Thinking of buying a '98 Toyota and saw this...

Test drove a '98 today with 140k miles. Super clean and drove like a dream. Told the guy I wanted to think about it and for laughs ran a Carfax on it. Below is what it spit out. Should I be running from this thing? Any wisdom is appreciated.

07/29/2004 57,011 Passed emissions inspection

08/21/2006 70,617 Failed emissions inspection

08/21/2006 70,664 Passed emissions inspection

09/04/2008 84,066 Failed emissions inspection

09/04/2008 84,076 Passed emissions inspection

08/25/2010 101,868 Failed emissions inspection

08/28/2010 101,900 Failed emissions inspection

09/08/2010 102,108 Failed emissions inspection

09/13/2010 102,262 Failed emissions inspection

09/14/2010 102,284 Passed emissions inspection

09/14/2012 112,655 Failed emissions inspection Designated GROSS POLLUTER

09/19/2012 112,694 Failed emissions inspection

09/20/2012 112,766 Failed emissions inspection

09/20/2012 112,798 Passed emissions inspection

09/20/2012 Title issued or updated - New owner reported

09/03/2014 121,976 Failed emissions inspection

09/03/2014 121,977 Failed emissions inspection

09/06/2014 122,037 Failed emissions inspection

09/10/2014 122,140 Passed emissions inspection

09/10/2014 Title issued or updated - New owner reported

09/01/2016 131,606 Failed emissions inspection

09/09/2016 131,758 Passed emissions inspection


09/06/2018 142,445 Failed emissions inspection

09/10/2018 142,605 Failed emissions inspection

09/13/2018 142,673 Failed emissions inspection

09/20/2018 142,833 Passed emissions inspection

09/21/2018 Joe's Smog Test Only Center - Emissions inspection performed

 

wow. No other details on why?

 

I'm sure most 90's vehicles look like this on their history. It's due to catalytic converters likely. Very typical, and can be fixed.

 

No other details. It's the 3.4L V6 F DOHC 24 motor. I was pretty shocked, the guy (of course) didn't mention it. I'm going to call him and ask what the deal is.

 

Left him a voicemail and he texted me, "Yeah, I replaced the catalytic converter last October." Does that make sense? I appreciate your input.

 

What's he asking for it? I'd be leary about buying something with that many failed inspections.

 

It didn’t fail every year due to the catalytic converter. They aren’t repairable. They either work and you pass or they don’t work efficiently and you pay big bucks to replace it. There’s some problem with that truck causing it to fail every year. Maybe last year it was the catalytic converter but it wasn’t every year previously. I’m thinking the problem is with lack of maintenance, maybe no maintenance at all until they had to do something every 2 years to get it to pass smog. If you buy it you’ll be the 4th owner. You will have no idea what was or wasn’t done previously. I’d be leary of that truck.

 

Makes sense to me. The converters can be weak and set a check engine light. Reset codes, go drive around awhile, go back for a retest, fail again if the emissions monitors haven't completed yet, back again, etc. You can go for years like that with a weak one and just keep squeaking past smog. If he's got a receipt for the repair and it's a CA legal CAT (very important, verify with smog shop before you buy) I wouldn't be worried about it.

 

This truck failed every time for 12 years. It wasn’t the cat converter that whole time every time. The cc maybe went bad and had to be replaced but there is a lot more unknowns here causing the smog test failures.
Also almost all catalytic converter failures are due to problems with the engine. The op needs to find out what caused the
failure and be sure the problem had been resolved otherwise the new one will fail.

 

My own personal experience with my truck: I only average about 6,000 miles a year. Half of that is long trips, the rest is short trips of anywhere from 3 to 20 miles at a time. I had my bank 1 converter start setting a CEL at around 65K. Replaced under warranty. The bank 2 started doing the same at around 80K. No warranty this time. I'm up to 100K now, and about 4 years and two smog checks since this started. Planning to replace the converter soon, I've been fixing all the little stuff the last year or so.

I have a scangauge 2, and I tend to keep an eye on codes because of the problems with the Cats. No other codes that I have seen come up in the past 6 years or so, and definitely no CEL unless it's a Cat code (P0430). I have heard the argument that a Cat failure is always caused by a tuning or engine problem. I just don't believe it with the current truck I have. I believe that Toyota set the monitors very tight, and there will be a code thrown when the Cats are still very functional. My first CEL occurred two months after a smog check. I have the printout with the gas readings, "passed with flying colors", as they say. I believe that a low mileage vehicle that doesn't get a good long road trip on a regular basis will have this issue. The Cats need to get up to temp and stay there for an extended period of time or they lose efficiency.

The 98 that the OP is looking at seems to fit the same profile as my truck with low miles for the year. If it's got a new Cat and all else passes the pre purchase inspection, I'd go for it.

Just my 2 cents after several years of living with this issue, talking to mechanics, and observing.