut to about an hour later I noticed the low oil light going on and off inconsistently. I went to the nearest gas station since I was also low on gas and picked up a quart of full synthetic that the seller said he was using, I top off the oil use maybe half the quart and then eventually get going again.
Well cut to me driving on the highway, acceleration wasn’t being great so I gave I slowed down and then gave it a little gas and then shortly after car starting being a bit rough then there was pretty distinctly blueish maybe whiteish smoke coming from the exhaust. I immediately pulled over and shut off the car and the battery died while waiting for a tow since I was worried about the timing belt or bent valve stems. I don’t recall hearing any bad mechanical metal on metal type noises but the cabin was so insanely loud at highway speeds I'm not 100%. The tow driver asked to look at the engine bay and there was lots of oil kinda everywhere near but not touching the timing belts and turbo.
Later I take a look at stuff myself and I found a coolant line disconnected from the radiator, at this point I’m suspecting either turbo or headgasket issue primarily and planned on removing the exhaust manifold to see if the ports were wet and to take a closer look at the turbo itself. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to that part because my neighbor in a large truck backed into the driver side of the car leaving their driveway which messed up my hood, broke the headlight, and messed up the bumper some more.
I do not yet have insurance on the vehicle but was told by an officer that essentially my insurance company should help take care of me with getting it insured even after this. I haven’t yet seen if there’s any structural damage but the neighbor was just backing out of the driveway so I don’t think so, but in this situation I’m not sure what the good ending is as I still need to charge the battery and see if the car even runs. I’m worried that the cost of repair will likely cost more than the car so not sure how I should approach this. I will try discussing with my neighbor and seeing if they are maybe willing to pay for the parts out of pocket and I might just do the labor myself regardless of it being 100% their fault as I found a replacement headlight and hood in the same color however not a front bumper color in the same color.
I would love to see this car live mainly due to the rust free factor and it really did seem like a great project to fix up but not sure which angle to approach this at. Any guidance is appreciated, I’m aware that I was kinda extremely stupid about a lot of this as to be honest I was only really looking out for crankwalk and replaced timing belt, tensioner, 60/120k stuff.
I suspect the coolant line detached when I hit my friend and it overheated but I think it’s more something with the turbo then the headgasket. Any advice is appreciated and im aware It’ll likely be deemed totaled but if it is then I’ll maybe part out some interior pieces and keep the wheels and move on, just really don’t wanna see it go since it’s totally rust free. (I’ll try to add photos soon)
So I went out and bought a 97 GST Spyder with 160k miles, replaced belts, replaced seals, replaced water pump, new Konig backbones and good tires, small oil leak on the right side (seller suspected cross threaded bolt or loose bolt of some sort), a power drain somewhere (suspected something with the convertible so I switched top to manual mode), automatic but it shifted fine, 100% rust free even strut towers, and bone stock besides a 16g turbo. I drove it for about a hour at highway speeds and long story short, I rear ended my friend at maybe about 10mph (owe him a bumper and scuffed up mine but it was super scuffed before so I wasn’t too worried).
The car threw a few lights up but they went away immediately and the car continued to chug along and my friend was in a rush to get home, cut to about an hour later I noticed the low oil light going on and off inconsistently. I went to the nearest gas station since I was also low on gas and picked up a quart of full synthetic that the seller said he was using, I top off the oil use maybe half the quart and then eventually get going again.
Well cut to me driving on the highway, acceleration wasn’t being great so I gave I slowed down and then gave it a little gas and then shortly after car starting being a bit rough then there was pretty distinctly blueish maybe whiteish smoke coming from the exhaust. I immediately pulled over and shut off the car and the battery died while waiting for a tow since I was worried about the timing belt or bent valve stems. I don’t recall hearing any bad mechanical metal on metal type noises but the cabin was so insanely loud at highway speeds I'm not 100%. The tow driver asked to look at the engine bay and there was lots of oil kinda everywhere near but not touching the timing belts and turbo.
Later I take a look at stuff myself and I found a coolant line disconnected from the radiator, at this point I’m suspecting either turbo or headgasket issue primarily and planned on removing the exhaust manifold to see if the ports were wet and to take a closer look at the turbo itself. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to that part because my neighbor in a large truck backed into the driver side of the car leaving their driveway which messed up my hood, broke the headlight, and messed up the bumper some more.
I do not yet have insurance on the vehicle but was told by an officer that essentially my insurance company should help take care of me with getting it insured even after this. I haven’t yet seen if there’s any structural damage but the neighbor was just backing out of the driveway so I don’t think so, but in this situation I’m not sure what the good ending is as I still need to charge the battery and see if the car even runs. I’m worried that the cost of repair will likely cost more than the car so not sure how I should approach this. I will try discussing with my neighbor and seeing if they are maybe willing to pay for the parts out of pocket and I might just do the labor myself regardless of it being 100% their fault as I found a replacement headlight and hood in the same color however not a front bumper color in the same color.
I would love to see this car live mainly due to the rust free factor and it really did seem like a great project to fix up but not sure which angle to approach this at. Any guidance is appreciated, I’m aware that I was kinda extremely stupid about a lot of this as to be honest I was only really looking out for crankwalk and replaced timing belt, tensioner, 60/120k stuff.
I suspect the coolant line detached when I hit my friend and it overheated but I think it’s more something with the turbo then the headgasket. Any advice is appreciated and im aware It’ll likely be deemed totaled but if it is then I’ll maybe part out some interior pieces and keep the wheels and move on, just really don’t wanna see it go since it’s totally rust free. (I’ll try to add photos soon)
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