In this second part of How to Buy a Used Car in Three not so Easy Steps, I will be talking about research and initial inspection. Last time I covered setting goals and doing the math. Once you have figured out what you want, why you want it, and how much it should/does cost, it’s time to go looking for it.
Before I get started let me just say, if you want more information, you might also look at the comments. In my last post the comments were so helpful and informative that I think I probably could have just published them instead! Nonetheless, in order to get such great commentary, I must first write some stuff, so here it goes.
I look mostly on Craigslist but have looked in Autotrader, Ebay, brand/make specific forums, and Hemmings Motor News. But every now and then you can find what you are looking for just driving around town with a sign in the window. If you just want a reliable car, you might also try asking your friends if they know of one for sale. The power of acquaintanceship may get you a lower price and a more complete history of the car. However don’t think that just because it’s your friend’s brother’s girlfriend’s dad’s car that it is a good deal or that he is anymore trustworthy than a stranger.
Research: The first thing that you should do when you start thinking thta you know what car you want to buy, is to do some research. Let’s say you needed a minivan. Start by looking up minivans in Craigslist or it’s equivalent to get a good idea of what you need to spend and what year model is in your price range. Take note of which models/makes are selling for consistently less than others, this could be a good sign of poor long term quality. Now that you have an idea of what year range you can afford, look up all the perspective vans on the and compare them to get an idea of perspective fuel efficiency. Next look up the ones you are interested in on Edmunds and similar websites and look at owners reviews of the car. Once you realize that the one you thought was coolest is a nighmare to own, do a simple Google search on the ones that people gave better reviews to. Try terms like “Toyota Sienna problems” or Dodge Caravan recall”. That should get you lots of results from people on forums etc. complaining about their problems. Look for a lot of the same problems on a particular model posted by different folks. Also if you can find a forum devoted to that particular model look in the tech section, especially at the stickys on the top of the page. This sort of research should dissuade you from from buying a Eurovan with an automatic transmission, or Land Rover that just needs a head gasket, or anything that needs a new timing belt!
Making the call: When calling about a car I have seen advertised or have been told about, I have a little list that helps me get right to the point of deciding whether it’s even worth looking at. First I ask why he/she is selling it. This can be rather telling, no one will ever tell you it’s because the car is crap and they want something better. But they might give you a poorly prepared answer, they sometimes become very uncomfortable answering this question; and that’s a “tell” in poker lingo. On the other hand if they tell you something like; “I need something that gets better mileage” or “I want something a little newer”, those are actually good signs of an honest response. But what you most often get is, “we need something bigger/smaller, sportier, etc. That really doesn’t tell you anything.
So on to the next question; “is your name the only one on the title of the car and do you have the title of the car?” If they tell you a story about how they are selling it for a friend etc. move on or deal directly with the real owner. If they tell you how they never registered it blah blah blah, just move on, that’s not the kind of car you want unless you just want a real beater and are willing to take a big risk. Next question; “does it have any issues?” That is a big open ended question and it’s a good opener. Once again this can help you to gauge honesty which is really what we are trying to do here. Don’t get discouraged if they actually tell you about some real issues. Ask yourself; are these issues stereotypical of of this make/model vehicle at this price point? Do some research online, if they are, then perhaps the owner is just an honest person who wants everything up front. On the other hand if they tell you it has no problems whatsoever, it may or it may not.
Now if the problems are not overwhelming, ask them how long they have owned it. If they say two months or two days, a good explanation is required and it probably won’t be good enough. If everything sounds good at this point, it’s time to go see it for yourself. Notice I did not mention price discussion here? That’s because without having seen the car, you have no business discussing the price at all. If it’s too expensive, then it’s too expensive. If it’s close to your price range, save the discussion for an in-person chat when you will have looked at the car and perhaps have some leverage based on your examination.
