CraigsList crap shoot rant

[mckennar]

I've only been looking for a replacement for my wrecked '98 Limited for about 72 hours and I'm remembering why I hate buying things off of craigslist.

I asked this dude about some common failure areas in high mileage trucks (rust, pink milkshake, LBJ, cooling system, etc). And he goes on this tirade about how it's not a show truck and if it was I'd be asking more for it etc... expending probably 500 words on what could have been actually answered with 10 yeses or nos.

Nowhere in his 500 word rant did he even come close to answering any of the questions, either.

Simple questions like "you said low mileage, what does that mean?" he could have said "150k miles". Instead he spent 3 or 4 lines of text explaining about how low mileage on a 4Runner is "anything under 300,000" and how long these trucks last.

There's a bunch more, but I just had to vent before I called the guy and let him have it... I still want his truck.

 

[RandyDaytona]

I wouldn't buy any vehicle from someone who doesn't post the actual mileage in the ad. Just saying "low mileage" is what shady used-car dealers do.

 

[T5RUNNER]

Thankfully 4runners are super common, so you can just move on to the next one. Don't waste your time with sellers that give even a hint of being shady.

 

[mckennar]

Ended up grabbing another 98 4x4 ltd, pretty straight and 99% rust free body & frame. Thought it had a good drive train too until I got it to the in laws place and found the crank pulley just chilling, about to fall off. Explains the battery light and spotty power steering towards the end of the drive.

Keyway destroyed, crank snout nice and conical, metal powder on everything. Time to pull the engine from my old one... Was trying to avoid that.

 

[amalik]

Ended up grabbing another 98 4x4 ltd, pretty straight and 99% rust free body & frame. Thought it had a good drive train too until I got it to the in laws place and found the crank pulley just chilling, about to fall off. Explains the battery light and spotty power steering towards the end of the drive.

Keyway destroyed, crank snout nice and conical, metal powder on everything. Time to pull the engine from my old one... Was trying to avoid that.

So you tried to avoid shady sellers and ended up with a T4R with a bad crankshaft?

 

[Koko4]

Hey at least you have a good engine to go in it.. it could be worse.

I once bought a Civic, and within a week was trying to Helicoil a bolt hole and accidently drilled too far, and went right into a coolant passage..

Had a :bash: moment, then decided to RTV the crap out of the bolt, cranked it down, and tried to forget about it. Lasted an additional 80k until I sold it!


That's pretty shady of the guy, though. Hopefully you didn't overpay for it.

 

[mckennar]

So you tried to avoid shady sellers and ended up with a T4R with a bad crankshaft?

Yup. This seller was a nice enough guy, sunk a bunch of money into it on things I would have done - diff oil, swapping green for Toyota red coolant, redoing the headliner and carpets, 5 spoke OEM wheels. Didn't come across as shady or trying to hide anything.

Provided evidence of a recent inspection at a specialist shop etc.

Answered all of my questions, was a nice guy to boot. This surprised him as much as it did me.

It could all be an act but I have a pretty well tuned bs detector and it didn't go off.

Oh well.

 

[mckennar]

That's pretty shady of the guy, though. Hopefully you didn't overpay for it.

I paid about $1500 too much in my estimation for a truck that needs an engine.

Oh well. You live you learn. Without belts or a HB pulley that engine is smoooooooth as butter, too. No leaks, no smoke, pulls harder than my old one.

Its a damn shame it has to go.

 

[Hepar]

Yup. This seller was a nice enough guy, sunk a bunch of money into it on things I would have done - diff oil, swapping green for Toyota red coolant, redoing the headliner and carpets, 5 spoke OEM wheels. Didn't come across as shady or trying to hide anything.

Provided evidence of a recent inspection at a specialist shop etc.

Answered all of my questions, was a nice guy to boot. This surprised him as much as it did me.

It could all be an act but I have a pretty well tuned bs detector and it didn't go off.

Oh well.

Some people would much rather deal with someone face to face. Sounds like this guy was in that category.

 

[mckennar]

Not sure if this warrants another thread or not but as I'm going through this thing... Phew this guy really didn't know what he was doing. And I *should* have seen that...

In trying to fix the belt alignment issue caused by the HB wobble, he did the following:

1. PS bracket was backwards - the part with the slit in it that bolts to the false water pump was shimmed with washers. The part of the PS bracket that bolts to the bottom of the PS pump itself was on the back side of the aforementioned bracket vs. The front side. The PS belt was on the alt, the alt belt was on the PS pump.

The ac compressor was shimmed so that the pulley was angled towards the drivers side. The lower ac idler was finger tight.

3. Pushing the hazards while the lights were on blew the tail fuse and the blinkers didn't work (neither did the clock). Popped the center stack bezel... The clock plug was jammed into the hazard button, the hazard plug was coiled and zip tied, and the rear defrost plug was connected to the clock with speaker wire. I don't even know what was happening there.

4. The trans dipstick tube was zip tied to the maf harness, and the maf was clocked way wrong. Which means the maf to tb hose is chewed up.

5. The harness that has a bracket that sandwiches on a stud coming from the thermostat outlet was zip tied to the alternator.

6. The alternator was so badly out of adjustment on its bracket that I'm shocked the thing stayed running.

7. As a result of #6 and the thrashed keyway issue the brand new alt belt was stripped clean of grooves (looked fine when I inspected it - so in 10 miles it ate itself).

8. Aforementioned (prev. Post) Toyota red coolant swap was incomplete - as I ran the engine it turned a greenish brown indicating an incomplete flush of the green. It drained reddish brown... Almost like dirty atf.

9. Auto trans drain plug installed without washer/gasket.

10. Rear diff plug cross threaded, leaks. Have donor rear axle but again... More work than I wanted.

These are all things I should have seen. I consider myself experienced, but I didn't show up with a plan. I was blinded by a good price, great body and rust free frame and missed obvious signs. Tip: bring a checklist so you remember to check for simple shit that will bite you in the ass.

Lucky for me I have an intact truck sitting next to it so I know what right looks like and can adjust accordingly.

Now... Contemplating just replacing the crank/bearings (etc) on the bad engine because its out and selling my old truck outright with the engine/trans intact, in case someone wants the whole thing for a swap. Gotta cost analyze that...

 

[mckennar]

Holy hell there's more.

Shifter bushings and perhaps the springs inside the park sensor were so thrashed that in order to get the key out of the ignition you had to push the shift lever "down" (not pull towards you like going from P to R and so on) then wiggle it side to side, then pull up and push towards the passenger side.

Said F it and grabbed the full shift assembly from the parts truck and swapped them. Crap part is that I need to be able to shift the parts truck into neutral... so I had to put it back together on the other side.

Then the brake booster / MC combo. After doing the trans shift assembly, I moved the truck and there was a puddle of brake fluid under where the truck was previously sitting.

Sure enough, followed the trail up to the joint between the MC and booster. When I broke them apart there was a bunch of RTV crammed in there. I even found a receipt for this "repair" from a shop in Olathe, KS from April 2016. Awesome.

Off to the parts truck again.

 

[jwkilgore]

... and this thread is why I buy new and run them until they're shot or otherwise no longer meet my needs. Dayum.