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Hey... newbie here...

im looking into purchasing an older legacy sport sedan.

im currently looking at a 94 auto awd turbo. 3 owners. it has 84,000mi, red, all the other normal stuff. exterior and interior look to be in good shape. I'll be taking a look at the underside and engine this sat.

i would like to know two things: first is what code would this car carry (BC-BF?) and also what a reasonable price is for this vehicle.

any other info to look for would be great. i've heard the 4eat's have some issues (with the cooler in the rad. actually), also is the turbo water cooled or oil cooled?

thanx for any help
josh [/b]

The sedan is a BC, and depending on condition should be anywhere up to 3000$(or more for an absolutely perfect one). The turbo is both water and oil cooled, and yes the 4eat does have some issues, I'd say go for the manual over the auto.

Hi Josh. Since this is your first post, I'll be kind.

im looking into purchasing an older legacy sport sedan.

Yay!

i would like to know two things: first is what code would this car carry (BC-BF?) and also what a reasonable price is for this vehicle.

Code: search on this. Search search search search search. Try in the "Stuff you need to know" section first. Reasonable price: Check KBB.com and NADA (those little orange books).

any other info to look for would be great. i've heard the 4eat's have some issues (with the cooler in the rad. actually), also is the turbo water cooled or oil cooled?

No issues aside from improper maintenence over the years. You may want to have the car independently evaluated before purchase - i recommend this for ANY used car.

i say get the 5MT. i wouldnt worry about how many miles are on the car but what kind of miles they are.

a 94 w/that few miles would lead me to believe it has either sat a lot or has been only used for in town driving in stop and go traffic. thats only about 7500 miles a year.

thank you all very much... i am taking the car to the garage i work at this sat.

is the coolant used for the turbo a totally separate system or is it part of the engines cooling system?

thanx again
josh

the turbo cooling system and the engine cooling system are all the same system.

give the body condition a hard look on both cars. Rust right behind both front and rear wheels at the body seam is very common. This will be harder to fix and more expensive than just about anything else save for a blown motor or tranny.

if you want to see what that rust looks like, look at photos on this site, or on autotrader.com, or eBay. If there is a pile of debris right below the door hinges, when the front doors are open, that is where the mud piles up and causes the front damage. Look hard there for signs of trouble.

as with any of these cars check the operation of the tranny and the AWD system carefully. some slow turns while listening for moans, groans and shudders may show problems with the clutch packs, and you may be able to hear bad CV joints clicking. I wouldn't disqualify a car for CV joints but they do cost a couple hundred each if you pay to get them done, and there are 4 half shafts.

and also look for signs of modifications, unless done right, that is always bad. a bad tinkerer can cause a lot of damage

dont lean on the coolant hoses on the coolant expansion tank. they will break off. in fact dont even look at them funny they will break off just to spite you.

they are the three hoses coming off the back of it. it is very common for the plastic nipples to break off due to many years of heat cycling making them brittle.

there are many threads about this. here is one of mine:
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... olant+tank

Oh, and edit the subject of this thread to make it more descriptive please.