Hopefully you will get to look at the car at the owner’s residence or workplace. If they want to meet you or want to meet in a neutral location, gently nudge them into meeting at their place. Some people are pretty worried about getting scammed and such and don’t want people to know where they live, so this is understandable. But it’s better to see the car in its home to get a better sense of who this person is and where they come from. Especially with a diesel, and here is why; diesel engines are not very fun to check the compression or the glow plug system on, and the tools are expensive. The best way to tell is to start it up from a stone cold start and look at the blow-by. The car has to be stone cold, not plugged into a block heater, unless it’s winter in Minnesota. Feel the engine block, now go and crank it over for less than ten seconds. If it does not start, then it’s got a problem. Could be big, could be small, so how to find out? If you can eventually get it started (never, ever, use starting fluid and if the owner does, walk away), then let it run and go and lift up the hood.
Now, while it’s running, unscrew the oil filler cap. Once it’s unscrewed just let it sit on the filler neck. Does it hop up and down, or do the blow-by gases lift it off the neck entirely? It shouldn’t do much hopping at all. It should just sit there and vibrate with the engine and it certainly shouldn’t be blown up and off by the gasses. If the car started OK, was cold when you did it, and the weather was below sixty degrees, but the cap bounces around a little it might be OK if you are not paying too much. On the other hand, if it was hard to start but it shows no signs of significant blow-by, it may be a problem with the glow plugs. If you are still interested, you could look up how to check them with an VOHM meter on the internet. If you really want to get fancy, you can even get an idea of compression with a volt meter, but that’s going further than we need go here.
I learned this on the first car I helped a friend buy. It was a diesel Rabbit. We got there and the car stared right up and ran fine. But the next morning Bill went to start it and it would not start. We tried replacing the battery, but it was not enough. Bill ended up having to plug the block heater in anywhere he wanted to park for more than fifteen minutes. The car had very low compression and that meant it needed lots of expensive work; lesson learned.
But maybe you are comfortable with a bit of a project. If so, jump forward several years: once I was more knowledgeable about fixing cars, I was more apt to buy projects. One day I saw an advertisement for a 1978 VW Rabbit in the newspaper (remember those days?), non-running, for sixty dollars. I had to at least take a look at it (that’s how it always starts). When I arrived, I found it was parked in the parking lot of some crummy apartments. It was a burnt orange two door. Being that it was a ’78, it it had the 1.6 liter engine, fuel injection, and was made in Germany, not Pennsylvania, so I was already interested. On top of that, the paint and interior were in great shape. Once I finally spoke to the owner she told me it had started running very badly and then one day would not start at all. I asked her if she would be unhappy if I got it running right after I paid her the sixty dollars. She said no, so I went out and had a look at it. Engine oil not milky: check; coolant not oily: check; getting spark: check; getting fuel: no. I had learned a thing or two working on my friend’s white Rabbit. So I turned on the key and listened at the passenger side rocker panel. No fuel pump whirring. So I looked under the dash and found the fuel pump relay (learned this on the VW bus), I pulled it out and jumped a wire across the only terminals that form a T. Now it was whirring. I paid her the 60 dollars and we did the paperwork. After that I fired her up and drove her home.
It was obvious on the drive home that there was more wrong with it than a bad fuel pump relay. So I checked the compression: good in three cylinders, but zero in the other. A peek down the spark plug hole found no hole in the piston, so off came the cylinder head. The exhaust valve on that cylinder had a nice pie shaped chunk missing. Luckily, it somehow had manged to break off and be spit out without scoring the cylinder wall. So the cylinder head went to the machine shop to have the valve replaced and I bought a gasket set, timing belt, some oil, and coolant. After it was all together it ran well. And for a total investment of less than two hundred dollars.
Step Two; Check it out:
Looking things over: The used car buyer with no mechanical experience should at least get a friend who does have mechanical experience to go along with him or her. That means mechanical experience on cars of a similar vintage. So your dad who used to wrench on his Camaro a lot back in ’73 but doesn’t know the difference from OBD 1 and OBD 2, won’t be much help looking at a Toyota Matrix with you. Yes, most cars are built around very similar principles; most have an internal combustion engine, an automatic or manual transmission (or even Continuously Variable), wheels and tires, springs, shocks/struts, a steering wheel, seats, windows, and lights. But the critical difference lies in the details. The differences between a Honda Insight and a Model T are far more than superficial.
