So I've been looking for some time and a friend has what seems to be a darned decent 88 GX (blue) with under 20000 km since rebuild, zero rust, a whole bunch of things have been replaced (recently spark plugs, alternator, air filter, fuel filter) so clearly it's been taken care of pretty well. It's got a good ding on a door, but everything still works. 5 speed, tires and brakes good. Sunroof which is stuck and the big thing is it failed aircare. Thus a price of $1300. Now its apparently got too much hydrocarbons spewing out the tail pipe. Is this a no go sign? Could it be as easy as replacing the cat? Or is this a sign of excessive oil burning because the car is needing a rebuild (seems unlikely given mileage).



Some help would be greatly appreciated from you knowledgeable folks!

It's hard to say, I'd check things over, it can be something as simple as a bad plug or as bad as a fucked up seal, I would do a compression check that will tell you if the engine is about to go or not, then go from there.

Alright, well here's hoping that the problem is a small one. With new plugs and only about 12k miles on it, I'd be shocked if something was truly wrong with it. Hopefully it's just that the cats need to be replaced...