hey everyone...

okay, so i went to take a look at an 89 NA FC BASE today. i started off looking at the body. i was really surprised at the lack of rust. almost suspicious, actually. the paint on the car is the original factory white, the side skirts (if that's what they are called) and the sides of the front bumber in front of the wheels are also white, but they look just like a bad paint job (the guy said they were originally black?). anyways, the factory paint is still good though. i did notice something interesting underneath the car, and it is that the metal edge (that edge that you put a jack on i think) is bent in a few places. i don't know if that means anything? other than that, everything else on the body and exterior looks great.

okay, so after that he starts the engine. it starts up right away, and there is no hesitiation or smoke. it comes right up to about 2500 RPM for a bit, and after a few seconds drops down to 2000 RPM. it stays at this for awhile, and slowly drops down to 1000 RPM after about 5-10 mins. the idle was really smooth, but as it was warming up, it started surging for a second. going down to 1000 and then back up to 2000. he gave it a few revs and it stopped doing it. i was a little worried, but this seemed to be the only incident...i took it for a spin and this is the part that convinces me that the engine is solid. the transmission felt fine getting into gear, and there was no clutch slippage. i stepped on it, and went right up to 6000 RPM or so. no hesitation at all, it just took off. i was up to a good (illegal) speed in no time. drove for about 10 minutes, was quite happy, and the temperture guage did not go above about half-way. so everything seems fine...

so what do you guys think? it has 190,000 km on it (about 120,000 mi), with the original engine...

a question that was on my mind as i was taking a look at it is that it looked like an s4 fc, since it had the s4 tailights. i thought an 89 was an s5?

 

an 89 is an s5. something is fishy. as for the bumper and stuff, maybe the car was in an accident and he put parts on it from another car, including tali lights maybe? as for the dents under the sides that is probably from using a jack/jackstands without a notch in them for the ribbed edge. many cars will have dents there because of that. you might want to ask about an accident of some kind or for an explanation of why those parts are different. you shouldn't be paying the same price for a frankenseven, even if it runs right, as you would for a nicely kept original condition car.

 

Its possible that he knew he was gonna sell the car so he decided to sell the lights seperately. To a seller S5 lights are actually worth more off the car than on.
You can always do a carfax to get the whole picture.

 

okay thanks for the replies guys. yeah, the thought of "accident" did cross through my head...and i'm definetly getting a carfax.

i asked him and he said that he didn't know anything about the tailights...

 

okay, so i got a carfax report. it is surprisingly clean. there are no accidents or anything whatsoever...so i am still wondering though about the tailights? it seems odd. it could be possible that carfax won't report everything, right? it could have been in an accident...or it could have just been replaced. how can i tell?

i still have to go back and take a more thorough look and a compression test of course, but do you guys think the slight surging i mentioned is a serious problem?

 

just bumping this up...i have a day left to make the decision before the guy sells the car to someone else...

 

um not really....i would point that out and let him know that i am paying less for the car because of that.

as for a carfax to get the accident stuff...well my car was hit in a hit and run and my insurance doesn't do jack about that...so it wouldn't come up on a car fax. to get it all fixed right i'd need a new bumper, new s5 tails, and a dent pulled.

 

okay, some updates...i'm beginning to think that the "surging" while it was warming up was normal. it was not really a surging even, it was more of a going low for a few seconds and then going back up to where it was for a few more seconds.

the guy selling it has said that he has owned 6 FCs before this one. i don't know if that is true, and if it is i don't know if that is a good or bad thing.

anyways, considering how everything on the car looks great and runs great, i think the only question are those tail lights. i mean, if everything is fine, hell, i can just replace those tail lights if i find them somewhere for cheap or at the wreckers...although it would be funny driving around with s4 tail lights on an s5

 

the new question is, are you sure its an s5? is the gauge cluster round or angular? what does the tach go up to ? he might just be an idiot and not know. Then by default I would stay away.

 

Maybe he sold the S5 lights (very popular) and put on S4 lights instead.

 

I'm not believing the story of him owning 6 FCs before. If he did he would deffinitely know about the taillights. Well he would at least know that the car had taillights from the previous series. Now why it has the wrong taillights could be anyone's guess.
S5 taillights range in price from $300 to $400 and they're ALWAYS the first thing grabbed up at the wreckers so good luck finding them for cheap.

