Used Car Surprises and Gremlins

[Not Dave]

We've all bought used cars. Some things the previous owner failed to mention could surprise you later on.

I purchased my car a few months ago and knew it had a broken trans mount, no biggie as I can replace it. I knew the car was mostly original save tires and such.

The P01441 code keeps coming on and I know charcoal bits are making their way from the canister (behind the left rear wheel) up to the engine clogging up the purge valve. Today I took it off and cleaned out the bits again.

I decided to check under the car and see how difficult it is to access the canister. While down there I looked at the stock muffler and noticed it didn't have straight lines... looks like it smacked something pretty hard on the front portion of it denting it nicely. I don't know if it's caused a flow restriction or not. Needless to say when I get the funds I'll be replacing it with a cat back system, preferably Magnaflow. I've thought about just replacing the muffler or getting a whole system.

There was also the deal of the driver speaker door not working when I got it. No biggie, I'm good with car audio. Someone put in a Pioneer head unit and had to jack with the driver door wiring to get the speaker to work. The passenger speaker worked... it was a red colored Sony. The speaker wire also ran from the door panel to under the dash out in the open. I replaced all that crap and ran everything correctly.

So what have you found out later after picking up a used car? Blown head gasket, previous sugar in the gas tank, liberal use of duct tape, what? Go ahead and tell your story.

[SSlowBoat]

Three dead mice in the blower in my impala, along with the normal cracked vacuum lines and such.

I bought a vw jetta one time, a 96. I was driving it up and down my stone driveway before I registered it. Kept hearing stones hit the metal portions of the car and didn't think anything of the muted hits under the car. When I registered it we were driving in the rain and the whole passenger side floor front to back and drivers side rear floor became soaked. I peeled the carpet back and the floor was very poorly fiberglassed/stuffed with newspaper then had sheetmetal epoxied to it, then spray bedlined. I shit you not, one of the pieces of sheetmetal had fallen off. Then the rain made it like paper mache. Got rid of that one quick

[shownomercy]

The dash cluster on my truck crapped out after a week or so :lol:

Was going 50mph at idle.

[SSlowBoat]

The dash cluster on my truck crapped out after a week or so :lol:

Was going 50mph at idle.
Silveraydo problems. My wife learned how to drive with the tach pinned speedo at zero and pegged rest of gauges on the 03

[shownomercy]

Silveraydo problems. My wife learned how to drive with the tach pinned speedo at zero and pegged rest of gauges on the 03

GM problems :lol: Mine is a GMC

[Not Dave]

Silveraydo problems. My wife learned how to drive with the tach pinned speedo at zero and pegged rest of gauges on the 03

A buddy has an 04 Silverado, his speedo doesn't work either. We took a trip to the coast and I had to use my smart phone to monitor the speed so we wouldn't get tagged by Johnny Law.

As for the Jetta, be glad you survived! Dang.

[hokeplaya05]

i had underglow neon on my camaro when i bought it...was the first thing to go lol although the buttons are still there on my center console cause i dont want random holes left in it. looking for an ebony m6 console if anyone has one :cheers:

[SS RRR]

Years ago, bought a LeBaron for next to nothing. Ran fine for the first week, then started to stall. Acted just like a bad fuel pump. Dropped the tank and found two bald field mice inside. All the fur was in the filter. Soon after that the trans locked up. No way to start the car, but it was sold for more more than I paid for it. Win/win.

[popo8]

My vette. Bought it in 2010 from Long Island NY. site unseen... road trip with an empty trailer and took her home.

Next day open the hood and because of the multiple vettes that were used to create mine...i discover all the wires under the hood are RED. Powers... grounds... remotes... etc. Lol.

[SSlowBoat]

Oh wait I have one more. Bought a 94 gmc jimmy off the nj f body forum from a guy. Supposedly he did this and that to it, rebuilt motor blah blah. After 2 days truck just seemed a little down on power, I had to drive it to Delaware to bring the Silverado trans to Cahall and bring the new one back. The way down was ok, the way back it was really losing power. We went over it at my buddies shop and couldn't find anything wrong, idled fine, revved fine, so I got on the highway to go home. Going up a hill 3 miles from the shop, just got on highway, power dissappears, I had it floored as to not get run over by the trucks, and the motor went boom at 2k rpm.

