legacycentral bbs

Hi guys,

I've been browsing the site for about an hour now (gotta love lazy work days) and I'm glad I found it. It's answering lots of questions for me. But the one question I need people to answer for me is, what to look for when test driving these cars.

Here's my situation.

I need a car by the end of december, my current tercel wagon 4wd is done and it's not worth spending anymore money to put a Safety inspection on it.

I recently found a 91 legacy turbo, with 4eat. It's got 215,000kms on it, slight rust on one fender, and some on the roof, passenger side by the windshield.

Can anyone tell me what to look for when test driving this car, to make sure the transmission is fine? I'll ask the seller if it's been replaced or repaired to his knowledge.

Also does anyone know what would be causing the roof to rust out like that?

I'm in eastern canada, where salt is used to pave the roads in the winter practically, and I'm looking to get at least 3, maybe 4 years out of the car if nothing else comes up for me.

His asking price is 4000$ CDN, but I think he'll go down to 3500$ if not 3000$. plus I can get a 92 turbo auto for 300$ for parts....

any help is appreciated.

Drive it in tight circles left and right to see if you get auto tranny "torque bind". That's all I can think of.

Take a good look in the engine and find all the oil leaks. It's bound to have one somewhere, but find out how big of a problem it is... Valve covers is a frequent problem...

What exactly does torque bind sound and/or feel like?

And if it has it, I assume it's not worth buying?

Well most 4eats get torquebind so it's not really something to avoid. There's more info here. When driving it though it will shift rougher into second than any other gears, this is normal. As for the rust I'm thinking if it's got a sunroof one of the drain holes is plugged and water got up there and started to rust it. Another thing you can do is check the codes for the ecu and the tcu.

Woot, Looks like I'm going to be the proud owner of not just one, but two Legacy Turbo Sedans.

I talked the guy into a fair price and I also got the money ready.

I'm going to take it for another test drive on monday to listen for wierd sounds, maybe check the ECU Warning lights out, Thanks to your Link THAWA, and Legacy777.

You guys are going to be my saviors for the next few years, so I'll say Hi to everyone now

First on list of things to do.

Replace winshield.
Repair Roof rust and repaint.
Remove snorkus.
Change Tranny Fluid to Synthetic, (should I flush and get a new filter before changing) ?

Anyway, I'm stoked

I've heard that if your tranny hasnt been flushed in a long time or it's in bad shape you probably shouldn't do it. It might knock stuff loose that's holding things together, but I don't know for sure.

Also congrats on your future purchases.

Thanks THAWA, I'm quite anxious to get it on the hoist, which is the final decision. see what the under side looks like then go from there.

Well, I can say in 70,000kms it hasn't been, that's how long the owner has had it.

He's a mechanic at the dealership here. has been for 15 years. there's no torquebind, he's assured me, and has had absolutely no problems.

However, He's probably never driven it like I would...

I tend to enjoy slidinig in the winter and hard accelerations..

So maybe just a change to synthetic would be the way to go..

Advice is crucial at this point since I'm learning about the car.
and automatics really..

4eat bind feels like your tercel in 4wd mode.

So, cornering, you feel the inside rear wheel scrubbing and sliding on the road.

I have 2 91's with 4eats, both do it, and actually I like it, it is more like real 4wd, with enough give as required.

And the rust on the roof- Likely it got a rock chip and then started to rust from there.

Yeah, the owner said rock chip, but it looks like it started at the sunroof and went down...

He also mentioned knife cut from a windshiled replace ment.

Either way i"m going to get it professionally repaired.

I could do it, but winter fast approaches, and I have nay the garage to use.