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something new everyday

Joined
31 January 2002
Messages
919
Location
Raleigh, NC
i don't know if my eagerness/excitement /impatience skewed my decision making process, but it seems that i notice something wrong with the car everyday. for some reason i overlooked the fact that one headlight is a bit higher on the left side than the other. it protrudes over the fender while on the other side it is flush. also, the hood gap is wider on one side. the latest thing i found is that the drivers wheel is turned maybe a half an inch to the left when the steering wheel is straight (can an alignment fix this?) i had acura do a prepurchase check, and they did notice that some front end work was done. they said it was nothing major, and they were able to tell from some newer parts.
does anyone know the level of adjustments that can be done with the headlight / hood / fender area?
damn, is buyers remorse setting in??!! arrrggghhh.
 
The FAQ has a really detailed list on what to check for when you plan on purchasing an NSX. I was just about as excited as you probably were in getting one, but I made sure that everything that they mentioned in the FAQ to look for in purchasing one was looked at. I brought along that pre-made list of things to look for when I went to look at the NSX that i eventually bought, and I say that it has worked wonders for me.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about it, its just one of those things that happen. I know from personal experience that no matter how careful you look over a big purchase (cars, boats, motorcycles, homes) you will ALWAYS find something later on that you missed. I'm sure there are a few people on here that would argue this but trust me no matter how calm cool and collected you think you are, the excitement of a new "toy" is just too much! So just go enjoy it and trust me that car load of hot chicks will not notice the slight imperfections that ALL our cars have

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'92 Black/Black #977

[This message has been edited by nsx_in_lighthouse_pt (edited 26 February 2002).]
 
I wouldn't worry about it either. If Acura said it wasn't in a bad wreck, I would trust them. If it really bothers you, take it in to a body shop and see if they can readjust the lights and fenders. Believe me, lots of cars have these minor imperfections, even NSX's. Being on these forums, I was under the impression that everyone has these perfect "garage queens". After going to the BBSC demo in Nor. Cal on Sunday, I realized that most cars are used for daily and or track use and show the wear. Or, perhaps many NSX owners don't know that their cars have damage/paintwork or find out later like you did. Just enjoy the car.
 
The headlight covers can be adjusted by loosening the phillips-head screws that are on each side of the covers and then moving the covers accordingly. Then re-tighten. But there is only a small amount of adjustment available there. It sounds to me that you have more misalignment (ie. hood and fender gaps) than this small adjustment can cover.
 
If the hood is not aligned, you probably need to have a body shop look at it and see what is causing the problem. Is it the hood, the fenders, the braces underneath, etc.

An alignment should fix the steering wheel center problem, but if it has been wrecked it is possible some parts are damaged and will need to be replaced in order to bring it into proper alignment.

You should worry about the hood before the steering wheel, since if they have to pull stuff apart you'll need to realign it anyway.
 
took it in for an alignment, but since the car has h&r springs that dropped it 1.5" it couldn't fit on the rack. the tech test drove it and checked tire wear and concluded that it wasn't out of alignment. an 'optical illusion' he called it. i looked at it again and it is clearly not straight. funny thing is it doesn't pull or anything. anyone experience this mystery?
 
You are talking about two different unrelated things here.

1. Wheel alignment. Your tech cannot "eyeball" or determine whether it is in spec from a road test of the car. He may be able to tell if certain settings are WAY out of spec by those methods, but not that everything is correct. It needs to be measured because we are talking about tolerances of a couple millimeters.

2. The misalignment of your body panels. This needs a BODY SHOP, not a mechanic. It is not normal for the hood to be further over to one side or one headlight cover to protrude, so something somewhere is out of whack.
 
yes, i realize i am talking about two completely different problems. i agree about the 'eyeballing' inaccuracy, but i just find it strange that there is no tire wear and no pulling based on how much the toe looks out of whack visually. i do plan on taking it to a body shop to figure out what the hell is going on with the front end. i'm a little nervous about that one.
thanks
 
A good mechanic with a fair amount of NSX expertise should be able to adjust the alignment of body panels too.
 
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