I was thinking battery, I’ve stupidly left my lights on overnight 4 times in the last couple of months (no warning bell like my other car) I’ve been told that’s not so fantastic for the battery. I obviously know fuck all about cars though.
I'm thinking your alternator is the culprit. In theory a healthy alternator should be able to run the car and peripherals with no problem. I had an alternator that was going bad and had to drive across town (Las Vegas) at night. It took me forever because every time the lights would dim I would have to pull into a parking lot and race the engine for a few minutes....the alternator was still charging a little bit....so I'd let it build up a small charge in the battery and go another mile or so and repeat the process.
Maybe it's just my 300ZX bias, but this looks like a great deal even at the $11.5K buy it now. '93 300ZX twin turbo, 5 speed, 102K, clean as hell, even though I'm not wild about the rims. TT 300ZX's are a kick in the ass to drive if you can get past the turbo lag. It's seriously like a second after you mash the pedal before the turbos kick, but when they kick....hold the fuck on. They'll throw you back hard. Once again....if I had somewhere to put this one, it wouldn't be for sale anymore.
Hahahahaha....I just have to share this description from a turbo Stealth that the guy wants $15K for: "There are also metal shavings in the oil pan, however the engine has been recently rebuilt with only 200 miles on it. Depending on who you ask that could bad or just a symptom of a rebuild." Yeah Sparky, it's completely normal for a new engine to have metal shavings in the oil. The best part of the description is this: "The car was originally designed with 600 to the ground in mind, so if you can get it running achieving more than 402HP isn't out of the realm of possibility." Let's see...brand new engine, metal shavings in the oil, and not running. For $15K. Sounds like one hell of a deal.
The sad part is that some poor fucker will buy it and think he got a hell of a deal... And yeah, turbos are fucking addictive.
Truer words have never been uttered. I grew up driving muscle cars and my favorite cars that I've owned have been my turbos from the 80's and 90's. There's just something about hearing the turbo spool and then kick once it reaches boost and throws you back in the seat. I may bitch about turbo lag, but there is nothing like hearing a turbo spool up and when it hits, it hits like a mother fucker. I love turbos.
The biggest thrill I've had driving was when I was doing track days with my old '82 Porsche Turbo. It was a DP935, and I had to learn how to left foot brake in order to keep the right foot down on the throttle to keep the turbo spooled up, or I'd fucking lose all power in slow corners. My best instructor was an old Porsche factory driver who used to race the real 935's at Le Mans... and he'd just laugh and say, "yeah, the other, new instructors just don't get it... here, this is what you have to do. It's a bitch, but once you master it you will rule the track. You're driving a pig, just remember it's a fast pig."
In 1993, 300 HP and 0-60 in 5.1 was nucking futs. They don't make modern equivalents to these cars; all these dumb fucks want cute utes with tech packages...
I may have mentioned it before, but I got into cars late. Just shy of 19 I went from a 1981 Olds Cutlass wagon to a 1988 Saab 9000 Turbo, and my eyes stopped glazing over when my dad and brother talked about cars. When the turbo kicked in on that Saab... Goddamn. Very fun and practical sports sedan, when it ran.
I'm hoping someone here can give me a reasonable labor estimate before I start calling around looking for quotes... I've got a new AC compressor, new dryer, new condenser and new expansion valve for my LT1 '96 Camaro. I know it's also going to need a flush of the system, oil, and a refill of r134, so basically a full ac service. I also have a new serpentine belt and tensioner pulley to be installed. What am I looking at in labor? I'm thinking $1-1.2K. Would it be in my best interest to have the water pump replaced at the same time? Kind of a "As long as you're tearing things apart" deal?
1.5 hours for the compressor 1.4 hours of the condenser 1.4 hours for evac and recharge. 0.7 hours for receiver drier 0.7 hours for expansion valve 0.5 hours for belt tenstioner.
Pretty much what Wexton said; I checked those times via prodemand.com. (You have to have a subscription for that site; I'm using my password from work to look it up.) Here's the thing, Toytoy: When you add all of that up, it comes out to 4.7 hours, which were I work, would be a little over $400 (I live in a poor area, so that's probably a lot lower that most of you would expect.). But you might want to ask them if they'd be willing to make a deal on the labor, since you are doing it all at once (EX: They have to take the belt off to change the compressor OR the tensioner, but once the belt is off, the tensioner only has one bolt holding it on. It's not going to be a whole half hour for the tensioner at that point.) My boss, as much of a hardassed tightwad as he is, will work with customers that way. In your case, He'd probably lower your labor rate by about half an hour, if you asked and weren't rude. Also, it doesn't take that long to vacuum and recharge a system in real life; I wish I got paid 1.4 hours for it when I was working on commission at the dealership level. One thing that should also be mentioned is that a lot of times shops will "make up" the lost labor time with other stuff, in your case freon and refrigerant oil. My boss charges $18.50 a pound for freon; you can get a 12 oz. can at Wal Mart for $5. Do you have a specific shop in mind for this?
$632 including oil and Freon. I can live with that, although I know they'll try their damnedest to get it over $1K.
Car goes in Monday morning. I hope to hell I diagnosed the annoying noise correctly, if not I just pissed away $1K+ and will still have a noise driving me nuts.
If anyone's interested, here's the original e-bay listing I bought my Z from. It had been listed and sold twice before and neither person paid for it. This time it was listed no one bid on it. I kept an eye on it through the auction listing and called the seller a few days after the auction expired. It just seemed like an honest car to me. On about our third phone call I told him I'd buy it and pay everything through paypal, he made me pay the paypal fees, so it was $3100. Then I had to have it shipped for around $600, and then another $600+ for the flush/fill of the coolant, replacing a fan motor, and whatever else I had done initially. Now it's going to run another $1K or so (I was quoted $632, but I'm sure they'll jack the price) to redo the AC system to get rid of an annoying noise. So I'm going to be $5-6K into the car and still need to have the front control arm bushings replaced (Another $1K or so.) I have no complaints thus far. I knew it was going to need some work, but after putting about 1K miles on the car, I'm still thrilled with it. It fires right up and runs like a champ. It basically acts like a brand new car...except it's got the rawness that a muscle car does thanks to the 6 speed. It's definitely a great "Bang for the buck" vehicle . It could use the nose and hood resprayed to be nicer (And quite honestly I could get by with a $100 bra for the time being), but even if I have them resprayed, for under $8K I'll have a nice, fun car that's appreciating. Thank God everyone else on e-bay shined this car on. It's easily one of the best buys I've ever made. I'll let y'all know if I'm still as thrilled with it after it gets out of the shop on Monday.
And on the plus side, you have all the time in the world to go for long, relaxing drives! (too soon?)