Im in the market to buy another honda. Im back finally. Now I just need a few heads up as to where to look at and what to check.
The car is a 1997 Prelude Base 5sp
The car has a check engine light.
Owner said the head was rebuilt by honda he has papers to prove it.
THe car was just absolutly clean. The motor was spotless.
It seemed like it ran good so far. There werent any bad valves as far as I could here.

So any tips as to where to look for anything.

Thanks

 

Never buy a car with a CEL, it only takes 5 minutes to check it.
Get the papers to prove the work that was done.
Check the carfax, see its history.
Also check it for rust, I hate rust on a car, and around here most hondas have it after 10 years.

This kind of reminds me of when I was in the market for a prelude. I went and took a look at a "great condition" 1999 base 5 speed.

Car had a CEL, and ran like sh*t
Was recently repainted but only the front end (and he denied it)
Car started smoking while I was looking at the engine bay
And on top of that he told me it was a theft recovery before he bought it.

I was about to start laughing at the guy when he asked me if I was impressed lol. The owner was the most untrustworthy guy I ever met.

 

yeah, check that light.

ask the owner to take it to get looked at by a mechanic, he shouldn't have a problem, then run to a close autozone or advance, and check on the codes it's putting out.

 

find out what code it is throwing for sure before you buy. I bet since the head has been removed recently that they forgot to plug the knock sensor back in... ... just a guess

 

I agree. Check the CEL asap.

I also bought my lude with a CEL. The ******* weasels at the dealer took out the bulb to fool me, but I still pulled out the codes.

Car had a bad crankshaft position sensor that was throwing it into limp mode. I had them replace it and now it's running fine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by integra15 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Never buy a car with a CEL, it only takes 5 minutes to check it.
Get the papers to prove the work that was done.
Check the carfax, see its history.
Also check it for rust, I hate rust on a car, and around here most hondas have it after 10 years.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

The car was absolutly clean. The car was not repainted. Original vin stickers on bumpers and fenders. There were barely any swirl marks. The car was garaged all the time.

But yea i should def chekc the light.
The car sounded like it ran great. No sputtering or smoke or anything.

Any more tips
Thanks

 

problem solved. buy this:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1931223
absolutely nothing to hide, well maintained. Owned by a HT member who loved it.

 

just realized i've already talked to you over PM. thought your s/n looked familiar. lol. already know ur answer. good luck on that car man! the only problem i ever had with my lude was timing belt and balancing belt at 60k. so i'd make sure the belts were semi new because it was a 550$ cost to me.

 

Depending on the miles on the lude. As a Autotech I would check the code. The code could be as simple as a loose gas cap . Also the 97 lude has a factory warranty on emissions control to 150,000 miles. I guess there was a problem with the ecm , I don't know the story but I took my lude in to a honda dealer (second owner) they replaced plug wires, cap, rotor for free. The plugs were replaced by me, $12 each (ouch). I would check car fax as well for accident reports , although if it has body damage you might not be able to tell. I would also take the car to a tech you respect to check the engine and suspension (compression test esc.).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by integra15 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Never buy a car with a CEL, it only takes 5 minutes to check it.
Get the papers to prove the work that was done.
Check the carfax, see its history.
Also check it for rust, I hate rust on a car, and around here most hondas have it after 10 years.

This kind of reminds me of when I was in the market for a prelude. I went and took a look at a "great condition" 1999 base 5 speed.

Car had a CEL, and ran like sh*t
Was recently repainted but only the front end (and he denied it)
Car started smoking while I was looking at the engine bay
And on top of that he told me it was a theft recovery before he bought it.

I was about to start laughing at the guy when he asked me if I was impressed lol. The owner was the most untrustworthy guy I ever met.</TD></TR></TABLE>

similar thing happned to me, samn I was pissed! I drove 2 hrs to check it out too!

 

I dont like all this new attention preludes are getting.... Teg and Civic owners stay away lol

 

I drove 5 hours to look at one and more than likely purchase because of low miles/new paint.......everything stock. Called the guy when I went to leave he said "okay, see you after a while" when I got there (dallas)...... he told me he sold about 20 mins before i got there. I even pulled a trailer because I talked to him several times about it. ......you guys think you were pissed.

 

I would have slit his throat ... right then and there.

 

Wow I would have been mad as hell.

But the Car has 124k and the head was rebuilt by honda.
He said He has full paperwork and even from the previous owner.

But I gotta check those papers and see if its true

 

Good luck, dont jump into buying one if it has many problems....It's funny, I found one the day after i got back from dallas about 30 mins away from me.... same as i was looking for, cept it had been riced out and bent valves... got it for cheap though