Good buy or no? (long read)

bigjoe25

Registered User
Well I am looking for a 5 speed super coupe and low-and-behold I find one for a listed price of 1600. I call the guy up and he said the car has high miles but runs awsome but a brake problem started as soon as he was going to sell it, but now he will sell for only 1000!

I went and saw the car today and the body and interior is in great shape, minus the dirvers seat which had some rips and tears, but it had matching seat covers so thats no biggie. The tires were almost new, with 85% tread left and the wheels were refurbished and looked great. Before I started it I looked in the colant and didnt see any rust, and the oil looked new and didnt have any shinny metal objects in it. The car looks like it didnt leak any oil from the valve covers or anywhere else. The car started and ran awsome, The guy said he let it sit there for two weeks and it didnt look like it leaked anything. It also didnt smoke at all, I reved it up a couple times but didnt see any smoke. The guy also said that it passed Emission checking 6 months ago and at that time he installed new rotors and brake pads on the front, and pads on the back.

Well the only problem with the car is the ABS light is on, and the brake pedal is hard, which I guess is a fualty master cylinder? I have not done a search but I saw two threads at the top with ABS info so Im going to start there, but my question is, would this car be a good buy, and then fix up the brakes? If I do buy it, how much would it cost to get the brakes fixed? Im going to do a search now for any and all info but I felt it was good to go ahead and post to see if someone thinks this is a good buy or to stay the hell way!
 
i say u go for it, cuz if u dont, then i will, i believe its the old ACUMULATOR on the ABS system that is causing the light to come up. its only 100 dollars. if u dont want the car and think its too much for u, i suggest u PM me his info and i will get the car.
 
joshbea6 said:
what year is the SC?

Its an 1989 White with marron interior, 5 speed with 160,000 miles but the guy said it was highway miles and it looked the part. The only flaws other than the brakes were I could see some paint bubbling/rusting up the passenger side rear wheel well, some rust under the hood but it wasnt rusted threw, just some minor surface rust, and the leather seats were not in the greatest shape. They werent thrashed, but with seat covers still looked good.

One other problem I have is getting it home. Its about 30-40 highway miles and I dont have a way to tow it, and a towing company would cost to much. I would just drive it home but I dont trust the brakes enough. The car stops ALRIGHT but what if a car pulled out in fornt of me and I had to shop quick I would get in a wreck maybe and I dont know if I want to risk it.
 
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i just bought a '92 5 spd with some of those same problems- abs light was on and hard pedal. listen for the hydralic pump to come on when you fisrt turn the ignition switch. the hydralic and fuel pumps should come on for a couple seconds, then stop. the hydraulic pump sound comes from the firewall and the fuel pump sound comes from the back. if you don't hear the hydraulic pump, press the brakes several times with the key switch on/engine off and listen for it. if you never hear it, then either the pump is bad or the abs relay is bad. the abs relay is mounted on the passenger side of the firewall. if you do hear the pump come on, and the abs light stays on, then there is a problem inside the ignition switch. if the abs light blinks on every time you press the brakes and the hydraulic pump comes on, then you have a bad accumulator.

on mine, i replaced the accumulator, and fixed the ignition switch- there was a contact problem internally that was an easy fix for me. if you are not electronics inclined, then you may have to have the switch box replaced(not the key barrel).

this problem is not as bad as it looks if everything else is working properly.
 
hytorksc said:
i just bought a '92 5 spd with some of those same problems- abs light was on and hard pedal. listen for the hydralic pump to come on when you fisrt turn the ignition switch. the hydralic and fuel pumps should come on for a couple seconds, then stop. the hydraulic pump sound comes from the firewall and the fuel pump sound comes from the back. if you don't hear the hydraulic pump, press the brakes several times with the key switch on/engine off and listen for it. if you never hear it, then either the pump is bad or the abs relay is bad. the abs relay is mounted on the passenger side of the firewall. if you do hear the pump come on, and the abs light stays on, then there is a problem inside the ignition switch. if the abs light blinks on every time you press the brakes and the hydraulic pump comes on, then you have a bad accumulator.

on mine, i replaced the accumulator, and fixed the ignition switch- there was a contact problem internally that was an easy fix for me. if you are not electronics inclined, then you may have to replace the switch box (not the key barrel).

this problem is not as bad as it looks if everything else is working properly.
Lets go ahead and say the accumulator and the pump was bad
Well I am not inclined to fix it myself at all, so lets say if I took it to a shop how much do you guys guess it would cost for parts + labor? What else can fail to make the lights come on and havea hard pedal?
 
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well you could buy a remanurfactured hydraulic pump assembly with accumulator for around $400.00 (i think), a new one would be around $1,400, which i don't think you'd want to go that route. i'm not sure what labor would be, but figure on more than 2 hours to install, imo.
 
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