What's to expect in a 95k mile cobalt? Car looks stock but is missing a lip.

 

Coked valves.

 

Some sort of tune reading over 15 psi at WOT

 

An engine damn near beat to death and ready to pop.

 

Yeah Vavles caked in **** is pretty much the biggest thing, and check for shaft play in the turbo.

Wouldn't worry about the engine assploding unless it was owned by an idiot that ripped it every chance and neglected maintenance....oh and the clutch.

 

95k miles? Look at other cars dude....

 

Not an LNF but my lsj has 160k+ still traps 108. great compression across all cylinders, starting to get a little valve tap at high rpm. 100k isn't that bad if you've kept up on the maintenance. Only thing i would worry about on an LNF would be valves due to the direct injection and the turbo.

 

not necessarily, if the price is right why not? as long as theirs nothing really outta place, Low mile LNFs are WAY out there in price, but if you can get an LNF witha few miles on it for the right price then go for it and replace the 1 or 2 things.
My bro bought a 2006 SS S/C last summer, had 230,000KM on it but it was maintained well, got it for a steal and he had the dealer that he works at do a compression test and everything checks out.

A late model car with a few miles doesn't bother me too much as it would an older car especially these ecotechs, they're pretty good engines and if taken care of can last a long time.

 

95k and you are telling him to go look at different cars?

This forum is retarded sometimes.

OP, check to see if there is a tune. it should read 15 psi at WOT.
Check to see if there is any shaft play on the turbo.
Obviously ask to see if there are any maintenance records.

My car has 86k miles and is an 08 and runs great. Not everyone will have the coked valve problem.

 

Everyone has coked valves I believe. But is it a problem for everyone, well no not yet anyway.

 

95k? It just got broken in.

 

this is why my post count is low compared to other forums.


also most of OP post he dosent own the car yet

 

Right..

Telling him to check shaft play doesn't mean ****. A turbo can go at any time and is not a sign of much. Replacement turbo's new are $300-500 on ebay aka cheap.

A better check would be a compression check, vin search for accidents, dealer search for all the recalls and maintenance. There are countless things he needs to check and all of that information is on this site.

Since most cobalts are owned by ******** 20 year olds who don't do enough maintenance I would assume most tc's are bagged, and I would be right in that thought. You don't see many over 30 people driving cobalts other than base daily drivers. Even most low mile tc's are driven hard and you have no way to tell whether it was fully modded and returned back to stock?

Mostly telling him to look at other cars because TC's are still fairly expensive, there might be a good buy here or there but for the most part you are better off with a more reliable honda civic or older camaro than a high mile turbo car.

Food for thought. I wouldn't buy a TC again if I had the $13k I paid for mine 3 years ago.

 

... while i agree a turbo can be bad without excessive shaft play, but a turbo with excessive play would differently be something to avoid so why would you not check for it. I mean i don't think its a common problem but whats the harm. would suck to buy a car get it home and find out the compressor wheel is grinding into the housing.

 

How many sellers will let you pull the intake, check for shaft play, check for valve coking, etc etc?

I think I might do all of that stuff myself right before selling my own car so someone else isn't touching it.

 

x2 they wouldn't, instead they'd probably get an attitude about it. if they have nothing to hide i wouldn't see it being a problem. but i can't see a dealer let you look things over like that either.

 

Take for test drive, pop intake off at gas station or tell them you want your mechanic to check it out. They'll do it, I mean its a freaking used Cobalt not a new Vette

 

^^^ this

 

95k is nothing on these motors. Although the OP really should be looking at '08 Cobalts with 82k miles. Oh, wait...

Seriously though, as others mentioned it's more in the maintenance, not the mileage. I'll take a properly maintained car with 100k over an abused car with 40k any day of the week. The only time that changes is when warranties are applicable, in which case I would get the previous owner's mistakes fixed for free.

6 figure mileage just isn't the "living on borrowed time" thing it was 20 or so years ago.

 

And thats exactly what i did. I traveled to Michigan from Ohio to look at a 20K mile 2009 SSTC, price was $15k at a dealer. I drove it and my buddy scanned it and saw it had a trifecta tune on it. The interior was shot, had been thrown back to stock everything was loose kinda. Drove like ****, 24psi tune, and didn't hardly pull. You can tell everything under the hood was also thrown back to stock. And the biggest warning sign was........ dealer had replaced the clutch............ offered them $9k, not even a counter offer, they said to go screw myself basically. I laughed and said good luck selling that POS. Wasted trip lesson learned.

Found an 08 SSTC local to me at a ford dealer. Car was owned by a good friend of mine, bone stock, 80k mostly highway miles, immaculate shape. Never tuned, un molested. Only thing was the injectors were failing, so the ford dealer replaced the injectors, rail, hpfp, etc with new stuff. I bought it, it has been by far the best, most fun car that i have owned, and I've owned some crazy stuff, like 91 fox body with a 460ci swap, 96 z28 m6 with a built LT4, 02 wrx with 7 different turbo setups lol. My buddy traded the SS in for a new 5.0, needless to say, I raped his new car with his old one lmao, he still wants another SS in the future.

Im at 110k now, with a ZFR, and a LSJ tranny swap, couldn't be happier and still going strong.

 

An LSJ tranny swap? Any benefits? Ive never heard of doing this...

 

Shorter gearing, more go. I believe it also handles the power of the ZFR a little better as a side effect of the quicker final drive, although the rest of the tranny is identical to the LNF.

 

Short gearing for the win! ...minus the **** mileage i get (i have a lead foot in town)

 

I thought with turbos you typically want longer gearing?

 

if the price is right, I don't see any issue with buying the car with 95k on it. I bought my RL for half of book value with 125k on it, but yuh know what? that gives me a little extra money to fix everything the previous owner neglected to do. I see it better to do it that way so I personally know when the maintenance was done.
And just to throw out there, I am a "******** 20 year old".
But hey, to each his own. You got something against a 20 year old owning one of these cars, more power to yuh. I am personally gonna do what I can to learn how to work on the motor and do it right.