Hey guys. Goin to look at that '94 civic ex 5spd I posted about in the new member section. What should I look for or check out on it? What all should I look for when test driving it too. I don't know a whole lot about what to look for when looking at cars. Any suggestions would be great!

 

ok I will guide you through this.
make sure when shifting it is easy and not hard to shift and it does not grind. make sure you do not hear any abnormal noises ( squeakes grinds anything like that ) make sure engine sounds good when idleing ( just turned on, no gas yet) make sure it dosent go high then low. make sure it drives good. dunno. do you need to know anymore. oh yes obivously make sure no rust if possible obivous stuff.

 

4 speed? wouldn't that be an auto.?

 

Typo. Ment 5spd. When I checked out the interior we started it and ran it for about a minute and it stayed steady and sounded good. There was still some ice on it so we couldn't check under the hood or drive it but it was warm today and should of all melted. Odd noises are an obvious thing. Can't see any rust on the body at all. If the steering has a little play in it, what would that be caused from?

One thing I noticed was the guy that had it put tweeters in the doors, near the top pointing at your head. (cause I don't think civics came with them, looks real clean and almost stock too. Left an aftermarket cd player in the dash too. All I'd have to do is put my sub in it and I'd have some pretty good sounding audio really easily.

 

a very loose stearing wheel could be from anything from the stearing wheel up, could be the stearing coloum, could be the axles it is hard to say.

 

forget that simple stuff.

make sure the body doesnt have any rust, especially near the rear fender area where it meets the back bumper.

if the body does have rust then itll quickly start crumbling to dust.

 

Damn, you beat me to it. [:'(]

 

the best way to find bondo/body work done is to take a magnet with you and test in on normal rust areas.....if it stays, it is ok, if it doesnt, then you know bondo was used.

 

Didn't get time today.. their closed tomorrow.. Monday or Tuesday I'll go look at it again. It will either be a 97 ranger with 80k miles, 3.0 v6 auto extended cab for around $2200 or that civic.

 

perfect for me to answer man. i own a 2000 ex coupe stick shift civic and a 94 3.0 ranger 4x4 supercab with a stick shift.

i bought my ranger back in june with 162,000 miles on it for $1930 on ebay locally here in new york. i basically was looking for a cheap truck i could use for the winter months so i could keep my civic stored during the winter months away from the snow and salt up here.

i drive my ranger now daily, havent driven my civic in about a month. almost 165,000 on my ranger now........the 3.0 ranger is called the 3.slow by us ranger owners on www.ranger-forums.com due to the motor being too small and weak for the supercab bodys.
when i mean slow, i mean slow, i cant go up hills over 45 mph and acceleration plain sucks. during winter, this doesnt bother me much because there is no need to go fast in the winter up here, and 2nd of all, its a truck so speed is not a priority.
the gas mileage on 3.slow rangers is also terrible, just so you know.

the 3.slow motors in the rangers are VERY reliable motors. they were the same motors that were in the arrowstar vansin the early/mid 90's.

guess it depends what type of driving you do with your vehicle.

i love my ranger, but i am just warning you that it has lack of power and terrible gas mileage.

good luck with your choice....any questions, pm me.