Buying an Eclipse, need some advice.....

[2Slow92Eclipse]

I'm in the process of buying a '92 Eclipse, 1.8 SOHC 5-speed. The car is owned by a friend of mine who took the car to a local mechanic in order to diagnose a starting problem. According to the mechanic, the distributor AND the ECU are bad. My friend bought an ECU from a salvage yard, and he is selling me the car for $100 and he gave me the ECU. It has a new clutch and fairly new brakes, suspension, and other newer stuff. The car used to run very well until it started having the electrical issues.

I'm hoping that if I replace the ECU and buy a new distributor and replace the bad one, it will start right up and I'll be able to drive the car home so I won't be forced to have it towed. Does the car sound like a good buy for the price? Should I have any other concerns? Do I even have a clue what I'm talking about? Any advice, suggestions, or comments would be appreciated.

 

[TSIMonsteR]

They are very very slow, but nevertheless fun cars. If taken car of, they will last as long, or out last a honda. I have heard of many of the 1.8's with 500,000 and more miles on them. So, yeah

 

[dwdsm]

When you get it run over all the wires to make sure no mice have chewed any of them, none have rubbed to the point of being exposed, etc. Sometimes when electrical stuff starts going bad it's because the grounding is not working like it suposed to. It woudn't hurt to refresh as many grounds as you can by unbolting them and scratching the surface underneath and replacing any cracked, dry wires.

Just my 2 cents, welcome to
dave

 

[SinaiTSi]

They are very very slow, but nevertheless fun cars. If taken car of, they will last as long, or out last a honda. I have heard of many of the 1.8's with 500,000 and more miles on them. So, yeah

Exactly... I owned one for a little bit until some idiot didn't use a turn signal ahead of me and I ran into him.

Ok, now that's out of the way with. It was a really good car, it was automatic and slow, but it was still a very clean and reliable car. If you take good care of it, it will last you a long time.