Of course, I was hoping it was just that...


No bother at all, I paid $14,500 for a 1 owner with 76,000 on the clock. Thats still low mileage for an import in my eyes.

I agree with you guys, I purchased a used car and this is the risk. Just frustrated this is all happening at once. My guess is that it sat for a while...

 

Hey man, just some worse to help you out....

You don't HAVE to fix this stuff, you GET to fix this stuff.

In other words, you're learning your car inside and out as you go through it all. It sucks you bought a car that was beat on a bit, but at least you know when you go through it, it is done correctly

 

I totally feel you on this one. Bought mine in the summer, winter rolled around and the heat didn't work. Got under the dash to find out the dumbsh!t ziptied something to the cable which eventually cause it to bend and no longer mover the levers. After being like that for who knows how long the mixer box was almost seized up which is a 1100 dollar repair I dodged a bullet. Then started having trouble with boost problems. The junk ebay **** manifold had cracks everywhere. So I decided to replace it with the stock one he gave me when I bought the car. What a nightmare that was. I guess he had never heard of anti seize so about 3 or 4 bolts broke off in the housing when I tried swapping the o2 housing with a vta one. Not to mention the two ez outs I broke trying to get the broken bolts out. I've owned the car for two years and im finally getting it to where it needs to be. This is how dumb the previous owner of my car was or still is.

I have had a cel for rear o2 which is common for running a test pipe. Ok no big problem ill just try the anti spark plug fouler trick and it should clear it up. I get under the car and look and theirs a sensor for my wideband and the rear o2 with what I thought was guess what spark plug anti foulers. I thought well y is it still throwing a code? Guess what the dumb idiot did? Ya he put the aem wideband sensor in the spark plug anti foulers. For what reason I have no idea. He needs a third party face palm for that one.

 

^^^^Man that's pretty bad, exactly the reason I avoided a modded one. Mine is 100% bone stock which just adds to the frustration.

I've said it before, I feel like i've adopted an abused pitbull. With a lil attention I know this will be a great vehicle. Thanks for the pep talk guys, def helped...

 

sounds just like my nightmare from hell!!! i bought a evo back in jan. new motor, built trans, stock 9 turbo... tcase blew out on me 1st launch at the track. it had a whine, i kinda helped it on its way lol. my fault. bought another tcase, 30 days later, breaks again! wtf? i bring it into mitsu and there is no front motor mount and they said that the driveshaft has so much play that it was ripping apart the tcase.

now on my 3rd tcase, guess what? turbo seals crap out, fp green turbo installed... is the bad luck over? ahh u guessed it! NOPE! ACT clutch slipping, i was told it was a brand new clutch, the thing had no life left whatsoever.... twin disk installed....

car goes up on the lift and im told my FMIC has a huge hole in it on the back side. FML, thank god i didnt sell my aftermarket parts from my last evo... also my tires were on reversed, the arrow was pointing back, not forward. and the fan control module took a crap at the same time, thank god for warranty.

is it finally over?! no cant be that easy, car is back in the shop now for a valve cover seal leak and a dipstick tube leak...

ive dropped nearly 6k extra on a car i was told was in mint condition... finally when i get it back tomorrow it will be running the way it should be, not having PMS once a month...

 

Wow that sucks man. That's why you look at the most you can before buying a used car. I will never go by carfax anymore. I have seen many people drive the **** out of cars and not even register them. Technically, they never did own the car according to carfax... Who knows whats done in between. Specially to a "performance" car.

 

Damn that beats my story. I did end up dropping about $5k into mine. Sucks to drop so much money on stupid things that could of been fixed so easily. Most by normal maintenance

 

F*ing word.

I have no idea how anyone could have driven my car the way it was when I picked it up. The BOV was causing this awful bucking, the lightweight flywheel made the car a pain in the *** to drive and the clutch sucked. And Mastercraft tires on a f*ing Evo? Seriously?

I am glad you could not afford to screw the car up more.

<- Evo rescuer

 

When I got my evo it was a 5 year old stock evo. The only thing that had been done is at one time some stereo equipment had been hooked up in it (they left some huge power wire running from the trunk to the engine bay). Other than that still stock.

