10 Days to an SVX

[mythrenegade]

The date is sometime between 1998 and 1999. The setting is southern california. My friend Gary picks me up in his new car. It's a Bordeaux Pearl SVX. I had never seen one before, but riding in it I remarked how cool it was. It made an impression on me.

I move, we lose touch. The wonders of LinkedIn allow us to connect again after losing touch for a few years. I ask if he still has the car, he says yes. He tells me a rather tragic story about it getting stolen a few years back, raced and abused, and ultimately partially stripped. But the car was recovered and repaired and he continued to drive and enjoy it.

March of 2009 we meet at a funeral for a mutual friend, and I ask him about the car. He says the transmission is starting to whine and the rear end makes a "clunk" from time to time and the ABS light goes on and off intermittently. His wife doesn't like the car and he is going to get rid of it but doesn't know if it's worth anything with those rather significant problems. He's tired of spending money to fix it. I tell him that if he is just going to dump it to call me, because I'm interested.

This Sunday he called, told me he had bought a new car and it was in his price range, and so he wants to give me his SVX because he knows I will drive it, not part it out and destroy it.

So next Friday I am going to take a trailer up and pickup the car from him. It drives, but I'd rather not risk the transmission going out on the 350 mile drive from his house to mine.

I am quite excited about this. But also a bit nervous. I know this car will require some TLC and an investment to keep it running, but I don't know exactly what is going to be required. So I have begun researching and I joined up here. Any advice you guys can give me would be most welcome.

First the facts: It's a 1994 LSi with around 130K miles on it. I mentioned the problems above. Other than that, it has been serviced regularly and garaged and I believe it is in pretty good shape.

Any advice for the new guy? Any ideas as to what the "clunk" in the rear end might be? Any suggestions on how to trace down the ABS problem? Is a whining transmission toast, or can I rescue it with new filters, some amsoil fluid and a quart or two of trans-x?

This will not be my only car. I have a 1989 Jeep Cherokee that is lifted. It runs rough, but when we had multiple feet of snow this winter (a 30 year storm for this area) I was running people home in it in 4WD. It ran like a champ and got into places where other vehicles (including 4x4 suburbans) simply got stuck. I have a 1999 GMC Sonoma that I bought new. It runs great even with 140K miles on it. It's currently what I commute in. Finally I have a 2004 Honda Odyssey that we drive the snot out of. Mileage on this vehicle is about the same as the truck, even though it is much newer. I rarely drive it as my wife loves it. Both vehicles run Mobil 1 Extended Performance 15000 mile synthetic only. I change it every 10,000 miles or so along with a high quality filter. I only run Chevron or Shell in the Honda. In short I take care of my cars, and am ready for a car that doesn't drive like a truck...

What do I need to know? What should I plan on doing oil wise? What about filters? What's the biggest challenge in maintaining these? How often do you guys service the transmission (I do the Honda every 15,000 miles because they are notoriously fragile)? What should I replace to be pro-active?

I'd like to get this car running well and use it as my primary "drive to work" car. My commute is only 15 miles, broken down like this: .5 mile on dirt, 1.5 miles of neighborhood roads, 3 miles on 60mph side roads and then 10 miles on the freeway at 70-75. I expect that this would be a reliable car to drive to work and take to lunch now and then. Well maintained I expect that the nearby mountain roads could become a fun playground for the new SVX...

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Joel