About to buy my first ever SHO

[CanadianSHO]

I was at the wrecker looking for parts for my cavalier and saw a 93-95 SHO in red, auto and it had been smacked and had a bent strut, but VERY little body damage Needs a windsheild, a strut, and something with the ignition in the steering column. He wants 1200 with a strut installed and the column fixed...oh and that's 1200 canadian of course.

So I'm definatly looking into it because the car is in pretty damn good shape. I haven't heard it run yet, but I'm going to see it again on Saturday.

What am I getting myself into? It's got 203,000Km on it....I dunno what that is in miles.

I haven't got the first clue what these cars are about....of course I've looked them up and know a bit about them, but I've never worked on an SHO and it's apparently a little more difficult to diagnose than a normal car.

Anyway, what I'd like to know is....is the trans gonna take a shit anytime soon? How much of a pain is it to work on? Should I even buy this car? It's gonna be a daily driver and I DO NOT want to be fixing it all the time. The only fixing I wanna do, is making it faster

 

[NJSHO]

What am I getting myself into?

Short answer...alot.
I would be careful especially if it bent the strut, it might have done other damage that would prevent it from being aligned properly.
The Atx have a history of not being the most reliable trans. You will probably need rod bearings, a 60K which includes water pump, timing belt, plugs, wires, ect... Im not saying you definitely need this stuff, but if the car never had this stuff replaced, its got the right mileage (120k miles) for it.

It's gonna be a daily driver and I DO NOT want to be fixing it all the time. The only fixing I wanna do, is making it faster

If the only fixing you want to do is to make it faster, do NOT buy a SHO.

 

[the on going reality of shopower]

um where is it located and this sounds like a car in my town, you have a red caviler??? by anychance ?

 

[Alex Perry]

Sounds like one of the two cars at Plazek's in Caistor Centre. A guy from Plazek's posted them a few months back on the shopower board.

 

[dantheman68]

not worth it IMO... im not sure on the exchange rate, but 1200 seems like alot for a SHO that was in an accident, with that many mile-err... kilometers

 

[CanadianSHO]

It's sitting at Cowanville auto wrecker in Newtonville.

Yea I do drive a red cavalier.

He's gonna fix the strut and have it aligned.

How hard are these motors to work on? I've volantarily worked on GM Quad 4 motors, so I'm stupid enough to try anything I guess.

 

[CanadianSHO]

What's the problem with the tranny's?

I've heard about the overdrive problem but it's supposed to be an easy fix...well, cheap anyway.

How bad are they? Are they like Dodge Caravan 3 speed w/overdrive bad?

Are they spitting seals or pumps or anything internal? If it's chewing clutchpacks or pumps, then yea, I won't even touch it.

 

[dantheman68]

read these posts again... im afraid you dont know what yorue getting into