Hey guys ChrisFix here!
I'm on my way to go inspect a used car that I'm interested in purchasing and I'm taking you with me
After watching this video not only are going to be more comfortable with going to check used car
But you're going to know exactly
What to look for so you don't get stuck with a bad car the most expensive part in a car is the engine so in
This video I'm going to show you how to inspect an engine in a used car
So you don't buy a car with a bad engine now that being said in this video
It's going to be impossible to cover
Every single thing the video would be hours long so what I'm going to ask you guys to do is if you have any cool
tips and tricks make sure you comment them below because I'm sure a lot of people are going to want to read the comments and
Learn new things and read the tips and tricks that you guys have to share
So that's enough talking let's go and check out the car
we're here waiting to see the car and there it is [so] let's go meet the owner and
inspect the car
How you doing Chris frank nice to meet you frank?
All right here. She [is] so as you know I'm filming
[I] want to film this so that people could know how to buy a used car this might take a little while
But I'm a serious buyer so [all] the time you need if I could get the keys and check stuff out
That'd be great are there any other keys. We says this one now unfortunately. That's the only one okay. That's good to know
[ok] let's go check out this car
[alright], we're in the car
We have the key and the first thing we're going to do and this is what I do with every vehicle
I look at is we're going to use an obd - scanner and we're going to scan the computer of the car
[super-important], I start off doing this because if the computer detects problems, it'll let me know and it'll tell me okay
Well, what are the problems and if there are too many problems?
It's not even worth taking this for a test drive or spending any more time looking at this car now the OBd2
Scan ports are typically under the driver's side steering wheel there's the brake pedal if we look upwards over here
It's going to typically be right under here somewhere
[and] then if you look over here on these Jaguars the scan port is right here, and we'll just plug this right in
Well, take our key, and we'll start the car
Notice that there are no check engine abs or airbag lights that are on which is a good start
Then we'll go check out the app then we'll go and read the codes and you [can] see here
There are no confirmed codes, but we have one pending code and if we look at our pending code right there, it's Ap1000 code
That's the code you don't want to see and the reason why you don't want [to] see that code is because that means somebody cleared
The check engine light and if you look on the dash here, there are no check engine light codes
There's no lights at all. So you'd probably think that okay good
There's no check engine lights, then we're good, but guess what we just found that. There's a pending code because somebody cleared it
I spoke with the owner about this you said [he] got his oxygen sensors replaced on this car and
The mechanic cleared the codes and that is why I always use an obd to scanner as the first thing to check in a car
So now we could go and shut the engine and the next thing we're going to look at is the engine compartment
So let's pop the hood, and you want to make sure that the hood struts could support the hood
I hate when these things are weak and the hood can't stay up so the first thing
I like to do is just take a look under the hood just overall
What does it look like we're checking out to see the cleanliness we're looking for any obvious damaged leaks anything like that
One thing I like to mention is if they detail this and they overly detail it they use armor on pieces
You know everything's all shiny
it looks
Really good a lot [of] times that signifies that the car has a problem that they're trying to hide so they cleaned it up you
Know they're trying to hide an oil leak that you won't see because they cleaned it in this case the engine looks like it should
Look for a hundred Thirty thousand mile car
You know it's a little bit dirty
But it's relatively well taken care of and there's nothing out of the ordinary
That sends up any red flags if there's nothing that catches my eye or looks out of the ordinary the next thing
I'll do is see if the frame is [straight]
I start by looking where the fender bolts up and make sure it's straight one of the hardest things for a body shop to do
Is make sure this is perfectly straight after an accident bends the frame
So take a look at the fender and also where the fender bolts up to the front core support and that looks nice and straight?
Next follow the core support across and you want to make sure the front core support is not bowed or creased and this looks good
And you want to go to this side and do the same thing look at the fender line and where it bolts up and this
Looks straight now on this car the front bumper was damaged
We saw that in the initial inspection, so investigate
You know you see this damage in the front bumper
Look under the front bumper to see if there's any damage to the frame and right away, I could see
Check this out. I'm going to pull this [back]
This front crossmember here is bent inwards
And there's rust
so that's something [that] you really have to consider here if the front crossmember is bent inwards enough is this side or that side of
the Subframe bent inwards is the engine sitting right is the suspension sitting right that could affect the steering and many other things and if
You're unsure if there's frame [damaged] just walk away because it's not worth the hassle down the road if you buy the car from what?
I could see this doesn't look too bad and the damage is localized to this area
Plus the fenders look straight the engine sitting square with the frame and even the core supports straight, so in this case
I want to see the rest of the car and test drive it to make sure it drives straight
Next grab a flashlight and start inspecting for leaks
but instead of spending most of your time on the top of the engine let's go underneath the car and
[the] reason why we look underneath the vehicle is because leaks drip downwards
And this is the quickest way to check for any major leaks
And you just want to scan underneath look for any leaks any drips the transmission looks nice
And dry [if] we look back [over] by the oil pan that looks nice and dry
There is a little bit of oil on this catalytic converter, but it's nothing bad
And I don't see any major leaks we'll check for more leaks once we get the car started
The next place [to] inspect for leaks is the cooling system
You want to open the cap to inspect, but make sure the engine is cold now cars use different types of coolant
But make sure it's a bright color in this case. We have red coolant, so it's bright [red]
You don't want to see any oil or brown sludge in here because that could indicate there may be a head gasket leak but this
Looks good now not all coolant leaks are visible if you have a head gasket Leak inside your engine
You won't see that
[so] make sure the coolant is filled to the proper level and this looks good and the next thing [we'll] look at is the brake
Master Cylinder
And you can see the fluid through the plastic in this case the minimum line is here and the brake fluid is up to here
So this looks good, and you [could] just look around for leaks most of the time you'll see any leaks right back here
But this looks dry the next thing to [check] is the power steering reservoir, and that's right over here
you want to check the fluid color and you don't want to see Dark fluid or specks of black this fluid looks good and it's
Filled to the proper level so this looks good
You also want to follow the power steering [lines] to the pump and check for any [leaks]?
