Buying a Talon TSI with a couple problems..

[Ferox]

I am looking into buying a 1992 Talon TSI AWD For the price and the shape the car is in i cant really let it go. Sorry for the inconvienience but there is a small story to this so people can get an idea of what might be wrong with it.

The guy im buying the car from bought it and the car had a bad valve, he took the car into a dealership and they wanted 1700 bucks to tear down the head, rebuild it and put it back on. so instead he pulled the head himself, took it to a local machine shop, paid them to do it and reinstalled it. his son then drove the car for about 3 monthes then one day it started to not idle correctly. The car has sit in the driveway since.

This is where i come in. I go to look at the car and he tells me the story from above, says he doesnt have the time to work on it anymore and wants to sell it but doesnt want to rip anyone off. The car starts up but idles very badly, It doesnt sound like the iratic idle problem because it barely idles. When we take the car for a ride, after about 1/4 of a mile the car starts to smoke, just a cloud following us, but the car still has good power and makes 14lbs of boost. When we get back to his house the car dies and doesnt want to idle and is smoking from under the hood. There was no smell of radiator fluid, only oil burning. It seemed to be leaking around the exhaust manifold.

My conclusion, is that it may have a blown headgasket. The guy doesnt strike me as the best mechanic in the world so he might not have torqed the head down correctly and he also didnt use the mitsu head gasket, just one from NAPA. Or it could be a combination of the valve cover gasket leaking oil, and a bad TPS..

Any input will be nice

Thanks

 

[Ferox]

Okay.. so 33 people looked at this post and not a single one of you has any input.. wow

 

[KuZo]

well if they don't know how to answer your question then should they reply?

Although you write a good story, it is still hard to give you a good answer. The car is obviously burning oil, it could be from the valve seals, it could be from the piston rings, it could be from a head gasket, maybe a blown turbo. As you can see there are so many different things that could be causing it, I would offer him a price pretty low because, since he isn't sure you have to assume the worst. How is the body??

 

[gurrmanator]

somtimes if the tps goes it takes the ecu with it,1g's are bad for that

 

[97GSX-509]

Yes....there are several answers to your problem. I would DEFINITELY not offer him too much money, because you just don't know until you tear down that head. You may get lucky and have it be just the head gasket.....but something tells me that it is not just the head gasket. You probably have cracked valve guides, and/or shot piston rings, etc. Good luck with it though....let us know how it comes!

 

[Ferox]

well if they don't know how to answer your question then should they reply?

Although you write a good story, it is still hard to give you a good answer. The car is obviously burning oil, it could be from the valve seals, it could be from the piston rings, it could be from a head gasket, maybe a blown turbo. As you can see there are so many different things that could be causing it, I would offer him a price pretty low because, since he isn't sure you have to assume the worst. How is the body??

Well i can get the car for 500 bucks. the body and interrior are in great shape.. there are two small spots of surface rust on the outside.. but nothing major.

I dont belive its a blown turbo cause it still produces plenty of boost. If i do a compression test on the car that should tell me of the rings are bad correct? if its really low on all 4 than i can expect the rings to be shot. When i drove the car it seemed to have plenty of power.. and i didnt really get after it. Just didnt want to idle.

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[Ferox]

So i just talked to the guy who has the car. He said he asked his son about the smoking problem. his son said there was an oil return line running from the turbo to the oil pan that had a crack in it and was spraying oil on the manifold before. he said his son patched it with jb weld (why the hell anyone would do that is beyond me) and it worked for a little while. So i guess i will take a good look at it and see if thats true.

If what he says checks out and the car shows good compression results i think then ill buy it and try and figure out why it doesnt want to idle.

So to get ahead of schedule.. Anyone know of what the problem could be with it not wanting to idle correctly? And if it is the TPS where is a good place to get one.. the local parts store wants 133 bucks for one.. which is a bit pricey.

 

[deusxmachina]

Dude... 500 bucks for a nice AWD that runs with some weirdo problem? Sounds like a deal if you can turn a wrench. Buy that thing already.

