Best story of easy fix on a car you bought cheap or owner thought was broken

TheRX7Project said:

Harvey said:

I got nothing of my own. Once I find out something is broken I'm dumb and never go look, but on the other hand if you tell me the thing works great I'll just readily assume that is the case unless something is falling off the car when I get there.

Some friends of mine though picked up a $500 Shinka RX-8. The car didn't run, but was in great condition overall. The owner was sick of dealing with the car. They got an extra set of wheels with the car too. They towed it away and on the way home bump started it and got it running. Once they put in a new starter and coils it started and ran fine.

Eh, usually a problem fixed by "starter and coils" on a Renesis is actually low compression. A new starter and higher power coils will bandaid it for a while, but essentially it needs a rebuild. I bet if they ran a compression test they would be disappointed.

You'd be surprised.  I've had compression go up 40-50% just by replacing the coils and running it a bit.

There's some voodoo going on where weak ignition makes the compression low.  It might have something to do with how unburned fuel has no way of getting shoveled out like in a peripheral exhaust engine.

I kept remembering more. 

After my divorce unlike most men I was actually better off financially. I decided it was time to get a project car. I looked on CL and found a 92 Volvo 240 Wagon about an hour away. Ad said it ran good but could use some TLC for $1200. Went to go look at it and it's behind this small flea market out in the country. Guy said he had just bought it but it didn't fit his needs. We go to start it and it won't start. Guy cusses some then just walks away into the flea market for a few minutes then comes out with some tools. I get the feeling he's not a real mechanic type but he insists that it'll run.  He works for a bit then walks away again. Next thing I know he's driving off without saying a word. Twenty minutes later he comes back with some more tools. At this point I'm in for the long haul just for the entertainment valve and figure I might learn some new cuss words.

After about an hour of this and I start to get tired so I start look at it myself. I can smell a strong gas smell and I remembered seeing a new in the box FPR sitting in the car. I mention to him that they tend to go bad and send gas down the vacuum line into the intake. Sure enough I pull the vacuum line off and gas drips out. I show him the new FPR and he gets on replacing it. I also tell him that he should pull the plugs and clean them because they're probably fouled at this point. I know I'm breaking all the rules of fixing the car for the seller but this guy really was worth watching. I sit in the driver's seat and after a few minutes he says he changed it and cleaned the plugs. I try to start it and still no go. 

At this point I tell him that I wouldn't be interested but thank him for his time. I went into the flea market cause hey I'm already there.  Few minutes later he calls and says he's done with the car. Ask me to make an offer. I tell him $500 and he accepts.  Walk back out and load it up to drive home.

Next day I have some time so I decide to see what's going on. I pull number 1 plug and it's clean. Then I pull number 2 but it's fouled to hell. Same with 3 and 4.  I clean those three plugs and it starts right up. Best I can figure is he only cleaned number 1 thinking it would catch and the other ones would clear up.

I bought a 1993 Mustang GT from my neighbor for $2k in 2006. It was their only vehicle for their family of 6. He was a stay at home dad with his 4 kids. He was at the store one day and went to leave and the car would not turn over. He wasn't the most mechanically inclined person and he thought the engine had seized. He had it towed back to his house. I saw it sitting in out shared driveway and asked him about it. He said that his wife was tired of him spending money on it and wanted it gone since she just bought an older Chevy extended cab truck. We had just received our tax refund so I had some extra money. He was happy to sell it to me because he knew I was a Mustang guy. I paid him his asking price and he helped push it into my garage. After a quick diagnosis, I found the starter had failed. I pulled the worlds crustiest starter out and swapped in a $70 rebuilt one. The car fired up at the touch of the key. My neighbor heard it fire up and came over. He was a little distressed that he sold the car for only $2k. It was his baby. I promised him that if I were ever to sell it, he would have first dibs.

The car was a 1993 GT hatchback with the AOD. The PO had installed a ratcheting Hurst shifter and Flowmaster mufflers. It had 17" Bullitt wheels and nearly brand new tires. It was Calypso Green over Opal Grey. I put an offroad X-pipe on and a Flowtech Warlock catback. It had a minor overheating problem when sitting in traffic on hot Nebraska summer days so I swapped in a FRPP Aluminum radiator.

