I beat the dealers!!!

[Caretaker]

I found a 2007 Honda Fit sport on craigs list last night. The owner is retired, the original owner, and is moving to PA. I called this morning and found out that two other vultures (probably dealers) were circling and moving in. I talked to the owner at great length, using my 28 years of training to determine that he wasn't lying to me, and decided to buy the car sight unseen. I had to drive over 2 hours down to the Richmond airport to get to his house. It was only $6500 for a one owner, no accident car with only 94,000 miles. He put on new tires, new front brakes, rain guards over the windows, and all weather mats with the Fit logo. Now here comes the tricky part, which is why I need some advice:

The tranny fluid and the radiator fluid have NEVER been changed. The tranny fluid still has some red in it, so I'm not sure if the Fit has a "100,000" mile change interval for the transmission fluid. As you can imagine, the radiator fluid looks positively awful, as does the brake fluid. I know I can only do a transmission fluid drain at this point. No problem there. I'm not sweating the brake fluid flush either. As for the radiator fluid, I'm assuming I still go ahead with a full flush to get all that junk out of there, right? Will it have to be done twice in a short interval to get any floaties out of the radiator? What do you think?

When I checked out the spare tire (which had never been filled with air (since it was at 25 lbs of pressure) there was a little bit of water in the well. It had not been there long because the tire changing equipment was not corroded, nor was the steel wheel. I just don't see how it got in there since the hatch gasket looks brand new. Is there somewhere else I should check for leaks?

I'm just thrilled that for the first time in 3 tries, I beat the dealer to a great deal on a great car. Sorry for the lack of photos. Some day I'll figure out how to post photos.

[Chiadog]

Sounds like a great price! Is there a FIT Forum you can check for the water leakage problem?
I'd flush (just distilled water) and fill the cooling system and add a can of sealant if the coolant is really bad. See this Scotty Kilmer Steel Seal Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6YF-3zMBqY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rayven01]

I'm pretty sure 07 Hondas use the blue 100k mile coolant. I'd be kinda concerned if there's junk in it at 94k... Regardless definitely flush it.

[tpollauf]

Awesome find Whenever you can get one over on those dealers it feels SOOOOOOOOOO good Great job & enjoy your "new to you" Fit ........ just don't have one

[journeyforce]

Great score.

On the water in the spare tire thing, it could be a simple thing as the guy lift the tailgate up to remove things out of the cargo area and a quick rain storm rolled though and water seeped into the spare tire well(I had an Impreza that did that)

Did you check the tail lights? if a bulb was replaced then maybe it was not bolted back on all the way and water is getting through the gasket.

A search on a forum elicited this tidbit of info

http://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-gene ... trunk.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The easiest way to find it is to clean and dry your spare area and remove all the bits and bobs that cover the spare. Then have a friend/spouse etc drive the car to a car wash while you sit in the back seat and watch the hatch area to see where the leak is