SentranZ

Hi gang.

I'm looking for a vehicle for my soon to be 16 yo son. Today I test drove a one owner 96 Sentra GXE sedan (5spd). The asking price is $2300. The car has 122K miles. In general the car looks in pretty good condition for its age and mileage. The owner is a business woman who bought the vehicle with her first jab after college. The engine runs very smoothly and the tranny shifts well. The owner claims, and my inspection seems to verify all original engine components (original clutch). There doesn't seem to be a lot of pedal travel on the clutch to use the tranny. (I'm guessing that's good)

There are a few things I'm curious about:

1. There is evidence of accumulated gease and grim on the transmission case. Has this been a common observation? Is it simple to check the tranny gear oil level and fill it? Could this be evidence of the engine oil seal leak?

2. The engine gives a small squeal when you rev it up (no squeal at idle). The pitch seems to change when the RPM changes. I can't hear any timing chain noise.

3. The trunk leaks. There was an inch or two of water in the spare well. The gasketing looked good. The cloth trunk liner (back near the bumper) was damp so it must be coming from the area above the trunk floor.

4. Rust. There are a couple of surface bubles in the paint at the rear wheel well, no exposed or through rust. My chief concern is the rust you see when opening the doors. There is significant rust at the base of the passenger pillar and the lower fron door "jamb" area. (on the body/chassis, not the door itself).

What do you think?

Travis

2) Sqeal could be due to rusted heatshilds on the exaust - very common

3)Trunck leak is completely normal. It leaks from the stoplight, easy to fix

4)I had that same spots for 4 years already. They don;t grow much - just drill through and paint them.

For 2300 you don't expect more than 2-3 years, don't you.

__________________
1996 Sentra GXE (1.6GE, B14) automatic, 180K miles

1941Galant

If it is like almost every other manual trans out there you won't be able to check the fluid. I would change the fluid when you get it (synthetic, like royal purple, redline, etc.), and then just make sure it is topped off every time you do an oil change. Also make sure non of the axle boots are torn. If one of the inside ones ripped I would imagine that would throw a lot of grease everywhere, including on the transmission. As for the rust, it is pretty common. My car has the rust by the doors on both sides.

What is the blue book value on the car? $2300 seems a little expensive, but then again it only has 122k miles on it, which is relatively low for these cars (mine has 195k, others have a lot more).

SentranZ

I took the plunge and bought the car for $2K (NADA/KBB low retail). I forgot to mention the tires have less than 2K miles on them.

I had a mechanic replace the seal, belts and a leaking oil pressure sending unit ($150 total including parts and labor). Next I'm taking on the trunk leak.

We've put about 300 miles on it and it runs like a top!