I went to look at an 02 Plate ST170 last night and I am going back on saturday to test drive it and potentially buy. It is in pristine condition, previously owned by a 40+ yr old bloke so it hasn't been ragged. Engine bay looked imaculate and looked after. Full service history and only 71k on the clock. It's at £3500, good price?

I was wondering if there is any particular things I should look out for? Anything that I should look at in more detail.

I love the cars (and I'm looking at tuning the new one) and I'm coming from a Y reg astra which I got stiffed on and I had an 08 Fiesta before that which was awesome.

Any help would be cool!

Pat

 

The early 02 models still had the smaller clutch plate and fly so ask if it has been changed because if it is on 71K and its first clutch it is likely it wont last much longer, £800-£1000 to have a new clutch on the ST170 as the fly has to be changed as its the fly that fails. Check the Inlet runners are switching over, take it up to 5500-5750rpm and the engine note will change you cant mistake it. if you cant hear it then check the cable it working a new Inlet manifold runner control or IMRC is £180 plus fitting and worst case a new inlet manifold at £600. ST170's suffer from warped disks also. You want to look out for the usual focus problems, drop links, rust under wing mirrors etc.
Tuning wise i would not throw much money at the ST170 (like i have) its very difficult to gain extra power, most ST170's are only putting out 155-160bhp from factory. I have spent a few thousand on my ST170 with all the usual bolt ons and only managed 189bhp last time on the RR but its has a new mod since then so may be a tiny bit more. Wish i had not of bothered, either supercharge or turbo charge it. Individual TB's will only get you up around 200BHP so you dont get much bang for your buck going this route.

£3500 seems a bit steep also, mine only has 60'000, 53 plate, 189bhp a full underside resto, fully polybushed, eibach springs, mint condition, HID etc and £3500 is what i would let mine go for