Should I do this?
 

I AM NOT TRADING MY CAR, JUST PARTS AND LABOR FOR THE 626!

It's a trade, of sorts.

My side:

Parts and labor on his 96 Mazda 626
-Complete tune up ($80-100)
-Replace front lower control arm on the passenger side ($85)
-Driver side wheel bearing ($53)
-Figure out where the a/c is leaking and fix it ($100-300)
-Windsheild wipers ($10)
-Makes it pass inspection (failed visible smoke but nothing else, little puzzled about what that might be)
-Coolant flush ($30)
-Checking crap out (used car he just bought) including struts and auto tranny
-MP3/CD player and install ($125)
-Detailing ($20)

His side:

1998 Nissan Sentra, 83k, 5 speed, looks pretty nice
https://images5.theimagehosting.com/U...d-1.277.th.jpg
https://images5.theimagehosting.com/U...opy.b28.th.jpg
https://images5.theimagehosting.com/U...opy.02f.th.jpg
https://images5.theimagehosting.com/U...opy.e50.th.jpg


Whacha think, hopefully I get this poll to work! Comments are appreciated too.

I dont understand. I suck. What are you asking?

Need more info! How much would the parts cost, roughly?

The visible smoke part may be a gamble if it's burning oil and you can't get it to stop (easily).

Yeah, I alerted him about rings and such, he put out a rough estimate of 50-150 he got from his mechanic for the smoke (I'm assuming he's thinking it's either o2 or cat) and said that if anything was wrong besides what he specificed he'd go out of pocket on buying that stuff.

I'm asking if I should buy those parts and do the work in exchange for the second car. I'm working on a price list right now, kids, hold on!

I think that a good deal you have $600 in parts plus your time and that a clean Nissan. You could probably flip it pretty quick if you wanted to. On the Mazda the transmission is the weak link. So if you have to fix or mess with that it could be expensive.
https://www.nabiki.com/sstalker/626_tranny.asp

Thanks for the link, I'll get reading it now. I'll prolly have to pay more on the bearing since it needs to be pressed and less on the a/c since I'm thinking diy should be easy to do talking to a few techs. I'm looking for someone I know to advance buy it because if I miss anything on the 626 I can pay the difference on it or take it to my old shop to complete the deal.

I don't understand why you can't just take the honda. Buying a nissan is a huge risk. If you like your hands dirty then get the nissan.

Take what honda? I'm not going to keep the nissan, I'll just flip it like a burnt pancake.

When do you have to leave for school? Will you have enough time to mess with it? The Kelly BB is 3k.:)

sell it you mean?

Yes, I was making a pun on zpiloto's term of flipping it.

See now, two people have nep'd and I have no clue why!

zpiloto: I didn't see you post, I leave the 4th of september. On the subject of messing with it, I believe it's pretty mint, so I'm just going to throw it at the market, if kbb is 3k then hot damn!

Just FYI, you should be able to flush the coolant for around $10, assuming he has a garden hose.

Well, I was figuring new coolant would cost a bit of money, aye?

It'd be done at my house, I have a hose, all you do is drain it and run it through, right?

more work, more sweat, more experience, more money.

Sounds good to me.

i vote nay on this one. your car is your pride and joy. u should drive it till the body rusts out on u and folds in half. it's taken care of u u should take care of it.

besides i hate any frends of mine that dont have hondas. and trading in one for a toyoa ..... thats just wrong dude

just my $0.02 :)

People, people! I'm not trading my car, it's my baby! I'm just trading parts and labor!

parts and labor on what though?

He bought the 626 used and it's pretty busted but it's what he wants. He basically wants it all fixed up and cute and stuff like it was super when he bought it without spending any money, he just wants to get rid of the second car cuz he's not gonna use it any more.

If anyone needs a vote changed because I wasn't clear lemme know, I have the powa!

I still wouldn't do it. If you don't fix everything you might not receive the car.

What do I know, I'm paranoid like crazy about everything.

I'm going to check both cars out tomorrow night or friday night, we'll see how driving the sentra is and what the repairs look like they'll take.

I think it's a win/win for you.

If you fix the car you get a free car to flip (not really free, but you'll pay for the parts, etc.)

if you don't fix the car you'll still get a lot of practice for next time.

Win/Win!

Free car FTW!

SVOboy: Ok, just so I am clear. My understanding: You purchase part's and repair the 96, so he can pass smog and have a "working" car. In exchange you get 98.

On the 96, when it's smoking, is it smoking all of the time, or does it smoke more heavily when it's being accelerated. What I'm wondering is this. I had a Mercury Capri which had a 4 cylinder motor in it. It started smoking, really bad, at about 95,000 miles. I got to thinking about it and I decided to replace the valve guide seals, with the car in the engine. When I did, the old seals were all hardened and splitting. So, I was able to get it to stop smoking by replacing the valve guide seal's. Unfortunately, if it's smoking, their is a good liklihood it's the ring's, in which case it could get more costly. On the other hand, if he's willing to pay for additional material's, then I think it's a reasonable opportunity and you should do it.

