Ahh... the story of my car... its been hard, kick ya in the nuts, ride. Most of which I have to admit was my own stupidity and not knowing enough about cars...

Back in '04 I was looking for a car in the $2000 range as my first car. I had saved up for a while and it was quite the nest egg for me. I wanted to get something decent. Of course I knew/know nothing really about cars and was just going on looks and what I liked.

I really liked coupes, and after finding the Tiburon I was set to get one. I knew that I'd only be able to afford the '97 model at best and the chances of my getting one in my area was very very low (good 'ol Iowa). But lo and behold while wishfully browsing Ebay I come across a 97 green (was and still is my favorite color on a Tiburon, well at least on MY Tiburon cool.gif ) selling not 90 miles from me.

It says its a salvage car and that it only has a salvage title, but with a driver's license and some paperwork it'd be a full title. I'm not so hot on just buying a car without looking at it (ha, i knew that much) and the auction ended the next day. I shoot an email to the seller saying I was interested if the other guy doesn't come through. Couple weeks later I get an email saying that the car was still there and I had dibs.

So I go down and bring a older friend who I thought would know about cars to help me take a look at it. Man, it was pretty much love at first sight. I saw it and knew I was going to get it. Car is originally from New Jersey but got in an accident where the Passenger side got pretty badly busted up (Hood, Headlight, Door, Front Fender, Rear Quarter panel, and Bumper all badly damaged) where it was declared a total loss by insurance. That where Hamza (the seller) bought it in New York from an auction that the insurance company offloads wrecked cars. He got 2 Tiburons, drove them both to Iowa and parted out the other Tib to fix up mine. For some reason or another, the car sits for a year, and he decides to sell it.

So he starts it up for the first time in a year, and it starts well, but there is engine vibration like no other. Shakes the whole car! He looks kinda embarrassed says that Piston 2 is misfiring and causing the vibration. After applying some gas it settles down and vibrates only slightly. I look to my friend, how shrugs and says that could be it. So I take it for a test drive and start checking out stuff... that I know how to check. It accelerates a bit slow, has a very loud engine (hole in the exhaust pipe right below the engine), but everything else runs great.

The tires are slightly low so I take it to a gas station and get an air gauge to fill up the tires. I think our cars look best not in direct sunlight, but twilight type light... overcast n such. It was raining that day and as I was walking back to the car holding the air gauge, its the damn prettiest my car ever looked. That sentence doesn't really make sense, but thats the best I can expresses it.

Not being a total idiot I take the car to the nearby AutoZone and have pull out their free gizmo that decrypts why your Check Engine light is on. They attach it, and they say, "Piston 2 is misfiring, you probably need new spark plugs." I drive it back, let em know I'll take it. Just let me look into this salvage title only thing and check the VIN.

I get a CarFax on the car, and it reports pretty much exactly as the guy says. Crash in New Jersey, listed the damage. Said there was no frame or engine damage (to my recollection). Next I check the salvage title thing, and with a little investigation it seems like it would be a pretty easy process to get it to a normal title.

So week later, I go down and purchase the car, and drive it home at night to try and avoid cops since the plates are expired (and they don't match the car in the first place). They were just to be there until I got real plates, which of course requires a real title.

Next day I gotta show off a little, so puffed up about gettin' the car. So I take my mom out to lunch. She being concerned with my plates chooses the closest restaurant, Pizza Hut. I, feeling a little need to protect my baby, park a little ways from the front doors with no one parked near me. After lunch, I come out to see that some ass has not keyed, but KNIFED (deep scratch) the driver side of my car, the whole side. From front fender at the headlight down across the door, to the spoiler. I didn't even know a damn person in that Pizza Hut, just some asshole decided to f*** with something beautiful because it wasn't his. Pissed me off so much, still does for that matter... pardon the profanity.

Well, after the glorious luck of finding the car, this strikes the tone for the rest of the ordeal.

Crap! Just realized I was typing a freakin' essay on this subject.

Okay okay, long story short.

Ran into huge problems with getting the car titled. Turns out you can't get a regular title for a salvaged car in Iowa unless you have a recycler's license, which involved a buncha money and paperwork I didn't want to deal with. Luckily I had a friend who did have a recycler's license and was willing to help me out. He asks to see the paperwork and I show him. He looks it over and says there's no transfer of ownership to me, in fact Hamza's name isn't even anywhere on the salvage title it got (he and I signed a bill of sale saying he was selling me the car as a parts car). So I call him up, and he says that he must've given the transfer paper to the guy he sold the Tib he parted to fix up mine. Week later I call him again, and he says he got a hold of the guy and he'd have the paperwork to me in a week. 2 weeks later I try calling him, and he's disappeared. Simply won't answer his cell when I call him...

So I start looking at my options. I contact the DoT and they tell me I legally shouldn't of even bought the car because you can't buy a car under a salvage title unless you have a recycler's license, which you need to get the car to a regular title when its passed inspection. No shit, I say, what can I do now? Contact the DoT enforcement branch.

