So when having a third party inspection, are all those things you described something that they would do, or do you sort of have to direct them in what you want to be looked at specifically?
I started a different thread that addresses the idea of whether seeing the car in person does any good in terms of deciding it is a good deal or not. I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.
I agree with everyone here, that said to just follow the scheduled maintenance as in the owners manual.
There are some times that you would want to be pro-active and replace a part.
Then there are parts that while you are replacing one part, you also have access …at that point…to replace another part that may be a problem in the future. But all of this forces you to balance… the cost, the access,the ease of replacement, and the failure rate of the part.
If you were replacing a timing chain, I would replace the water pump because you have already taken it off to access the timing cover and chain. A new water pump would be less than $75 for the part.
Yosemite
While opinions vary on most issues and especially on car maintenance anyone with many years of maintaining vehicles should be able to look under and around a used vehicle and somewhat intuitively recognize various indicators of likely future problems. I wouldn’t attempt to draw up a list because there are just too many possible issues. I once inspected a car and recognized that the paint on one wheel well was noticeably fresher than the other so when I looked underneath I went to great lengths lighting up the suspicious side and scraping a sound deadening under coating off and found that the car was a totaled wreck that had been heated, hammered and welded back to near original. I’m old and like many who have years of experience in automobiles I often notice what most miss. That totaled car was sent to a really good body shop that insisted welding in a replacement front cap would be necessary to properly repair it. Needless to say the car lot selling it was unhappy and the would be customer was very happy. So, I strongly advise taking used cars to TIRED OLD mechanics for close inspections and explain that you want as much information as possible on the vehicles overall condition.
Nobody does until they get some training. Modern vehicles are way too complex to just open the hood and fix by trial and error, as could be often done with pre-80’s vintages. Try that w/a modern engine and you’ll likely be paying out big bucks to fix the stuff you break monkeying around. Folks who repair their own cars study how to do it before even popping the hood, either on their own by reading a repair manual, getting a single vehicle subscription to All Data, by taking a class, or having somebody show them. Oh, and asking questions here of course. Other than changing the oil & filter perhaps, most car owners don’t even attempt it b/c there’s a pretty steep learning curve and a significant tooling-up expense.
So is there a point for me to look under the hood? The only thing I could think of would be for rust, but even then, I wouldn’t know what’s problematic and what’s just kinda expected for a 10,15,20 year old vehicle.
Pretty much boils down to just getting a Tired Old Mechanic (a TOM?? Is that a coincidence…) to do a pre purchase inspection, right? Because I wouldn’t be able to instinctively know what to look at or dig in to.
Yes, that’s usually the best method.
That picture shows a fair amount of rust in the wheel well areas. I would have the body looked at if it is showing that much rust on the top side.
Why not simply follow the maintenance schedule recommended in your manual? It could cost a small fortune to preemptively replace parts that you expect to break. You could replace literally dozens of pieces that you feel could break soon only to get stuck on the side of a highway because your $5 exhaust hanger rusted off and you lost your muffler.
I purchased a 1999 4wd 4Runner with 150K. After inspection it needed one lower ball joint, so I went to dealer and purchased all four OEM ball joints (I figured replace them all one time), then I had the throttle body & mass air cleaned and adjusted, had pre and post cat O2 sensors changed, replaced plugs and wires, replaced PCV valve, had radiator pressure tested and found a leak so replaced that, replaced timing belt/water pump/tensioners etc.(no history so I played it safe), serviced tranny, rear shocks were soft so replaced those with blisteins (TRD shocks), then had mechanic reset the engine CPU so everything started fresh and the cpu learned my driving habits. I purchased the Runner from a used car lot, Car Fax was clean and it was a California car. Yes, I spent a few $$, but now the car is starting fresh with me and I know all major services are done right. It runs like new. No, it’s not for sale:)
Out of curiosity, did you make those decisions based on the dealership looking it over and making recommendations? Or was it personal experience on a different vehicle that made you so preemptive?
Most of my decision to do all this work was based on the mechanic looking at the car. He found that the rear cam seal was leaking as well as the valve cover gaskets, so that was a no brainer. But it was my decision to replace all 4 ball joints as I just figured that if one was worn, the other 3 couldn’t be perfect. But when it came to replace the right axle due to a leaking boot, I only replaced one. All the other work done was based on my mechanic examining the car. I replaced the radiator because I wanted to take the car on a long drive and I knew nothing of its repair history, so to be safe the local radiator shop did a pressure test and we found a pinhole leak along the top. I replaced the timing belt/water pump because again there was no record of that ever being done, and at 150K miles, I bit the bullet and changed it, and that was my decision. I like doing small stuff myself. The car didn’t come with a CD player and I did not want an aftermarket unit. I found a place online that repairs and sells only OEM radios so I bought an OEM Toyota radio/CD unit. Also, my intermittent wiper was faulty so I found a new OEM wiper arm (comes with circuit box) and installed that myself. Perfect wipers now.
I too prefer the OEM radios over aftermarket tinsel. What is the online place you found?
Timing chains can stretch and jump time…which has the potential of causing the same damage as if a timing belt broke. This is assuming it’s an interference engine. My wifes lexus and my Highlander both have chains and are both interference engines. But based on my 4runner - I expect to sell the vehicles long before I need to replace the chain.
?“don’t expect”?
Fixed…Thanks for picking that up.