I was in your shoes a month ago. I wanted to buy an Ebony 2000 I had my eye on, and I came here to ask advice.. I bought it, or stole it some said... and the rest is history as they say.
Ask about maintenance history and how often the oil was changed AND if the PCV valve was also changed regularly. Ask if it uses oil and has to be topped off a lot. Look under the hood, pull the oil dipstick and look at it. It should NOT be all burned smelling and black. It should be slick feeling with no grittiness. It should NOT be consuming a lot of oil!!!!
Look under the car for fluids. A wet, oily transmission pan and a dry engine oil pan means tranny leaks, and that is bad on this tranny. Check the front axle rubber boots. They may be split open in which case you'll see some grease nearby that has been flung out. Take a look at the brake pads and rotors. Rotors that have deep grovves worn in them should be replaced.
Check the lights for proper function, wipers etc.
Take a test drive. The tranny should shift smoothly and drop down a gear when you depress the pedal more than half way-ish. The shift should be quick and smooth. Watch the TOD lights on the dash. the fronts should light up when you quickly depress the throttle, especially on dirt.
Look for a check engine light or ABS light. If these remain on something is a miss. The ABS light can be on and you'll still have good brakes, just no anti-lock function. The windows are a problem. They bind up and go slow or fail completely. There are a few fixes that work well posted here so not to worry if they don't work right.
The stock speakers suck so if they sound like crap it's just because they're old and worn out. You'll just need to replace the speakers.
Hope this helps. Have fun and as they say, "welcome to the osession..."
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let me look that up for you and then edit this post.
Originally Posted by tomdietrying
