Buy it?

[redfan13]

Ok so i've got a chance to buy a 99 Grand Am SE 4 Door w/ 117,000. Its got the 3400, and the body is in pretty good shape, just a few paint chips that most likely i can fix. The interior is in great shape.
The bad, its got a blown intake gasket, and possibly a blown head gasket and also the ABS doesn't work.
She is willing to let it go for 1000 bucks.

If its just the intake gasket, my buddy and i can fix it, but if its the head gasket, i'll have to pay a mechanic to fix it (not sure how much thats gonna cost).

So is it worth buying and tryin to make some money off of?

[Jchiasson]

If you can do the intake you can do the head gaskets. It's only a few extra bolts and some extra cleaning.
Is it worth it, hard to say. Doing the head gaskets by yourself, $300 - $500. ABS $, who knows. It's a chance you'll have to either take or not.

[redfan13]

well my mechanic said that the abs part would cost about 1000 so if i do buy it, thats not gettin fixed.
And i thought it was a lot harder to do the head gasket, the guy i usually have fix my cars won't even do it. because he works out of his garage, he said you really need a lift.

[Jchiasson]

What, a lift for a head gasket....tell him to give his head a shake. The heads are immediately under the lower intake manifolds. Seriously, 16 bolts (8 per head), unbolt the exhaust manifolds (I never even loosened any other exhaust bolts), and your cleaning it up and replacing the head gaskets. The only unknown when doing the head gaskets is if your exhaust bolts snap, even that shouldn't cost much to take the head to a mechanic to extract the broken stud and have replaced.

[MantaGreen97]

well my mechanic said that the abs part would cost about 1000 so if i do buy it, thats not gettin fixed.
And i thought it was a lot harder to do the head gasket, the guy i usually have fix my cars won't even do it. because he works out of his garage, he said you really need a lift.

What ABS part costs $1000? For a Grand Am? Nonsense. I'm going to guess he either means the EBCM or the master cylinder plus motorpack assembly. You can easily get either of these off eBay or at a yard for cheap. I can't think of any other major ABS parts other than those, so $1000 is just sillyness.

As mentioned above the heads aren't much more after you've got the LIM off. I did mine (my head gaskets were fine but I swapped to the revised heads) and I certainly don't have a lift; and the heads are an even harder job on a 96-98 car than they are on a 99+.

I'm beginning to wonder if this "mechanic" is actually a mechanic at all, lol.

As for buying the car and if it's worth it you didn't say how much it was going to cost you. If you're gonna try and fix it and resell it to make money, definitely forget about it. Unless you get the car for free and have lots of time on your hands to repair it, you're not going to get much but a headache IMO. If you're buying the car to use it, and it's cheap enough then perhaps it's worth it. Though of course with this particular mechanic at the helm, I would just stay away from it altogether.

[daman]

It could be just a simple wheel sensor too OR just a bad connection, i would try to get here down on the price some if you have to do both.

i only gave $500 for my mint '95 GT with blown hg and lim..

[redfan13]

i'd offer her less, but a dealership offered her 1000 for it, so i can't get it for any less...

[Nighthawk243]

The ABS problem could also just be a case of needing to clean the battery terminals. My 1995 always threw an ABS light when the battery terminals needed service.

[red_se]

i payed 500 Canadian for my 99 grand am red se v6, lol motor freshly rebuilt some paint chips and abs light lol but the gas tank was shot and so was the windshield talk him/her down to it here is a pic of the car too XDhttp://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/f007c7b7c8.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

[tenspeed]

i'd offer her less, but a dealership offered her 1000 for it, so i can't get it for any less...

The dealership is inflating the offer by charging more for other things. Have her find the price with and without the trade in. She might already know that.