Hidden faults when buying cars
Discussion
Just bought a couple of cars and both of them had hidden faults. I'm pretty good at looking around a car if I'm going to buy it but I was fooled twice in a row.
First one has a fairly substantial oil leak at the back of the engine. Can't really see it unless you're craned right over. It also had a 'Service Due' sticker over the engine warning light which I didn't think to peel off until later. I can fix all of these things and I know generally speaking when you buy a car it always has some things which have to be attended to.
The second car had a dud alternator. The guy charged up the battery so I wouldn't notice any issue and it got me home 200-ish miles. But I opened and closed the sunroof a couple of times and then suddenly it wouldn't start anymore. Luckily it was an easy one to change and only £140.00 so I'm not too cross.
Anybody else had this sort of thing?
First one has a fairly substantial oil leak at the back of the engine. Can't really see it unless you're craned right over. It also had a 'Service Due' sticker over the engine warning light which I didn't think to peel off until later. I can fix all of these things and I know generally speaking when you buy a car it always has some things which have to be attended to.
The second car had a dud alternator. The guy charged up the battery so I wouldn't notice any issue and it got me home 200-ish miles. But I opened and closed the sunroof a couple of times and then suddenly it wouldn't start anymore. Luckily it was an easy one to change and only £140.00 so I'm not too cross.
Anybody else had this sort of thing?
Install Torque app on phone, buy cheap OBD dongle from eBay. Check fault codes before purchase. Won't identify everything but if a car is dodgy mechanically then there are likely to be other logged faults as a result of lack of care & maintenance.
Edited by FA57REN on Sunday 10th July 18:01
Some cars log a lot of faults in the background which aren't necessarily show stoppers but could be if you get too excited reading all the codes. I generally want to buy the cars I go to see to save the agro of a return journey on the train so the kind of stuff I look for is anything which is obviously expensive and difficult to fix. Rust and bodywork damage I'm not a fan of.
I seem to get cars that pass my thorough checks like an MOT tester would do at curb side, with perfect MOT history that seem perfectly fine, then they suddenly fail on an array of things that have never been advised, like magically brake pipes are excessively rusted, rusty sills and bushings are excessive and bearings are rough and brakes are fluctuating excessively.
Then I take elsewhere and some minor thing needs doing as I'd expected, so mine are more complete opposite end of scale MOT tester opinions.
Had one with ABS warning light bulb removed, was showing fault when read, but no illuminating while traction control light was rigged to appear all was normal in its start up check routine.
Then I take elsewhere and some minor thing needs doing as I'd expected, so mine are more complete opposite end of scale MOT tester opinions.
Had one with ABS warning light bulb removed, was showing fault when read, but no illuminating while traction control light was rigged to appear all was normal in its start up check routine.
ingenieur said:
........ I generally want to buy the cars I go to see to save the agro of a return journey on the train so the kind of stuff I look for is anything which is obviously expensive and difficult to fix. Rust and bodywork damage I'm not a fan of.
This is me too, with me the car will likely be far away but a good price, sufficient for me to accept DIY repair if it's not engine or mega rust related issues that are unexpectedly found.NFT said:
Had one with ABS warning light bulb removed, was showing fault when read, but no illuminating while traction control light was rigged to appear all was normal in its start up check routine.
That's a sneaky one. I do wonder sometimes if more effort went into the concealment than what would have been required to fix it. I hate taking the dash out of cars but usually what has to be done to get at the warning lights. Although I bought it knowing it needed work, I got mugged pretty hard buying my 205 last year.
I still don't know how he stopped it smoking on the test drive, both the turbo and stemseals were f
ked. And even just last month I realised a slight noise at low speed was a wheel bearing I can only assume was rebuilt in a his kids sand pit!
