Gozz

Hey everyone,
I'm new to the forum. I don't have a Camaro yet but I am looking into getting one.
I originally almost bought a v6 but after watching some YouTube videos I decided that i wanted a v8.
All of you must be thinking how crazy I am, and I know.. I'm not a big car guy and I recently started getting into the scene so I'm going to have a lot of newbie questions and stuff. Eventually though I want to be pretty good at recognizing numbers and words that I don't understand yet, just like you pros!

So for now I need some advice.
I'm looking into getting a Camaro on Craigslist.
Here's what I found: http://bit.ly/4nOJVu

What do you guys think? I've been shooting e-mails back and forth talking to this person asking questions and stuff. I don't know anything about mechanics so if you guys start throwing me stuff I'm going to sit here with a huge question mark over my head.

Just let me know what you guys think about the car, and also if you want to know what I asked and what the answers were.

Thanks everyone. I'm hoping on hanging out here for a while.

PS: Please don't buy my car if it actually is a good deal.

SpiderX1016

Hmm, Says 2006 but Check if he has been keeping up with maintenance since.

Try and find a Mechanic you can trust to look over it.

itsslow98

iTrader: (18)

"brakes and tires are fair", count on doing them if you buy it. otherwise id try and get it in the 4ks if its clean. drive it also and feel how the tranny shifts that a decent amount of miles on a stock 4l60e but it is stock.

eseibel67

iTrader: (10)

Sounds reasonable at first glance.

And yes, if you don't know what you are looking at, take it to a good mechanic for a full inspection.

Another tip: If you don't want to invite competitive offers on a car you want buy, don't post a link in a forum filled with guys interested in exactly that type of car. Sheesh.

mook99ta

iTrader: (3)

No bad for the price but I would have someone do a once over on it before anything

TA_BUD

iTrader: (4)

take it out see how she runs, most of all take it out on the highway put a few miles on it, see if you can take it somewhere and put it on a lift, and have someone with some experience look at it, nice looking car

Gozz

Thanks everyone for the replies and advice.

I should see if they kept up with the maintenance since 2006 because she did tell me that she only takes the car out about once a week to make sure all the fluids keep pumping, so I guess the car is sitting..?

She told me the tires are actually in pretty bad condition.
The rotors are warped a bit, there are cracks in the sidewall of them, 1 of the 3 tires are different. The new one has 10,000 miles on it and the other 3 have 45,000 miles, and the tread is pretty low. I have the mindset of doing all the tire and rotor stuff if I do buy the car.

Another thing is that she told me the engine is a Vortec(?) I thought the Camaro engines were LT1s or LS1s. What does she mean and what's this Vortec stuff? I did some Googling but found that Vortec just helps with air and fuel mixture (I think), but does that mean the Camaro doesn't have an LT1 or LS1?

A plus side is that she tells me they have all the receipts from in shop maintenance, and her boyfriend is a mechanic, I'm hoping that doesn't mean that there is something wrong with the car and the boyfriend was a good enough mechanic to hide them. I guess the best solution would be to take it to a mechanic.

eseibel67

iTrader: (10)

She doesn't know ****. That car came stock with an LS1.

Vortec is just the name of a truck engine.

Gozz

Yeah that's why I was confused.
Hopefully the engines haven't been swapped or something.

Does the LS1 look a lot different than the Vortec? Because I know waht an LS1 looks like, but it won't help much if the Vortec looks the same.

steelers33

The LS1's and Vortec's do look different. To help clear things up about the LT1 and LS1 and what model years they were in, I'll share. For the F-body (excluding Vette and GTO, different bodies) the LT1 was in the 93-97 Z28s and Trans Ams, while the LS1 was in the 98-02 Z28s and Trans Ams. The Vortec engine is in the GMC Sierras, Chevy Silverados, etc and there a few different ones. There's only one LS1, which is part of the LSX series engine family. Also, I noticed it said it had a new windshield and new cats put in, ask her why she had that done. Get the VIN and get a carfax report (there's another website just like that, but I forgot what it is called). Ask if you can start it up and listen to see if there are any tapping, ticking, "piston slapping", whining, or pinging noises. Listen around the bottom of the car for rattles or anything of the sort from the exhaust. You can easily put two hundred thousand miles on these engines, there great engines. The AT and rear axles can break though, so that's something I'd be careful about, but yeah take it to a mechanic and have them check it out.

zaaronz

iTrader: (13)

sounds like a okay deal, surely you can get em to came down a little, atleast 500

Gozz

Thank you for that much needed information Steelers33.
I have the VIN now and was thinking about doing a Carfax but man, those things are pretty expensive for just 1..
I shot her an email though, hopefully I'll get a reply soon enough. So basically the engine shouldn't be making any noises? I don't understand, I usually hear like a whirring sound coming from an engine, I don't know what piston Slapping is, I'll Google it. And also I need to check for noise coming form the exhaust, check.
What's the AT?

I'll be taking it to a mechanic, so far everyone's recommend me do that.

