Red flags for hard miles?

Hey guys, I'm trying to get indoctrinated into your cult. First I gotta trawl these peddlers, dealers and predators. In terms of judging wear and tear, there are some obvious things to watch out for like rust, a 400lbs bumper, and cigarette burns. But what are the lesser known things to watch out for? Massive subwoofers? Contractor racks? Tunes/flashes?

 

Biggest thing I look for on any vehicle is overall condition. Is the interior stained, dirty or torn up? Does the exterior have lots of dents and scratches? Also look at service records. Just the basics of used vehicle buying. Modifications arent a red flag for me as long as they were done correctly. Lots of people who modify their trucks really baby them and take care of them

 

Look out for stupid mods too, people who do regular oil changes don’t usually have stretched Chinese mud tires on 22” fuel wheels

 

Bring a scanner and a flashlight if you're buying private party. Quick indicators of deferred maintenance are going to be worn tie rods, u joints and belt. Check for rust and leaks. Make sure you do a cold start.

 

Here was my list when i was shopping used.
- Check frame for anything more than surface rust.
- Check condition of engine oil. color and make sure it doesn't smell burnt.
- Check the engine for blow-by by seeing if you're getting pressure out the oil cap.
- Take a OBD2 device and make sure they didn't clear the engine codes and all internal checks/tests are in a complete state. (This was the big gotcha i nailed the dealer for. Got them to drop the price 3k)
- Check 4wd/low that it works and going in and out smooth.
- Look for signs of hard offroading/towing (lifts, spacers, aftermarket mods, terrible wiring, dings in the frame/skid plates etc.
- Look for leaking oil, diff, trans

 

Like previously mentioned, quality mods wouldn't bother me, and a lot of people have subs and upgraded stereos, but I would steer clear of anything added on or modified for towing.

 

Oil leak at the timing cover behind the power steering pump on the 6 cyl.
Automatic transmission shudder.
4WD engagement and disengagement
Those are the bigger ones you can find.

Maintenance records would be nice.
You could use an inspection camera in the oil filler hole to get an indication.
But some sellers might not like you jamming a camera in the valve cover.

Stay away from any that says. "They would drive it to (insert state) and back"
Or says they never had to do any work to it........Red flags there.

 

When you start the truck, ensure that the check engine and other indicator lights flash. This ensures that the truck still has those backlights installed, and no one removed them to hide something.

 

Damn, that’s a good one I’ve never thought about.

 

Yes things can crack

hopefully they cared about the truck
No evidence mine was wheeled
I’ve wheeled it and not destroyed anything. Doing a trail in your DD isn’t the same as sending a $500 throwaway through KoH to laugh on YouTube wearing a helmet, whistling diesel durability test etc

there is a large percentage of pretend wheel never wheeled. Such as step bars that indicate that.

dealer said PO traded it in to get a 16-23. Guess they thought that’s cool or something.

bought it in an affordable state where gas was also cheap so previous owner probably simply had it as a normal vehicle nothing fancy.

There are mechanic shops that also sell cars. They use scrutiny when buying and sometimes buy cars to have their loaner fleet. The first thing they do any time they buy a car is oil change if not more fluids.
Unfortunately there is practically no time when a random person is gonna have a service history or tell you what they did.
Unless it’s a rich old lady who went to the dealer which is a Lexus SUV thing not a Tacoma thing.

one assumes (at least I did) even if there is some neglect the truck will not care. The idea behind the badge.
Vs a German car that wasn’t maintained properly, throw it away.

 

Same here. When I was looking for a used suburban I always just steered clear if they mentioned "Added trailer brakes controller" or anything of that nature in the listing.

 

Ask for maintenance records, if they say “ What’s That “. It’s a good sign nothing was done.

 

To be fair.. Not necessarily red flags for a Toyota


Like others said above, the overall interior and exterior appearance of the truck will say a lot about the seller. Pay attention to the smaller details, but also avoid getting overwhelmed if you can (Easier said than done I know). At the end of the day most things are fixable.

