Checking out Used cars, post your tips

[DannyboyDS]

This is a rough guide only, I am not a mechanic, you should get a mechanic to test out the car just in case.

Paint and body are first generally this consists of walking around the car a few times looking at it from different angles.

I check for overspray if any respraying has been done shadows in the paint ripples, cracks, scratches, crocodile skin basically any blemishes but the main focus is to tell if it has been in crash or not.


Check the tires too, make sure they have some meat on them and they are not worn unevenly.

If it passes this test ill jump inside it.

Ill look at the interior for signs of wear and tear, ill also check the k's its done, although normally in a car yard ill check this from the outside on the little piece of paper.

Generally i'll walk away from a high K car without even bothering to pop the hood. (Although I bought my last car at 250,000 its a good solid system with almost no faults)

Check for faded plastics, worn seats/carpet, damaged seat belts, ripples in the tint, stains, non functioning lights on the dash.

Check that the ciggerette lighter works too, push the buttons and check the result, adjust the seats and mirrors in a few different ways, dont be afraid to push them all as far as they go and then back again.

Does the radio function, is it locked and needs a pin code, MAKE THEM PUT IT IN, dont be fooled by "oh ill get it for you tonight and sms it" once you hand them the money all there promises are WORTHLESS

Climb into the passenger seat check the glovebox (I made the mistake once of not doing this, after paying for the car I opened the glovebox and it fell to the floor)

Check the boot release button (if the car has one)

Ok so the boots popped, lets go look at it, on the way climb into the back and make sure the rear window demister wires are attached, have a quick look at the window and check for breaks in teh wires across the glass.

Check the boot for dampness, lift the carpet if you can and check for rust check the seals here and the grommits, is there a spare tire? by law there does not have to be one, but IF there is one it MUST be roadworthy, for a car over $3k id demand a spare tire and a jack.

Ok so lets pop the hood, is it clean under the bonnet, allot of car yards clean leaky engines, some clean all engines, so pop a few bonnets see what there trend is.

check here for leaks, frayed wires, cracked hoses anything really, take the radiator cap off (If the engine is cold) check its got some spring it, if its faulty make them replace it, check the date on the battery and look for oxydisation on the terminals.

Have a look under the car, have them move it or move it yourself, just so you can see the ground its been sitting on, any oil or any other fluid there?

Start the engine and listen, shhhhh just listen....

What can you hear?

Engine noises are well there is too much for me to describe here lets just say you shouldnt be able to hear much more then the fuel injectors and the fan thats a perfect engine, listen for anything abnormal like a rough tapping sound or slapping sound.

Is it going put,put,put,put could be an exhaust leak.

Give it some revs now, sounds ok? does it settle back down quickly? whats it idle like? rough? what color smoke is it blowing?

On the first start get them to start it and insist they give ita few revs within seconds of start up, not over 1.5k but a few revs, what color is that smoke? blue? white? or none?

Blue means walk away the rings are farked, White means its burning a little oil, black means its either burning allot of oil or air fuel mix is very wrong, and little to nothing comming out the back means its a good engine or its not running, oh and dont trust the smoke it puts out on idle, you want to see what it puts out under load, when the engine is warmed up stand behind it and get them or a friend to push it to 2.5 to 3k and hold it for about 10 seconds or so.

ok so far so good?

Lets go for the long awaited test drive.

whats it like? smooth or rough over bumps? does it steer ok? groan or moan from the front end? test the brakes as well and try stopping from 20 - 30 kmh on an empty area without holding the wheel (not a sudden stop) does it wrench in one direction, thats bad. (note hover your hands millimeters from the wheel, be ready to grab it if need be)

whats it accelerate like? any wierd noises from the transmission? or the diff?

Ok thats all for now and that really is just the tip of the iceberg, we could go into measuring distances between the wheel centers and such and so forth but ill leave that for another post or for some other people.

So post your used car checking tips guys.

