I am sure that you guys have seenthis type of posting several times before, may it be here or in any other form. Nevertheless, I still need your help, so here it goes:

I plan to look at a 1999 JXI tomorrow; the car had only one previous owner and 69K miles on the clock. Optically it looks to be in good shape, but I wondered what are the mechanical issues or even flaws I should look out for when test driving and sticking me head under the bonnet and underneath the chassis.

Thank you in advance!

Joe

 

Well, I went and checked out the car; here's what I found -
[ul][*]RPM indicator jumped to 1500 rpm when ignition key is turned, without the engine actually running[*]Put my foot down at 60mph/25000rpm and I noticed that the engine does not rev any higher than 3500 rpm, very odd indeed[*]Car seemed ok, aside from these two issues[/ul]
Anyway, I had a bad feeling about this and walked away. Would be great to hear whether I was right and whether you guys have seen or heard of these issues before.

Thanks!

 

If the engine won't go above 3500 RPM, then it could be fuel starvation or weak ignition.

Bad fuel pump, clogged fuel filter, bad injectors, etc...

If the seller isn't willing to fix these things before putting iit up for sale, then they could be big bucks involved.