Rlyss

Ok, here's the story. A few weeks ago I was looking into buying a used Honda Civic, around a 1996 or upwards model. I decided on a Civic sedan, asked here and got a lot of good feedback, things were good. After about a month of searching I could only find a handful of Civics (both private sellers and dealerships), only one was in good condition/price/color etc., and that was the first day I started car-hunting so I didn't go with it.

Anyway, this past weekend I was looking again and found a 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer sedan, perfect condition, very low mileage (kilometers here), and it was white, was very similar to the Civic, basically had everything I wanted but the Civic name, but it looked like a great deal so I bought it.

Yesterday we got hold of it, picked it up and it's finally ours, it drives great, is a bit louder than my old 1997 Toyota Camry but that's what you get with a smaller car I guess. So I drove it home from the dealer yesterday, went out today to buy some stuff, get used to the car, etc. I parked it outside my place and came back later to move the car into the driveway and the thing won't start. You turn the key and it goes vroom,vroom,vroom, but doesn't kick in.

After seeing what we could do, which wasn't much, my Dad and I called the mobile mechanic we're insured with (I think the US equivalent is the AAA?) and he was a really nice guy, but he worked out that there's a problem with the fuel line, and when he disconnected the line and we tried the engine no fuel came through, so somewhere between the gas tank and the fuel line (before it goes into the injectors I think) there's something wrong.

Can you believe it? 30 hours after buying a used car the damn thing breaks down on me. It's under warranty of course, and luckily it broke down outside my house and not on a highway so it's really not much more of a huge inconvenience, but godamn is this humiliating and frustrating, and makes me wonder who I've displeased to deserve this!

The car's certainly not a rustbucket, it was in great condition, very low mileage (90,000km for a 5 year old car), good service history, etc. So yeah, that was just a rant and I thought I'd share my frustrations! Here's a photo or two I took of the car this afternoon.

<img src="http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0PgAAAAAS*SZhWdnhAO2YXjMb7VdCZLY7OWnO8SYTokosTyQsuWRhCthnIOV0Rc4bUh1nqa4Wc*Lgcc9kAI!OJcHbn8QD0ndP/car_1.jpg?dc=4675498940921497995"> <img src="http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0PgDdAgESNSdd!A7h7a9TSwUjKfLb7H0cZMlMKHc8hNPEyxv5Hb!n!ohJ1QClXDiCvOmJ2nK9jOCmWr1plavuOSJqJsPvItO0/car_2.jpg?dc=4675498940964224966">

Nimisys

its called a fuel pump and they do start to die on any car after a few years of service. they run all the time and frequent running with little to no fuel in the tank shortens their lifespan. if your lucky there maybe a pass through port under the rear seat, making the repair quick. worce case senario is that you have ot drop the tank to get to it, but on most FWD cars it is not too bad of a job.

1slOwCD8

Yea, its prolly the fuel pump or something, or maybe somethings stuck in the fuel line. Im not sure, but cant u usually access the pump by just removing the rear seat? Anyway, congrats and good luck with the car, hope thats the only problem u run into.

Rlyss

It did turn out to be the fuel pump, we had to get it towed across the other side of the city to the dealer's mechanic, they fixed it and I just picked it up now later in the afternoon. There was a $40 towing fee too

More shitty news though, we gave them the car along with 2 keys on the keyring, I've just picked it up and there's only one key and nobody knows what's happened to the other one. Basically we've given them two keys and they've given us one back with no explanation, they just gave some bullshit answer like it must have fallen off the keyring. Not a chance, this keyring was brand new and tight as anything.

So yeah, I'm a bit worried now that somebody knows where I live (forms and paperwork) and has a key to my car. Agh, not such a great experience this one.

MSD

Get the locks re-keyed now. I hope it doesn't have electronic keys.

Rlyss

It's got central locking but not remote locking, so a key-turn unlocks everything but I can't press a button from a distance. Not too big a deal but apparently the keys still have a chip inside for the immobilizer so I can't just get another one cut so easily, I've got to go to the Mitsubishi dealer and get them to do it, all that stuff.

About getting the locks changed, I'm going to look into it, but the strange thing is that the car is insured for more than it's worth (about $1,500 more). I don't know how we managed that but it's covered against theft so if I wake up tomorrow and it's gone, we're fine money-wise, but godamn what an inconvenience upon an inconvenience upon an inconvenience!

I'm calling around asking if the tow-truck driver has the key, if the dealer has the key or if the mechanic does, but so far everyone's just fobbing it off on someone else. My guess is that they took the key off the keyring for safe keeping (all your eggs in one basket-type of thing and misplaced the spare, and now don't want to admit it).

I'm looking in to how much it costs to get the locks changed, but I've got to determine if the cost is too much for a used car. As you can imagine the past few days with this car have been driving me nuts and I'm really scared now that I've bought a total bucket and am now screwed.