In the ad he said the car overheated driving back from the valley last summer. In-person he said the car overheated while driving back from town 15 miles away when it was snowing for the first time.
In-person he said he had it towed, didn't want to work on it in the snow (we never had snow very long, but it was cold). He pointed out that he doesn't have a garage, so he replaced the car, and tried to diagnose it when it warmed up.
The Internet told him to pull the crank position sensor and it cranks and starts with a delay, but he felt in over his head.
The blue book in good condition is $1,961 and it seems like everyone selling a car that doesn't run and drive, unless the car absolutely looks trash, usually says something like "It is probably a cheap fix" and wants what it would be worth if the car ran and drove reliably.
This guy doesn't seem to be hurting for cash. Maybe he does just want to get rid of it, but people usually want more than a car is worth, not significantly less.
The car was first sold on 2/10/2002.
A loan or lien was reported on 06/25/2012 and again on 03/09/2021.
On 05/18/2021 CarFax reports "Title issued or updated
Registration updated when owner moved the vehicle to a new location."
It was the same MVD as in March!
It passed emissions on 7/27/2021 with 248,501 miles and the second owner bought it the next day.
This guy apparently bought it on 08/20/21 allegedly with 254,000 miles, which is likely a typo, because I don't think that second owner, likely a dealer or flipper, drove 239 miles a day, but maybe someone bought it for Uber Eats and overheated it or something.
Except I believe the odometer reads 249,500, so this guy drove the car 1,000, blew the head gasket or something, and didn't do anything for almost 8 months?
AutoCheck says that it lived in Ganado, Arizona until 01/14/2016 and in Queen Creek from 02/01/2016 until 09/01/2021.
It shows 248,501 miles on 07/27/2021 and 248,475 miles on 07/28/2021.
I can see someone rounding 248,475 to 248,500, but 248,501?
It also shows the car having 254,000 miles on 08/20.
It reported liens on 02/10/2002, 03/09/2021, and 05/18/2021.
I believe that the first owner had a lien, but it wasn't paid off for 9 years and a month?
Why were liens reported on 03/09/2021 and 05/18/2021?
Maybe the first driver drove it until they overheated it and then traded it in. Maybe a place like the used car lot in Pinetop bought it with a bunch of running cars and this guy bought it as a project, but he would rather look at cat pictures and argue with strangers than work on it, and he realized that he was never going to get it running.
Maybe he does know what is wrong with it and this is effectively a mechanic's special.
This mechanic says what to check when your 2001-2005 Civic overheats and there are dozens of people commenting about their overheating Civics.
Is that because the Civic is a hugely popular car or is it especially bad at overheating?
Many people reported replacing a bunch of parts and still having problems. Two ended up replacing the head gasket and the mechanic said sometimes the water pump fails:
I searched for "2002 honda civic overheating crankshaft position sensor" and nobody mentioned the sensor, so I put it in quotes, and found results, but couldn't make heads or tails out of it.
I don't know why I am staying late trying to figure out this myself when I plan on having mechanics sort it out.