Your Very Own Guide: To Buying a 240SX By RedRum240

[RedRum240]

Well we all dream of this day to check out your 240 so many things going through your head what if it has a hidden oil leak? what if I miss somthing important and 3 months down the road the body falls off the chasis? well here is your very own step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Things to bring with you, KBB printout, 50"x50" sheet of white posterboard MUST BE WHITE!, a rag and a waterbottle.

Step 2: When you arive to the 240 you are looking to buy walk around the car look for anything out of place, such as rust, scratches, gouged out wheels, pay special attention to the front and rear parts of the cars in 240's the front and back Bumper's and the condition of the wheels shows how the car was driven. if there are gouges on the wheels you know he either sucked at parking or had a couple close encounter's of the third kind with a curb while drifting or hard driving. you really want to count the scratches and dents. dents that look like sombody tapped a door against but are not that bad do not worry about entirley those can be fix-a-dented out, for every dent that is above a normal wear and tear dent and for every scratch that cannot be buffed out keep a tally of how many there are. say there are 3 "2 Inch" scratches and 3 dents that are not that noticable but are there subract about 40-50$ from the price you are going to counter offer him. if the car has a sunroof take your bottle of water and gently pour the water around the sunroof looking for leaks, then move to the weatherstripping around the windows to look for leaks as well. If you want to learn the entire histoey of the car knock with your knuckles around the body looking for hard spots which can be sign of body biller (bondo, etc.) also look for overspray which can be a sign if a car was recently repainted and try to find out why.

Step 3: Next you want to look under the car, look for rust. any sort of damage, 240's even when lowered less than 1" tend to hit the ground over speed bumps even if going 1-3 miles an hour, Under the body you should see where the body bolts to the udnerbody this is where sideskirts are attached on body kits and where the stock jack stand holds onto, makes sure there is no bends on them, Next move to under the engine bay, you should see behind each wheel the power steerling lines there should bee 2 boots that look like those rubber things that go over shocks, make sure that those are not ripped or torn Stock ones and most aftermarket ones rip VERY easy in 240's due to the mounting location.

Step 4: Engine time!~ Try to go to the car early in the morning when the air is dense, start the car up and let it run for about 5 minutes on a parked idle, then turn the car off. wait about 10-15 minutes then start the car up again. this is to make sure the engine does not have any problems with starting/flooding, after you turn the engine on a second time pop up the hood, follow all vacuum lines and all wires and make sure everything is running, turn the AC on and make sure it blows cold air, put your hand on the front of the engine block and feel for timming chain knocking, if it knocks ask the owner if it still has the timing chain guides on it, most likley thats what is causing it, the engine isnt that hard to look for problems if it is idling around 800-900-1000 it should be fine on start-up.

Step 5: interior, pretty much straight forward make sure no rips, or tears. seats are in good condition. turn everything on make sure it all works, turn every single piece of electrical on at the same time and text the altinator. make sure the automatic seatbelts work (if an s13) and that the lights work.

Step 6: Test Drive - ok some people think this is wrong but with manuals and used cars its the only way to really make sure that it is functioning correctly, go to a open highway and floor it, shifting at every 6.5RPM, make sure that the clutch is grabbing nicley and is shifting smooth, a bad clutch can mean if your in 5th gear going 55 MPH, and you floor it sometimes your clutch wont grab and youl be in gear but it is acting like you are in neutral. MAKE SURE THE CAR DRIVES STRAIGHT. I cannot express this enough, even tho the outside may look nice, but doesnt drive straight. could mean jsut a simple alignment, but it could also be somthing worse such as a bent controll arm or anything of that matter. 2/3 times a 240 doesnt steer right there is somthing wrong with the stock suspension. for saftey reasons get into a 3 lane road that is empty and let go of the steering wheel and hard brake, this way you can tell if the car leans on braking which can be a very bad sign of a bent control arm or one of the struts have hammered through the retaining plates inside the struts. once you get done playing around with it and warming up the engine park in a parking lot or a fastfood restraunt and put that 50''x50'' sheet of white posterboard udner the engine bay and turn the car off. go inside and get a burger. come oput and pull the board out and look for drops of fluid on the board. this is one of the easist ways to see what is leaking. you can easily see the color of the fluid and get a general idea of where it is leaking from.

Step 7: now that you are no longer hungry and did the fluid/clutch check, see if any shops can run a quick compression check for you. even if it costs 25$, id rather pay the 25$ then buy a 3,000# car with a engine running 50% compression across all cylinder's.

Step 8: take the car back and tally up whatever you found wrong with it. subtract away money for whats wrong with it and throw your offer on the table. if the guy does not like it then leave him your number and ask him to sleep on it. if he does not call you within a week call him again and raise you price a couple hundred. most likley he will say yes. enjoy your 240, and feel free to add any info and I will update the buying Guide.

