I drove to Campbell, OH (from Binghamton, NY) yesterday at 4am with one of my friends in hopes to bring back a $400 XFi with 140k miles on it. These long trips seem to yield interesting sights along the way. Last time it was a submarine, this time it was a DeLorean.
I arrived, and AFTER replacing the alternator and moving on to replace the brake pads, I noticed this:
So there was no way I was going to drive this car home let alone for too long. A couple bad potholes could do this in. That's the front driver's side control arm attachment point to the body. Much of it has already disintegrated, and the rest when pried looks like a loosening tooth.
At that point I showed the seller and asked if she'd be willing to let me take parts since there's not really any way it could be sold to anyone in his right mind in that condition. The car wasn't in that great of shape anyway, but I obviously wasn't that picky if I drove that far for an XFi
. She agreed to let me yank out what I really wanted. I payed $100 for it. I could've gone lower but I felt bad for the seller.
She let me use her computer, and I got it out in about 45 mins thanks to Johnny Mullet's
camshaft switch guide. I didn't really have the time nor the tools to get the tranny, so I encouraged her to repost it for parts for a while on CL, and make sure to put the magic 3 letters in her posting title (which she hadn't done before): XFi. I would encourage anyone in that area or otherwise willing to go get those coveted parts because all I took was the camshaft. ECU and Tranny are still there. The car looks like this now:
I have no reason to believe it's not a legitimate XFi.
P.S. I've been consistently getting 50+ MPG in my Civic for the last few tanks (aside from one fuel pump related hiccup), including this trip (53mpg). I reached my 50mpg goal already! I don't think I'll be able to reach 60 with my EX gearing without some serious mods, or the purchase of a suzukiclone, which is hopefully imminent.