chiarlei

Hi, if I'm posting in the wrong area please direct me.
I just bought a 2002 type S pretty dark blue body kit, fin on back,custom rims, sweetest lookin car, the guy said it had a salvage title due to a monor accident in New York, (I'm in Oregon)
I look under the hood and it looks like white rusty stuff is on EVERY metal part. on my way home the tranny started acting funny. car has 78,000 miles... my question is does anyone know if Honda will replace the tranny on a car with a salvage title? And does anyone know what all the funny white rusty stuff is that is covering all metal parts?
stereo sounds really bad, I thought these cars had decent stock sound?
any feedback would be appreciated, as I dont know much about cars, but this one sure LOOKS good.
thank you

'03TL-S

iTrader: (10)

No Acura WILL NOT replace trannys for salvaged cars.

honda_inspire99

dam man that sucks, salvage title void the warranty

fsttyms1

Sounds like that car has sat for awhile, maybe even with H2O damage? As others have said, a salvaged title will void any warranty there would have been. You can register with acuras owners link (go to acura.com) just to mae sure

03typeStl

When I took a look at my cars engine compartment I havent seen even one rusty part, its looks brand new.
And why would you buy a car with a salvaged title ?
My Bose stereo sounds fine, dont know whats wrong with yours.

chiarlei

Thanks to all who answered, to the person who wanted to know why I bought a car with a salvage title. I wanted a dark blue TL-S, I couldnt find one for under $18,000 Then this dude tells me he has a sweet 2002 S dark blue for 15,000 and damm! that car had me. he said it was a salvage because it was from New York City, and had a minor fender bender, and that in New York they are overly strict because there are soo many cars on the road. Anyway he said all he had to replace was the grille and the bumper... I made a $14,700 mistake, it took me 2 years to save that money! yea I know its my own fault.

Bob_F

Wow, that doesn't sound good.

A "minor fender bender" wouldn't lead to a salvage title anywhere, including NYC.

As mentioned above, I would be worried that the "white stuff" was corrosion from being flooded.

Water damage could also explain the lousy sound from the radio.

Did you run a CarFax report on the car? If not, you might want to do that now.

Bob

tdarealest

well if you bought your own tranny the dealer would install it but they cant warranty the old one because of the salvaged title but if you goto this website and type in your info you can find a tranny really cheap with low miles its called www.car-parts.com but i have an o3 type s tl and it also has an salvaged title but just because it has an salvaged title people look at your car as a lemone but trust me if you get it running right it can run better than some financed type s tl's that came from the dealer and when you pop my hood you wouldnt be able to tell it was hit before unless i told you it sounds like they did a half job with the body work

chiarlei

Hi tdarealest, Hi Bob.
thanks for the info on that website. My tranny seems fine most of the time, hopefully it'll get me by untill I get one from the people at that sight you told me about.
I did run a carfax report on the car before I bought it, it came back clean as a whistle, in fact was sold acura certified from a acura dealer in 2005.
The carfax report said nothing about the car being in any accident of any kind at all. But I already knew about the title being "branded" anyway. Is it unusual that no one notified the DMV? The car looks like it just came off the showroom floor, untill you open the hood and look at the corrosion on the motor, the body has no rust and no bondo.
I wonder why other metal parts are not white and rusty ? only the motor is.

AcuraBuddy

*sigh*I feel bad for ya. I remember my professor telling me that the one job he couldnt go home to sleep at night to was a car salesmen. They'll shine those suckers up to sparkling new just to sucker in a person. What im curious about is whether you checked the car thoroughly before you bought the car and also test drove it? Remember also when something is too good to be true you know something is fishy.

Bob_F

The CarFax reports are not all inclusive and it's entirely possible that major problem was not reported.

And the Acura certifications really just represent a checklist of items they inspected. It's certainly no guarantee of the car's true condition. I see it as more of a marketing thing. And there may be things about the car that the Acura dealership was unaware of.

I wonder if your car might have received a replacement engine at some point. Do you know anything about the history of the car before the dealership got hold of it? was the seller the original owner? Did you ask him about white discoloration on the engine?

It might help if you could post a photo of the engine for other forum members to review.

Bob

Trackruner228

iTrader: (1)

If thats true carfax has a buy back gurantee on there cars. If you carfaxed your car before you bought it and it comes up clean and then when you get the title it says salvaged they will buy the car back from you.

01tl4tl

I looked at a TL from Florida that had that same white stuff on the metal parts, even the exhaust connectors at the muffler had it!
I am guessing that is salt and moisture corrosion

Declined to purchase that car!!

vzuptnguyen

how much was it(the TL), and some people on this forum claimed they have serviced salvaged TL's at dealership because mechanics missed the whole SALVAGED part. if anything happens, bring it in and pretend u dont know it doesnt cover it.

good luck.

Bob_F

It's so easy to check on a salvage title these days that you'd have to be very lucky to get warranty service. I have read an occasional report of a salvaged car getting warranty service but much more often people were denied.

And the salvage title will also hurt the resale value of the car. It would have to be an incredible deal before I bought a salvaged car.

Bob

LAMike240

Possibly a radiator hose burst and left a residue in the engine compartment. Perhaps a battery exploded also.