Considerring a used 2002 WRX w. 99,000 mile. What 2 look 4?

I found a 2002 WRX with about 99000 on it. What kind of wear items should I look at? I'm thinking the timing belt will need to be done and I know the brakes are pulsing. That sounds like a $1000 to knock off. It has new tires and from the pictures appears stock. I plan to look for mods and check the tranny and clutch over. Does the suspension start to go around that many miles? Any bearings or CV axel issues?

 

oil leaks from left and right side of timing belt cover or center of the timing belt cover, which are the seals of the cams and the oil pump. Warped rotors...heehehe

Shocks are what should start to die by that time. Look for heat shields. Look on nuts and bolts to see if they have been touched, because you can tell a nut/bolt tha thas been turned, just look at the corners of the nut/bolt.

 

How much is the person asking for?

 

i have suspention for sale so dont worry aboout that. i got your back

 

$11500 with 99k.

 

see if it has an aftermarket up pipe. most ppl will never take these out to sell because they dont think the person will ever look, which most of the time they wont. also, see if there is mounds of dirt up in the rear bumper

 

Yea, check the bottoms of the doors for rust too, it always starts there or the bottom of the trunklid. As stated before, check bolts for paint that is disturbed, meaning they removed the bolts before and had the car repaired.

 

Personally, I wouldn't do it even close 11500, start your bidding at 9K!

 

Go with what Scuba steve said. Start with 9k and see what the person say's. For i tho got mines for $8500 with 99000 miles on it. It had a few problems tho but not major. Those problems are.....

Fog bulbs burnt out ( Cost me $10 to replace)
Tweeter dont work ( Got one from mayhem for $80)
Cruise control dont work ( Found out it's disconnected)
A lil crack on the front bumper ( Will replace probably in the summer with a body kit)

It has a HKS up and down pipe. Other wise the car is in good condition. I still need to post it up for everybody to see some time soon. It's midnight blue though for a start....

 

Clutch?

 

what to look for

an extended warranty?

 

it just amazes me that you can score a rex for under 10k.

 

I got mine(02) for $9k had 112k at the time(3 weeks ago). I put on 3k mile since then. Runs great IMO. Suburban Chrysler wanted $11k for it.

The tires are still good as far a tread life, although I don't think they are the best of anything compaired to what else you could get. But good none the less. The brakes are good. No pulsing at all and the clutch feels pretty darn stiff. But, I'm no mechanic so I don't know much. Can only compaire it to my previous cars. It shifts into 1st with no problems. Sometimes its a little stuborn, but I have heard of some people who can't shift into 1st without grinding or can't shift iinto 1st while the car is in motion. Check out how those syncro's feel in first.

Everything was stock on mine as SOA owned it previously. I think for the money you save over something with 80k and going for $14-15k its a pretty good deal. Thats alot of repairs if need be or mods to do with all the extra $$$ saved. Atleast thats what I tell myself! :lol:

 

You can also look to see if the electrical tape over the conectors for ECU programing are off.

 

what to look for

If you can afford it without rolling it into the loan, because if you roll it into the loan you turn your self upside down in the loan right when you walk out the door.

I bought one, so far I have not needed to use it.

 

Here is a few pics of my car that i got for 85k.....[/img]

 

99000 miles is pretty high, but it's not necessarily bad if the car was well maintained. A lot of highway miles aren't bad, and I'd personally take a relatively new car with tons of highway miles that's dirt cheap to buy. Still, about 100,000 miles means it's time to do a few check-ups, standard maintainance. If it's being sold by a dealer, you may want them to make sure the car has had all of its standard maintainance done up to its 100,000 mile mark.

As was already said, check for leaks and visible flaws. It's a 2002, so I'm not expecting much for rust and such, but it should be relatively clean looking all around.

Drive the car. You should be able to shift into every gear with no grinding. Subarus aren't the smoothest shifting cars around, but you can tell when a syncro or two are out. As well, you can check alignment to see if the car's been curbed or something: steering wheel not center, pulls to one side, odd tire wear, etc. I test drove a dirt cheap WRX with both problems, was a salvaged car too. The tranny is really the weak point. The engine will run forever. If you're worried about CV joints, do a full lock turn and listen for grinding noise. You can visually check the CV boots too.

Brakes are cheap. Some wobble under braking isn't bad, just needs new rotors. It could be from hard driving and heat or just a bad torque job on the wheels with an air wrench. (sometimes a simple retorquing can reduce wobble a bit if rotors aren't too messed up). Brakes(new rotors and pads) are cheap, $100 alltogether maybe for the good ones.

In the end, it's best to take it to a mechanic and have a full check-up on the car done. They should be able to give you a thourough rundown of the condition.


There was an '05 STI in the paper recently for $9000, wonder what condition it was in...

 

I went and test drove the car about a week ago. It was a smoker car so I was against it before I turned the key. The car ran fine and seemed to stop fine. The turbo seemed week compared to my 02 WRX w/ uppipe. It shifted really well. I decided to pass, but if someone else is interested in a cheap WRX, check out :

http://sghenterprises.com/index.cfm?action=viewcar&vehicleid=194357

 

Vouch for the dealer .
Steve Hill, longtime trusted member of the DSM community.
The WRX's are really starting to come down in price. .