Noob Car buyers guide only on BTS

I had some extra time so im putting together this quick write up with pictures. Cause when i saw some of the topics on the automotive forum. I noticed some of you dont know much about cars inner workings. So this is a write up on what to look for and pay attention to.If the admins want to make this a sticky please feel free.
First thing you say if the car looks good how many miles. Now this will be the sellers chance to lie from the start.
They all say only highway miles. First and foremost Test drive the car "very important" Check to see that the odometers is actually still turning over the mileage reader. By this what i mean is if the wheels move the speedodmeter must show Miles per hour and turn the trip miles meter. If this doesnt work you should honestly get it for HALF of what he wants for it or less. Cause this is were someone knows they put miles on the car after it broke and its anyones guess how long they drove the car in that condition. Sure they'll say well i stop driving when it broke or I only drove it this long. They lie and ill be the first to tell you. Its happened to me continuing on.
Now pay attention to car lines. That means the body lines of the car Like where the hood meets the fenders and the bumper lines meet the hood and headlights tail lights all that. Cause if these lines are not the same thickness from start to finish chances are your look at a car thats see a couple bumps or worse a bad accident and a body shop.
This brings me on to the next part which is bondo you want to make sure your car doesnt have much bondo. The problem areas on all cars wheel wells,roofs,hoods,doors and quater panels. Now ill tell you the fastest way to check the area you suspect of bondo with not actually busting the paint off with a screw driver. Get the absolute thinest magnet Refrigderator magnet you can find i mean thin to the point you can fold it. Then put it up to the area you think if this doest stick you have bondo. Make sure the part your testing is actually a metal part and not plastic saturn cars use a hi strength plastic on most of there cars so intially this will only work on the hood of a Saturn. Cause mostly everything else is made of the plastic.
Now engine Mechanics this is problly most important. First things first Pop the hood open. Check oil level if its not leveled off the first time you check chances are the person didnt really care enough to keep it leveled when they owned it. Want to know how often the person changed the oil on the car. Take the oil cap off look at the oil cap the part that screws into the engine. if this has a gooey or sluggy build up chances are your look at a lemon engine. Look at the inside from what you can see by taking off the oil cap. If the engine, the actual metal is a darkish brown the engine oil was not changed on time every time they changed it. A well maintained engine should be a light brown color. Also if the person lets you do a copression test on the engine this is about as easy as changing the spark plugs if its a honda or toyota basiclly any 4 cyclider engine its easy and takes 1 person about 10-15 minutes. You have to have knowledge of the order of the spark plugs. Compression test step 1 take out all the spark plugs. Step 2 screw the threaded end into the same spot the spark plug goes. you do this one cyclynider at a time. When you screw it into one, you set the guage on somewere that wont harm the car by moving parts. then turn the car over for a period of what sounds like 4 to 5 revolutions. you do this to each one. your read on toyota ,honda,acura and imports should be around 180-200 or more this is good compression. a compression tester kit can be bought at wal-mart,auto store, or stores like these call first. prices are 15-25 dollars.
Besides that check windows roll up and down no streaks on the windows cause this would lead to tracks not lineing up right or the whole window regulator could use replaceing.

[edit on 28-3-2007 by kanesis]

example of what the oil cap shouldnt look like

This is what you dont want to see when you take off the oil cap

This is what a Compression tester looks like

This is something i didnt mention in my text post lots of cars peices like the front ends and whole sides are being chopped from other cars this is what you should look for on the seams to tell a shotty job.

This is the other side of the same car that is still stock

Also if the car knocks makes noises and jerks Its not worth it unless you plan on swaping the engine yourself and the Chassie is solid.:bnghd:
Good car hunting if people need some help drop me a message please dont flood me with every question in the world thanks for reading.

Good start, a thread like this was needed. I'm going to throw in a few more things to keep in mind.


Check the tires for wear, if each tire has similar tire wear then you're ok, however if you see that on side has less tread than the other, or if part of the tire is bald, especially if it's on a side, you may simply have an allignment problem that went untreated, or that can also be a potential sign of a serious collision.

Also make sure that before you start the car, you put the key into the ignition position, and make sure that all the warning indicator lights come on, such as oil pressure, check engine light (CEL), ABS, etc. What people sometimes do is burn out those lights on purpose so that they don't turn on when the car is running, this is a simple method for testing if they've been burned out or not

I'll post more when I have the chance.

Ok here's a few more...

If the engine has 100,000+ kms make sure that the timing belt has been changed. If it snaps, you're likely to bend your valves and that will leave a big dent in your wallet.

Make sure that you jack the car up before you buy, if possible get it up on a hoist so that you can look underneath. A lot can be discovered there, such as condition of the undercarriage (check for rust), brake lines, fuel lines. Also while it's hoisted check for oil leaks or coolant leaks, as that can be a sign of a problem.

All out of time for now.. More tips to follow.

Would be cool if more people would contribute.

Thanks for the info everyone who posted.. That is very helpful to know these things. Ive always thought I had bad luck with this.. Turns out, I was just ill informed on how to go about getting a used car