OK so i'm new here, my VW just crapped out on me and i'm looking for a new car. I found a pretty mint 1989 Firebird V6 AT with about 180k on it. I need it to run for quite some time and I was wondering if it would be a decent buy. It's been sitting for a while and it starts and runs pretty rough (could just be bad gas). What kind of possible problems am I looking at?would it be hard to tune the engine up? what parts and Fkluids should I use to tune it up? and how can I make sure thsi thing runs for as long as possible?

 

search for TomP's tuneup, that's a good place to start. With proper maintence the motor will run for damn near ever. No idea though with it already haveing 180k miles on it though.

 

how much is it? its hard to say how long it will last when you dont know what is wrong with it, but chances are its just little things, in which case it is probably a good buy. see if you can get a compression check done, and if they have records of recent repairs/maintenence. there are plenty of members here at or past 300k, im at 230k myself and having just replaced/refreshed most of the sensors and all the vacuum lines, i can see this motor lasting quite a long time more.

 

First, how long has it been sitting? I bought mine after sitting 9 months and had several issues even after thoughly going thru it.


I cant stress this one enough. PUT A TIMING CHAIN IN IT!!

Um, other then that.. tune up, how was it treated before it was parked, why did they park it?

We'll be happy to have another new f-body member, but we need as much info as you have.

 

the guy that i'm buying it from wants to sell if for about ~1500 maybe a little less. He bought it from another guy about.... 8 months ago maybe.The man that had it before this most recent guy (stay with me here) had it sitting for about 3 years. The guy i'm buying it from boght it from him with the intention of turing it into a race car. the body is MINT no rust whatsoever and the paint is smooth all the way around and I believe it's original paint. We got the car started and running after a few attempts. the exaust smelled kinda funny and it put out a decent ammount of smoke. I plan on taking it for a test drive sometime this weekend and I guess i'll really see if theres anything really wrong with it. what should I look for when test driving it?

 

Thats to much to pay for an 89 not running right. Tell him to pay for a full tune up and get it running right first if he wants anything over $700

It would need to be awful nice with something to make it worth $1500 and running bad.

 

I foolishly paid $2700 for mine with 130k miles. It ran great though, just had a bearing going bad in the alternator.

 

well the body, underbody and interior are perfect, and the reason it might be running so rouch is because of the old gas

 

that depends on where he lives and how much he wants a thirdgen . . . up in my county a thirdgen comes around for sale maybe twice a year, supply vs. demand dictates the price for sure, i bought mine with a dying tranny for $1500, knowing that i could get it swapped over to a 5-speed and running great for like $500(ended up like $600), and ended up with a nice 89 for $400 less than any price ive ever seen a v6 f-body go for around here. all the v8 thirdgens ive seen were 305s with 100k + on original motors going for 5K or more. i looked at one of them, not a 5k car. but they arent very common up here, so when one is sellable, they go for a lot more than they should.

 

well i think i'm just gonna get it and hope everythings ok.... it'll need a tune up asap. Where should I get filters and what kind of spark plugs should I use? and what kinds of fluids?

 

Gas doesn't go bad that easy. My Buick sits more then I dive it. If you added up the total time I probably drive it 1 month a year and the rest of the time it sits. Never once had a problem with gas, going bad.

 

dos forgot

Long as it has a real nice body an interior it can fatch $1000-$1200 easy.

mine was $800 with near same miles but paint , insides wasn't real hot. ran good, new exhaust, brakes n tires.

but the 89 being nice looking makes it worth more in the market.

If in doubt another $1000 can get you more then a new motor and a bunch of fancy parts n have a real nice almost new car.
That will last as long or longer then any honda but look much cooler.

 

 

Well, mine has over 237k miles, burnt valves, rings, burns oil, smokes, runs on 5 cylinders, but it still runs fine.

 

If it's this questionable, take it out for a few hours. Dump some 93 octane in it to help out the old gas and tool around town. Open it up a bit on the highway. Once you get fesh gas and 10+ miles out of it, you should know how it's gonna behave.

 

so I took it for a test drive today, it had a few problems that made me decide not to get it....

1. Windshield wiper contros dont work (toggle swich is rigged up for that)

2: Headlights arnt getting any power at all, they wont close or turn on, no highbeams either

3. suspension is pretty damn rough

4. Oil pressure guage doesnt work... i dont think (it only moved when I would step on the throttle from a stop)

5. check engine light came on (bad gas?)

for all the right reasons i think the wiper and lights are somehow related, if anyone knows how much it would cost to fix all this or knows whats wrong please get back to me

 

All of that stuff could be so many different things, check engine light could be about 100 different things. Same with the suspension or if your just not used to how rough these cars ride. Where did the oil pressure sit while cruising around? Mine hangs around 60 I think when I'm cruising around, when I stop it drops to 40 then picks back up when I get going again like it's supposed to. The switch in the column could be messed up on the wipers, did you check fuses to see if a fuse was blown on the headlights? Maybe a wire's grounded from the headlight switch to the lights or the switch just doesn't work, I've had to replace that don't remember why though.

