intermittent battery light causing issues R33

[mercyseat]

Hi

Was looking at buying an R33 automatic skyline and there were a few suspect  thing's i couldn't figure out.

Dash had battery light continually flashing on/off. Car was missing intermittently I'm assuming due to a bad battery.

Car also had a quite loud noise as the aircon locked in.....

Someone hadn't fixed the gearbox handle,  cable's hanging out.

Power Steering leaking - not sure how much this costs to repair?

One of the belts on the front of the engine had been fitted incorrectly,  lip hanging slightly over the pully.

Plus looks like the silver part above the engine looked like it had been replaced. ....

Think it required a new tachometer as was faulty which I think would be costly? Temp gauge ok, was rev gauge suspect.

Turbo timer switch also installed

Car ran fine, no over heating,  nothing leaking. Bit wary though might be too costly getting a roadworthy. ....

Dodgy?

[Leroy Peterson]

has the seller mentioned if the car was used on the track or motorkhana/hill climbs?

generally people only mount fire extinguishers at the front if required for a track event.

[Odium]

Tachometers going bad and reading 0/random/+1000/over9000 is a common issue on R33's due to dry solder joints on an internal circuit board. so they are commonly swapped. That cluster looks like it says 124000... Yet the wear in the foot area near the pedals suggests a much higher figure...

Massive generalisation here, but it's got a non-standard pod filter instead of the standard Airbox, this adds nothing to the car, but does often show that the previous owner was a 'tinkerer'/'modifier', which normally doesn't happen with cars that haven't been pushed hard under their ownership.

Flickering battery light can be many things, it could be the battery, but if its doing it with the car running then most likely it's an issue with the alternator under/over charging.

Leaking power steering is another common fault, however they're quite expensive to replace with new OEM parts (new Nissan power steering lines (high and low pressure sides) will set you back $500-700 plus labour of another $200-300)

What is the advertised km's and price of the car? I wouldn't be going near it for anything more than $3k, unless you're capable of repairs yourself, it could turn into a money pit very quickly.

Also, it's auto

[mercyseat]

They only bought it two months ago off Gumtree from some guy.

Guy was gonna do it up but now needs the money. (project car I think)  His girlfriend owned the car.

They didn't know too much about the history. 

They were throwing in a unfinished/ unpainted GTR front bar and rear bar & big subwoofer in the boot which took up all the space in the boot

. Rear wing had been removed but they still had it.

Think the thing that turned me off was a corner of the bonnet near the RH front quarter near the screen was damaged slightly, sort of buckled

which suggested it may have taken a punt previously.

He said he had a previous roadworthy but lost it "apparently" doubt he was telling the truth. 

ALL tyres also needed replacing

Timing Belt hadn't been replaced yet either.

Definitely running weird with the battery light flickering when it was missing. He said it needed a new battery.

Sat and waited for the car to reach temp and it didn't over heat or anything whilst the heater was on and the aircon worked fine.

They were asking $3,000 which I reckon was too much

More of a money pit than worth it.

Soo many used car sellers won't sell with valid roadworthy's which is annoying.

[Trex]

2 hours ago, Leroy Peterson said:

has the seller mentioned if the car was used on the track or motorkhana/hill climbs?

generally people only mount fire extinguishers at the front if required for a track event.

doubt it, check the brake fluid lol. unless it was used as one years ago.

I have my extinguisher attached to my seat rails under my legs

 

Looks like the car has been touched all over. The wires from the gearshifter are for the o/d on off. where is the rad fan shroud? 

[mercyseat]

Yeah noted that afterwards too.

Aftermarket radiator with no radiator fan behind it like my old 1997 R33.

Just sounds messy all round and passed all round.

They definitely haven't raced it, just  a young couple probably didn't know what they got themselves into.

 

[Odium]

40 minutes ago, mercyseat said:

They definitely haven't raced it, just  a young couple probably didn't know what they got themselves into.

They've only had it for a few months, the previous owners could have done all sorts of things with it... As a general rule of thumb, when buying a car, any time a seller says that they don't know the answer to your question (History, Roadworthy Status, etc) assume that they do know the answer but are avoiding telling you.

[jmknights93]

If I was in your position i'd pass.

So many unanswered questions IMO.

[admS15]

So many r33's on the market. Wait for a nice clean one to come along. Don't worry too much about km's, focus on condition and working order. Still a fair few good 33's out there. You'll have to pay a bit more to start with but will save heaps in the long run.

[mercyseat]

Was just looking to find a decent specimen to pillage to fix my damaged R33. Series II  1997 40th Anniversary automatic. Looking for front section, bonnet & dash/airbags.

Want to restore it over time. Been investigating options. Otherwise I'll just sell the wreck or auction it out.