I call up the local guy and he says he pretty much can't help me. I contact my friend with the recycler's license and he says he can't help me unless I can transfer ownership to him, which I can't do without the transfer paperwork from Hamza who won't pick up or return my calls. So I call the DoT again, the suggest me to a different enforcement guy, I call him, he says he'll see what he can do and call me back in a week. 2 weeks pass, I try getting a hold of the guy, and I find out he's quit is job. Frustrated to hell, I get fed up and leave it alone... ~6 monthes pass and I'm slated to go to UofI in Iowa City. I had a year which I took off when I finished high school where I was supposed to travel and such, but instead I got a job and just worked in my hometown. Yar...

I decide to take another go at getting the car titled, fixed and actually driveable. So I call up the DoT and ask em what I can do. The route me to the same guy that told me he couldn't help me. I call him up and he says, alright let me look what I can do. Things looking up! Time passes, I call him he says to mail him copies of what paperwork I have to him. By now I'm at UofI and so I put the paperwork in my school folder and get them faxed to him. I call him to make sure he gets it, he says alright he got em, let me take a look at em and get back to you. Then mysteriously the school folder with the actual salvage title, bill of sale, and other bits of paperwork disappears. The next day I look for the folder to get to class and its just not anywhere.

I look everywhere for it, all my classes, all the different building's lost and founds, the general university lost and found, filed a missing report. They said wait a month and it may turn up...

Couple weeks later I call the DoT guy, and he says, can't help me, he says I can bond the car to the state for a fee and get a Bonded Title. Guess what, I need the paperwork... that I just freakin' lost.

So I wait, and wait, and check back with the lost and found to see if anything is found. Nothing. Couple months pass. Then I get the bright idea to get the copies that I faxed to the DoT guy and hope that those can count! I call him up and he says he'll look for it and get back to me later that day. Naturally there is no call, so I call him everyday for a week before I get a hold of him and he says, ah, I looked on my desk but I didn't find it anywhere. $#*@$*!!

Some more time passes, and I decided, what the hell. I'll apply for a bonded title anyway. Fill out the paperwork, get the photos, etc. write a note explaining my situation, and mail it off to the DoT. Couple weeks later I get a response that says no bill of sale, no proof of ownership, no go.


More time passes (meanwhile I have to move the car around to avoid those pesky city police demanding the vehicle not be left sitting in one location too long), I go down to AZ, help build a straw bale house (pretty sweet design) and come back with a fresher outlook on things. I decide to have another go at the car. This whole time I've been getting advice just to sell it off and take it as a loss... I couldn't part with it. Deep down I still was in love with it. Just the right green, the curves... *sigh*

So I call up the DoT and explain my situation to the bonding office. They say, unless they don't have a Bill of Sale with my name and the seller's name on it they can't do anything. I explain my situation again saying I can't get a hold of the guy to get a copy of the Bill of Sale. Again they say, unless they don't have a Bill of Sale they can't help me. So I say again, I can't get a Bill of Sale! So the lady on the other end realizes that I'm being pretty thick and says, Look, all you need is a piece of paper with your name and his name on it. Ohhhhh.... I say.

So I um... *ahem* obtain a Bill of Sale and mail it off. They already had the photos and such on file so I didn't have to send it in again. They mail back and start me on the bonding process. Which, turned into another fiasco, (such as having the inspection agent 40 miles away to which you drive said to-be-bonded car to location quit the exact morning of your appointment so you have to reschedule in another town thats further away for another day) (or such has having that other inspection agent not sign off on the car because I don't have paperwork for the parts taken from the other tib to fix my car) (or having to call said agent every day for 2 weeks so I could get an appointment with his superior who finally did sign off the car)

All said and done I finally got the car Titled, Registered, and with new legal plates! After 3 years of sitting and not running (2 years under me, 1 year under the other guy) I finally got everything I needed to go, Insurance too, just in a nick of time because I got a job that put me on the road.

Blah.. okay I did say the long story short but then went on typing.. shit.

Sooo.... My luck didn't change and I've run into a slug of other problems. I'm not going to type another 10 pages about the other crap but I hope the above was at least slightly amusing. Now I could really use some advice for what to do.

I've went through 2 pairs of front tires. I got a flat on the road for work and figured it was just because the car tires weren't in the best condition from sitting for 3 years. So I got 4 new tires (which was another fiasco) and considered myself good on tires for the next 80000 miles. (I planned to keep em well rotated, inflated etc.) Turns out my alignment was out (damn... I'm such a idiot for not knowing that) and that was the reason for the first pair of tires to get blown. So in under 4k miles I wear out my new front tires. (oh and the guys snap a bolt when installing the new tires that I didn't think was a big deal, buts an expensive fix as it turns out)

Alright so I ordered some new ones, when I got em, took em to the tire shop and asked for mounting and an alignment. They call me up and tell me my alignment is so out of whack its going to need 4 cam bolts which is another $200 bucks of work. I think crap, I don't know what they're talking about, but if its needs that, then I'll have to do it so it doesn't eat up tires. So they call back again, and tell me that they installed the first cam bolt but it didn't do much. They think the frame is bent, which is causing the alignment to be so horribly off. They've given me a partial fix so that I don't eat up tires, but the alignment is still out. So I may need to get to a frame shop. I haven't done that yet, and don't know how much that is going to cost.

