89 civic questions..

my dad just bought an 89 civic. he paid around 1,000$ for it.. first of all the guy posted that it had 140k on it and it actually had 160k on it.. he said that the valves seals were just replaced and thats why the car is smoking slightly.. do they really take a little time to seat in? the check enging light also came on about 20 miles after he picked up the car.. it went off when he turned the car off and turned it back on and never came on again.. he has only driven the car the 100 miles home.. he said it runs good just smokes a little and as it warms up it smokes less.. there is also a rumbling sound from the front right wheel... any ideas what some of this might be? how do you check the ECU for codes in this model of car? where can i find the codes list? anything else i should check for in this year of car?

assuming the rings are good, i don't think it should be smoking. it kinda sounds like the seals are still bad?!?!

the ecu is located on the pass. side floor. you need to peel the carpet back under the glovebox. count the series of flashes. count it twice as it's possible to have multiple codes. go to http://www.4thgenerationcivic.com/ for a codes list

whats the easiest way to test this? the car still smokes when driving.. the guy swears the seals were just changed..

As long as it not smoking too bad I really wouldn't worry about it, its likely to be normal ring wear. You could try to do a compression test and see if any of the the cylinders are low.

However a lot of the times the Oil rings will go and the Compression rings will be fine.

it smokes pretty badly..

Sounds like the seals to me. My tired D15B2 did that until it got worse and worse. I finally swapped motors.