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buying a wagon


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hi everyone. new guy here, of course saying hello. well on to silly new guy stuff time. i just made a deal to buy a 91 gl wagon, 4wd.besides rust on the rear qtrs and fenders, which i really dont mind, she starts right up. sounds good, no engine noises or such. shes got 111k on her and everything seems to work fine. now is there anything about them i should know about? i had a glxt a long time ago, non turbo, untill i blew one ofthe heads.so that taught me not to let them overheat cause of the aluminum heads. anything you could thro this way will be appr. thanx guys , look foward to being a long time member

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hi everyone. new guy here, of course saying hello. well on to silly new guy stuff time. i just made a deal to buy a 91 gl wagon, 4wd.besides rust on the rear qtrs and fenders, which i really dont mind, she starts right up. sounds good, no engine noises or such. shes got 111k on her and everything seems to work fine. now is there anything about them i should know about? i had a glxt a long time ago, non turbo, untill i blew one ofthe heads.so that taught me not to let them overheat cause of the aluminum heads. anything you could thro this way will be appr. thanx guys , look foward to being a long time member

 

Welcome to the board! I assume it's a Loyale not a GL since it's a 91. (They're basically the same car except for minor items.)

 

Only 111K on it is nice. They're easy to work on, and you can score parts for it through board members if you can't find any in a junkyard. Not to mention all the great advice from professional mechanics and world-class shadetree mechanics. (I am neither.)

 

Just keep an eye on the temp gauge and coolant level. Any problems, you can try changing to fresh coolant, a new thermostat (from the dealership), or a new radiator. All easy jobs. When I buy an older used car, I assume I'll have to put about $100 in parts in it, just so I can establish a baseline for maintenance. Tuneup, belts, hoses, new fluids (esp. oil) and a GOOD oil filter. People here mainly like dealer, Wix, Napa Gold, and Purolator (the one starting with PLxxxxx).

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Unless you have as receipt for a timing belt change, do it now and every 60K miles thereafter. If it breaks you'll be left stranded but the engine will be fine (non-interference). But it's better to do it now than wait for AAA in a snowstorm.

 

Also, the belt tensioners are NOT automatic. Supposedly they need to be tightened every 20K, but I did mine at 10K and noticed more power. That's because the driver-side belt also turns the distributor shaft (off the end of the cam). As the belt stretches, the effect on the distributor is to retard it just a little bit, causing a slight loss of power.

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