[krazyboris]

Wow, thats a pretty comprehensive list, so i'll just add this:-

Internet, car buyers best friend. Search online first, not just because it's easy, but free aswell. When people go car shopping they spend money on fuel, general wear and tear that need not be there, and even fast food cost's.
At a stab, here is a rundown. $20 juice for close car hunting+$10 for lunch =$30. May not sound like much, but if you are searching every weekend for three months, that's around $360 spent for no real good reason.

[vtdemon]

SERVICE HISTORY!!!

Check it's up to date, vehicle has original books from new if possible with service stamps instead of just signatures in the service intervals section.

If possible see if the vehicle has had the correct services carried out at the right times, if the service schedule is out it may mean the car wasn't serviced regularly, had backyardys done(possibly not right) or was driven very little and serviced very unfrequently(is that a word???).

If it still has the original books it may have the servicing dealer's details meaning you could go and see if they will check out the history and check what repairs had been carried out on the car, if it was serviced by them.

Try and have a look at the brake pads to visibly check how much 'meat' there is on the pads, and feel across the brake disc to see if it is scalloped on worn strangely. Brakes can be expensive to replace especially after you forked out a few g's on a car. Check colour and smell of trans oil in Autos, burnt smelling oil and brown or even black oil is bad.

That's all I can think of right now, hope it helps.

Cheers and happy hunting.

[RatrezistoR]

Check these out; compiled this myself from a bunch of websites ( I didn't write most of it)

These are all very helpful and it makes you look professional with some coveralls on and a clipboard! I still think you should get a professional inspection done anyway!

http://www.divisioncomputers.net/com.../Checklist.xls
http://www.divisioncomputers.net/com.../Questions.doc

They're hosted on my server so .. yeah.. download them and check 'em out. They're only small and the first one is to be opened with OpenOffice.org - but can be opened with Micro$oft excel.. the second one can be opened with word or similar.

RR

[vtdemon]

This could be a good sticky.

[mj2]

great list Dannyboy.I'm saving it for future reference. Thank you

[VZTHUNDER]

this needs to be stickied
i will definatly use this when i buy my car

[JD]

one other thing, check that the odometer still works when you take it for a spin, it may say 118xxx but it may of stopped 5 years ago so it could be up to 230xxx.

[Spaced]

The magnet!

Run a small section of a fridge magnet along the side of the car if it falls off anywhere metal it's bog.

D

[JD]

also check the dates on the tyres also, look over the tyre sidewall and if you find a box with 3 or 4 numbers in it its the tyre date, if its 3 number it looks something like this: 296 which means it was made on the 29th week of 1996, if its four letters it will look something like this: 4506 which means it was made on the 45th week of 2006, so the first 2 numbers are weeks and the 3rd is the year pre-2000 and the 4th is post-2000

some tyre manufactors didn't produce tyres with dates until around 2000 so if the tyre doesn't have a date its probably made before 2000.

[DannyboyDS]

Make sure that magnet wont scratch the car, use one of the fish tank cleaning magnets they have felt on one and velcro on the other, use the felt one :P

Cant believe I forgot the FLUIDS!!!!!!! that is critical.

Firstly the water, does it have brown sludge in it? does it froth or have air bubbles comming through it on idle and a cold engine ? could be a head gasket

Check trans oil (As mentioned) is it red and fresh or burnt and a dark brownie red? if its dark and brownie its crap fluid, but if the trans runs ok, disregard that and just make them service it if possible or do it yourself later.

The brake fluid, is there much of it? is it leaking, is anything around the master cylinder fubar, like corroded plastics or rubber? stripped paint?

Power steering fluid, check these hoses SO carefully, pop your head all around it check the seals too, they are prone to go on a commodore.

OIL!!!!!

Pull the dipstick out, if its black, it needs changing and indicates an a hole of a previous owner, if its a milky brown, the head is ####ed, if its clearish to slightly brown its good clean fresh oil, drive it, let it set and settle, check all fluids again, they may have cleaned it up for show :P

and lastly from me, ill let others post from here on out.

never buy into there crud, they are liars, all of them, if they promise something MAKE THEM DELIVIER IT before you pay.

