I just drove my old Jeep on a 500 mile trip to and from Las Vegas, home of the legendary SEMA car-parts industry trade show, and the thing drove beautifully. But that was not always the case; in fact, for the first six months that I owned this Jeep, it ran like a dog (which I’m realizing is a strange expression in the car-world given that dogs actually run…rather well?). That’s because I foolishly didn’t conduct my usual “just bought this car” wrenching routine.
I’ve been buying old junkers for a very long time now, and there are certain things that I do to all of them as soon as I get them home to my garage. The most important thing is: I change the fluids.
Automotive fluids’ job is too important to ignore. Dirty fluid can kill your engine, transmission, transfer case, and axles, plus it can corrode brake system and cooling system parts. Why take that risk? It’s not worth it.
For this reason, anytime I buy a new vehicle, I always change the oils. That means: engine, transmission, transfer case, and differentials. Even though I didn’t have time to do my full barrage of initial tinkering, and thus the Jeep drove like a dog (like a dog drove? That would make more sense), I refused to forego changing fluids even if that meant wrenching on a diff in my work clothes:
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While changing the fluids, I found that my transfer case was completely bone dry. Could you imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t done my fluid check, and instead drove 500 miles with a bone-dry T-case? That thing would be shot. As it sits, it’s working well, probably because it had been sitting a while prior to my purchase (and not driven much with the dry case).
I also changed my engine oil, transmission oil, and diff oil (I admittedly haven’t gotten around to the front diff, but that doesn’t see any torque during everyday two-wheel drive driving; still, I’ve got to get around to that), plus I checked my brake fluid, power steering fluid, and coolant (they looked good).
What I did not get around to was my usual “just-bought-this-car” tuneup job, which involves replacing the spark plugs, distributor cap, distributor rotor, and spark plug wires. These parts are cheap, and since they wear out and are critical to the vehicle running properly, I always just replace them on any vehicle I purchase.
The result of me not going through with my full just-bought-this-car strategy was that, for the first six months under my ownership, the Jeep bucked and banged under load, especially when taking off from a stop light. Honestly, it sounded like metal-on-metal contract; my initial worry was that something was wrong with my clutch/pressure plate.
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But after I put in the $50 and 45 minutes to get the plugs and wires and distributor bits swapped out, the Jeep ran beautifully, and I now regret all those times I listened to that horrible pinging/banging; I should have just followed through with my fluids + tune-up + visual inspection of tires/brake pads/etc regimen.
Alas, the Jeep sounds great now, doesn’t seem to burn oil, and makes plenty of power, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that it will continue to drive like a dream thanks to fresh fluids and a nicely-running motor.
What do you do to a car once you buy it? Whether that means maintenance-wise, or perhaps you want to talk about some routine modifications you make to cars after you buy them.
I start searching the internet for the parts I will need to make it right.
If it runs good and has clean oil and no other red flags, it gets a good thrashing on the road.
Then I chip away at the repairs for a few months before I realize I should have bought something in better shape. Then I remember that I bought this because I can afford it and I continue to incrementally improve it by working through the repairs.
Pair my phone?
Maintenance wise, I usually change fluids unless I have proof it was done basically immediately prior to sale. I’m now insisting on a pre-purchase inspection so in most cases I’ll know if any other wear items are due and they normally look up service intervals. So I’ll have an idea if anything expensive maintenance wise is due before I hand over money.
In terms of upgrades, 2 of the last 3 I’ve had the windows tinted and replaced the head unit.
Paint-correction and ceramic coating. We do have our differences, David 😉
Easy answer. I take it to my trusted mechanic and ask him to change ALL consumables, plugs, timing belt and ALL filters, as well as flushing out the cooling system and and doing an oil change. It might sound excessive but I have learned to NEVER trust the seller (at least here in Brazil) because nobody spends more prepping a used car for sale than they absolutely have to and I tend to buy low mileage original unmolested cars (less than 100,000km that are 10-12 years old on average. It gives me a solid base line to work from and peace of mind and if the mechanic finds anything I have missed, it is is resolved. I never let small problems become big problems and I have never had a car leave me stranded no matter how old its is. My current ride is a 2005 Fiat Stilo with a GM powertrain.
Put a set of tools, jumper cables and a tow rope in it.
Double-check caps on all of the schrader valves.
The easier it is to check your tire pressure, the more likely you are to actually do it.
The very VERY first thing I do? I fart in it to make it mine… After that, I put more gas in it at the gas station. Then I’ll do any pending maintenance if it’s due or if it’s uncertain when it was last done.
One thing I don’t do is check all the fluids… because I would have done that BEFORE buying it.
Completely clean interior, not only to remove ick, but to remove anything (possibly illegal) under seats etc.
Remove any stickers or personalized shit. Check any DIY fixes and fix it right. (Usually these were done out of dumbassery and easily removed.)
