The prick previous owner thread.

[90longbed]

lol.... reminds me of a time about 20 or so years ago I was looking at , I believe it was an early 70s dodge charger or something like that..... was looking under the hood and took off the radiator cap and the contents were about the color of chocolate ice cream..... I put the cap back on shut the hood and walked away......another time I was looking at a shitbox on a car lot and pulled the dipstick and saw what looked like a chocolate milkshake on the dipstick.... those are the first 2 things I check on vehicles I am looking to buy..... I was an auto mechanic for 12 years and worked at a dealership for a few years where I sometimes did used car inspections.....I put that to good use when car shopping

 

[wildbill23c]

lol.... reminds me of a time about 20 or so years ago I was looking at , I believe it was an early 70s dodge charger or something like that..... was looking under the hood and took off the radiator cap and the contents were about the color of chocolate ice cream..... I put the cap back on shut the hood and walked away......another time I was looking at a shitbox on a car lot and pulled the dipstick and saw what looked like a chocolate milkshake on the dipstick.... those are the first 2 things I check on vehicles I am looking to buy..... I was an auto mechanic for 12 years and worked at a dealership for a few years where I sometimes did used car inspections.....I put that to good use when car shopping

Good things to check, unless the previous owner outthinks you and changes the fluids before the sale to cover up those problems which is what the PO did with the bronco 2 I bought but I was a step a head of them and did a couple of tests to check for head gasket leaks, plus the package of new head gaskets in the back seat was somewhat of a giveaway lol.

 

[90longbed]

yeah that would be a dead giveaway....

 

[dinosore]

running the orginal stereo in my 92 still so no crazy wiring/harness issue however p.o. ran the engine with the thermostat stuck open, possbily the trans plugs leaking (ill find out this week when i drop the tran and replace the plugs and trans fluid) and a paper air filter that was almost nothing but crumbling paper covered in dirt. All simple fixes i suppose...but none the less. Oh and an alarm thats hooked up with no remotes or valet switch...that was fun.

 

[Colin]

Did I mention there was a T-bone in the bed when I got the truck? Along with some other random garbage and a half dozen sockets.

 

[4x4junkie]

One of my friends bought an explorer for cheap, ended up having to replace the fuel tank, and upon pulling the sending unit, discovered that someone had replaced the pump and just twisted the wires together inside the fuel tank.

Nice! My 89 BII that I fixed up and sold was similar to that... the pump was replaced and they used crimp-on splices. Apparently when the previous owner hit a deer, it jarred the splices loose, which ended up on the bottom of the tank. A few dabs of solder later and I was in business.

This is the kind of stuff that's scary.

I was in Oregon some years back driving up a fairly decent trail in the late-afternoon and about 5 miles up it shits out as if someone had reached over and turned the key off ('xept the dash lights were still lit).
I get out to start diagosing things and right away I noticed the fuel pump doesn't come on for those couple seconds when you turn the key to Run.
Pump relay = *click* Check.
Check fuse & inertia switch = Good...
Bang on the tank = No go.
So I had to leave it there overnight (worrying whether I would come back to find it in one piece) and run into town and buy a fuel pump.
Come back the next day and (thankfully) it was where I left it, we pull the tank down and what do I find other than the @#%$¢&! prick PO had cut off all the wires to the pump & sender and attempted to resolder them and left little balled-up globules of solder all over everything clinging to about 2-6 individual strands on each wire (and of course one wire was now laying in the bottom of the tank).


When wires come loose like this surrounded by fuel vapors inside a tank, how likely are they to ignite from the spark of the wire coming loose?