vB Easy Archive - bought an 88 civic on friday, engine blew today, what do I do now...

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bought an 88 civic on friday, engine blew today, what do I do now...
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Posted by: dunning

so on friday I purchased a 1988 honda civic LX 4 dr. for $1800. It had 220,000km on it. we test drove n stuff n everything was fine. Was driving it to school this morning and all of a sudden it lost power and shutout when i was leaving from a stop sign and failed to start again. A friend that was driving behind me said there was a lot of black smoke comming out the back. My dad took it into his shop and said there was oil in the spark plugs and cylinders so apparently that means the engine is blown. What the hell do I do now if the guy doesnt give me my money back?

Posted by: ice512

Did u buy it As-is ? Was it a private sale or you bought it from a dealer ?

If you bought it as is then..theres nothing much you can do about it seriously.

Posted by: dunning

Quote:

Originally Posted by P_Lam

Did u buy it As-is ? Was it a private sale or you bought it from a dealer ?

If you bought it as is then..theres nothing much you can do about it seriously.

I bought it from the buy n sell, so ya it was a private sale.

Posted by: k1ngp1n

isnt there some kind of warranty if the car is certified?

Posted by: bembol

$1,800 for an '88 Civic...!?!?!

Sounds like you are out...did you get a hold of the seller? Good Luck...!!!

Just to bring up the price...I'm buying a '90 Honda Accord for $500...working out the details...this will be for my little brother though

Posted by: WoNGsTeR

Quote:

Originally Posted by dunning

so on friday I purchased a 1988 honda civic LX 4 dr. for $1800. It had 220,000km on it. we test drove n stuff n everything was fine. Was driving it to school this morning and all of a sudden it lost power and shutout when i was leaving from a stop sign and failed to start again. A friend that was driving behind me said there was a lot of black smoke comming out the back. My dad took it into his shop and said there was oil in the spark plugs and cylinders so apparently that means the engine is blown. What the hell do I do now if the guy doesnt give me my money back?

ouch... i guess no way to save the engine eh?...

Posted by: dunning

I think theres a way, itl just be more expensive to fix then the cost of the car.

Posted by: nx2k

i feel bad for ya that it happened but your "what the hell do you do if the guy doesn't give you your money back" remark sounds like you are blaming the guy for selling it to u, i don't see how it's his fault. he sold u a car as is and u bought it, that's the end of the agreement.
you obviously had to certify it when u got it on the road after you bought it but even that is not the responsibility of the place that did it since engine is not something they check, it's not part of the safety

Posted by: Eternity

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7130e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/126 UP.Browser/5.0.3.3)

Not trying to be rude or anything but I would not buy an 88 civic with 1800 bucks.

Posted by: ggskateboards

Yep, you're out of 1800 buckaroos, who the hell pays that much for an 88 civic anyways?

And you should've brought your old man to come check out the car for you since hes a mechanic.

Posted by: dunning

argh I said WE test drove it meaning me and my dad and it was fine and ran great just like when I started it up this morning. and if you can find a better deal for a car than that feel free to give me some suggestions www.buysell.com

Posted by: phuviano

forget the buy and sell. Why don't you try autotrader, or you can go to a civic forum and try to find one there.

btw, I think your SOL because like someone else said earlier "the safety doesn't include the engine, as long as it runs".

Posted by: ggskateboards

Quote:

Originally Posted by dunning

argh I said WE test drove it meaning me and my dad and it was fine and ran great just like when I started it up this morning. and if you can find a better deal for a car than that feel free to give me some suggestions www.buysell.com

yeah you and your dad test drove it, but did you check the obvious? like engine oil, tranny oil, damages, wear and tear suspicions?

Posted by: JDScott302

Its a 20 year old car what do you expect.

Posted by: Fido4life

just so everyone knows, technically you don't even need a motor or transmission to pass a safety

I'm curious if you got a e-test with the car though

regardless, you're SOL

Posted by: dunning

yes yes yes omg yes, my car is alive!! risen from the dead!!!

my dad just called me and it turnes out it wasntoil int he cylinders and sparkplugs it was gas

He said there was a bolt loose under the distributor and that was the problem. Other than that the car is in excellent shape although I may need breaks soon

Posted by: mplswaltar

HOLY! 1800 for a 88 civic? im sure you could find one for 200 bucks in good condition! I hope this civic had less than 50,000 miles on it, or you just bought a set of 14 inch wheels for 1800, cuz thats the only useful part on the car.

Bro, you could find a 95 civic, with 90k miles on it for around 2000. Whoa, i hope this was imported from japan, with a turbocharged engine, and mugen everything.

Eitherway, your gonna be replacing that engine soon, and that will cost about 800 bucks, and the rust will start, so another 2000 for bodywork, suspension will go out, 400 bucks. After all that you pretty much just bought a civic SI.

Ahhh Ive made a mistake liek this before when I was 18. Took me 1 month to realise I made the biggest mistake of my entire life, just because I was impatient, and wanted a car. You shoulda asked around. Even at 800 bucks i woulda said NO! good luck bro

Posted by: Paul__Chen

you should do a full inspection of the car before you take it on the road again
may sound eccentric doing this for an 1988 civic but your safety is important
i.e. do a compression check on the engine, check valves, yada yada yada
do a highway run too

Posted by: plumers

Quote:

Originally Posted by dunning

yes yes yes omg yes, my car is alive!! risen from the dead!!!

my dad just called me and it turnes out it wasntoil int he cylinders and sparkplugs it was gas

He said there was a bolt loose under the distributor and that was the problem. Other than that the car is in excellent shape although I may need breaks soon

Whoa, congratulations there buddy! You just saved at least 500 bucks since your dad owns a shop.

Posted by: jdmricer

it's time for a b16 swap

Posted by: ggskateboards

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdmricer

it's time for a b16 swap

why don't we give uncle ben a call while we're at it?

Posted by: phuviano

Quote:

Originally Posted by ggskateboards

why don't we give uncle ben a call while we're at it?

he might as well swap the engine, if its not in good condition.