P.S. Dont be in a hurry to buy a 240sx, yes they are wonderful but if getting one that works or one that doesnt have a problem and having to wait a month or so is better than hurrying to buy one and having 500 problems down the road. and if you still dont feel comfortable after doing your own thorough check, take it to a mechanic. they usually do 200pt checks for 50-90$ like I said loosing 50-90 dollars getting a car checked is a lot better than paying 3,000-7,000$ on a car then having to buy 3,000 in parts to fix problems it has.

Cody Pedro,

RedRum240

Members who have added information to this thread -okis14


Modified by RedRum240 at 10:21 PM 12/22/2004

[ILikeMy240sx]

It's a nice guide! looks pretty comprehensive but if I was selling my 240.. Id hate to have picky picky buyers... There are so much demand for these cars(esp S14) these days that so many buyers come to look.... if every buyer did that think about the nightmare Id go through... some people do offer more than what you want to get the car...

If you are a picky picky buyer you might have trouble getting a 240... just my 2cents

[onosqv]

It's a nice guide! looks pretty comprehensive but if I was selling my 240.. Id hate to have picky picky buyers... There are so much demand for these cars(esp S14) these days that so many buyers come to look.... if every buyer did that think about the nightmare Id go through... some people do offer more than what you want to get the car...

If you are a picky picky buyer you might have trouble getting a 240... just my 2cents

Nice guide redrum. This is usually why we bring the car to a trusty mechanic and have them do all the dirty work while we go eat a burger . If I were selling my car (regardless of what it was) I'd be pissssseeddd off if the test driver was doing redline shifts through all the gears - after all, it's still my car until it's sold.

But like ILikeMy240sx said, a lot of the ppl buying 240's WANT 240's. Even ones that aren't working are selling for around $1000 in SoCal.

Haha, and to think I thought I was going to have a hard time selling my 240 for 1.5K about a year ago to get another car that didn't have as much problems.

** O yea, you should get this posted in the Car Buying Section or something, will be very helpful to many ppl.

[Thrwnsprkz]

very nice, wish i had something like it when i was buying... although i went thru 4 cars before finally picking up my baby. and im glad i did (i believe in what happens does for a reason)

[MAXIMUS Nismo]

this can be modified and applied to all used cars. Sticky worthy? I think so.

[fightinchunk]

word, i second the sticky

[DammitBobby]

I would ad looking at the color of the fluids. Make sure it is not hot and open the radiator cap and look to see what color the radiator fluid is (Muddy looking could be sign of rusted radiator). If it is an automatic transmission look at the dip stick to see if the fluid is burnt or has particles( you can smell burnt fluid). Look at the oil dip stick and check for particles and the color of the oil. On top of the valve cover where you pour oil into take it off and look at the bottom of it to see if there is any sludge or you can see any build up inside the valve cover. This will tell you if the engine oil has been changed regularly. look inside the power steering fluid to check and see if it is low and if it smells burnt. If power steering is leaking it could be the rack and pinion a rebuilt one would cost you rebuilt around 250 to 300 bucks plus labor and a front end alignment. Check the brake fluid level and see if it is low and if the fluid is burnt.

[MAXIMUS Nismo]

this thread keeps getting better. There maybe lotsa points we could make, consolidate them and make an uber sticky.

[okis14]

Here's some stuff that I do.

While looking around the car I tap the car with my knuckle listening for hard spots (higher pitch). It should have a hollow sound but if there is filler (putty, fiberglass, etc) under the paint it has a different pitch unless it's really thin but even a little bit of filler can change the pitch.

I also look for overspray. If it's there then something was repainted. Then you got to wonder why. If I find filler spots and overspray I look to see if it was in an accident. Could have just been something minor like a touch up on a bumper, fix to a dent from someone leaning on the car to hard but you never know.

Of course some people could care less about the body as long as the frame is straight so its up to you if you want to do this.

Also to piggyback on your step 6 about alignment, I release my grip of the steering wheel then brake hard to make sure it doesn't pull when braking.

[RedRum240]

Sticky This somwhere. very usefull info then we don thave poeple posting 2 tiems a week about what to look for.

[574-240sx]

If you live where there is alot of snow/salt

Check for rust on the rear spoiler on the hatches. If you have rust starting on the sideskirt area where the seem of the lower body is. You will see some bubbling or maybe even starting to rust through. Check the top of the strut tower for rust. Check the lower strut towers where the sheet metal meet the frame rails inside the engine bay. This is the first place you should check is the driverside frame rail under the car. It right on the corner where the frame rail heads up toward the engine bay. Because of the heating and cooling and the salt getting up there this is the worst place. I have seen this whole corner of the frame rotted out before many times. Watch for rust. Rinse your cars down during the winter.