newbie needing new car advice

[scottjg1]

hi there to you all this is my first of hopfully alot of good posts on this here forum :toung:

so to the point, as the tittle says realy, ive been driving me 1.25 mk4 fiesta for 2 years now its my mutch loved first car, and now its time for a change. im set on geting a nice honda civic vtec, and wend to see one las night.

its a 1996 civic coupe 1.6i SR very clean not a scratch on it took it a drive it ran very smoothly with no clunks and no black smoke coming out the exhaust, but then i poped the bonet and dipped the oil to find it was sitting right on the minimum barly anythink in there atall,

now my question is should i be worried about this to the point where i shouldnt buy the car, it does not seem to be burning oil and as i said it is a smooth runner and i know the civics do use alot of oil

considering it was mot'd in JAN onely a few months ago what do u civic pros think?

any input would be gr8

 

[pgarner]

welcome to the site mate, was the engine cold when you started it ?
if it was and there was no smoke then it should be fine as all hondas use around 1ltr of oil per 1000miles while on the vtec.
make sure its been sercived and you should be fine

and are you sure it wasnt 1.6 SiR dont reall ever seeing a SR model

 

[scottjg1]

thanx buddy
my bad yeh the SiR model
the engine was warm and was runing perfectly, my understanding was once its warmed up you wont get as many issues but is you were to start from cold you may get black smoke from the exhaust and a bit of a splutter, so im going to see it again this weekend to i can start it from cold and make a decision on that

 

[pgarner]

make sure you turn up unannouced and check the exhaust manifold is cold before starting it.
on an older car yeah you will get a bit more hesitince on starting but you shouldnt get any black smoke as long as the engine is in good nick

my old prelude had a crack gasket and 102 k on the clock and it would give a quick bit of smoke, nothing drastic about it looked more like steam but if you were at the back you could a slight smell of oil and petrol. but that was it clean as a whistle after that.

as long as the enignes been looked after ( tbh if s/he has low oil in it whist trying to sell it doesnt sound like it has been) then you should have no issues with the honda engine as it should be the same one that was fitted to the CRX, around 160bhp

 

[hemingway]

But you would of thought that if ya selling a car and some ones coming to view you make sure the oils topped up,always remember.your the one with the cash.If your not happy then just walk.Theirs always another out their.

 

[obi_waynne]

My only worry would be if the car regularly was run with low oil. As long as it is regularly serviced it should be ok. My oil level has been on low when i've checked it and i'm pretty dilligent at topping it up.

Welcome to TorqueCars its good to have you along!

 

[Prince]

Alright buddy, welcome to TorqueCars! Check the service book to see when it was last serviced. Any other questions feel free to ask mate!