You could start with a test drive, but I don’t. The first thing I do is just have a good look around the car. Are there signs of abuse? Broken door handle, cracked window, scratches in the paint, dents on bumper corners etc. But look more closely, do all the panel lines line up OK? Are the panels all the exact same color? Look down the side of the car whilst on your knees. Is the side of the car good and straight, not wavy? Are there slightly lower or higher spots, or places where the paint is more orange-peel-like than others? Those might be signs of previous damage. If you are very worried about hidden repairs on the body, you can buy a special magnetic tool to detect body filler and thin metal. Now open the doors and get down and look at the underside of the door itself, that’s a good place for rust to get started. Now lift up the carpets if you can and feel for moisture and rust. While you’re down there, check out the door sills and rocker panels as well. With the assistance of a flashlight, take a good look at the underside of the floors, any rusty or patched spots?
Now since you are still down there, go ahead and have a look at the pavement! Ideally the car will be parked where it normally parks. Look for oil spots and such on the ground. Now look up at the bottom of the radiator, bell housing, transmission pan, differential/s, and exhaust. On an older car there may be a little bit of oil on the bottom of the oil pan and bell housing, that’s to be expected. But there should not be any drips at all, nor should there be evidence of long term leakage, such as fine oil spray covering the transmission pan and rear end. The transmission pan should be bone dry, and so should the bottom of the differential/s.
Acceptable seepage on an older car
Look for tears in the steering rack boots if it has rack and pinion steering. Otherwise look for steering fluid leakage from the bottom of the steering box.
Recirculating ball type power steering system
Rack and pinion steering system.
If the car is rear or four wheel drive, put it in Park or Neutral, set the emergency brake, (don’t set the E-brake on a Land Rover, just chock it good, the E-brake drum is on the drive shaft and will inhibit checking the joints) and chock the wheels. Now get down there and try to twist the drive shaft back and forth. Do the Universal Joints clunk? Is there lots of back and forth lash in the drive train? There will be a little in the drive train, but should not be any in the U-joints. Also look for leakage where the drive shaft goes into the transmission. If it’s a car that has CV joints, check for tears in the outer and inner boots and look for signs that the grease has escaped.
Bad CV boot = bad CV joint=half shaft replacement.
After spending all that time down there, you should be ready to get up and look at the engine. Open the hood and have a good look. Is there oil leaking anywhere? Are there wires that have been taped up? Are the belts OK? How about the radiator hoses? Look for swelling near the ends of the hoses and feel them to see if they are getting soft due to electrolysis. Now, if all checks out OK, have the owner start it up while you stand just to the side and look/listen. Starter engaged OK? Bunches of valve noise (tapping/clicking) for a minute? That could be a sign of using crummy oil filters with no anti-drain back valve or that it needs a valve adjustment if it’s an older car. If excessive valve noise persists, begin worrying. You should expect some valve noise from an older Japanese engine but none from an older American motor.
Also, while it’s running, perform the blow-by test outlined earlier. You should look at the underside of the oil filler cap too. Some slight white-ish residue is a sign the the car may not have been driven much in the last few months; might be a good thing, might not. Ask the owners about what they have been doing with the car the last few months and see if the story fits the evidence. Green-ish or yellow residue may be indicative of a bad problem. It most likely will be dry and dark brown or wet and oily – that’s OK. Now before things get too hot, shut it down. On a carbureted or throttle body injected car, remove the air filter and look down the throttle bore. Is it oily in there? In a diesel it may be slightly oily but should not be dripping with oil. Is it carboned-up and black? If it’s a port fuel injected car, and you feel confident you can do it without breaking things, pull the MAF/MAS hose off the throttle body and look for the same problems.
