Advice on buying this 240

[PBR]

Hello everyone, I've been lurking here for a while, this is my first post

I checked out this 240 for sale today and I need advice on if I should buy it or not.

It's a '91 SE HB 5sp with 146,000 miles. It's only had one owner, she bought it when she graduated college and claims to have babied it ever since. She's selling it because she has 4 kids and that just doesn't really work with a 2 door car.



My cougar in the background, any buyers? Selling it because the payments are killing a poor college student like me.


The owners fighting in the background.


The whale tail has the typical rust. How much money am I looking at spending getting the rust removed and it repainted? I can probably do the prep work and filling myself.

The rear window wiper also doesn't work. She had a dealer look at it and they said it's not a fuse or anything electrical, so it must be the motor. Cost on finding a used motor? Or even new?



Brand new tires, but they're Sigmas (?!?) and the wheels aren't in great cosmetic shape. I'll definitely be replacing the wheels and tires eventually. At least I'll have a good set for doing donuts on


Mechanically it seems to be great. She claims to have always used premium gas, but I don't put a lot of faith into premium. I'm under the belief it's mostly a waste of money unless your engine is tuned for it.

I'm also curious about what that red wire coming off of the battery is. It has an aftermarket Pioneer CD player, so that's a possibility. It also has an alarm system. She claims it came with it from the dealer, but I'm pretty sure it's an aftermarket system the dealer installed. It's got a cheap chrome toggle switch under the steering wheel to turn it off. It looks pretty ghetto. She also lost the remote. So I may end up replacing it all with a good system.

Also the temp gauge doesn't work. It bounces up and down as you drive. Is this a sign of a major problem or probably just a broken sensor? Easy cheap fix?


The interior is in pretty good shape except for this big hole in the driver's seat. I would like to replace them with S14 seats, but how much is a pair of those going to cost me? Or what are my chances and cost of finding a good S13 seat to replace it?


The front passenger side headlight is missing the plastic surroundings you see when you have it up. She said she was changing the bulb and had the whole thing pulled off and laying in the driveway. Someone pulled up and hit it with their tire and broke the plastic surrounds. Easy find at a junk yard right?

I think that's pretty much the extent of the issues. She had the car in NY for it's first 2 years and then she moved down here to NC. They said the exhaust system got pretty rusty from the NY roads, but they replaced that and the rest of the underside is in good shape.

Anyone know about that cell phone antenna on the back? Is there a hole in the glass from that? I'd love to remove it.

The clutch is original. Doesn't really bother me too much since clutches are pretty easy to do on a RWD car like this. It still felt pretty good.

It needs new brakes badly, they squeal and it doesn't look like there's hardly any pad left. I can do that myself, but it's more money I have to spend. The brakes still worked pretty well though, it makes me wonder how quick it will stop with some new pads and rotors!

She wants $2500 for it. I think it's a pretty fair price from what I've seen for sale in this area. She also has other people interested in it, but I was first, so I get first dibs. 240s have been getting snatched up FAST, so I hate to let this deal slip through my fingers. I have to make up my mind fairly quickly.

So is it a good buy? Anything I should be weary of? Anyone have an S13 they're parting out and can hook me up with some parts I need?

edit: DOH! I spelled advice like advise.

[aa87]

Most i'd pay is 2000, it seems pretty good except for the hatch. Your better off looking for a spoiler free hatch in a junk yard. S13 seats suck ass, do go S14 if you can find them. Probably temp sensor, do the fans come on too? Could be the thermostat, which you can upgrade.

Guys are parting out their 240s almost every day, just check the for sale section, you could pick up a pair of s14 seats, maybe a rustless hatch, but shipping would be a bitch.

Other than that, good luck.

[NotDave]

i had the temp gauge problem in my mazda protege. it would bounce up and down and sometimes it moved depending if i hit the gas or not. its the temp guage sensor connected to the block that needs to be fixed. mine was worn out and i had to get it re-soldered.

[PBR]

Originally Posted by NotDave

i had the temp gauge problem in my mazda protege. it would bounce up and down and sometimes it moved depending if i hit the gas or not. its the temp guage sensor connected to the block that needs to be fixed. mine was worn out and i had to get it re-soldered.

Yeah this one was like that too. It seemed to jiggle around pretty randomly, but it did seem to move up more if I was on the gas. How expensive was it to fix? I assume not much, but I'm trying to figure up every little dime.