She also said that in 2008 she replaced the sway bar because it was squeaking. Is that bad, or anything to do with what you said Steelers33?

Thanks again


EDIT: I never really told you guys what I'm going to be doing with the car, I totally forgot. I'm going to just be using it as a daily driver, I know these things can be turned into monsters, but I'm just going to be driving it back and forth from work basically. I still want it to hold up though if you know what I mean, I won't be racing it at the track ever or anything like that.

EDIT 2: I got a Carfax report on it. Seems really clean, Carfax reports nothing wrong with it, and I mean nothing.
Should I post it here?

SpiderX1016

You can post it if you want but don't rely on them. Some times they don't post accidents or what not.

Listen for some chatter or anything you think doesn't sound normal and tell the mechanic to go over it with you.
Look under the car for rust (if it's ever been out of state)

It should be a good DD, as long as you keep up with maintenance.
Good luck.

eseibel67

iTrader: (10)

Anything could have a loophole, but Carfax is generally accepted as being accurate.

You can do the basic checks mentioned before you book it in for a physical. If something is obviously wrong, move on to the next one.

Repairing a sway bar is a minor repair.

New cats could tip you off that the engine might have a control problem such as a bad O2 (doesn't mean the engine is bad). Typically the repair is made at the same time as the cats are replaced. Make sure you mention this to the mechanic.

pewter2002

iTrader: (4)

Piston slap, as I heard it on a cold Dec. morning - in Canada, on a NEW car in the dealer lot (0 miles), sounded like a knocking sound at start up that tapered off quickly then stopped. The sound was loudest on initial start up, and was gone in about 2 seconds. A used vehicle will prolly do it louder and longer. Make sure the car has been sitting for a while (few days, one cold night etc) to test for it. GM claimed it was not a durability issue but rather a customer satisfaction issue. Plenty a owners on this site have WAY more experience and knowledge than I do- try a search on this site for lots of good explanations. Good luck- research before laying out the cash is always a good thing!

Gozz

I was reading the thread here on Piston Slapping. It seems that a lot of the forum members don't mind it too much because it isn't a big deal, says them.

@eseibel67: I heard the O2 Sensor in these cars goes bad pretty often and the repair is pretty hefty, would the mechanic know how to check for that?

steelers33

Your in good hands at this site. Piston slap, my favorite GM problem! anyways, starting around with the 1998-1999 model year vehicles from GM to around 04-05, over 800,000 vehicles came off assembly lines with it. It can happen in I believe all the V6s and majority of the V8s, which the LS1 can have it. Its when the piston has too much clearance and bangs or "slaps" the cylinder bore. When the engine warms up, the piston expands (I believe) and then it has accurate clearance. My Malibu which has the 3.1 V6 has it, but it runs great. It can be a bit annoying, but that's my opinion. AT is short for automatic transmission. Here's the link to the acronyms for this site. https://ls1tech.com/acronyms.html

02WS6SSZ71

iTrader: (20)

You will be aware of an O2 sensor failure when a Service Engine Soon (SES) light pops up. You can buy replacements for $70-100 depending on what you get. There are 4 on these cars, so it could get expensive, but its not like they go out every 10k miles. It's an easy job, but I'm not sure what a dealer would charge to replace.

Just for future reference, keep in mind that any time you have a SES pop up on your dash, it can mean a myriad of things. Most auto parts stores have the ability to scan to see what "code you are throwing," and they do it for free. They can often interpret these codes as well, and if not someone on here can tell you what it means. A dealer will charge $50 or more for this service, so even if you can't make the repair, at least you can have some knowledge when you take it to get repaired.

I think the car is a pretty good deal...just use the tires and brakes as bargaining chips since these are both safety items that will have to be fixed upon purchase. Good luck

Gozz

Alright everyone, I've got a ton of info that I needed and I want to thank everyone that chipped in to help me.

I just have 1 question left now.
How low should I go? I know I don't want to pay the $5500, but tires and a rotor replacement costs about, what? $500 from a mechanic, maybe more? (She told me the rotors just need turning, but to be on the safe side I just want new ones installed.)

So what would be a good price to shoot for? I was thinking of offering $4000 and then just bargain from there. Good, or bad? Suggestions? This of course is if the car is in the immaculate shape that it is advertised as.

WizardofDetailing

iTrader: (7)

IMO $5500 is a pretty good deal. I wouldn't take $4k for that car. It is what it is, but I'm sure you could find a nice t-top or vert. for around the same price. I would ask for reciepts for all the services they say they have had done to it. I didn't see anywhere what year that car is?? 98' and up have the LS1 motor,,,well worth 5500...older has the LT1,,,that would be more in the 4500$ range. Brakes are easy and not expensive, wheels tires you are most probably going to replace with some nice vette wheels which you can get with tires for 500 bucks.....these make great daily drives

Any car you by used off of a private dealer you take a risk of getting a lemon, no matter how many miles are on it or how much you payed for it.