Ok, im possibly considering buying an EL2 XR8. The car i looked at supposebly had some basic work done to it, just basics like exhuast, heads flowed and balanced and a chip.

Now its been sitting idle in a garage for 10 months and the owner has decided to get rid of it, so he got a new battery and started her up.

Now as its been sitting for a while its definantly in need of a full service (all fluids, plugs, leads etc) and the timing is out so it runs pretty rough when you first start it up and it idles. When driving however it seems to still run fairly smooth and its clocked up nearly 200,000km.

Also the owner said that when you first start it up in the morning some heat controller thing (which lets the car warm up to proper operating temp) is on the blink and when you first kick it over it dies, but when you turn the key a second time it starts fine. Anyway know what this is, what the parts called and is it an easy fix?

The other thing was the the indicator on the oil pressure gauge was right at the top end past the orange. What are the effects and causes of such high oil pressure and would a car normally run alright with such high readings or could it possibly be just a faulty gauge.

The car is going cheap so i dont expect it to be perfect and am hoping that with a full service and tune it might fix some of these problems.

What are peoples thoughts on the above problems?

If i were to purchase the car i would get it inspected by VACC, RACV, Stateroads or similar first so they can do a compression test etc, unless someone can reccomend somewhere else in SE Melbourne that knows these cars and can do pre-purchase inspections.

Sounds like the idle speed controller is playing up hence the idle problems. As far as the oil pressure goes I reckon it might have the wrong sender in it or a short in the feed wire (more likely to be the former though)

Good luck mate

You'll definately need a new thermostat.

Flush all the fluids at least twice I reckon.

i'd prob wanna get a racv check done to it, they'll tell you whats wrong with it

how much you paying for it. if its anywhere round $8750 then check out the for sale section on this forum. 'big kev' still has his for same last time i looked and that is a damn fine looking car and well looked after.

Definitely get it checked by RACV or similar.
$100 could save you a lot of grief.

The Oil pressure problem is probably a broken wire on the sender. If they are disconnected the go off the dial, If they are broken, they run ok for about 5 mins, then drop off rapidly to nil pressure on the guage.
Brett

Thanks for your help guys, but the car was sold anyway for 8k to someone else, on Saturday i had worked out a deal with the guy to buy it @ 5.5k if it wasn't sold by the end of the weekend.

So missed out on a bargain - 97 series2 XR8 with 5spd, bodykit for $5.5k! Doesn't really bother me as it was just going to be an impulse buy for the price anyway.

Body was fairly poor and looks better than it is in these pics.

Oh well look around good chance you will find somthing better, it always happens.

As mentioned, have a look at BigKev's XR8. Meant to be in tip top condition.