fixiefriend

he was pretty adamant about that idea, but says he'd dock the price $200 to cover the fans (lol). I was gonna hit him with a lower offer to begin with. does 4000 sound fair? the shocks seemed like they needed some work, the interior was pretty bad, windows + spoiler don't work.

I did just that, and they said it ran super strong when it left the shop but that was a year ago or something. They assured me it shouldn't be the head gasket going because it's brand new and they replaced it when they were in there- they seem like a reputable shop that works on high performance vehicles. It's a tough call for sure, but the seller's even offering to help me take it over there to get new fans, and then take it to my place with his dealer plate after it's been buttoned up, haha.

Thanks for the insight, Portent. The smoking did only happen when idling, but when i checked the engine temp on the dash it was in the normal range :shrug:. There is a shop that specializes in Corrados nearby (and it's where the engine was refreshed and replacement parts bought/installed), it's just a matter of taking the seller's word for it, buying the car with broken fans and then bringing it to the shop to get those fixed.

Pardon my ignornance but I take it that broken fans =/= steam from coolant tank after a short ride (in -12 degree C weather)? That's what he made it out to sound like. Maybe this car is turning out to be a real lemon. Guess my safest bet is to get a real mechanic to take a lookover.

Update: Talked to the guy on the phone and he said that the cooling fans aren't working and need to be replaced (apparently never been changed since original 1992), hence the overheating- he's offering to sell it to me at a lower cost (obviously), but i will need to take it to a shop to get replacement fans. Any recommendations?

thanks for the response jim. that was my thought too - he said he'll be taking it to the shop this coming monday. if i go back to look at it for a second time, any way to diagnose this?

Hey guys, First of all, sweet community you guys got here. Every useful search ends up leading to this forum, and I've learned quite a bit about the corrado just by lurking for a few days At this point I'm in love with this car - with it's design in particular. I feel as if it's one of the very last (if not THE last) sweet hatchback designs to be manufactured, with most hatches these days looking like a subaru, or a fit. I'm not really the best at figuring out the worth of a vehicle, let alone something as rare as a corrado, but I went and took a look at one recently and was hoping that with some of your help I might be able to assess if it's worth buying or not. How it was advertised $5000 1992 VR6 170k on Body, engine refreshed 1k mi ago Fresh paint job 1 month old Techtonics 264 cams both sides Techtonics Dual valvespring & retainers OEM MK4 Head Gasket Arp Head Studs "Bottom End was entirely torn down" OEM oil pump, pan, pistons and rings Exhaust: OBX Race Header (deletes cat), Lous Custom Exhaust 2 1/2 inch, Borla Muffler Other mods: ECS Low Temp thermostat Techtonics ECU chip Techtonics light weight pulley kit Walbro 255 HP fuel pump OEM belt tensioner, engine mounts + tranny,control arm bushings, sway bar links Aftermarket rear calipers First impressions Visually nice exterior Battery was dead on arrival, had to jumpstart it with another car Windows don't work, rear spoiler doesn't work (says blown fuse probably from jumpstarting), not sure if moonroof works Closer inspection: Exterior New paint (was told it was originally green) A couple cracks in the blinker lights / headlights Rust on the undercarriage frame, but nowhere else (save for this coin-sized splotch directly underneath the spoiler) I think one of the tires was different from the rest (different tread pattern, same brand) Rear license plate mount rectangle area was plastic, approximately the same color as the new paint job Interior Cream leather with some of the front plastic panels replaced with black for some reason (door frames) Pretty dirty and not well-maintained, said some homeless guy might've gotten in to look for money or something and that's why it was dirty lol Parking brake assembly looks questionable Heater panel looked like cheap aftermarket (tiny knobs in a row), didn't light up Power seatbelts work Startup Sounded normal, hood open, engine sounded normal, no rattling anywhere. Exhaust had one backfiring pop sound but that was it Engine wires looked well maintained Engine itself was shaking a little in the bay while running Test drive: Rear shocks seemed shot - loud knocking noise with every bump. Heater seemed weak Post test-drive: possible deal-breaker? We parked it at a car wash to take a look at it in the light, but it started to billow white smoke under the hood by the coolant tank excessively, but engine temp seemed to read normal. he said the t-stat might've froze shut bc it's been sitting outside in intensely cold weather for a while. Nevertheless he tried to burp the car while it was still hot, using some arbitrary coolant / tap water mix :( was a kindergarten volcano experiment. by the end of it it was kind of clear that it needed more work before he could even try to sell it to me, and said he was gonna take it back to the shop to take care of the thermostat... honestly I don't think I could get myself to pay 5000 for this thing, and it pains me to know it's not in the shape that I thought it was. I feel that I could use a lot of what I saw as leverage to lower the price and in the spirit of the community I feel like I could fix it up. FWIW this will be my first car. Any opinions are valuable! Thanks, guys.