Long read hear.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I still don't know how he stopped it smoking on the test drive, both the turbo and stemseals were f
ked. And even just last month I realised a slight noise at low speed was a wheel bearing I can only assume was rebuilt in a his kids sand pit! Long read hear.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
ingenieur said:
The second car had a dud alternator. The guy charged up the battery so I wouldn't notice any issue and it got me home 200-ish miles. But I opened and closed the sunroof a couple of times and then suddenly it wouldn't start anymore. Luckily it was an easy one to change and only £140.00 so I'm not too cross.
Very similar thing happened to me with a Rover 200 I bought. I initially gave the benefit of the doubt but the behaviour of the vendor didn’t exactly make me believe my benefit was well placed. Considering the car was “mint” and “lovingly cared for” it needed a serious amount of work to bring it up to the standard it was supposed to be at.Fortunately I can spanner all day on them happily.
ingenieur said:
That's a sneaky one. I do wonder sometimes if more effort went into the concealment than what would have been required to fix it. I hate taking the dash out of cars but usually what has to be done to get at the warning lights.
I thought that, they seemed to have bought a new axle with incorrect ABS ring on it, and decided screw it, I know how I'll solve this problem, then fixed dash bulb to seem fine instead.I knew someone who had a fake Airbag light set up to to appear fine to pass his MOT, I think garage wanted a few grand to fix as it had been crashed, repaired and new material covering dash to hide fact it had no airbags anymore, he made dash look happy then put a 5 point harness in it and off he went every year.
Turned out at the time, Airbag not illuminating would have got him a pass, so long as didn't indicate a fault I think, so he wasted his time messing with dash as had separate fuse for ABS illuminating bulb.
Edited by NFT on Sunday 10th July 19:16
Bought a 4 year old car from a dealer, everything seemed to work fine. After a week aircon started blowing warm so I took it to a local regasser who recognised the car and said the dealer had topped it up just before I inspected and bought it!
Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
I've always scanned for codes, I've found Carista pretty decent as it can do more stuff and has a PAYG model. However, I've not always done it pre-purchase. If it's a dealer with premises etc I figured I'm better off doing it 100 yards down the road so I can dig a bit deeper with mileage etc. Also if they are a dodgy dealer they'll have cleared any codes.
Obviously codes aren't everything. I bought a car where the tyres had a slow leak and TPMS was flagging it. Obvs dealer had pumped them up for test drive AND when I went to collect it a week later. Needed a wheel refurb to sort, but price was still right even with that added.
Obviously codes aren't everything. I bought a car where the tyres had a slow leak and TPMS was flagging it. Obvs dealer had pumped them up for test drive AND when I went to collect it a week later. Needed a wheel refurb to sort, but price was still right even with that added.
Chromegrill said:
Bought a 4 year old car from a dealer, everything seemed to work fine. After a week aircon started blowing warm so I took it to a local regasser who recognised the car and said the dealer had topped it up just before I inspected and bought it!
Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
Small claims then. Especially if the fault was known at time of purchase.Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
Chromegrill said:
Bought a 4 year old car from a dealer, everything seemed to work fine. After a week aircon started blowing warm so I took it to a local regasser who recognised the car and said the dealer had topped it up just before I inspected and bought it!
Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
Aircon man broke all the codes if he added refrigerant to a known leaking system. That’s out of order amateur stuff. Unless you’re in the USA where greenhouse gases are a communist plot.Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
Rozzers said:
Chromegrill said:
Bought a 4 year old car from a dealer, everything seemed to work fine. After a week aircon started blowing warm so I took it to a local regasser who recognised the car and said the dealer had topped it up just before I inspected and bought it!
Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
Aircon man broke all the codes if he added refrigerant to a known leaking system. That’s out of order amateur stuff. Unless you’re in the USA where greenhouse gases are a communist plot.Dealer told me to claim on warranty. Warranty company excluded faults known at time of purchase. So a very expensive repair for me and a dealer who has evaded all responsibility to assist.
But what he said was that the dealer had brought it for a top-up. Which is reasonable provided the dealer didn't provide any back story as to why he was doing this.
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