forlornRunner
New member
For the past few months ago I've been helping my fiance get her house sold up here in Portland. We live in the foothills of California and she's got a nice Jetta. I had a Cr-V but neither of us really liked it so we decided to upgrade it to something a little more exciting that would get us where he sedan wouldn't.
We settled on Toyota trucks, and I guess you could say I caught the 4Runner bug. We found one on Craigslist. A '91 3 liter. The guy selling it told us the engine had been rebuilt 100k miles ago. It seemed to drive well enough and looked good, at least according to my very limited mechanical knowledge. He was selling it because he had put too much money into it, had five vehicles, and it consumed too much gas.
It was almost on empty and this was his reason to no let me take it up to speed. I was ready to walk away but my fiance was very impatient and wanted me to just buy it so we could get on to the next thing in our busy schedule. It was MY FAULT, but she goaded me. I bought the damn car for his asking price.
On the way home it overheated. Bad. I let it cool off and limped it home and for the next few days my handy friend went to work on it. He changed the timing belt and water pump. Still was overheating. There were none of the classic signs of a blown head gasket. He took a section of garden hose to his ear to check for leaks in the head gasket and found a leak in what I think is a head? (The part where the spark plug goes in.)
He ended up getting this stuff that he poured into the radiator. I'm out of touch with him at the moment, so I can't tell you exactly what it was. He said the stuff was to patch the leak. He told me to get it up to heat and then let it cool off. Repeat several times. I did this and in fact the vehicle did make a big improvement. It heats up much more slowly and then for 10 minutes of city driving the needle hovers just shy of the halfway mark. Then the oil pressure drops and the heat shoots up. At this point the car idles roughly and usually stalls at a stop. Once I let it get all the way cool the process repeats itself. It runs just fine before it heats up; no rough idle.
I've taken out the thermostat and today I'm going to flush the radiator and try putting more of that sealer in, as recommended by my friend who was working on it. I don't expect it to work.
I regretted buying this truck from the beginning, but now things are worse. My fiance went on a totally crazy manic depressive episode complete with psychosis. As soon as she got the check for the house closing she kicked me out leaving me with nothing but this semi-broken 4Runner and my few possessions that aren't in California. Fortunately this all went down in my hometown, so I'm staying with my parents.
I've decided to try to sell this truck, whether I can get this overheating problem fixed or not. I am prepared to take a steep loss, but I don't need this truck anymore and I would prefer a more sensible vehicle. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE this truck. But it doesn't make sense for me. I'm looking for advice on what to price it.
As I said the engine was apparently rebuilt 100k miles ago. The guy I bought it from omitted some key information and certainly swindled me, but I don't think he lied about that. The odometer is stuck at 150K.
I am honestly embarrassed I bought this thing and I want out. I just want to determine a fair price. Everything else about the vehicle seems fine.
We settled on Toyota trucks, and I guess you could say I caught the 4Runner bug. We found one on Craigslist. A '91 3 liter. The guy selling it told us the engine had been rebuilt 100k miles ago. It seemed to drive well enough and looked good, at least according to my very limited mechanical knowledge. He was selling it because he had put too much money into it, had five vehicles, and it consumed too much gas.
It was almost on empty and this was his reason to no let me take it up to speed. I was ready to walk away but my fiance was very impatient and wanted me to just buy it so we could get on to the next thing in our busy schedule. It was MY FAULT, but she goaded me. I bought the damn car for his asking price.
On the way home it overheated. Bad. I let it cool off and limped it home and for the next few days my handy friend went to work on it. He changed the timing belt and water pump. Still was overheating. There were none of the classic signs of a blown head gasket. He took a section of garden hose to his ear to check for leaks in the head gasket and found a leak in what I think is a head? (The part where the spark plug goes in.)
He ended up getting this stuff that he poured into the radiator. I'm out of touch with him at the moment, so I can't tell you exactly what it was. He said the stuff was to patch the leak. He told me to get it up to heat and then let it cool off. Repeat several times. I did this and in fact the vehicle did make a big improvement. It heats up much more slowly and then for 10 minutes of city driving the needle hovers just shy of the halfway mark. Then the oil pressure drops and the heat shoots up. At this point the car idles roughly and usually stalls at a stop. Once I let it get all the way cool the process repeats itself. It runs just fine before it heats up; no rough idle.
I've taken out the thermostat and today I'm going to flush the radiator and try putting more of that sealer in, as recommended by my friend who was working on it. I don't expect it to work.
I regretted buying this truck from the beginning, but now things are worse. My fiance went on a totally crazy manic depressive episode complete with psychosis. As soon as she got the check for the house closing she kicked me out leaving me with nothing but this semi-broken 4Runner and my few possessions that aren't in California. Fortunately this all went down in my hometown, so I'm staying with my parents.
I've decided to try to sell this truck, whether I can get this overheating problem fixed or not. I am prepared to take a steep loss, but I don't need this truck anymore and I would prefer a more sensible vehicle. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE this truck. But it doesn't make sense for me. I'm looking for advice on what to price it.
As I said the engine was apparently rebuilt 100k miles ago. The guy I bought it from omitted some key information and certainly swindled me, but I don't think he lied about that. The odometer is stuck at 150K.
I am honestly embarrassed I bought this thing and I want out. I just want to determine a fair price. Everything else about the vehicle seems fine.
Someone else will get a great deal on it as it's not running and get it fixed themselves.