 

headlight switch going bad is common I guess. Mine did that not long ago and they stop going up n down. Told it was common just replace switch. I feed mine power via the driving lights to fix it, till I get a switch.

wiper, I dunno
[was the car ever stolen? ]


suspension is suppose to be rough, its a sports car. Should feel like riding in a solid frame gokart. Where you feel every stone in the road. you want that feel. If it ride like a monster caddy, it will handle line one too.

egnine light is just a dummy light, now of course it may be related.
But you should know more about your cars health then it does.
[not yours yet.] Take it to autozone and they will pull the codes for free. But mine has never gone out for near 7 years, car runs great. Stop listening to it long ago.

[hopin the bulb will burn out.]

though now is the time to low ball a price. But I would see if he would let oyu get the codes pulled for some what of a clue.
He may not want you doing it yourself with a paper clip.

 

oil psi gauge switch goin bad seems kinda common too.

 

I dont think it's the switch because the guage lights still come on, i dont think the car was ever sto;en but thats just a guess. the head lights are the biggest problem right now, and the turn signals dont work... the 4 ways work but the stick thingy that has the wiper stuff, turn signals, and highbeams doesnt work, the suspension made a LOUD clunking soungs sometiems when i turned corners

 

if you need something reliable that you are not going to be waisitng money on go for something around 1500 at least. If its a v8 its gona be a little more for a reliable one. But i wouldnt buy this car if i were you, this car needs some tlc but if your not wanting to do that now then dont bother. dont forget these cars are getting old

 

i dont mind the TLC, i just need something I can drive right away while working on it, if the head lights and the turn signals worked i would of bought it on the spot

 

Runs fine??? Man, you'd be in heaven in a car that runs like it's supposed to...lol

 

all that stuff running through the column not working sounds like its been apart. Not easy to take one apart n get it back together right. Though could be as simple as the main plug for the column stuff is lose. Got kicked lose.

all my dash lights and everything worked fine but my headlight would not pop up n light when my switch went. So I ran a wire form the drive/turn light to the head light. Which tripped things and worked. At first I tried to just run a direct 12v line of a toggle, but lights only popped up, wouldn't light. But wired into driving/turn signal lights circuit made them light.

one of them things were I really don't care. I did it at 3am trying to get home and its been working fine that way for about 8 months.

I pray allot though that I wont end up being one of the dudes with his light popped up all the time or even worse, just one.

I call it a blessing to get a firebird with good working light parts.
That stupid $80 hatch motor breaks on them all.

 

as I reply to this I'm sure I'm condeming myself to have it break but mine's yet to go. Hatch motor that is. I dred being one of those guys with a single headlight stuck up, I think I would manually raise it and lower it if it came down to it.

 

so it's [rplly just the switch then? how hard would that be to replace?

 

i manualy raised and lowered mine when it didnt work. PITA, but better than driving a cyclops.

easy fix though: http://www.rodneydickman.com/retail_new.html look under electrical. cost like $5 and takes like 15 minutes and your headlights go up and down again(if your switch is good lol, mine was broken too, they would go up but not down).

 

brokenbmx06 it seems like the real problem is that the owner of the car like most of the guys on this board thinks his car is worth far more then it is this would be the type that if it had say 100k would think the car was worth 3500


Vehicle Details Change Equipment
Engine: V6 2.8 Liter
Transmission: Automatic
Drivetrain: RWD
Mileage: 180,000
Selected Standard Equipment
Air Conditioning
Power Steering Tilt Wheel AM/FM Stereo


Conditions Value
Excellent $1,305

Good $1,055

Fair $700


i used the rateing system stated minor engine problems and electrical problems but everything else perfect

and it selected Fair so KBB says this car is worth 700

now you can show the guy that hey bluebook says this pos is only worth 700

 

If the guy dropped the price quite a bit Id consider it but even if it's looking pretty it needs a lot of work for something going that much.

Ive never known a person to not have issues with pop up headlights, tho I did learn the motor to lift the headlight and the light itself are directly connected, so its common for neither to work if just one of them stops (this was a competency I had in electrical) Check the motor relay(s) for the headlights, and go from there.

oil gauge = normal (mine does the same thing, I just picked up a cluster for my car today)
Suspension will feel rougher than most cars as it's stiffer than most cars, now if it has absolutely no bounce or doesnt stop bouncing then yeah time to replace.

To have a perfect car you'd probably be looking into putting just as much into the car as you bought it for. Assuming you dont do some of the stuff yourself.