Take notice of the condition and brand of the spark plug wires, ignition cap (if it has one), and oil filter. Cheap brands are bad news. Factory brands are good news. If the oil filter is orange (not gonna name brands here), or if it is a really cheap generic brand, beware. But do your research here. The factory filter for a VW could be a Mann, Mahle, or Bosch. While the correct spark plug wires for a Toyota are Toyota, the best ones for a Land Rover are not Land Rover (STI, or Magnacore are considered best). Not that it’s a big deal to have different ones, but if you don’t do your research you might think the good ones are crap and vice-verse. What we are trying to determine is the maintenance strategy of the owner. A person who buys a Toyota for it’s great reliability and then puts the cheapest generic parts on it really makes no sense at all. After all, the correct operation of a a car is a function of the sum of it’s parts.
Now check the oil. If it’s a diesel it will be pitch black, that’s OK. On a gas engine it should be dark brown to clear. If it’s muddy, like chocolate milk, stop here, thank the owner for his time and leave, that’s a sign that water is mixing with the oil. Unless of course an engine rebuild sounds like fun to you. Also make sure the car is on level ground and check the oil level. If it’s very low, that is another bad sign. Where did it go, how long has it been gone? If the oil is new and clear, it might be OK or it might be because there was a problem to hide. Now check the coolant; some cars have a coolant reservoir with a pressure cap and no radiator cap. Other cars have a radiator cap and unpressurized reservoir. If it has a radiator cap, slowly open it with a rag. If it doesn’t, open the reservoir cap in like manner. Take a look; is it pure red or pure green? That’s good, but it should not be rusty colored or have any scum floating about. It should not be too hot, so stick your finger down in there and pull it out and wipe it off on a white rag. All you should see is coolant. If there is blackish oil scum, it may be in need of a whole new engine block!
Milky oil
Time to check the steering and suspension system. With the ignition turned on, but the car not running, have your friend turn the steering wheel back and forth until it gets hard. Kneel down at each front tire and look/listen for clunking. Now trade spots. Is there a lot of free play in the steering before it starts to get hard? Do you feel a clunk just before it does? That could be several things that are not right. Now go over to the front tires and begin pushing and pulling on the top of the tire from side to side (not round and round the way a tire rolls). Get the car rocking good. Can you feel a clunk and/or free play in the wheel? If there is it may need ball joints or wheel bearings. Now do the same with the front and back edge of the tire. Try to turn the wheel like the car was going to make a turn, but pull back and forth on the tire (don’t roll it). Is there a clunk here? If so, it may need tie rod ends.
Lower ball joint
Now that all that is mostly done, it’s time to move on to the test drive which will be covered in the next and last installment. So next week I will cover the test drive, final check, and bargaining. See you next week. Read part three.
I’m sorry, I didn’t understand this part –
” On the other hand if they tell you something like; “I need something that gets better mileage” or “I want something a little newer”, those are actually good signs of an honest response.”
” But what you most often get is, “we need something bigger/smaller, sportier, etc. That really doesn’t tell you anything. ”
It seems to me these answers are equally informative/uninformative. Ok, sportier is vague, but Bigger/smaller is fairly objective – at least as much so as a little newer, or better mileage.
Maybe I’m making too much of this, but I just don’t get the distinction. Smaller/better mileage, Bigger/newer, they seem about the same in terms of “information”. It’s either the answer they’ve decided to give, the answer that came off the top of their head, or it’s what they really want. I don’t find wanting something bigger/smaller any more or less telling than wanting something newer or that gets better mileage.
It’s just the difference between a vague answer and a specific answer tha might sound bad to a buyer.
To follow up on my first post, I’m never really very interested in people’s “reason” for selling the car.
If I’m trying to determine whether it’s worth driving across town to look at I’ll just ask some “technical” questions – Does the car have any problems – such as burning oil, tappet noise, slipping transmission? How’s the interior- any rips, tears, stains? How’s the paint – any bubbles, and rust? I’ll ask all of this w/o giving time to answer. No accusatory tone, just matter of fact. When I’m finished the guy on the other end of the phone knows that I want an honest appraisal of the car. He also knows if he gets me over there, I’m coming with an OBD-II (if applicable) a compression tester, and maybe some other tools. IOWs at this point he knows he’s wasting his own time if the car is a POS. He’ll probably tell me on the phone what’s wrong with it.
