Soo....I've had this little gem (ahem) for a couple months or so now. One owner, 171,000kms, all keys and remotes, books with FSH etc. Looks ok in the pics yeh?...Nah. The dirtiest paint I've come across. Ingrained dirt and quite a few dings. No matter, full paint correction, and paintless dent bloke can work their magic.
It's coming from interstate. I get three minutes from the depot and the oil light comes on coming to a stop. @#$%. Oh well, the bottom end is shot. I'll keep driving home. I'm all of 6-7kms away. All the while the smell of burning oil on exhaust waffling through the car. Get it home and ready to get it up on ramps. Leave it running while I duck inside to open the garage and carport. Come back and there's a pool of oil under the car. @#$%. Get it on the ramps and there is oil everywhere. Dripping oil. I lift the bonnet and the bonnet pad has dripping oil all over it. The dipstick isn't seated correctly. It's out about an inch or so. I knew what it was straight away. PCV. Look around to find the cause of the Exxon Valdez leak. The rear exhaust cam cover only has one bolt in it, and a flood of oil around it. I pull the cover off, and the seal falls out and drops to the ground. Leak found. Well one anyway.
I could also smell raw fuel at this stage. Remove the plastic cover from the fuel rail and find a pool of fuel around an injector. Pull the hose of the pressure regulator and fuel runs out. The list of parts is growing. I decide to drain the oil and prepare it all for when I have the new pcv, seals, injectors etc. All that drains out was black crude oil. All 500ml of it. I actually grabbed a small screwdriver thinking something was blocking the drain hole. Nope. That was it. 500ml. The oil filter cartridge had a thick sludge around it. Oh dear, it's getting worse.
Dig in a bit further and find all the engine mounts completely collapsed. I couldn't squeeze a piece of cardboard between the sump and the mount brace. I noticed a thump going over bumps on the way home. The sump hitting the cross member. Lets add a full set of mounts to the list. I figure at this stage, I might as well pull the plug cover off and check the plugs. The VVT solenoid was also leaking. Another pool of oil leaking into the cam cover. The plugs were shot. The electrodes were almost gone. Almost all the flexi conduit was missing. Add, new plugs, coils and leads and vvt solenoid to the list. Thought I should check the steer reservoir. Jeez, it has the consistency of Golden Syrup. Not sure it's supposed to look like that. Add that to list of growing jobs.
Jack it up to get it off the ramps and onto stands. Pull the wheels to check the brake pads. You guessed it. Shot. Basically metal to metal. All round. Add some pads to the list. The discs were surprisingly ok. The Pirellis had been on there for over 17 years. They were bald, cracked and just waiting for the next opportunity to let all of the 13psi they had in them, out at once. Add new tyres to list.
Figure while I'm waiting for Rockauto to get their wares to me, I'd drain the trans oil. Now, I've done this on these Aisin things often. Got a few Volvo's and a few Saab's that use them. The oil was the worst I've dropped yet from any of them. It looked like Coopers Stout coming out. Went a grabbed 12l to do a change when it's running again.
So a few weeks later I've gathered up all the bits. First thing, pcv. I pull intake off and find the hose going from the intake to pcv missing altogether. It's snapped off and gone. There's even no rubber connector on the manifold nipple. So all new parts fitted, new oil and filter. Good engine bay clean, brake pads fitted. Starts first kick. Ok, time to do the trans oil change three times and reset counters. Power steer oil flushed and drained. After all that I start it again and let it get up to temp. Check for oil leaks, pcv vacuum etc. All good. Test drive time. Wow, what a great little performer. Idles super smooth and the trans shifts clean and precise. Brakes are now excellent. With the new tyres and wheel alignment, it drives fantastic. I am really surprised at how quick this old gal is. Had a quick run with a bloke in an XR5 Mondeo. He couldn't pull away. Asked me what was in it. Moose power I said.
Here's the kicker. I got the car with 171,000kms. Check the odo and the work done on the invoice the original owner had. Hmmmm.
Oh, and those little badges on the side....glued on with epoxy @#$%
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