[NotDave]

i think it was 80 bucks to get a new one so i ended up busting out the ol radioshack 15w soldering iron instead

[ThatGuy]

If the timing chain hasn't been replaced and isn't rattling, it will probably start rattling soon. LOL. Looks like a decent find, I agree that $2000 would be the max. For the spoiler and wiper, most guys just replace the whole hatch from a salvage yard. It saves on the headache of filling in the holes and sometimes repainting.

[PBR]

$2,500 IS starting to look like too much for this car. I looked up KBB and NADA values. KBB says private party this car is worth $1,460. That seems way too low. NADA says average condition is worth $2,650 and poor condition is $1,800. A car that needs body work is considered poor. So I think I'm going to call around to body shops in the morning and see if they can give me a rough estimate on fixing that stuff and probably offer the sellers $2,000.

On the plus side, my step-brother works in a paint lab and can match and mix paint for me. He could spray it too if we could find a clean place to work and rent an air compressor.

[G_Fish240]

2000 seems like a good #

[MakotoS13]

i also vote 2 grand. a little welding and Z-grip will fix that hatch right up.

[BSeay]

drive her around...make sure the rear end isnt sloppy.... but 2g's sounds good to me...

[PBR]

Originally Posted by BSeay

drive her around...make sure the rear end isnt sloppy.... but 2g's sounds good to me...

Yeah I drove it, felt pretty good. What exactly do you mean about the rear end being sloppy though?

[s13dan]

i would cheack the frame for rust and the inner fenders. rear pannle and all cuz the rust prolly isnt only on the hatch and rust sux!! i will never own another rusty car after my first 240 it was a rusty lil bastard and i hated having that rust it makes the car worthless no matter what you do to it unless you can get rid of ALL the rust.

[Bliss]

try and talk her down, but right now...240's are on the rise in price. going way up. atleast here in the Bay Area anyway.

[PBR]

I just talked to her and gave her my offer for $2,000. She said she already showed it to 2 other people and they both said $2,500 was ok. So I guess I'm not getting it. My only hope is either she's lying or the other people try to talk her down too.

Guess I'm not joining the community just yet, there's no other S13 5speeds for sale anywhere near here.

[aznpoopy]

kbb value aside, any car is worth what you are willing to pay. 500 dollars extra in the long run is really not a lot of money. on the other hand sometimes its better to wait for a better car... so make your own decision. IMO if you really want it, go ahead and grab it. if you wanna wait, wait. good luck 2 ya.

[PBR]

Originally Posted by aznpoopy

kbb value aside, any car is worth what you are willing to pay. 500 dollars extra in the long run is really not a lot of money. on the other hand sometimes its better to wait for a better car... so make your own decision. IMO if you really want it, go ahead and grab it. if you wanna wait, wait. good luck 2 ya.

I agree, but most of the point of me getting a 240 is to get my payments as low as I can, so I'm trying to hold out for the best deal. I'm pretty poor

Oh but just as I said that about there not being anymore S13 5speeds around here, this just popped up on autotrader.
1993 Nissan 240SX SE, 5 spd, new brakes, tires, brand new Pioneer stereo, seat covers, must see, 4 cyl, 5 spd, ac, ps, pb, pw, pdl, tilt, fully loaded, snrf, new tires, must see, $3300,

I'll call about it later.

[aznpoopy]

glad to hear it, sounds like a much better car. good luck man!

[Propagandhi41]

where in north carolina are you?

[PBR]

Originally Posted by Propagandhi41

where in north carolina are you?

Charlotte

[oojpeeoo]

gl on ur car search..once u sell off ur couger u should have more money 2 play with and put into ur s13

[BSeay]

i made the mistake of buying mine with a sloppy rear end...you know when you go around a turn a good rear end would just kinda slide...well mine has some wheel hop from hell and it's not really all that steady (shocks worn out all around) so know i'm spending the paper on stuff other then an SR (fixing the suspension)...but i should have known better because it's my second 240

[PBR]

Originally Posted by BSeay

i made the mistake of buying mine with a sloppy rear end...you know when you go around a turn a good rear end would just kinda slide...well mine has some wheel hop from hell and it's not really all that steady (shocks worn out all around) so know i'm spending the paper on stuff other then an SR (fixing the suspension)...but i should have known better because it's my second 240

I'm not incredibly worried about that as I plan on upgrading the suspension before I do any kind of drivetrain mods.


I went and saw the '93 tonight and that thing is beautiful. WAY better shape than that '91. I might have a shot at getting my hands on it this week.

[5Z S13]

good luck with that

[KoukiS14]

rode hard and put away wet.
I'd give them 800 dollars.