I bought a 1991 crx si off of b20 from this kid. he told me it had 128XXX on it with a chipped p28 ecu, rota track rs, tokiko coilovers, a d16z6 swap, full exhaust, hids, rear diffusers and a new paint job. he said the car was clean with no issues. i've had it for 5 days. i paid $3300, because the car looked clean and i figured, with the parts it had, it was worth it. now as soon as i got it home (1 1/2 hours away) i'm finding issues and all that. the ecu is a pr4 NOT chipped, both cv drive axles are bad, the rear driver side shock is blown, there are issues with the sunroof having rust inside it. the ecu is throwing codes 9 and 12. (cyl #1 sensor and egr valve) i haven't driven the car at all other than bringing it home and to the mechanic which is literally around the corner from my house; it's not even 2 blocks away. the mechanic also showed me that there was damage to the front subframe and radiator support. we put it on the lift and the more i look into the car, the more problems i'm finding. my mechanic told me that there was a loop hole in the lemon law that says if a car sold for more than $2500 has issues that make it either unsafe or un-drivable, i can take this kid to court. i'm not trying to go down that road, but i might have to. does anyone know what the approximate value of the car actually is? how much would the cost to repair the issues that the car has be aside from the subframe damage and radiator support damage? because if the kid can make the difference for the value of the car to what i payed for it, that would be easier.

 

sounds like uve got buyers remorse man...same thing happened to me man..but u gotta think of it this way, u got a honda..and what makes a honda so good is that everything is super cheap, half shafts are 45 bucks or something like that..they are easy to work on, and there is nothing that compares to the pride u feel when u finally got ur car hooked up and u did it urself. I wouldnt want to buy a car that was already finished..wheres the fun in that? Overall, sounds like u got a pretty decent platform to start with...its ur project..work with it bro and make it ur own. hope that helps...and if it didnt, ur **** outa luck! lol

 

any help would be appreciated. if need be I can put up pictures.

 

I definitely agree. it's not buyers remorse. I actually have a d15b7 block ready for turbo. pistons and all, but I'm just saying there has to
be something I can do about how he was fraudulent in respect to what was actually done to the car and what condition it's in.

 

I feel you but its up to you to look the car over an ultimatly decide if you want to buy it or not. Next time bring a mechanic and if the buyer refuses than you know not to buy it. If he accepts then bring you mechanic. But if its a clean crx si they are rare and hard to come buy. I would value the shell at around $2000 if its fresh. You really didnt do to bad. Its worth 3 grand easily.

 

thanks for the input. any other peoples' thoughts??

 

here are my questions to you:

Why didnt you take it for a test drive before you bought it? you could have used the jumper to check for CEL. and lastly you should have had the seller turn the car on, and you watch it till it fully warms up any and all present CEL would have shown up by then.


this is mainly your fault for buying a showy car, and not getting it checked out.

 

the cel is disconnected from the dash therefore there are no codes at start up. the car is so loud from full the exhaust (no cat or resonator) that I didn't hear the play in the cv shafts or boots. my DA had a suspension but it was on steelies and it was springs and struts so I didn't know if coilovers handled differently. plus the crx has strut tower brace bars on it. also it's lower than my DA was so I figured there was a camber in the tires causing it to pull to one side not that the subframe was bent. not arguing here just trying to explain in detail as to what my reasonings were for not noticing.
oh and btw I never realized that ecus had cel led lights in them. my p28 that I had in my EG was a socketed p06 so it didnt have the port hole for cel codes to be read. that car always had a code for o2 sensor. damn aftermarket headers..

 

sounds to me like you have 2 options.

1 go through the legal battle with the kid and hope it turns out your way, but you really should have been more careful buying the car. Morally, i wouldn’t be able to fight the kid myself knowing that i did a bad job at buying a car and I was screwing him in the end.

or 2. make this car your project, totally strip it down and build it back up from the ground up replacing everything. But i dont know what your budget is or even if you can tackle an oil change let alone a rebuild, no offence but i have no idea what your mechanical ability is. And then you would need a dd while your car is torn apart.

 

in mechanical skills, i'm very good. not only that, but my girlfriend's father is a mechanic. he's been one for 30+ years; albeit, my funds are not enough for a full rebuild. i bought the car with the thought of pulling the d16, breaking it down, installing new rods, low compression pistons, sleeving or block guarding the block, port-and-polishing the head, new valves, stiffer springs, and a skunk 2 turbo cam. i wanted to make a 13-17psi turbo single rex. s2k seats with heated elements installed, touch screen navi, and picking up some rota flashbacks. i wanted to go for the clean as f*** jdm look, but that was going to be done by fall. now unfortunately it looks like i'll be lucky if this car is in running condition for honda day.

 

It depends on your budget.

If youre strapped for cash, well then do it.
If youre not strapped then strip it and have fun.

 

i don't want to dick the kid over, but at the same time i still have text messages from him saying that all these parts on it that aren't actually there or are faulty, and him saying how it was completely mechanically sound, that he dailyed it and that his mechanic looked it over and gave everything the ok. i have a lot of evidence against the kid, but i just want to be able to see what the car's actual value is to what i paid for it, because he wants to work it out without court, and so do i.

the car looks like it's in absolutely perfect shape. i didn't notice any problems until it got put on the lift and i actually got a good view under it.

 

and as for the build, i have another forum on the FI thread about a d15b7 block that i have with srp pistons and a block guard installed that's gunna get built for turbo. if i can get an idea of money back for this car, i might part it out and use money gathered from both get a shell to drop that motor in.

 

Those plans sound perfect for a lemon anyway, Rotas and JDM do not go together. Aside from that I doubt that the lemon law will work when you knowingly purchased a moddified car. Also a judge would likely say you should have taken a mechanic and hopefully you learned your lesson, meaning you will be out the money for court fees.

It sucks but if you're looking for simpathy you can find it in the dictionary between **** and syphilis. Sounds like you made some bad judgements with the purchase but if you want to complain you should call the seller.

 

Sorry about your disappointment with the car. To be perfectly honest, it happens all the time. He may have said it has this and that done to it and could have been completely full of $hit, but you're the one that bought his story, and even after excusing the subtle clues that there may have been something wrong with the camber/alignment etc because of how it felt when you test drove it, you still ended up buying it.

It basically sounds like you bought the car because you liked how it looked. Clean cars will do that to you, thats why used car lots always have their cars detailed first, they can usually add another $1000 to the price tag on a $2000 car.

You fell for an old trick. We all do at some point. Just live with it and make the car your own project. Don't be a dick in return by taking him to court, thats just counter productive.

 

i didn't intend to pull the motor the very week i got the car. i still need to pull funds together for the turbo build. the only reason i didn't bring my girlfriend's father or my mechanic was bad timing. that was my fault honestly. and i'm not looking for simpathy, but i'm coming to ht for fellow honda lovers to ask what i should do and in the hopes that someone might have gone through something similar.

 

yeah i totally understand. i don't necessarily want to take him to court as much as i just want to know what the difference in what i should have paid as to what i did pay.

 

Honesty we have all gone through it but we have to bite the bullet. It's like president Bush once said..."Fool me once, shame on you...Fool me twice, er... I have a dream"