A friend of mine is looking to buy an 03 from a local dealer. ITs got 53k miles and is in physically great shape. I went to go look at it today. The only issue that i saw/felt was the harmonic balancer seemed to be out of balance, causing the car to vibrate at an idle and even worse when at lide with the a/c on. Has anyone else heard/dealt with this issue? There is a 90 day powertrain warranty with it so it can be fixed for under that.

Also is there any other tips or things to look out for? Im going to test drive it tomorrow to get a feel for the road manners.

Thanks in advance

 

How badly is it vibrating? We haven't found a 1.8 yet that doesn't vibrate!

 

Umm well im used to driving my heavily modded camaro or a lifted titan and it was vibrating enough to draw my attention. Its ok tho ill just have the replace it.

The other concern I had that I forgot about was when the engine was running I removed the oil filler cap and there was quite a bit of pressure coming out of there. In my experience with chevy ls motors that means either blow by from the rings, or a faulty ventilation system. Thoughts?