So, then its winter, and I planned to get the car well-serviced, but since the alignment and new tires have eaten up all my money I haven't been able to do much. I had the tranny (auto) fluid flushed, cleaned, and replaced since the shifting was a bit sticky, it helped quite a bit. I had the spark plugs and wires replaced, which fixed Piston 2 from misfiring. I've had the oil changed (using mobil 1 synthetics) as often as needed (more often really). I've put Seafoam in the gas tank on 3 different tanks to try and clear out any gunk. The first tank of gas in there was pretty bad, after sitting for 3 years. After burning it off (didn't think to drain it) its been a lot better.

Now I've rear-ended someone due to winter weather. It was snowing, roads were slick, so traffic was moving slowly, as was I. I was traveling a 2 full car length behind the girl in front of me at 15-20 mph when the person front of the girl slams on their brakes to take a sudden left. She brakes just as suddenly, I brake, lose traction and rear-end her with almost no reduction in speed. Her car's bumper sits a bit higher than mine, so she got a scratch, and I had my front end badly busted. Luckily it was stuff I could fix myself. Headlights casing were cracked, but with some epoxy fixed that. The bumper cover is pretty much done with, but I can reattach it with some work (ripped many of the attachments), the bumper reinforcement was broken, so I had to replace that. Both fender liners were badly damaged and nothing there now. Oh, insurance wouldn't cover a penny of my damages since I don't have collision (which annoys me because besides not driving that day, there wasn't much I could do in my opinion, how the heck am I to be faulted for the weather and someone slamming on their brakes!?), but they covered the girls scratched bumper, and they called me up to say she's filed a medical claim for whiplash.

I've made all repairs I can for the moment. Got the Headlights and everything working, the bumper reinforcement is on, but the cover isn't. Its been too cold to work on the car ( no garage to pull up in ) and get it reattached. The hood is all messed up, and needs to be replaced, but I can still drive with it.

I thought I had ABS and thought that should of helped, but going over the car I opened the fuse box and noticed all the ABS fuses were removed. From both under the steering wheel and the hood. I haven't gotten the fuses to see what happens if I put em back, but it seems the system is shot the heck. Which might of helped me stop or at least slow down before the collision.

Now the engine is once again misfiring, the power steering is acting up (makes the loud whining noise) even though its not low on fluid, and the check engine light is blinking at broke 'ol me.

To top it off the electrical system is a little funky. Such as sometimes turning off the car, lights, and pulling out the key the headlights still stay on. Have to restart the car, turn the lights back on then off to have them actually turn off. The fog lights never worked. Recently the reverse happened where I turned on the car, flipped on the headlights, and they didn't turn on. Had to restart the car, then it would work. Some of the lights (for selecting air temperature, where the air flows, and fan setting, and a few other things) on the interior don't work.

The AC flat out doesn't work, and it only blows out warm air, regardless of the air temperature setting (though in the winter it blows out coolor air if you turn down the heat). The airflow doesn't seem that great except for defrost setting. Air hardly comes out of the feet selection, and occasionally the fan on the blower gets very noisy, but settles down after awhile.

After all this crap I still love the car and want to work on it though... *sigh* I'm an addict, I know.

What do you guys think I can do?

The car has 74k miles, the timing belt was replaced already, and starts fine even in cold ass weather.

I'd like to put some work into it if its worthwhile. I'm fairly good with my hands when it comes to mechanical things and I'm not afraid to get in there and dirty. I just need some guidance as to what to do, what to look for, and what NOT to do...

Thanks for any advice!

 

welcome to the site mang... um.. that was long. I'm not really planning on reading all that. You got any pictures?

 

Yeah, I kinda vent and poured my heart into it, sorry bout the length. Don't expect too many to read it laugh.gif


No pictures yet. What I have to show is lookin' pretty beat up right now, but I'll probably take some now that the dig camera is working again.

Thanks for the welcome

 

wow, welcome to the site man, that was a very amusing read lol, sorry to hear about all your troubles, and its awesome to hear how much you love your tib.

Cheers,
Drew

 

I read until the part where you finally got it on the road... then skimmed through to the bit about rear-ending the chick... then skipped the rest.

That's way too long mate but welcome to the site anyway fing02.gif

 

LOL


I'll have to make another thread for gettin' advice on what to do about my Tib.

It is super long!

 

welcome man, as much as u love your tib u kinda would thought u would have at least one pic of her. oh well i'm sure you will get to it ASAP.


oh yea hope the rest of your life with the tib goes better.

 

I have a feeling that is the longest intro post we have had. Welcome to the site man....

 

Man, sorry to hear about all your troubles. I -did- read all of that. *laughs* I must be really bored. 02.gif

Interesting story though.
That's the trouble with buying a vehicle that has been in an accident. You get all those problems in the beginning, and then a whole slew of them that crop up later on down the line. But who knows, once you get that car back in tip-top shape it could turn into the greatest tib ever. wink1.gif