But again this looks good the next thing I like to do is check the oil take the oil fill cap off and look underneath
Sometimes you'll be able to tell if a car has a head gasket
Just by looking at underneath the cat you'll see like a frothy white oil
Almost like a milkshake or something like that up on the screen is an example
Of a BMw that I looked at that had a head gasket leak and I found it right away just by looking underneath the oil
Cap besides looking at the cap you also want to look inside the engine
And you don't want to see any froth or any sludge in there?
what sludge is going to look like it's going to look like chocolate syrup [and] in this case this looks good and
Finally check the oil dipstick and make sure the oil is filled all the way in this case
It's right in the crosshatch area
So that's perfect the other thing is make sure it's not frothy make sure there's no metallic specks and if you see any of this
Just walk away
It's not worth it find another car
Because it could mean that you have a head gasket leak or your engine is worn out pretty good
After checking the oil the [other] thing you want to do is you want to find the transmission dipstick [if] you have one and check?
The transmission fluid in this case. It's a sealed system, so we don't have a dipstick
So you can't check it, but if there is a dipstick
I have a really good video all about checking transmission fluid so you can watch that and learn more
So the last thing we want to inspect are the hoses and the belts we want to go around the engine compartment and make sure
That the hoses aren't bulging they're not cracked
And they're not brittle and the rubber looks like it's in good [condition] and just go around
inspect the different hoses vacuum hoses
Coolant hoses and check all then after that we want to go and check the belts a good condition belt won't look shiny [it] won't
Have frayed edges. It won't have any cracks on it, and when you press on it with your finger
[it'll] be pretty tight
So the [engines] cold right now, and it's a good time to go and start the engine
But make sure you watch the exhaust as it starts, so let's go start her up get head start her up
And in this case we have no smoke which is good if you see blue smoke that could mean that your valve seals are leaking
Into the combustion chamber [as] the car is sitting here
And then when you go to start [to] car up you get a burst of blue smoke
And then it goes clear now you want to ask the owner to rev the car a little bit
Can you rev the car up a little bit?
Good
So what we're [looking] at we're looking at the smoke to make sure that there's no blue smoke a little bit of smoke came out
But that's just because the car just started and that's condensation
but if the car starts
Puffing white smoke that could mean you have a head gasket Leak if it starts puffing blue smoke you could have worn out piston rings
But in this case, we're good
Here's an example of a van that's burning oil upon giving the car gas blue smoke comes out of the exhaust and here's another example
of a beetle with the same problem
So that gives you a good idea of what to [look] for
Make sure you do the same [check] when the car is warmed up as well because you might only get smoke when the car is
warm
now let's shut the engine and move to the front of the car and have the owner started up again at the front of the
Car ask the owner to start the engine again and watch the motor for [movement] a little movements, okay?
But you don't want to see a lot [of] movement like this van engine because that means the motor mounts are worn out
so ask the owner to start it up and
That looks good again. We're going to check for leaks using our flashlight
but this time with the engine running [when] we have everything under pressure
We're more likely to find a leak so we have a couple things we want to look at we want to look at the cooling
System we want to look at the master cylinder. We want to check out the engine and he hoses the water pump
Look over here. We've got our abs we got our power steering
So just take a quick peek around and see what you can find and in this case everything is looking real good
So leak wise we look good
The other thing you want to check is with the oil cap removed [put] your hand over the hole to see if there's any pulsing
Of air right now, I don't feel any pressure or vacuum
and there's no smoke coming out if you have strong puffs of air and smoke the piston rings could be worn out and
causing a
Significant amount of blow by and in that case the engine might be worn out that being said if you do get a light
Positive pressure or a vacuum that's normal for some engines
Just make sure the pulses aren't strong, and there's no smoke in this case the engine feels fine
But it's amazing how much [information] you could get just by looking under the oil cap and then finally while the engines running
You're just going to be listening [you're] going to be watching [you] want to make sure that the engine isn't vibrating
Significantly you want to make sure that the idle is constant
It's not revving up and down and it just sounds like it's running
well, you don't want to hear any loud ticking there's going to be little ticks because of the fuel injectors like
But this sounds good this sounds normal, so everything's checking out and then after [you] go for your test drive
It's always good
And I always suggest it again shut the engine off and start it up listen for it again
Do the same test check for smoke check for that pressure because things change when the engines cold versus when the engines warm right now?
The engines warming up and then the last thing to do is ask the owner to shut the engine and then you're going to watch
To make sure there's no significant vibration. There's no knocking noise. There's none of that can you shut the car?
and that
[shuts] right off. So that was good to me
This is one of the most important things because engine work and transmission where it could get expensive
So I spend the most time here and on the test drive and everything is just checking out pretty good right now
So let's move on to inspecting the interior or not and this just doesn't want to close can you pop the hood?
Okay, so before we inspect the interior this hood latch is working, but this hood latch over here
Isn't latching and if we take a look under the hood?
This is why it's not catching the hood cable this looks all rusted, so I feel like this might need a new hood cable
So I mean that's just something that you see when you're checking things out
I want to go shut the hood and this doesn't close on the sun, and [that] is definitely a problem
So that covers most of the main things I look at when I inspect an engine in a used car
Hopefully the video is helpful and for the next video in the series
I'm going to go over some pretty cool tips and tricks for inspecting the interior of a used car
Many of the tips are things you wouldn't think about but when you hear them you're going to be like oh
Why didn't I think of that to get to that video you could click on the screen or find the link in the description?