1st post--considering'93 (1 Viewer)

[leucadiaknives]

Hi All:

This is my first post here. After selling my 1996 in 2007, I've been wanting to replace it. I'm looking at a 1993 with 170k miles. It's 100 miles away (San Diego vs LA) which makes PPI logistics difficult, but it's very clean and a good price. The seller does say there is a small oil leak, but also that the CEL comes on after a few minutes of driving. He said the code is the knock sensor, which he replaced with a used one but it didn't solve the issue. He smogged it in June, but not since. How scared of this issue should I be? I'm not very mechanical. Thank you very much.

 

[bhsdriller]

I wouldn't buy a vehicle here without it passing smog. I also hate the old excuse "oh the issue is just this"...... if you know what it is then fix it first

 

[leucadiaknives]

I wouldn't buy a vehicle here without it passing smog. I also hate the old excuse "oh the issue is just this"...... if you know what it is then fix it first

Definitely. I would require him to get a new smog cert. But he says it will pass in the current situation with the light coming on. If so, how bad is it to inherit that issue?

 

[bhsdriller]

He's lying, as long as the cel is on it's a fail.
Ok, well It might "pass" emissions wise but you won't get a certificate with the light on

No way to know without pulling the code to see what it says

 

[Speedytech7]

Definitely. I would require him to get a new smog cert. But he says it will pass in the current situation with the light coming on. If so, how bad is it to inherit that issue?

Depends, 80 series have two knock sensors, they're not easy to reach and either cuold be bad, or both. As long as that is the root of the knock related issue. The wiring harness can become brittle too and then they wont work.

 

[SmokingRocks]

He's lying, as long as the cel is on it's a fail.
Ok, well It might "pass" emissions wise but you won't get a certificate with the light on

No way to know without pulling the code to see what it says

Not true for obd1 cars. You can have a CEL and pass in obd1. You are referencing obd2 cars.

I wouldn’t be worried about this buy, people skimp on knock sensors and buy the auto store versions, these do t work get oem to replace them. Plan on putting new o2 sensors (search the Bosch o2 sensor upgrade for the 93-94’s) and a couple cats on it. It’s be fine, OBD 1 rigs are great rigs to have, stupid simple and robust.

Fact is you are going to have to do work on any 80 you get unless your planning on dropping like 25+ g’s. So just plan on baselining it with new O2’s, Cats, knock sensors, air filter, engine-diff-trans oil etc etc. who cares if it has a CEL on, its likely super easy to track down. (You can download the 94 FSM at the link in my signature its the same for the 93 and it has a section on how to pull the CEL with a paper clip.)
get it!

 

[bhsdriller]

Oh ok yeah I was thinking obd2
Good to know