As you pointed out, if the car is a POS the seller will never tell you that’s the reason for selling it. If the car is pretty good, any other reason (Newer/bigger/smaller/sportier/better mileage) are plausible -probably true- reasons for selling the car.
A code reader and compression gauge are great tools. But not all readers are capable of that level of technical know how. Yes, yes they will waste your time. I know this from way too much time wasted.
It’s about character because you can’t look at every part of the car. Unless your going to do a complete tear down. So some trust is required. Gauging trust is every bit as important as looking over the car. After all, how do you know it was not severely over heated and the cylinder walls are all scored up and the rings are ready to seize in their lands, or that the last oil went for 30,000 miles and that they just had it changed and now all the bearing shells are toast?
A good inspection checklist, Michael. I particularly agree with trying to see the car and the owner in his native habitat. My best cars have come from folks who are older and who have the money to buy something nice, and who maintain their property. Things like matching sets of Michelin tires, AAA stickers on the bumpers, and a current oil change sticker in the windshield say a lot, particularly when the owner has owned the car for at least 3 or 4 years. I have bought a lot of 10-15 year old cars from original owners. At that age, you can tell when they have been maintained and when they have not.
When I buy an older car, I am looking for one of the top 5% in condition. I have found, unfortunately, that what a lot of people consider a nice car does not match what I consider to be a nice car. I have half-jokingly made a rule to never look at a car that has been photographed in an alley. There are a lot of nice people who live with alleys behind them, but my experience has been that these folks are usually less able to maintain a car the way it should be maintained.
When talking with the owner, one of my favorite questions is “if you were keeping the car, what are the next couple of things that would need done on it..”
I also take a very close look at all of the body panels, and living in the midwest, spend a lot of time looking at the bottoms of the inner doors, tailgates/trunklids and even the inside of the hood lip. I try also to ask for a VIN before I come to look at the car so that I can run a CarFax search. The last time I did, it showed me that the car had spent its first 5 years in Michigan. Not a good sign for rust issues, which were just starting all over the car.
More great advise!
Orange oil filters=bad news. I agree 100% on that one!
My wife’s Chrysler minivan has one, and has since we got it. But that’s because I’m not-so-silently trying to kill it.
Somehow the damn thing keeps going,
Oh, I think this is overblown a bit and I certainly wouldn’t let it be a deal-breaker (now a K&N air filter, that’s another story . . .). My dad used Fram filters exclusively on our 1971 LTD and that engine had about 230K miles on it before it developed a lower end knock.
I still agree that a higher-quality filter should be used, though.
No I would not let it be a deal breaker, just another little tell to add up.
What color ones are good news?
Once my next-door neighbor put a for sale sign on his pickup, a very nice looking 71 F-150, bright poppy red, V8 automatic. It had always been kept clean and shiny for the several years I’d known the truck. Well, what a surprise when I went to look at it. Bald tires (all four). Rustout on the inside hood edges that I saw when the hood was raised. Drove it anyway, and found the shifter to be extremely rubbery feeling – realized why so many of those had a propensity to shift themselves into reverse – and the transmission slipped between shifts. What a disappointment.
The air conditioning just needs a recharge and that check engine light just needs a $5 part from NAPA. And don’t worry about that grinding when you start it up- they all do that.
Heard it all.
Reminds me of when me and a friend checked out a 87’ish Supra we saw on Craigslist. Looked nice in the pictures; fresh paint, and rebuilt 6 with a handful of miles. The price was $1,700 or so; worth a look.
We pull up and notice immediately this is, at best, an Earl Scheib paint job. Lots of overspray; looked cheap. One of the rims was damaged, so all four would need replaced. That’s at least $500 right there. Opened the hood and saw a broken oil filler cap that was rubber banded together. That’s a 5 buck part at any parts store. I knew right then this was not gonna happen. You spend a few hundred in parts and hour after hour of labor rebuilding an engine and you don’t even buy a oil filler cap? What else did he cheap out on?
We drove it anyway and it ran great, but there was an unsettling noise from the engine, so that was that. Noooooo way.
