Hello,

I am currently looking into buying a 1988 240 DL 4-door sedan. The car has 143k on it, the body is immaculate for its age, and the motor starts quick and runs perfect. There is no to very little rust on the car. I am a little nervous about buying this due to the amount of miles. The car seems to be well maintained, with oil changes every 4000 miles. The owner claims that it has never used a drop of oil, and from my inspection does not smoke, and the motor is free of leaks. He has owned it since 1990. The oil was clean, and he claims it is around the 4000 mile mark due for a change. The car seems to drive well, lacking in power, but I am used to v8s. I am interested in the automaitc transmission. The shifter had a button that actuated a relay that I heard under the dash. I have been reading posts on here about lots of tranny problems and it has me nervous. The tranny does leak some ATF, he says he needed to add a pint every 6 months. The fluid was clean, and did not smell burnt. It felt like it shifted fine with a firm 1-2 shift and smooth through the rest of the gears. I did notice a vibration at about 45-50 mph that did not feel like a wheel out of balance, the steering wheel was not vibrating at all. Felt like driveshaft or tranny. The car has a good firm ride, but felt to me like it had some body roll. The motor sounded really good, with some minor valvetrain noise. Removing the oil fill cap there was a little sludge on the rocker arm, but the cam lobe looked brand new, with no noticable wear or heat damage. There are a few minor things like the radio needs replaced, but nothing major that I could find. The interior was very nice and well maintained. There seems to be an issue with the coolant gauge as it reads high and if you tap on the gauge cluster it drops and rises. Seems like a bad connection. Also, when the headlights are turned on an orange indicator light comes on in the dash, he says it indicates a bulb is burnt out in the system. Also and info on the electrical system this year would be great. Are these interference motors? i.e. if I lose the cam belt, do I smash valves? :-)

If you could please give me general info on this year and its problems I would really appreciate it. I got him down to 950.00 on the price, which seems to be a steal. The car is very nice.