Is this a good deal on a gsx? $4200?

[foney_email]

Okay here is the ad...

Autos for Sale - Mitsubishi Eclipse '95 GSX, 73K miles, 5 speed, Fast Car! $4,700 obo

I drove it, and it made some clunking noises when it was cold, but I hear that it is normal. There is no clutch sticking after left hand turns, and it pulls like crazy!!!

The shifting is smooth, the engine makes a weird humming sound (not the turbo sound either), and the clutch has just been replaced.

I CANNOT hear the BOV. Is that normal on a completly stock GSX?

The leather is very nice, not cracked, or worn. The hatch picks up perfectly, the power seat, windows, locks, and sunroof all work like new. It has fresh oil in there, but that might just be a recent trend. The tires are very new. The turbo whines really nice too.

She has an offer for 4200, but I can finance it with my bank, so I would be able to make a higher bid.

The engine idles well, and I guess it is good. I really like a 5000rpm clutch dump with AWD. Very nice acceleration...

Sorry it is such a long post, but I need opinions. I am concerned with CW, and failure of the transfer case. The car is 100% stock, and I don't think anyone has ever really pounded on her. At 73xxx miles, what are my chances of getting another 70,000 miles out of the engine?

 

[foney_email]

Also, what is the best way to check to see if the crank is out of spec?

Please describe what is necessary to check the crank with everything on the car. This isn't a time to break apart her engine to check, so if there is an easy way to find out, let me know.

Thanks...

 

[paranoidTSi]

There really isn't any easy way to check for it, other than the following symptoms:

- clutch sticks to the floor on hard left turns
- clutch engagement inconsistant
- weird ticking noise (not lifter tick) coming from underneath engine

Course it seems as though crankwalk rarely comes with symptoms.

 

[foney_email]

Do you think that this is a good deal though?

 

[Eclipse96Ryder]

ya thats a bomb deal

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by foney_email
I really like a 5000rpm clutch dump with AWD.

The car is 100% stock, and I don't think anyone has ever really pounded on her.

Until your ass got in it, apparently.

The car will let you pull that shit about six times.

If you can stop from doing that, and drive it like the nice street car it is, it should make 150K easily.

If you drive it like the too-heavy and too-fragile drag car it is, you won't see 80K.

I don't know where you heard any "clunking when cold is normal", but it wasn't in these forums. Have the harmonic balancer checked before you drive it. If it doesn't have new timing belts, replace those IMMEDIATELY.

Otherwise, it sounds like a good deal. But we could all be being mislead.

 

[crankbender]

The engine idles well, and I guess it is good

Throw a compression gauge on it. If they refuse....well ya know what that means.

your car should never go cluk....

dropping the clutch is stupid...especially on a car that gets traction. This only stresses parks and breaks them very quickly.

Don't be impressed with the power. If you havn't driven an AWD turbo car before even a dogged out one will feel fast as heck. The turbo allows you to cover up problems such as bad rings.

 

[foney_email]

I won't drive it like that every day, or probably ever again. I just wanted to see what it would do. Besides, it was probably like 4000 launch anyway...

About the clunking, I read a review about someone elses car and the guy said that there appears to be a clunking somewhere in the drive train when cold, but it just goes away after a while.

I am about to give up on a dsm. Everyone that I have seen has some problem or another. I know that with age, there are going to be problems, but I am out of the car rebuilding phase. I really don't want anymore cars that nickel and dime me to death. I just wand a quick and reliable daily driver that has leather a sunroof and manual transmission.

Any suggestions.

 

[Sephroth57]

DSMs are far from reliable maybe you should look into a newer civic, they can be "quick" with a couple mods. true speed requires money and mods but then you lose reliability at least with DSMs you do. its a tough thing to balance, most people dont care about reliability on these boards though

 

[crankbender]

I just wand a quick and reliable daily driver that has leather a sunroof and manual transmission.

got 30k to spend?

You can get all of that but quick pretty easy....finding them all will cost ya. If there was such a car for cheap it would be alllllll over the place.

As for a dsm they don't have that many problems unless you cause them....and dropping the clutch is causing them no matter how fast the engine is spinning.

When you drop the clutch for the split second till the driveline catches up with the engine the clutch is transferring the maximum torque it can. This is in the 1200 ft-lb range for an aftermarket clutch and probably around 600ft-lb for a factory one in good condition. Got any idea what a shock like this does to your car parts???

Just to give you an idea motorcycle clutches hold like 200ft-lb on an engine that can only produce 40ft-lb of torque.....