judeman

I have a chance to buy a 92 SC300 with 115k for $1500. Body needs some work but I have a great friend who is a body man and is will to do the work for free including painting it (just a few scratches and one dent. I've seen his work and it is incredible). Runs really well, never had any problems and the maintenance has been kept up (it might need a timing belt at this point, gotta take a look).

There is one catch, of course. Not too long ago, the car was taken in for an inspection. One of the bulbs (not sure which one, but probably a brake light) was replaced. Since that point, the battery drains when the car isn't running. It doesn't seem like the alternator is bad, the battery will still be charged if you drive it. In addition, the radio/CD system doesn't seem to work. Not sure if it just doesn't work or isn't powered. However, it went out before the battery draining problem. The climate control stuff works fine. Apparently, some ants got in to the car but have now been cleared out. As far as I know, though, ants wouldn't chew on the wires anyway.

So my hope is that it is merely a contact problem (similar to the ones I've read about for the instrument cluster dimming problem). Does that sound feasible? If not, what do you think it might be (any suggestion would be helpful)? If so, how hard would it be to pull the stereo out and clean those contacts and also clean the contacts near the lights? Finally, given these problems, should I even bother?

-Judeman

Hermosa

Ants can do weird things to electronics. I remember them getting into one of the dimming switches in my old place. They would occasionally cause the lights to pulsate for a long time.

SCryder

a car like that is worth at least 5k so buy it for 1500 and put 3500 inti mods and fixing and if you got extra cash u can pimp it even more

Hermosa

Not sure if this would help but my radio and everything worked fine but the battery would drain. Also, if I turned off the car(with key out) the radio would stay on until I manually shut it off. I looked through everything and it seemed fine but the battery kept draining. I finally just replaced the fuses that dealt with the radio and then the problem never came back. This kind of puzzled me. Anyway if you are going to do some proactive work as well then replace your battery cables (esp. negative). Once I did this my weird electrical ghosts went away as well.

asnatlas

iTrader: (2)

Is the car bone stock, as in like no aftermarket alarm or anything ?? On my 240sx I had an aftermarket alarm that went bad and would drain the battery... You can try replacing the battery cables and what not to see if that would help... And yes if you can get it for $1500.00 and it does not need anything major done to it as far as mechanical stuff and if you have the time and the money and the hooks up to fix it up it would be a great investment, I would say before you do buy it have someone check it out to make sure there is no hidden problems... BTW, who is selling this car, friend, family, dealer ??

GL, and keep us posted...
Shawn

judeman

Yup, car is completely stock. I'll take a look at replacing the battery cables and those fuses as well. Thanks for the suggestions! Keep em coming if you got em!

Oh, and my dad is selling it. He's interested in getting something else and just wants to be rid of it.

asnatlas

iTrader: (2)

Thats cool, I was going to say if it was not family, and if it was a dealer selling the car for that cheap I would watch my self... But I would say you are getting a GREAT deal and to go for it

Keep us updated...
Shawn

/Aerostar\

iTrader: (2)

is the car a 5-speed? cause if it is, THEN GET IT

if not..then still get it

Carbon J

iTrader: (3)

At that price, buy, buy, baby!