It had been mistreated though in ways. The clutch (stock clutch) was nearly gone (barely anything left) when I got it at 41.5k, I of course learning to drive manual finished it off the first week.

Now for the abuse. For some reason the previous owner had ripped the metal clips out of the dome lights so that you could not put lights in it. The under tray was missing because (my guess) they had rolled over the top of a parking concrete thing. Doing this had put a little bend in the stock FMIC (never caused a problem though) and the grill in front of it causing a slight bump in the front bumper. There is a small gouge on the top of the rear bumper, and the rear passenger door panel looked as if someone had stabbed it with a pen or something.

I bought both dome lights on here for $20 each from part outs and the door panel for $90. The rear bumper still has the little gouge but is not that big a deal. The FMIC has been replaced with a 3.5" AMS so that was not a worry either. The grill is still crummy looking though and still has the bumper a bit disfigured at the bottom, but you have to really look to notice it.


There are three very small dents that I only found when doing a detailed wash, and of course the expected scratches.




I paid a price I felt was fair at the time considering the distance I would have to travel and number of them in this area. I got it from a dealer as well so I was going to have to take what I could. I might have been able to get it a little cheaper had I not been fully excited when I seen it sitting there. I stood my ground and got it for the price I asked though, but in looking into further detail again I probably could have gotten it cheaper.

However, having said that I am pleased with my evo. Despite everything I have done with it and all the stuff the previous owner did, I still love it. It has caused me more joy than any other vehicle I have ever owned in my life (and I have had 7 others not including the ones my wife has called hers). I would not change the past at all (unless I could get it cheaper ). I would still buy the same evo again no doubt about it. I settled for silver though I would have preferred black or GG.

I have even considered doing a paint change on my evo though now I am starting to really dig the silver/black thing I have going on.

Yes my evo was a bit beat on, and I would like to somewhat beat the previous owner. But, I would stay with this decision no matter what. As for the previous owner it seems he has been through as many as 4 different cars in the past 3 1/2 years I have owned the evo. I guess he is not quite as satisfied with his choice that I am.


I laugh everytime I see I have the evo and he does not.

 

I definitely thought I made a mistake buying a bone stock evo for so much more than a lightly modded, privately owned one. I was frustrated with the numerous little things wrong with the car but this thread is definitely making me feel better!

 

Just think... you own an Evo..... your doing the work on it so you'll know it's done right and your can mod it as you go along. Don't get yourself down over the problems you have encountered. Also this is a great site for How To's and help.

Best of Luck!

 

Everyone, and I mean -everyone- that buys a used Evo is going to get some surprises when they get the damn thing home. I bought a beautiful mint (hah) IX MR with $10k+ in JDM parts and a broken OEM BPV, but within a short time the shocks were gone, clutch died, lifters blew, transmission broke, intake was jammed full of dirt (yes dirt)... etc. In my case I didn't really care about any of the stuff that went because I was modding all those parts anyway. If I had planned to keep it like it was without further modification... I would have been seriously ****ed.

Once I put nearly the value of the car back into it with modifications its a freaking beast though. I would never ever get rid of this car. I just replaced the Bride Ergo's it had when I bought it with some Sparco Evo's to fit my 6-pt harnesses and its like I'm wearing the car like a glove. Unbelievable. Love this damn car.

 

should of checked the car over better before you bought it.... no one to blame but yourself

for that price, you should've gone into it knowing there was going to be problems

 

damn and I thought mine was bad... im the 4th owner and my car only has 50k miles... i got really lucky though the whole car is in great condition, engine, interior, etc... however the exterior... i never knew a car could have so many rock chips, dings, scratches, etc... I had my Z for 2 years and there wasnt a scratch on it when i got rid of it. the paint on the outside feels like sand paper! some people

 

The rock chips in the paint aren't from the previous owner, well at least not their fault. Mitsu is known for the cheapass single stage paint on the evos that chips easy. Its not like a little clear coat would have weighed the car down that much mitsu geeze.