Questions from a potential owner

[fstshrk]

Hi

I am looking at buying a 1994 164LS. The car looks to be in excellent shape in terms of interior and exterior. The owner and I have been corresponding via email (about 300 miles away from my location). He has been very open about the issues with the car:

The air bag light flashes on the dash

· The A/C doesn't blow cold (you know this)

· The "down" adjustment in the driver's 8-way seat adjuster just quit working last week. $225 for replacement switch

· The rear passenger side window switch works intermittently

· The cruise control works intermittently. Lately, it has been working more often than not.

· When the cruise control does work, applying the brakes does not turn it off. You have to turn it off manually by the switch.

· The sunroof does not like to close. To close it, you have to apply pressure near the switch.

I was wondering if the knowledgeable people on the forum can comment on the difficulty/expense of fixing these.

Thanks in advance,

[goats]

0. Air bag light can only bereset with Marelli tester. The llght automatically starts flashing around 100K miles as a warning to get your system checked. With the tester, takes 5 minutes to reset the light

1. THe AC is really OK as long as it is well maintained. You will need to find out whats wrong with it -- might just need a flush and recharge!

2. Might be a dirty switch. It usually is. Take it apart and spray elec contact cleaner in there

3,4, 5 -- same. switches get dirty when not used and they need to be cleaned up

Cruise-- sounds like the switch on the brake pedal is bad - new switch is about 30 bucks I think -- might just be out of alignment or unplugged

Sunroof -- clean the switch again

All in all this is an afternoons work to get things to the point where you can elimininate the cheap stuff and move on. Depending on whether you need new switches (doubt it but possible) youre looking at 100 =200 bucks give or take at the mechanic? If you DIY you can do it all except possbily the AC and the air bag. Most folks without access to the tester just live with it

hope this helps!