I owned the damn thing for 4 days

[Gette]

This would be a book, I will outline it all in a build thread...

[hokeplaya05]

another on about my car, PO had blown the original motor, so he swapped in a long block from a 95 impalla ss and put the camaro top end on it. test drove the car, all was good, bought it, drove home fine (except for a knock that developed on my way home but that is a whole-nother story). drove the car the next day and it started to throw and shred belts and i could not figure out what was causing it. finally when looking down at the accesories from the top i saw that the balancer pulley stuck out about a half inch or so infront of the rest of the accesories. i got the camaro balancer from the guy and put it on, but it was still throwing belts. then i found out the the impalla accesories are offset farther from the engine than the f-bodys. put some washers behind the accesory bracket and it was fixed! dont worry, i only ran it like that for a couple weeks

[Not Dave]

Yikes! Popo has a great one with the red wires. Red is pretty. Don't want to mess up the engine compartment with all those different colored wires.

[Gette]

Gremlins and surprises??? Well I am still finding them. I would refer to my build thread.


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[Neil350]

The T/A the AC Compressor was going out when I got it.

I had an 08 Sierra, got the truck with 8K miles, ran a service history and the motor had been replaced at 3K. DOD lifter collapsed, common problem apparently with the early DOD trucks. Had constant drive shaft issues with it and little problems. Speakers went out, some thing with the heater control panel went out. Never left me standing but just a lot of little issues. Most all fixed under warranty. I put 80K+ plus miles on that truck before trading it on a new F-150. I kinda miss that truck some times, drove really nice and rode smooth.

C6 - Nothing, really. P/O did a Callaway Cold Air and a Borla, that's about it. I did see when I put the MGW that the torque tube was out because a bolt was stripped. Under the service history they replaced a rear main seal on it. Made sense at that point.

[savage388]

When I bought my 94z I did know it was r-titled but I never knew the car had been totalled more than once, and basically ever panel on it has been repaired repleced. The day I got it the drivers window refused to go up, but I soon found out both of the windows leak so that didn't really matter. A week later the muffler decided to literally fall off, then another week after that the car wouldnt start because the fuel pump went out. Jeez now I wonder why ive kept this car for so long...

[dawdaw]

The 05 impala that I just bought had a bad blower motor for the heat and that was it. ..

[Sahara54]

Well, When I bought the WS6 both window motors were shot and a few other odds and ends. I fixed all the issues in about 3 hours but the best part was when I did the window motors. I pulled the drivers switch panel to pull the door panel and found 7 bags of heroin...I instantly tore ever interior panel out searching and making sure nothing was in the car. Thankfully nothing else was found...sheww. My luck would have on the the K9 dogs mark my car while walking into the center during visits. lol. Just another reason I hate that car and it's days are numbered.

[bustedassz28]

Two that come to mind for me is 1) my 99 Tahoe had been sitting forever, brought it home and took the intake manifold off to do gaskets and surprise a chicken bone- damn rats. Next was an 84 15th anniversary Trans am sat outside for years in new jersey, trailered it home, turned on the heater and it sounded like a food processor with marbles in it. I pulled the heater box apart and it had about 5 lbs on acorns in it!- damn squirrels....

[Not Dave]

Gremlins and surprises??? Well I am still finding them. I would refer to my build thread.

Yes, I've read your build thread.


Well, When I bought the WS6 both window motors were shot and a few other odds and ends. I fixed all the issues in about 3 hours but the best part was when I did the window motors. I pulled the drivers switch panel to pull the door panel and found 7 bags of heroin...I instantly tore ever interior panel out searching and making sure nothing was in the car. Thankfully nothing else was found...sheww. My luck would have on the the K9 dogs mark my car while walking into the center during visits. lol. Just another reason I hate that car and it's days are numbered.

That would be a major pain. At least I don't usually have my personal vehicles around my coworkers (some of whom are K9 officers) but you never know. F Body's tend to draw attention. At least mine is clean and in good shape so doesn't get much attention from my brothers in blue.