Hey guys,

I found a turbo wagon that I like but it has some issues. The guy isn't asking a lot and I don't mind investing money into the car but want to make sure that it doesn't have critical issues such as a blown head gasket. Here is his description of the two issues that he writes about

"Car is need of a tune up. I replaced several vacuum lines and still have an issue with the cars idle. I was told by a mechanic that the cars "breather box" needs to be cleaned and that would correct a lot of the power issues.

The car has a coolant leak from the coolant reservoir. The cap is cracked and looses pressure. less than $50 fix."

Ive replaced a few pcv kits before and have never experienced that it causes idle issues...

Also I had a really bad experience with my old t5 where I thought I had a bad reservoir but ended up being a head gasket issue. I know the obvious thing would be to pressure test it but I just don't have the means to do that at the sellers house especially considering that he isn't asking a lot for the car.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you are handy enough to do the PCV you can certainly take on sorting out the intake air flow. You may find you need to clean the MAF or intake air valve or tighten up some other tubing leaks but that's more tedious than difficult. I'd base my purchase decision on other mechanical issues - ie does the AC work properly? does it shift properly when running? when was the timing belt done? Any coolant leaks or odd smells in the cabin (ie leak in the heater core)? You can do a simple coolant gas test to check for the head gasket as well as looking for any foaming on the dipstick and oil cap etc. Does the coolant system seem over pressurized - ie is the top radiator hose very hard when the engine is running?

 

As long as you buy it with enough room to remedy the worst case scenario for the issues it exhibits then buy it, or if you could break out by selling it to a scrap yard would work too. Get a few quotes from local salvage yards and offer that or less.

 

It's entirely possible that it's just the reservoir cap. Those will go bad easier than a head gasket.
If you know what you're doing as far as the PCV, I'd go for it. My car desperately needs the PCV system overhauled.

 

The "breather box comment" is pretty idiotic in my opinion. Everybody selling a car likes to throw in some nutty thing like "You can fix this in 5 minutes but I haven't had time".


It is worth noting however that these cars have a very long bunch of piping between the MAF and the engine itself, in addition to the vacuum lines. If there is a hole anywhere in this plumbing of course the air flow will be off.


The coolant reservoir is all you have to go on to determine if the head gasket is leaking, so you are stymied there. I don't think that is knowable.

 

They all do that. The guy I bought mine from said the box for the ECU "didn't do sh*t," and to not worry about it.

 

Update: I did buy the car.

Battery was weak and the presence of a screw on kill switch on the negative terminal made me a little uneasy. Drove the car. Boost cuts off on WOT. Seller pointed out an unplugged hose going to the egr, plugging it back in makes the idle rough.

PCV actually looks fairly recent (uro -_- but ok) all the related hoses are pretty nice and soft to the touch so I don't think that's my problem. Looks like the guy did replace quite a few vacuum lines but still has a rough idle. Couldn't read any codes as we had to jump the car but I did read the true mileage by jumping pin 7, 172k.

The reservoir cap and tank are definitely toast. Steaming and leaking badly after warm up but the car doesn't go into the red or above the mid line at all, oil is not mixing with water. Top radiator hose is soft to the touch at operating temperature so maybe a bad thermo (or pump). Radiator appears new.

I have a total budget of $3000-5000 (including the cost of the car) to make this a perfect stage 0. I will be doing all of the labor myself just as long as I don't have to pull the head, swap the trans etc

No clue on the timing belt age or mileage but no big deal. Will have it replaced one of these weekends.

suspension needs some love also.

All in all I paid $650 and the buyer had it towed via aaa to my house for free as I didn't want to take a chance on driving it. Will yank the thermo outta there and replace the coolant tank with the cap to see if that clears the problem, if it does then I will move on with stage 0 and clean up the car if not then will pressure test it as it will likely be a head gasket issue