A few red flags to keep an eye out for in terms of hard miles - core support cracks. Common on these trucks that are regularly offroaded. Look for threads about it on here to see pics. Maybe not a big deal by itself unless very severe or if the seller says 'never been off road' that would be a big red flag at that point. You can also check the CV boot ribs for signs of rubbing against each other, indicates a big lift is / was installed.

A few more general points: take the oil fill cap off and shine a light down. Gold / light brown color metals ok. Very dark colors and/or sludge buildup is a big red flag. Regularly greased u-joints will have a tell tail ring of grease that gets flung up onto the floors just above the u-joint. Coolant overflow bottle should be translucent with pink coolant inside. Dark color deposits on the inside of the bottle is not a good sign.

 

This. If it has VW badges, burn it to the ground and then walk away.

Some good points by others.

Steering rack leaks are sadly common issue, especially if larger and heavier tires have been installed. It is a lot of labor, and reman/aftermarket racks are not a good thing. OEM rack will put you back about $1k+.

Someone mentioned the OBD2 port to check for codes. This is very important for another reason because the port itself can be damaged in a way that is not apparent unless it fails to connect electronically. Even then, it may connect to your device, but only fail to connect to a smog machine. Diagnosis can be a PITA.
Tacoma owners commonly insert OBD2 dongles that enable scan gauge use on the dashboard. If a dongle is sticking out under the dash, the driver can accidentally apply full clutch or parking brake pressure on it...in my case. Or just repeated plugging and unplugging can loosen the pins to the point where a little voltage drop causes failure to connect. The actual fix is not hard, just a pain. You can get a new OEM connecter for a few dollars, then re-pin all the wires. TW has threads on that.

Speaking of diagnostics, another cheap and easy check to avoid potential electrical gremlins is to check for voltage at all fuses under the hood and under the dash. I caught a few when diagnosing my issue. But replacing them did not solve my OBD2 connection failure issues at the smog shop.

 

Oh, yeah. If it has a K&N or any other so-called "cold air intake" especially with an oiled filter, be especially cautious and ask if they have the original OEM intake, which, is, in fact, a cold air intake. Pretty much all of them have demonstrated allowing higher levels of silica ingestion. In other words, allowing abrasives into your engine. Also likely "race car" driver. Walk away, frankly.

 

$30 OBD scanner keep it with you.

it checks readiness. If the readiness monitors are set that is good.
If they are not there was an issue and someone cleared it.

Which, not being a German car, is unlikely to occur.

first dealer had a white shit spec Tacoma for too high price. Wouldn’t stop calling me. Drove it to the gym parking lot popped the hood open to have a look. Looked like crash damage and repair that wasn’t divulged.

next dealer down the street seemed honest. Truck looked good. Better spec better price.
And manual which one would think is better. Until finding out later the great surprise present of throwout bearing designed by Opie and no factory fix like German brands do.

told me they found the air knob issue blower motor resistor and were going to put the part in. I said don’t worry about it. They already had the part gave it to me and I put it in later.

At this point, if there’s something wrong with it
Which there may be from and and miles. Like if you need to put a new steering rack. Who cares?
It’s either that or if you love windshield cameras you can get one of those for $700/mo.

if it’s a Southwest truck, boom, no rust.
If it’s from NY, probably rusted.
Ask yourself the following questions
Do different areas put salt because it’s needed or do they put salt because nobody buys winter tires, and whether you feel that should be your problem or not.
Don’t know if cleaning and fluid film helps with that.

in CO I washed under my truck. Come to find out the affordable underbody car wash supposedly just reclaims and recycles the water coming off the vehicles. So there is the potential whatever is coming off is being sprayed right back on.
Sometimes I put a garden sprinkler underneath. But couldn’t do that when the pipes are shut off winterized.