Check/fix all lights, fluids, belts, hoses, tires, brakes, trouble codes, obvious broken shit that can affect me getting from point A to point B. Make sure I got a functional spare and jack and know where to use it on the side of the road. I’ll have already made sure the lugs and tires can come off and are good.
Then if not already there, replace the cluster with a full gauge package. Easy enough with the old cars I drive. I have to know what’s going on. Then drive it on short trips like to work and back, to test the waters until I’m comfortable driving it on longer trips.
I used to have two project cars at a time with an average hold of 6 months each, so I was buying/selling 2 cars a year on average. I had a whole routine worked out called “baselining”. It depends a bit on the age of the car (I was mostly dealing with cars 50+ years old), but for the older cars it was everything from your basic engine tuneup (fluids, rubber parts, ignition, etc.) to a full shotgunning of the brake system (sometimes even including hardlines) and shotgunning the electrical system (new wiring harness and all new small parts). With the more modern cars I play with these days (really bad wreck sorta killed the classics side of the hobby), it’s much less involved on the actual wrenching side (no wiring harnesses for instance), but much heavier on the research side. All the same basic tuneup stuff (all fluids stem to stern) are a given, but rubber parts are on a case-by-case basis. Then it’s all about fixing what’s broke and catching up on deferred maintenance.
The VERY first thing I always always do though, regardless of vintage or anything else is detail the cab. People are gross.
I usually buy crappy cheap small cars in need of repair so not surprisingly a lot of stuff gets replaced or checked.
Fluids obviously,and usually brake and suspension parts too.
The one thing that surprises me is i haven’t yet seen bad engine oil.It appears everyone’s got the memo on that and are changing it often!
Great to see,especially in the er, lower socioeconomic type i’m buying from
I DONT replace a bunch of ignition parts unless I need it, because spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor can easily exceed $100, which is at least 10% of what I just paid for the car.
Same with fluids, with the price of fluids, especially gear oil, nowadays, replacing every fluid on a car can be a couple hundred.
I check on all of these things, replace or service if necessary, don’t if not. I try not to make a policy of immediately spending $500 doing unnecessary servicing on a $500 car.
First thing I do when I get home with my latest heap is stare at it and shake my head while wondering wtf I was thinking.
My first mod is to cover the sunvisor airbag warning labels with color-matched duct tape. I know not to carry kids in front and I don’t carry kids anywhere anymore, so the warning is just an ugly distraction.
First thing to do is reserve a U-Haul auto trailer or call a friend while looking for the tow rope.
Found Gossin’s alt account.
Wrong! I can chug gallon of milk
Have done before, will again $
1. Change the oil because I don’t trust people even if they say it was recently done.
2. Detail the interior because I can’t stand the thought of sitting in a car that someone else has sweated and ate in.
3. Filters and anything I think could be a problem (serpentine belt, battery stuff like that)
4. Exterior detail
So, looking at the color of the oil gives you a pretty good guesstimate of how recently it’s been changed.
I’m aware. But that still doesn’t tell me what type of oil they used or if they even used the right kind.
That’s true, but using the “wrong” oil is rarely a big deal. Much less than people stress it anyways.
Yeah fair enough. I’m just a bit of a perfectionist to a fault with my vehicle maintenance lol.
Well my last two cars were either brand new or a year old so honestly not much. After that though I followed the schedule.
Edit: Oh I buy a notepad to be a log of all my fill ups and any work I do on the car.
Interior detail, because I once bought a beater Subaru from a weed dealer and the first time I tried the defroster it blew about a 1/4 pound of “shake” all over me. I was sure to deep clean that car in case I got pulled over. That guy was using his supply for sure since he managed to scratch and dent every panel, yes, even the roof. I called him about a stash he forgot about in the spare tire well which was old and gross and he offered to bring me fresh stuff. I politely declined and chucked all the illegal stuff out of the car.
I bought my last car (’03 Subaru Legacy wagon) sight unseen off craigslist in another state (CA) in a location close to my parent’s place. Flew in a few weeks later and picked it up. It was in great shape actually – had passing smog check, rust free, zero leaks or CELs, drove straight, and felt sporty/tight on twisty backroads. I still spent a couple weeks wrenching in my parent’s garage though. First thing (beyond driving and observing) was actually looking through all the service records, putting them into a spreadsheet, comparing them to factory service intervals. I ended up changing all of the fluids (except recently changed diff and manual transmission gear oil), installed new dampers all around (not really necessary, but wanted it perfect), did all deferred maintenance and anything else I noticed like fuel filter, PCV valve, thermostat, etc., got PDR done on one large dent, polished the headlights, and did interior/exterior cleaning/detail. Then I drove the car across the country.
I recently bought a 2013 Fiat 500 Abarth with reportedly zero compression in cylinder #3. So the first thing I did after towing it home was to complete a cylinder leakage (leak down) test. The result was 90% leakage in cylinder 3. Bad exhaust valves. So the second thing was to head out to the u-pull-it junkyard and grab another cylinder head. The third thing was to order a gasket kit and a bunch of maintenance parts from RockAuto.