Good check list Ive got a fairly good bullshit filter when talking to people about their cars and with carjam we can do an internet history check on the rego number. Im more interested in how often those orange filters get changed( I use em)and the general maintenance records my current car had a local service history that proved the vendor to be a.stupid, b. a liar but the car was good and has proved reliable ever since uses no oil which is rare for a turbocharged diesel. Good series Michael Im enjoying your writing.
Bryce, I agree about the change intervals but you really should get good filters. Those cheapos are only a dollar or two less than the good ones usually. They often have no drain back valve which means in many cars, whenever you start it up, it will be starting with no oil at all in the upper end! Also the filter media is usually insufficient, to small, and improperly reinforced. Sometimes the bonding method used to assemble them is nothing but glue, which can break down. All this to save a buck or two?
They’re usually double the price and many of the “name brand” filters are re-packaged Fram anyway.
You should expect some valve noise from an older Japanese engine but none from an older American motor.
Unless it’s a Vega. [rimshot!]
Another excellent post with some excellent points I’d never considered before. I don’t know what scares me worst; the person I know is lying when I ask about a vehicle history, or the one who is absolutely clueless about maintenance or history.
That said I’ve found myself keeping a close eye on the parts used as well as the garage space of the owner. If a car is riddled with bargain basement parts and tires while they live in a nice and organized home – no thanks. Clear indicator that they don’t care about maintenance and those cheap parts probably get the life used out of them – like 10k on their walmart oil change because they don’t give a damn about the car.
If I go to a more “modest” place with a mix of mid and low range parts/filters, I’m more comfortable. Especially if it’s coupled with a garage where the owner clearly doesn’t hesitate to work, and takes pride in. Generally you’ll find the good parts where needed and the mediocre or cheap where they really don’t matter much.
Tires are my biggest clue. If they have the absolute bargain basement stuff and they’re brand new, I walk. Clear sign of problems.
If they’re a good quality that they clearly got from a tire store and not Walmart, or hell even if they are from walmart but are the higher quality – I take notice. Especially if they have a little or medium wear, tire wear is a indicator of just about everything as is the quality of the tires. I’d buy a mid-90s f-150 with slightly but evenly worn BFG all terrains in a heartbeat over a later model with brand new cheap all season hankooks or something along those lines.
Great point about the tire! I should have mentioned that, I have found the same to be true. Usually if the tires are worn down, it means that at some point they gave up on caring about the car and just started driving until it either broke or they decided to sell it to you.
I guess if you are ever looking for a job you could add professional BS detective to your resume’. Good article. Well founded and well written.
Thanks.
I think this is a great series, because these are all the things I do when looking at a car! I personally can not stress enough: Know the car you are going to look at! Do some research online. Know the common problems and little foibles for that model when going to look at it. For example, if buying a BMW know that the genuine BMW antifreeze is blue. Little things like that, along with the brands of parts and tires really make or break a deal for me.
Great advice Michael. Knowing a car’s past is so important, which is why I’ve pretty much given up buying from dealers, unless they happen to have all the maintenance history (extremely rare). I’ve gotten lucky there (Olds Intrigue, one owner, great car) and not so lucky (VW Passat, oil sludge problem).
I find that when the receipts folder is thin (or non-existent), sometimes just finding out where the car was maintained can net you a lot of info. If you know where a car was registered for part of its life (especially early on), you can call around to the dealers in the area and see if it’s ever been in for service. Chances are its been to one of them. When I bought the Passat, I found out from a dealer that the timing belt had been replaced on schedule (good), and that while the oil changes were done on time, they weren’t synthetic (on a 1.8t, very NOT good). Unfortunately I didn’t think to ask about the oil type until after the purchase.
Last weekend I bought a car to replace the Olds for my wife. ’95 Mercedes E320 wagon, 125k. Second owner (and an enthusiast), had it seven years, Mobil 1 oil changes, lots of OEM parts. The catch is, it needed a head gasket. Now, this is an almost universal problem for that era of MB sixes, so it’s something that will have to be dealt with eventually, though I wish a previous owner would have been the one to do it. But the car was clean and otherwise well-maintained, most of the other known flaws already addressed, and the price reflected the work needed. I took the plunge and will be replacing the head gasket (among other things) this week. Time will tell whether or not I made the right decision.