If you're cautious, do a compression test before buying it. Should help diagnose a bad head gasket or worse. I can't see getting a much better deal on an AWD. If you have to replace the turbo or take the head off, eh. Still worth it.

The idle could be as little as a poorly-adjusted BISS screw.

edit: if you don't want it, and it's driveable, PM me the info and maybe I'll buy it for my brother who wants to get back into DSM's.

 

[SexperT]

I'll advice u to take it to a mechanic before u do any buying and tell him to pay to have it checked, if its not too costly to fix and its within your budget, buy it. Sounds like a good deal for a AWD, but remember you might end up paying half what the car cost u for it.
As for the problem, one im guessing its the ECU as someone said already, piston rings, and if he's son says that there's a leak why dont u check it out yourself and see what up.

Best of luck, dont sound too desperate, there are tons of DSM's out there.

 

[Ferox]

Well Thursday i plan to run a compression test on the car and see for myself if infact the oil is coming from that line. If everything checks out then i plan on buying the car. The car is drivable.. just doesn't like to idle. I drove the car about a mile down the road and back and it seemed to have plenty of power.

As for it being the tps and the ecu.. thats gonna cost a few bucks.. since a new tps runs 130 bucks or better.

And im not that desperate.. im only trying to take advantage of a good deal.. i tend to buy cars like this because i like to wrench on things then make a few bucks if and when i get tired of the car.. not saying i wont keep this.. ive always wanted dsm.. and this happen to have come along at the right time.

The idle could be as little as a poorly-adjusted BISS screw.

Sorry for not knowing a whole lot about dsm's, But i forgot to mention, the guy told me the only way he could get the car to idle decent, was by turning out the screw on the throttle body, but in turn it made the car run rich..

Hopefully that helps in the diagnosis.. And i dont belive there are any Check engine lights being thrown thru this whole process.

 

[KuZo]

$500 is a killer deal, even if it needs a new engine and transmission, you won't be able to get a good condition rolling shell for much cheaper. I'd jump on it now.

As far as the compression test, that will tell you, obviously, what compression you have, however; if it's low you're going to also need to do a leak down test to find the exact source of the problem because it might not be the rings.

Also, I think I got kind of confused as to how the smoke was "following you." Was it out of the exhaust or do you think it could be flowing from under the car?? If it was coming from under the car I guess the oil spraying on the manifold story would work. My question is though, can you smell the oil when you open the hood or see it leaking/spraying onto the manifold? If it was coming out of the exhaust then check all the problem areas I mentioned before, because something is wrong in there.

Good luck with it, I'm curious to hear what your compression numbers are.

 

[Ferox]

Well im going to bring some oil with me and if any of the cylendars are low on compression i will do a wet test. That should give me a pretty good idea of what is going on inside that motor. but i will do a leakdown test after i buy the car.

As for the smoke, it was pouring out from under the car not the exhaust.. kinda what a nascar looks like when it blows up.. only not as bad.. When i stopped the car you could smell oil burning and smoke was rolling out from under the hood so it sounds like the oil line story will probably check out.

i just really hope the ECU isnt toast. If it is tho.. anyone have one for cheap?

Ill be leaving shortly to run the test's on the car. As soon as i get back with the numbers and more details ill let you guys know.

thanks for the help.

 

[Ferox]

Alright.. Here are the results..

after 3 turns i was getting 130,120,120,120
after the motor turned over 6 times i was getting 160 on all 4

here is more to the story. i think this should really clear things up. They did infact take the car to a dealer to run test's on it because it was running bad. The dealership said the AIS motor is bad. and one of the o2 sensors was bad.

As for the oil, yes it is from the oil line as far as i can tell. I reached under the turbo and grabbed the line, my hand was covered in fresh oil.

***edit*** Also forgot to mention the car has always had mobile 1 synthetic oil in it. Never had conventional oil and was always run on premium.

 

[1993eclipseGS]

that car is worth $500 even if it didn't have a motor... The car looks mint. I'd buy that car right now if I were you. You can make MORE then $500 in profit from parting it out....

 

[JohnnyC]

If you don't take it - I will.... Where does this guy live?

 

[Ferox]

Oh dont worry.. im buying it.