Question on 89 lx-i probs

[zx7ninja]

Hey guys, I wasn't sure wether to put this in tecnical or not, so I put it here. Sorry if it's the wrong spot.
A few weeks ago I posted about getting an 89 lx-i 5-speed for a good price. I haven't picked the car up yet, but still intend to.
Apparently, the car started stalling since I first saw it. The shop told the seller it was flooding and replaced the fuel pump and a sensor.(sounds fishy to me). The problem persisted. Now, they are telling her that's it's the distributor and she'll need to replace it. I went to talk to them, and they told me it'd be 4-500 for a remanufactured distributor. WTF???? Unless i'm sorely mistaken, he's trying to rip someone off.
Not to mention when I looked at it yesterday they had the computer pulled and disconnected and the air filter system pulled off the car.
After looking at it, I believe the problem to be either vacuum line related, or possibly the coil given the problems she was having. BUT, they are doing the work today and I can't get ahold of the seller to tell her to stop them from doing the work. So my questions are this:

1. Do you think they are right, or are they trying to rip her off?

2. If they are ripping her off, if I can't get ahold of her do you think I should go down there anyway and rip them a new one without her permission?

I mean, she's only having the work done on the car so it can be working perfect before she sells it to me, otherwise I would've bought it already. I'd rather do the work myself, and save me and the seller a few bucks.

Well, let me know guys, the car goes in for the work in a little more than an hour.

[AccordEpicenter]

well what does the car do? It sounds to me that these guys have no fucking clue what the deal is.... They are looking at the computer, and computers are the LAST thing you replace...

[Cyric_accord]

yeah, can you describe in detail what it does.... many of the problems with my LXi have been fixed by many low cost operations and parts. Mainly that damn relay :D

[1988starter]

I got a new distributer lifetime warenty from autozone 200 bucks

[89accord_lxi_coupe]

my relay was messed up and now it's being fixed, it may be that. well i'm writing on the 28th so it must be done by now. let us know what decision you came to.

[zx7ninja]

Well, the car will drive fine util it's warmed up, then it just dies. That's why I suspect the coil. They told her it was flooding, and replaced the fuel pump, a sensor, and whatnot, then told her it made no difference so they had to do all this distro work and whatnot.
I finally got ahold of her in time and told her to NOT let them do any work, and get the car back. She called them and they got pissed at her, told her the work had to be done, and they wouldn't let her have the car back until it was done. Needless to say, this just made things worse and started a bunch of crap, but we got the car back.
The fact that they wouldn't let it go makes me wonder though. What were they doing with the computer and everything taken out/apart? Trying to break something intentionally so this girl'd sink even more into the car? Or are they just such bad mechanics they f*ed the car up and were trying to figure out what they did and cover it up? Either way, I go to look at the car again tomorrow and see just what the heck is wrong, check the coil myself just in case, and look it over to see if they screwed anything up.

[1988starter]

My car usto do that sorta it would idle read low and the oil light would come on so I switched to 5w 30 with lucas stabliser and all fixed