Ha, I was looking into buying an E320 wagon of that era but got the Volvo because of cheaper insurance and parts. I still would love to have one though. On my last car I was told where it was serviced and a call to the shop netted me almost all of the service records.
I’ve always wanted a W123 or W124 wagon, and I finally got one. Had a ’73 220D a while back that was a fun little car, but it was a $400 basket case. The parts aren’t too dear if you look around, I picked up everything I need for the head gasket and cooling system from ECS Tuning and Pelican parts for a reasonable price. The insurance is actually cheaper than both the Olds and my ’95 Impreza.
Looks like a good list.
As a seller of quite a few nice used vehicles over the years, I will only approve limited checking of the engine. I generally won’t approve a compression test, and I have lost a couple sales because of it. But I don’t want the chance of damage to the engine with complex spark plug removal (stripped threads, broken wires etc). Checking for blowby, OBD, oil filler cap, coolant cap, is fine. In general I price the vehicles moderately to attract a lot of calls, and I know a quick sale is possible. So someone pouring over the vehicle for excessive time, or pointing out excessive minor or imagined problems can lead to a cutoff on my part.
When I buy used, for compression I check for blowby, and check for a smooth idle and exhaust flow. On many engines I can hear compression differences when cranking but before starting (engine speeds up when compressing the low cylinder).
Yep, that’s why I did not include those. On certain cars just getting to the spark plugs requires disassemble of the manifold etc.
Fascinating, thank you! Dad was a mechanic before he retired, so I’d heard a lot of your advice – but reading it reminded me how much we forget – and how easy it is to forget! I now feel suitably re-informed and look forward to part 3. 🙂
“Notice I did not mention price discussion here? That’s because without having seen the car, you have no business discussing the price at all.
I have bought and sold many cars in my time and when it comes to selling this is the MOST annoying question I have fielded and it happens alot! My usual response is “you haven’t even seen it yet, come have a look and then, if you want to buy it we can discuss the price.”
Thankfully most don’t go beyond that point. Those that do usually end up wasting my time, trying to get something for nothing.
Funny, I was about to post the exact same thing. I haven’t sold a lot of cars, but when I have, I absolutely hate that question “What’s the lowest you’ll take for it?” without even seeing the vehicle yet. When looking to buy used, I’m often shocked at the general condition of the interior of some people’s cars – dirty, papers and junk lying all over. I wonder just how some damage occurs – like chunks of the dash missing, trim pieces missing. I mean, what exactly happened here? Was there a fight in here or something? Very good list, and I’m looking forward to the next article.
Having just sold my truck on Craigslist, I can’t tell you how many emails I received asking that exact same question.
I finally got to the point of politely but firmly suggesting that it is foolish to even make an offer on something which one hasn’t even seen yet . . . but I think that’s throwing jewelry into the pigpen! It really scares me for the future of our country, however . . .
Oh, and I like the milky oil picture… Yuck!
My neighbor’s ’96 Windstar had oil that looked like that about 100K miles ago (when the engine was fully rebuilt for about $3K). Now, it looks like that again. I just did a check-engine light diagnosis for him last week – and coolant poured out of two cylinders when I took the plugs out! I definitely hydrolocked it while trying to start it to drive up onto the ramps (to see if I could get the rear plugs from below – no dice, too many rear heater and A/C hard lines in the way), so there may be a slightly bent connecting rod in there now but it doesn’t knock (yet).
Darned Ford 3.8 head and intake gaskets. There is no way to know how many new Camry/Sienna and Accord/Odyssey purchasers were created by Ford’s 1990s blunder on this one.
And since his block and heads may have been replaced during the original rebuild, there is no easy way to tell if it will require the 3mm, 4mm, or 5mm thick intake gaskets during reassembly . . .
Time to get a Sienna