 

my advise is not to buy it. You will have it 2 weeks and you will be on this forum asking us how to make it faster.

 

there are other things you can look at to know whether its an s5 or not, bumpers, trim etc.

 

okay.

it is definetly an s5: the VIN came up as an 89, the tach was a 9000 rpm one with a 8000 rpm redline. it had a power sunroof with MANUAL windows (i think that was an s5 only combo?). here is a pic of what the gauge cluster looked like:

http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...39_25_full.jpg

okay, i should clarify the nature of the seller's realtionship with the car. you see, i am buying this car from a dealership that deals with used imports. the guy i am talking to aquired the car through an auction, and is just telling me what he was told. therefore, i can't really say anything against him in terms of not knowing the previous history. it could also very well be possible that he did take the s5 lights off because he had a s4 parts car, and the s5 lights are easier to sell/worth more...

 

yeah. great. i'm glad i could get a useful opinion from someone who OBVIOUSLY knows more than me...

 

120k Miles is some what ok for a NA.

My 88 GTU blew at 102k and my 88 SE blew at 155k.

It's possible the guy was either hit in the back or he sold the taillights since they sell for over $200. $$$

The dented fin/rail thing is fine. I haven't seen a FC without some type of damage like this.

The main rail shoudln't have any huge dents. Small ones are normal. Only good jacking points are right at the beginning of the rail where it is double plated or on the subframes.


The stock little under skirts are black because they are usually this spongy like rubber so they can take some abuse. That's probably why it was painted poorly.

Check the door jams and under the hood to tell if it's been repainted. Most people don't pay a lot for decent paintjobs(Maaco is not decent).

The idle surge is kind of normal. Both my FC's kind of did it.
Stock it is supposed to go to 3k and then drop down to idle(850rpm is great).

As long as it hold a steady idle it should be fine. Try to get it lower than 1k though. That's where you'll see it's true health. Lower idle the better


The best way to tell is get a compression test.
Get the car warmed up and then make sure there are 3 good pulses from each housing. Then if you use a piston compression tester hold the release valve open and checkl the needle bounces.

90psi or more and you should be in for a good engine.

 

okay, thanks for the post digi7ech.

yeah, i did notice the main rail was dented around the middle the most, not around the front.

yeah, those under skirts i was talking about ARE made from what feels like a rubber material.

i am pretty sure it was not repainted, the paint was consistent over the body and under the hood, and it looks like the factory 'noble white'. if it was repainted, then it is a pretty good job...

the idle was pretty steady, although it wasn't as low as what should be expected. like i said it, was around 900-1000 RPM at idle.

yeah, compression test is in order, although i don't know if i can do one soon enough. i might just have to buy the car before i can do one...

so i guess the tail lights are the biggest question in my head. the way i see it, even if they were replaced because of a rear end, it shouldn't be too big of a deal if they did that good of a job and it drives good...

 

well, i got it
paid a little more than i wanted, but whatever. i couldn't resist...
it's still with the place i bought it from, they are going to safety and certify everything on it, and give it a "tune up". whatever, as long as they don't mess something...

so now i am the guy in the s5 with s4 tail lights...ah, doesn't matter, it's about the time spent behind the wheel, not what your tail lights look like...but i will get them replaced eventually...

 

Get some pics up now

So what did you end up paying?

 

i will put up photos as soon as i pick up the car. i ended up paying about $3000 US for it. it was a dealership, so i had to pay 15% tax on top of the price, so that's why it is a fairly high price. the thing is any cars that are cheaper around here are hard to pick up unless you get to them fast. there was a nice clean 91 in the trader the other day, the guy only wanted $2000 US, but that got sold an hour or two after the ad was placed

anyways, i got two sets of rims with the car also, the stock factory and also some momos...i will probably get rid of at least one of them, so that is money in my pockets (i want to get some 5zigens). plus, like i said, he is doing the safety and other testing for me, and these cost money and time if i were to do it myself...

edit: i had to convert the canadian prices to american...actually since the exchange rate is good now (for the canadian dollar), the US converted prices seem worse than the actual canadian...also, us canadians up here are used to paying these prices for a clean s5

 

oh yeah, about the slightly high idle. i was talking to the guy and he agreed that 900 was a bit high. he said he would have it lowered when he tunes up the car...hopefully he does it right...

and also about the paint. the factory colour was white, although i don't know if it is the factory paint on top or a repaint. i see some chipping of paint, but it is very minor, and could just be normal wear...again, i can't really tell because the colour under the hood and other parts of the interior is the same colour as the exterior...either way it is a decent paint job and i was more concerned about how it drove...

