hey i am gonna be buying a 97-99 gs-t or gs-x. only thing is i've hear they aren't the most reliable car's and i was wondering what i should be looking for when i visit possiable car's

 

Check the oil, it should be a golden brown. If its not, ask the owner when he changed it. If he says recently.... he is bullsh!ting, walk away. Check under the oil cap and sniff it for gas. If it smells of gas, walk away. Also look for a white goop under the oil cap. If it has that... walk away. When on the test drive make sure you try every single gear, including reverse. Remember to put it in 5th and go full throttle to test the clutch. Also rev it up and check for smoke from the exhaust.

Also, if the person has a vented BOV on the car without propper tuning, supporting mods... they are a fvcking idiot and obviously have very little care about the cars well being.... walk away.

Anyone have anything else to add?

 

just do a thurough inspection of the car, check the engine bay at idol to make sure there is not ticking, make sure the car still pulls hard from idle to redline, check your clutch pressure. other than those i'd say treat it as any other car, body damage, interior, etc etc.

 

Welcome to MF Phish.
What you hear about reliability are from folks who have either beaten their cars to hell or don't know how to take care of a turbo motor after "turning up the boost" so to speak. Any car pushed past it's stock setup can be unreliable. Any car not properly maintained is going to be unreliable.
What you need to know about the car is whether or not the car is stock, whether or not the car has ever been modified, and of course you need to keep an eye on smoke that may come out of the exhaust (if you test drive it). If you do test drive the car, you really need to get on it here and there. Not necessarily rev the crap out of the motor either. Test it like you would drive it.
Other things to ask is if the head gasket has ever been changed, when the last time the timing belt was changed, has the motor ever been rebuilt, is the turbo stock, oil leaks, over heating issues, blah, blah.
Look at the motor and don't get blinded by the shiny clean motor either. As a matter of fact, take it to a garage and have them check it. You will have to pay to get it really checked, but it's worth the $30-$50 or so for that bit of peace of mind.

 

Yeah i agree. Be very careful about super clean engine bays...

 

What I like to do is look at the car two days in a row. On the first day, look for any oddities, or additions that were done poorly. Look at stuff like Sebba mentioned. Check the CV joints for sure.

On the second day, I look under the car for leaks, and in the engine bay. The reason I go the second day is so that after I drive it, anything that was leaking that the current owner cleaned, will be leaking again, and most likely they wont clean it after you drive it.

 

ok last thing, i was trying to find a write up on it but couldn't becuase im not too familiar with this site but can someone explain or link me a forum with what crankwalk exactly is and the chances of it occuring. i'd greatly appriciate it

 

to put it quickly, it the design in the 93-99 turbo eclipses. It really is a combination of a few things.

1. The oil squirters where too small and would clog cuasing oil pressure problems.

2. Also the journals where taking oil from a different spot. The 1g's would take it directly from the main oil gallery where there is always plenty of oil and its right after the filter. The 2g takes the oil after the oil has gone though the main bearing journals. So there is not a direct flow of oil to the crank and main bearings.

3. The main bearings used on the 7-bolt (93-99) where alittle softer than the 6-bolt (90-92)

So put all these things together and you get the effect called crankwalk, where you will begin to see that the crank will get a small ammount of play in it making it move around a bit, this then will slowly start breaking into the "soft" main bearings and eventually lead to bearing failure.

For a really good write-up check out Magnus MotorSports

 

is the turbo eclipse the only ones that get crank walk or do all 2nd gens

 

just the turbo'd model. (4g63 turbo 7 bolt motor)