Macster

Do not like how quickly you are to dismiss the shake at 65 to 75mph as flat spotted tires.

It is true these tires -- I have experience with N rated tires only on my Porsches -- will take a bit of a set if parked hot and if overnight temps drop down. Milder days and cooler nights seem to bring this about more often than hot days and warm nights or cold days and colder nights.

But upon startup and drive off the next day the bit of indistinct roughness goes away in a just a few blocks of driving. Unless the car someplace you can drive off car lot and onto highway and hit 65mph or more in just seconds (with cold engine/drivetrain too boot (shame!) I do not accept the cause as flat spotted tires.

Now I can tell you from experience with my Boxster that over inflated front tires will cause a high speed vibration that could be attributed to flat spotted tires. Just a few PSI over 29psi (the recommended cold inflation pressure for the 17" tires on my 02 Boxster) will cause this. It feels like some bit of imbalance and had it not appeared "out of the blue" I would have thought so, but the vibration was not present for a while then it was. I believe I had been playing with the tire pressures and put 2 and 2 together and lucky for me adjusted the tire pressures back to what they should be and the vibration symptom gone.

If tires are questionable or worse not even N rated, or even if they are N rated but the tires are different front to back, or side to side, I'd like to have new and correct tires mounted and load forced balanced and an alignment done then another test drive.

Not sure seller will go for this. You could try to negotiate a lower price by the amount this would cost, but my concern is the new tires, balance, alignment would not eliminate the shake or vibration. And the presence of this even after new tires, balancing and alignment, indicates something more serious underlying the cause of the symptoms.

Sincerely,

Macster.

msark

Remember.... You said it hadn't been registered for the last 2 years.... Where was it?

kevjandon

OK, Called Tony at Carl's Place. Luckily he had the VIN of the car that was messed up. It is not the same car.

Just need to get the car to the dealer or Indy for inspection. I'll keep you posted.

gallileo

Carfax can give you a reason to say "No." But it can't give you a reason to say "Yes."

Something fishy about this car. Make sure the PPI is very thorough.

Macster

That is a very good question.

Sincerely,

Macster.

kevjandon

The car is at the dealer right now. Should be ready by 4:00pm.

All I can tell you is what the carfax shows. It was leased from 2/7/2002 to 8/16/2005. That works out to a 42 month lease. then is looks like it sat at the dealer until 10/12/02005. Carfax says another lease was issued. The car was traded in to the dealer on 12/7/2009. A 50 month lease I guess.

The carfax shows it was last registered on 10/19/2006. The dealer shows a service for a RMS in 2007 and battery and oil change in 2008. The mileage is only slightly higher today than it was in 2008. The tires look brand new, but they are dated 2004/2005. The brake pads have 7mm left on them. All signs are pointing the milage being accurate.

I've asked the dealer to specificaly list any fault codes, over rev codes, air bag codes and the total engine running hours. The car appears to have simply been an executive car of some sort for its entire life. All the dates and milegae seem to be adding up and I can't see where the car has been damaged.

Here is the original craigslist ad. You can see the trade pencil writing on the window:

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/ctd/1499621940.html

kevjandon

Here is the skinny.

6,000 plus type one over revs.
zero type two over revs.
rear main seal is leaking again.

How the hell do you hit 6,000 red lines?

The motor had 700ish hours so the milege is right. But damn, a redline every 8 minutes/4 miles.

I'm out. back to looking

Ahmet

That's ignition cycles, I think my last C2 had over 8000 of them when I bought it...