 

wow 3k for a S5 base. Damn.

I paid 2400 for my 88 GTU which had 80k on the engine.

In reality the car dealerships wil jack the prices up 300% for what they got it for. I know since my buddies use to work at them.

Oh well hopefully it will give you many months of fun driving(I say months not years hehehe it's a FC!)

 

okay, i got it from the dealership today. the first thing i noticed was that the idle was a lot rougher than when he first showed it to me. he said he did a tune up and changed the spark plugs. his story seems to check out, so i was there wondering why the hell the idle was all rough and misfiring. as i started to drive back, i realized that it was idling at a stupid 1500 RPM. another thing i started get pissed off at was the fact that the oil pressure read ZERO, no matter what engine speed, it just would not move. this working fine the first time i checked the car out...

i pulled into a gas station to fill up and check the engine. seeing how this was the first time i have owned one of these cars, and that i didn't have a FSM on me, i could not tell if the oil pressure gauge was connected properly or not. since everything seem to drive fine, i just ignored it and the high idle (probably the gauge isn't working, and the idle i can fix later).

so i drove the 1 and half hour back by highway to my place. i was enjoying the car very much. i couldn't believe how easy this car is to drive, and the engine was quite smooth. i did notice that the steering seemed kind of sensitive, especially at higher speeds on uneven surfaces, and i felt i little bit of wandering (hard to describe) associated with this. it was very minor though, and i think everything in the suspension is okay, so i just have to get used to the steering...

so the drive was uneventful and i enjoyed it. after it, the idle was still at 1500 RPM and a little rough. i let it sit for about a half hour, and i called my friend and asked if he wanted to go for a drive, to which he said yes (of course). so we took a drive, and i really opened her up for the first time, getting unervingly close to redline. after a hard pull, i noticed a weird smell, not quite sure what it was but smelled like burning something. i also noticed that the shifter felt warm, although so far it is always warm. i hope this is normal...

so strange thing is, when i came to a stop after really giving it to her, the idle was pretty smooth again and back down to about 900 RPM. i was like, WTF? i guess that is good...so i drove around some more, not really hard. when i got back to my place, i put it in the driveway, and noticed that the idle was back up to 1500 RPM and rough! dammit!

so what do you guys think? i can tell you that it really gives me a kick in the pants, and it is a BLAST to drive. that is the bottom line, right? if it can perform. i just don't know what to make of the screwy idle. i am going to give it a good check tommorow, and inspect the usual idle related stuff. oh yeah, the oil pressure gauge still doesn't work. didn't get time to check that before it got dark, will do it tommorow.

I'll hopefully POST PHOTOS tommorow too...

 

^^ you basically discribed exactly what I went throug when I got my 86 NA GXL. Only instead of no oil pressure, it was a coolent buzzer, which I easily fixed later.

edit: and instead of a high idle, it was a rough idle. (unplugged vacume hose). also easily fixed. I got mine with only 103,000 miles on it.

 

Sounds like a nice ride once you get the idle adjusted, the only thing I found disturbing about your post was the "Unnervingly close to redline".... First of all, welcome to the world of rotary..
The first rule of rotary: REDLINE EVERY DAY!!! these cars (well, all cars), need to be blown out once you get up to temp, push that redline for all it's worth.. the harder you push, the happier your engine is.
in fact, not redlineing the engine is a known cause of failure.. it's slanged "dying of boredom" on the forums, it's when you buy a nice little, one owner rx7 owned by soem little old lady that only drove it to church on sunday. Carbon can build up inside the engine and tear at the seals, eventually causing you to eat an apex seal, so burn it out

welcome.