On the A/C, what are the symptom's which make it appear that their is a leak?

I'm just going to attack it with a compression tester to see about the smoke.

I asked him the color and said he never even was aware of it but his mechanic said it was prolly o2 sensor/cat related.

Also, the mechanic told him it was leaking but he did not know where from since it had no been died, I imagine he did a pressure test or something like that.

I think it's a little odd it passed emissions but is still smoking, but what do I know, :p

what....???
how hard is it to explain what you have to do and what you will get out of it...?

Not hard, that's why I listed what I was doing, then what he was doing, in a logical manner. I don't see your objection.

Ben pays for all parts, fixes Mazda, gets Sentra in Return, flips sentra like a burnt pancake, donates extra money to a good charity.

Well, I was actually planning on starting some long term savings. In 8th grade my very investment wise math teacher taught us the importance of saving early in regards to retirement, so you know how that is. If it doesn't go to savings it'll prolly go somewhere into the black hole that is $160k for 4 years of undergrad. That's a lot of burnt pancakes!

Just talked to my bud at my old shop and he said he'd press the bearing for me over lunch, so all works out, mwahaha. Does anyone know of a test I can do when I check out the car to make sure it's a wheel bearing and not the axle?

The only thing I can think of is for you to listen to the sound when you drive it. The wheel bearing usually is more of a whine type of sound and it is usually constant, although I have had them sometimes only whine when you go around a corner and put a load on one edge or the other. The half shaft's tend to be more a clunk sound and they usually start out making a noise when you go around a corner, but as they progress they become more frequent and regular, but they still have more of a clunk sound to them.

I know whine and clunk aren't very good descriptor's, but hey it's the best I can think of.

SVOboy: What you should do, on your 'vote' is just look at this as an opportunity cost. The question is what else could or would you be doing, if you weren't working on this car, and how much would it be worth to you in $. If you have something you else you could do which would be a better opportunity, then you should do that, otherwise, you can do this. (I don't think I explained that very well, but hopefully you get the idea.)

Explained better than I would. And I'd prolly be sitting on my *** doing nothing until I left for college, so :p

Nothing that would be productive.

Smoking? I'd be too skittish if it's smoking to bother with the work considering it might be in need of a bore out and reringing in a worst case senario. Is it whitish or greyish smoke?

I asked him the color and he told me he could never see it but that's what they failed him for. We discussed and and the way I understand it is that if it's engine related (ie rings) then that is outside of the scope of this deal. I ought to be check it out tomorrow to see what's up. I don't have a compression tester handy but I will just pop off the exhaust manifold and see if I discover anything there.

I agree with Gary's whine vs. clunk description.

I diagnosed my Accord's wheel bearing with a "slalom" test:

- get up to speed on an empty road/parking lot until the sound is at its peak

- start a slalom motion that compresses the suspension left & right

If it's wheel bearing related, it'll get noticeably quieter as you uncompress the offending side & shift weight off it, and louder as you do the opposite.

SVOboy: I'm a little confused. Is the car he want's to have you work on already passed smog, or did it fail smog. On the smoking, several years ago I had a Dodge Caravan with a 3.0 Liter engine. One of the problems with that motor was that the valve guides were just pressed into the head's, with no lip or anything to hold them in, besides the press. If they were overheated, at all, they had a tendency for the valve guide to slide further into the head, causing the valve guide seal to have nothing to seal to. My engine had that issue, on one cylinder, so it smoked, decidedly, when you would accelerate and it smoked in general. At the time, it still would pass smog because the smoke from the oil didn't cause NOX or whatever other gasses they were testing for. It was embarassing to drive, but it was smog legal. I'm just wondering if something like that might be what your working against.

What I'd do is pull the plugs and see what they look like. Black and sooty, it's probably getting oil from somewhere, on that cylinder.

It failed inspection, but passed smog. In NJ inspection includes not smoking.

Thank you for the tips on the wheel bearing, that's pretty much what I imagined, if I suspect it being the axle I'll just have him so some turns and listen.

Indeed, plugs, Iono why I didn't think about that, :p

I think the most important thing is to get it in writing. List out what is expected of you, how you tell if it's done, and a cap on each thing as far as your expenses even if it's not done. You don't want disagreements after you've spent a couple weeks on this thing, so just lay it out beforehand.

Also, the A/C can be a big risk. You can't do much more than adding some refrigerant and tightening a connection. It'll probably fix it, but any more than that and you need some expensive equipment to recharge it, or a serious shop bill. So be careful to cap that at a resonable amount.

Indeed, he was very much in favor of a contract also detailing all possible outcomes.

Anyway, I'll see the junk tomorrow. I might suggest to him that he covers expenses while trying to sell the sentra and if he sells the sentra himself he can just pay me something agreed upon for labor or we could do such a thing but with the option of me paying expenses upon completion in exchange for the sentra, something like that. A/C is a pain in the *** but I'm fairly sure I can pop by the shop and use the snap-on cart for evacuation since it doesn't cost them anything, :p