Best Way To Sell An Old Used Car?

[Jackofalltrades]

On April 6, 2016 at 7:35 PM, The NFL Shield At Midfield said:

wow that sucks.  what was wrong with it?

I was told that the car never had anything but regular maintanence performed. So several months after driving it I notice a decline in power, etc and it turns out it needs a head gasket. Whatever, old car and such I wasn't bothered. It lost a couple cylinders one day and I had to abandon it at a business.

After a few days of trying to diagnose it, including phone calls with the previous owner I just had to towed to a mechanic. I hadn't been in touch with him in years but he and I graduated together and he's a Honda/Acura specialist and was only 3 miles away. He calls me the next day and tells me that it's already had at least one head gasket replaced and that the head tabs on the back of the engine had been replaced and they JB Weld'ed in place. Turns out the engine was just gone, best cylinder was getting around 25% compression.

So I swapped engines and that's when he told me the damn tranny had been re-built too. My wife called her friend that sold me the car to inquire, but they stuck to the story. I got a great deal on a rebuilt motor that had already been modded. I've since done a little extra work and it's fun to drive. 

I'm 6'5" and large in all the wrong ways with chronic knee and back issues, lol I can't only imagine what I look like trying to get in and out of what's essentially a glorified go-cart. I'm sure several people have had a chuckle at my expense. 

[Kevin Greene]

1 hour ago, Jackofalltrades said:

I was told that the car never had anything but regular maintanence performed. So several months after driving it I notice a decline in power, etc and it turns out it needs a head gasket. Whatever, old car and such I wasn't bothered. It lost a couple cylinders one day and I had to abandon it at a business.

After a few days of trying to diagnose it, including phone calls with the previous owner I just had to towed to a mechanic. I hadn't been in touch with him in years but he and I graduated together and he's a Honda/Acura specialist and was only 3 miles away. He calls me the next day and tells me that it's already had at least one head gasket replaced and that the head tabs on the back of the engine had been replaced and they JB Weld'ed in place. Turns out the engine was just gone, best cylinder was getting around 25% compression.

So I swapped engines and that's when he told me the damn tranny had been re-built too. My wife called her friend that sold me the car to inquire, but they stuck to the story. I got a great deal on a rebuilt motor that had already been modded. I've since done a little extra work and it's fun to drive. 

I'm 6'5" and large in all the wrong ways with chronic knee and back issues, lol I can't only imagine what I look like trying to get in and out of what's essentially a glorified go-cart. I'm sure several people have had a chuckle at my expense. 

FFS the block deck was so corroded they glued the alignment dowels in place and then sold it?

What a worthless sack of shyt that guy is. 

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

i would be so pissed off at whoever sold that to me, especially if they fed me something like that after the entire ordeal.  like not only are you lying to me but you also think i'm an idiot.

a head gasket replacement and transmission rebuild isn't something that you just kind of forget having gotten done.  i know there's a range of model years with documented head gasket/cooling system issues but having to do two inside of 200k miles seems kind of ridiculous.

[Jackofalltrades]

I made it known that I wasn't happy but there really wasn't any recourse. It's runs like a champ now and I hope I can get at least 100k miles out of it. I'd love to put a bigger Acura engine in it and really get some speed but it doesn't make any practical sense. 

[TNPanther]

On April 5, 2016 at 11:43 AM, Jase said:

I know how the paint got that way and it's because honda paint blows.  My '06 acura TSX is flaking all over the place.

On the early to mid-2000's Honda/Acura models, dark colored paint was notorious for being complete ass after 10 years or so. The factory paint on the 3rd generation Acura TLs was fantastic however.