Hi all,

I am going tomorrow to look at a '98 GS-R for sale. What problems do these cars have that I should look out for?

I know they have a rust problem in the rear quarters.

Thanks.

 

i for one would look at the vin from the engine/trans to the chassis to make sure they match i for one wouldn't want to buy something that is hott.

 

^^that first^^ and then check for rust as you mentioned,start with the rear quarters then check underneath the car,you wanna be sure there isnt enough rust to make cause hole(cant see address but that does happen in canada due to salt poured to melt ice) irrrepairable failure in canada!

then check the mechanical condition.

first see if the guy is ok that your going to check a few things since your a serious buyer? start with the spark plugs(see off of the net and manauls to have a better understanding of what they should look like first)this should take no longer than 10 mins.then check what the fluids should look like and check.

then check if the engine can hold a steady,healthy(700-900 rpm)idle obviously when hot!
see if the a/c and heater work(heater core's are known to fail)

before driving the car perform a m/c test,with the car off pump the brake pedal(it should get much stiffer and stiffer each time you pump) then turn the car on with your foot still on the brake pedal(it should go down).

the above are things that will all together take 20 mins and that is probably ok with the owner. now take the car to a mech with you driving the car and feel for the clutch(you want to have a nice comfortable one as most performance ones are a bitch in traffic) and then rev through gears in wot hard and look through the mirror while doing soo,you dont want to see any colour of smoke coming out the back,while at high speeds check to see if the car pulls to one side or back and forth(suspension bushings etc are very known failures on them).

now finally take the car to a mech(thats if your still interested) and have him do a leakdown test,compression test(tell him to do both please trust me! if he says one or the other is enough or that he has only the tool to do one find another mech),then have him check suspension components,have him check the wheel bearings(very knwon failure)all in all it will maybe cost you 100 buck but well worth it.

dark or low fluids,too black or white or oily plugs,smoke coming out while driving hard, low compression,high loss through leakdown all mean stay away from that car or have him bring down the price to make it worth it as youll either need a rebuild or jdm longblock(1200-1800). bad suspension 100-700 bucks,bad wheel bearings 400-600 etc!

 

Thank you, guys! That's exactly what i wanted to know. I am off to look at it now. Hopefully the car has no rust!

 

98 shouldn't have much if any rust

unless is wasn't taken care of

 

make sure its a b18c and not an ls vtec

 

i didnt want to start a new thread but on the same topic of buying a car can you tell if the car has been boosted

 

Just came back from test driving the car. It drove real nice. Though, it had a cone filter on the stock intake, but everything else was stock.

I looked on the driver side door jamb and it said it has a rebuilt or salvage title. When I asked the guy about that, he just said it was repossessed. yeah right.

Me and my brother were looking everywhere on the body to see where it was hit. One of the body seams on the front passenger wheel well looked weird. I looked closer and the damn thing was held together by home depot white caulking glue! The hood, passenger side fender, and passenger side door were sitting crooked all misaligned. I knew then that it was hit there and that it had some serious frame damage. It was disappointing because the rest of the body was mint except for that. Needless to say, I didn't buy the car.

 

not sure that i would buy something that i suspected of being in a wreck and the owner wasn't truthful about. good eye though!

 

hopefully you weren't just looking at the seam sealer that all honda's have lol

 

One thing I always make sure of as well, is when you turn the key to the on position, that the check engine light comes on with all the other dash lights and then goes off before you start the car, making sure the bulb wasnt removed to hide CEL's or anything.

 

No, I'm telling you it wasn't Honda sealer bond. The area where it was applied looked it was beat on by a hammer. It was rusting like crazy in that area, too.

Good idea on the CEL. I would have never thought of that.

 

good thing you caught that stuff. when i bought my first truck the ******* thought it best to not tell me about the massive accident that it had been in, where the frame was tweaked and then straightend. and then sold to me