I drove it for about 6 months before I swapped in a T5. The car was must more fun after that.

After owning the car for about 1.5 years, our neighbors had to PCS. The PO wanted to buy it back. I told I would sell it to him for $2k, the same amount he sold it to me for. He gave me the cash and I stored the car for 8 months so he could get the money to have it shipped to him. That was the last time I ever saw the car or heard from him.

Oh, and einy, I was stationed at Offutt from 2002 to 2010. The paint booth was still in operation until about 2007 when the MSG decided that it would not be cost effective to bring it up to current OSHA regs and mothballed it. Before it closed, I saw a guy paint his 2nd gen Intrepid like a black and red bowling ball. It was quite the sight.

TheRX7Project said:

Harvey said:

I got nothing of my own. Once I find out something is broken I'm dumb and never go look, but on the other hand if you tell me the thing works great I'll just readily assume that is the case unless something is falling off the car when I get there.

Some friends of mine though picked up a $500 Shinka RX-8. The car didn't run, but was in great condition overall. The owner was sick of dealing with the car. They got an extra set of wheels with the car too. They towed it away and on the way home bump started it and got it running. Once they put in a new starter and coils it started and ran fine.

Eh, usually a problem fixed by "starter and coils" on a Renesis is actually low compression. A new starter and higher power coils will bandaid it for a while, but essentially it needs a rebuild. I bet if they ran a compression test they would be disappointed.

I'm sure it wasn't ideal, but iirc it had decent compression numbers. It ran fine for a year or more after that until a coolant seal failed. The car had 140k on it when that happened. They sold it after that as running, but needing a rebuild, as they had already rebuilt a Renesis in their garage and didn't feel like doing another one. I remember dropping by and seeing one of them hand lapping the rotor housing during the rebuild and thinking that looks tedious as hell. Apparently they thought the same as one was enough. That one powers their DSP car and it is a hell of a ride.

A friend sends me to pick up a full size Buick wagon, mid 80s in decent shape.  The woman had some work done, then the engine started knocking and she was done with fixing it. He paid about $500 for it and other that the knock it was really clean. It just had a water pump so he starts digging in at the front of the engine where he finds the fan beating on the end of a 1/2 drive Snap On breaker bar.  Removes wrench and the care is perfect again.

86 CRX Si I found online in perfect shape that wouldn't run for $300. Owner had given up after trying to diagnose a misfire and changed the plugs and wires. Still ran funny, so he swapped the injectors. I towed it home and after I did a little troubleshooting I noticed the plug wires were switched around. Flipped them and it ran great. Must have been an injector originally. Sold it to my buddy 6 months later for $1500. He charged the AC and sold it to his nephew for $2200.

I bought the car for parts as I planned to swap over some parts from my 86 Civic Si that I had bought from Dave Wallens that was his entry in the original $1500 Challenge. I ended up pulling the go fast parts off it and putting them on the CRX. Those early Si's were so much fun.

Here is a pic of the $1500 Challenge Car de-modded.

Must have been an Alfetta GT (late 1970s) that the owner wanted to dump because the clutch had failed and that was an expensive engine out job.

Went very cheaply and the repair cost was under $10 - they guy had failed to consider that the clutch slave might be the cause of his problem, and that was fixed with an hour under the car and a cheap rubber seal kit to have a car that drove again.

I was delivering pizza one day (1999) and pulled up to find a 1993 Suzuki Swift with expired plates and that "been sitting" look.  I asked and the wife yelled to the husband and he informed me that it didn't run and to make an offer. I told him I would pay for his pizza ($26.87) and he agreed if I could have it gone by the next day. He handed me the title and keys and I gave them the pizzas. The wife actually gave me a $10.00 tip and quietly told me that she had removed the fuel pump fuse so she could get a new car out of her cheap husband. Flat towed to 2 blocks away and replaced the fuse...jump start and it drove home! Sold it to a girl at work 2 days later for $1500 and it finally met its doom just last week!

Bruce