I forgot to say one other thing that a lot of people overlook....Use your nose! Most car problems are asssociated with a certain smell, You learn them after a while. Burnt oil, Bearing grease, Burning plastic or wires, Burning paint, That weird smell when electrical stuff shorts out, Learning smell of all the different fluids...etc. It can help a lot.

i have your answer
 

hey im chris from valley center CA....u can always buy a carbon dioxide kit and what that does is its a tube that holds water with a certain chemical and then at the radiator u suck up the radiator water and if the water turns yellow or green your screwed but if it stays clear your good...it costs about 50 dollars so its worth it....now with that being said i did that to my 1987 supra turbo and then had to proceed with replacing the head gasket and right now im actually selling mine.....it has 140000 miles on it but i replaced the radiator and head gasket 3000 miles ago.....it has a hks blow off valve and fcd controller and what that does it give the engine more gas when needed. i hope that helps you out......

Yes, Its called a block tester kit. You forgot to tell him the name of it lol. You can get them at napa, carquest, pepboys, etc. All that test is to see if there is combustion byproducts in the coolant tho, Its not a 100% solid test. But if it does test out, there is a good BHG chance.

ya but when i had my test done i made sure that it was straight water in the radiator to be definate....he can also get a compression tester and put it in the number one spark plug to see if it compresses at default...you can go onto supra stats.com and look into what the stats are for it.....

Yes, compression test it, do a block test, look at the oil and coolant, do whatever you can. And if you have a friend who is a mechanic get him to do a leakdown test. Then youll see if the motor is up to par or not with compression. And if you can, run it on an exhaust gas analyzer (emissions test). Thatll tell you if something is wrong with the FI. Even thou supras are notorious for failing when something goes bad but then running great when its all ok...

Don't do what I did
 

make sure you don't buy it from a mexican, or if it says "type-r" on the back or something :-p

jk

seriously don't get one with shitty lower control arm bushings or worn out hub bearings... my suspension is toastie and so will my slife savings in a bit. I butn through tires like its going out of style..... its been 4 months and i need brand new ones... granted the old ones were just that.,... old, but they had more than an 1/8th tread left and now they're worn down to the fucking plies...

bad day knopw what i mean? tire blow out on the high way or while your showin off to your girl/boy could cost you more than a bad day...

Make sure the damn STARTER doesn't have that mystery "mid 80's curse"

almost every other day my car doesn't start right... the fucking battery is having problems with getting power to the starter... dirfty plugs are commonly over looked though... along with incorrect power and grounding cables... these things do get replaced with improper methods...

Thus the first sentance... nobody get offended ok? Its just a joke

I'd say above all else be realistic about what you can fix and what your going to have to pay to get done... you can buy the biggest peice in the world like i did but i'm going to school to become a mechanic and i want to restore old imported vehicles so its kinda what I enjoy dooing....

Oh make sure there are real gaskets.... don't take the "RTV" and the "Silicone caulking" route... more cars leak that way....


And listen to these other guys... especially the dude with the white car he really know's what he's talking about

Only other thing I can add is dont piss off the original owner, if you really want it. $1700 is a pretty decent price if everything else is in good condition. I would say you have the two most valuble options already, Turbo, and 5 Speed, I personally would like a targa but I know a few guys that arent crazy about them only from the structural aspect, those guys are pretty nit picky anyways.

I have found that the front end thunk is most likely a lower ball boint on the lower control arm, something you can replace yourself. Dont let that steer you away from it.

Let us know what you do.

I'll tell you everything that has gone wrong or is going wrong with my car. I bought this biggest rat bag piece of shit supra around. I paid 4500$ for it. The previous owner paid 9000$.

Transmission - needs a complete rebuild (automatic) - $2500 quote
Power steering - rack and pinion is shot, leaking fluid fairly quickly. - $950 quote
Shocks - leaking everywhere!!! - bought them for $500, not installed yet
Tires -bald as hell, not really a defect all cars lose tread. - $1000 total bill
Exhaust - leak in the exhaust causing weird noise - haven't been quoted
Torque Converter - not positive this is the issue, car makes weird noises
Calipers/Brake Pads/Rotors - all replaced because of wear. $1000, installed free
Valve Cover Gaskets - leaking oil everywhere! not quoted

I'm sure there are more things waiting to bite me in the ass soon. This car is cursed! Well, let's be honest...it's 17 years old and was probably driven to hell and back. I love my car, but boy do I get sick of having no money!

Hey this is actually happening to mine right now, so you say bushing or ball joint on the front end huh... how hard would those be to install by ones self do you think? and about how much would it cost me...

I want to know where to get a $60.00 carrier bearing????

Everytime I price them they are close to $300.00 .