kayvan_pour

Hi every one... I went to look at this s2000 today, Im very ready to buy it but he said he took it to honda because the CEL went on and they said it had kind of low compression on one of the cylinders. Is this something I need to worry about and is it a sign of bad things to come? Or can it be fixed easy?

Tugz_S2K

Of course low compression is an issue. It means an unhealthy engine overall. Engine could have been overrevved or starved of oil. Stay away from that car.

kayvan_pour

Really? I didn't know it would be that serious. He said that he took it to honda and they said that it ws kind of low, but it was still in a acceptable range. Does this sound liek BS (he said he has the papers to show) or is this possible as well?

mloomis

Would you buy a horse with 3 legs? Avoid this one, or live with the "I told you so"s that will haunt you forever.

tizbad2k

let it go, she not for you

Wisconsin S2k

yeah do NOT buy this car.

having a cylinder "low" when doing a compression leakdown test can mean several things, most often something majorly wrong or about to go wrong.

avoid this car like the plague. this guy is trying to sell quite the lemon, and in fact, he's being kinda misleading because he's selling someone a car under the misconception that it's "not a big deal" and "within tolerance" which is a load of bull. that car is a ticking time bomb.

kayvan_pour

Thanks every body.... I understand everything you guys are saying. And i dont want to sound stupid or desperate but I'm looking at a good deal. I really want you guys to read everything before passing judgement. Here the situation. I'm looking at 2002 silverstone, with 28,000 miles. I mean this thing is in sweet condition. It sits on Work Meister S1 3 PC rims with good condition tires. The body and every thing is in great condition. I might able to get around the 17,400-18,000 range (which from some one who has been searching for months, knows is a great deal). The man has co-signed for a family member and the family member couldnt pay it off, so the car has been sitting for a while, now at first the story sounded a little out of the ordinary, but given the fact he doesnt have insurance on the vehicle and that the carfax report shows the car hasnt put on more than 900 miles in the past years. So it looks like his story checks out ok, I think thats why he will let it go for cheaper (because he needs to pay the laon off to the bank)... I'm gonna most likely test drive it tommorow and see how it drives. So the guy tells me he got the engine checked out and the compression was a little low but the honda dealer said it was ok but just a little low, Does this sound right? I mean wouldnt not be a bad idea to check it out and see if the car checks out ok? I mean this deal is pretty goos and I was thinking even if the engine blows I could probably just directly replace for a decent price couldnt I? Or am I just desperate here? What would you do in this situation? I mean is there such a thing as barely low compression? i need advice here, this is a great deal and I dont wanna miss out on it!

Could it also mean that maybe one of the seals isnt set properly or something? Or maybe a spark plus is loose or something? How hard is it fix aproblem liek this?

mloomis

I see you are looking to buy a horse. I've got this great deal on a 3-legged horse, and I haven't ridden it very much lately. In fact, I haven't needed to insure the horse because it hasn't been ridden in so long. The horse originally came with 4 legs, but somewhere in the past something happened to leg #4. I'm sure a veterinarian could attach a 4th leg, and you'll be just like new. How much could that cost, attaching a 4th leg? Probably not too much, and I'm sure it's easy to do. I'm not asking a lot of money for this horse, so you can see it really is a great deal. Please buy my horse, because I've co-signed for a relative that can't manage to make the payments. My horse has really pretty horseshoes, and you'll really look great sitting on my horse. Really great.

It's your butt. Sit in this saddle if you want, but don't say you weren't warned about the bumpy ride.

kayvan_pour

^^^^ lol i appreciate it!!! It's scary how much that story actually made me realize that it was flimsy deal. I guess I'll just have to keep lookin for a good deal. Thanks for the input... If any one else has some input, please let me know, thanks!!!

tizbad2k

the fact of the matter is that the car could be ok and easily fixable (easy for who?) fixing a problem like that at a dealer will cost you an arm and a leg, if you are capable then it could be done for cheap. But who knows what else is wrong with it?

A major problem like that is an indicator of abuse by the prevoius owner. And unless your looking to rebuild the car then you should let it go.

good deals are not hard to come by. I got a 00, with 30k on a dealer replaced motor for a less than 13k (inc taxes) but i knew from the getgo that it had had a side impact before. So i did my research (asked my uber trusted mech), and decided it was ok.

To get it almost perfect i had to:
1. put $400 worth of new suspension components
2. totally refurbish the axles the best i could ($30 ish)
3. put in new alt pulley ($28 ish)
4. roof latches etc.. ($70)

for it to be perfect i will need to replace:
1. alt belt tensioner. ($100)
2. cam chain tensioner. ($100)

btw it has 260 compression across all 4 cyl, which is remarkable. This shoud be tested before buying the car, as it is a direct indicator of the health of the engine

all in all for me to have a perfect s2000 which i know is in damn good shape it will cost me about $800 more than my buying price.

But i did all the work myself. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that if you need others to do the work for you, this would have cost well above 2-3000 on top of the purchase price. In your case just the engine work will be 3 grand atleast , who knows what else is wrong.

Remember there is a reason why expensive cars are sold cheap which=somthing very costly is wrong.