Remind them that you can look at a thousand other cars like theres and will more than likely find a better one at a better price, if anything is wrong wth the car, but you know you can fix it easily, get them to drop the price or fix it.

oh and find out the market value of the car.

[Spaced]

http://www.redbook.com.au is thy friend

[redcv6]

ask if the car has been in any accidents, and even if they say no look under the bonnet and in the boot for any signs of repairs(2 common places to be damaged)
i traveled all the way to nsw only to lift the bonnet and find that the car had been involved in an accident, the accident is not what phased me it was the fact that it looked like it had been fixed by some fark head in a garage with a welder some super glue and a paintbrush. ask any panel beater out there, if the repair looks dodgy it usually is.
johnny (by the way great thread)

[krazyboris]

Yeah, on some of those notes, here is some gold my bro gave me, "always be prepared to walk away from the car, no matter what"

[vtdemon]

Yeah, on some of those notes, here is some gold my bro gave me, "always be prepared to walk away from the car, no matter what"

To add to this, never appear too interested or excited about the car you're looking at especially if the salesman is present. This first impression will determine what sort of deal you're likely to get straight up.

If you can get a hold of one, a brake fluid tester which tests for percentage of water content in the brake fluid, I know Wurth make one. Moisture in brake fluid is bad news.

[evil_monkey]

make sure you look at the car in bright sunlight aswell to expose all those little nasties, stone chips, scratches, dents etc.

i made this costly mistake recently of purchasing a car comming on nightfall (the vx acclaim).

the next day with the sun beaming down on the car i realized the bonnet was scattered in stone chips which were hidden by that wax stick type stuff you can get for temporary touch ups (had to get it resprayed) which were not even slightly visable when it was darkish or in the shade

(same goes for buying over the internet, pictures lie almost any car looks good in a photo and even large dents, scratches and stone chips are compleatly hidden)

[Spaced]

Never pay what they are asking at a car yard especially. Someone probably said this but rear main seal for oil leak. So bloody common in commodores.

[DannyboyDS]

internet pictures can be doctored.

Good advise there too, Always con the conman I say.

Don't appear interested in any of there cars actually, ask if they can recommend any of there cars, usually they will recommend the cars they want to get rid of QUICKLY! usually due to major faults with them, generally stay away from these cars.

Take a multimeter or even a $10 K-mart battery/alternator tester test these things, they can be costly, I bought a car that was meant to have a new battery in it (Silly me didnt check the date, it looked new) a few months later I ripped the TWO YEAR old battery out and whacked a new one in.

[AttaBoy]

The magnet!

Run a small section of a fridge magnet along the side of the car if it falls off anywhere metal it's bog.

D

thats gonna scratch the paint.

[304cci]

compression check

[DannyboyDS]

Make sure that magnet wont scratch the car, use one of the fish tank cleaning magnets they have felt on one and velcro on the other, use the felt one :P

I allready adressed that

[Low_VX_Taxi]

check the dash lights (engine brakes etc) often pplz will remove the bulbs so there is no engine light.

[DannyboyDS]

Just a note, The book that comes with the car will tell you about these lights, when you turn the key two click to accessories, some lights are only meant to flash on to indicate that they work, others are meant to stay on,

Great Post there TwinTurbos I really hope this guide saves some people allot of hassles.

[DannyboyDS]

Did I mention that a severly worn interior on a seemingly low K car can indicate the clock has been wound back, Or to check the Vin number on the net (someone got the webby?) to see if its stolen, and that the plates look perfect, any defect on the plate, like its crooked or welded around indicate its a fake or from another vehicle

[Low_VX_Taxi]

Did I mention that a severly worn interior on a seemingly low K car can indicate the clock has been wound back, Or to check the Vin number on the net (someone got the webby?) to see if its stolen, and that the plates look perfect, any defect on the plate, like its crooked or welded around indicate its a fake or from another vehicle

Good work! wish I had this forum b4 buying a few ov my old cars, it so good it shoud BE A STICKY~HINT~HINT~ lol