Hey folks,
So I pulled the trigger (told you I was being serious! ?). I bought the Pathy in the first set of photos I posted above.
She's a USDM 2003 SE with 130k miles, throttle-by-wire (thought those started after 2004), A/T, with the only options being the tall roof rack and the Bose stereo (more on that below). What won me over was how mint it was considering the mileage, especially the interior. It pulls hard, exhaust pipe is clean as a whistle and I don't see or feel any indications of power valve failure (but that's TBD once I take the intake apart). It's evident that one of the previous owners was a smoker, probably back when it was in the US (it has been here since 2012). There is a brown stain just above the driver's seat and it smells, not a lot by now, but definitely noticeable.
I went to pick it up yesterday and since then I've been polishing all glass, headlights and cleaning the interior. There was this nasty brownish crud everywhere. Next weekend I'll tackle the power valves and report back. If there's something missing I'll do a compression test afterwards. Wish me luck!
It is the one that I thought was grinding when switching from 4L to 2H but you were all right, I was just being too slow to shift. Heck, even the manual says that. I have a few new questions though:
The driver's side window auto up works, but just after it closes it goes down like 1/3rd of the way. I can still close it by pulling the switch a second time. I suppose it "thinks" there is something in the way. I think I read somewhere that there is a way to reset it by accessing the motor, aye?
The tach is just a bit jerky, most noticeable between idle and, say, 2k rpm. 2 other R50s I test drove also had a similar quirk. Is it normal?
Were USDM 2003 R50s affected by the Takata recall? I don't want the airbag to kill me.
Is the "seal" trim between the fender flares and the fender supposed to be yellow-ish? I guess not, it looks bad.
Here she is receiving some much needed love:
Headlights before polishing:
Clock fixed! Resoldering did the trick:
This is probably not as easy to fix, but I'm giving it a try (it turns on and sounds fine but after a minute or 2, the screen goes dark and I lose most controls):
Wasn't fun pulling the ashtray out and finding this:
Much better!:
Obligatory strut tower photos: