L8034

Hey, I hope you can understand where I'm coming from. It's been tough going through all of this on my own without anyone close by to lean on for advice or support. I've always been someone who trusts easily, perhaps to a fault.

Losing my job after a decade hit me hard, and then my landlords dropping the bombshell about not renewing my lease in the middle of a housing crisis... well, it left me scrambling for options. That's when I decided to take a leap and invest my savings in a van to convert into a living space. I scoured ads relentlessly, convinced that I could find a good deal if I looked hard enough.

When I finally found one that seemed promising—a 2006 model with 260,000 miles—I thought I'd found a good deal. Despite my lack of expertise, it appeared to be in decent shape for its age. The seller assured me that everything was fine, that it would breeze through inspection, and I had no reason to worry. I trusted their word completely. After all, why would they deceive me? It seemed too cruel to think they would after I told them that i was really worried about buying a second hand car as I didn't have very much that they would do that.

But it reality hit hard when I took the van for inspection. The list of issues that came back was crushing and expensive and I was quoted $10,000 to get it through the safety.

• Rockers are rusted need to be welded
• Tail Housing seal to be replaced
• Front CPR replacement
• Parking break cables replaced
• Parking break shoes and hardware needs to be replaced
• All new tires needed
• Valve cover seal needs to be replaced
• Exhaust gaskets and bolts needs to be replaced
• Power steering pump is leaking and needs to be replaced
• Oil cooler lines are leaking and need to be replaced
• All ball joints need to be replaced
• Hydro boost needs to be replaced
• Steering gear box leaking and needs to be replaced

I don't know what the best thing is to do and your help or advice. I lose either way. Any advice or support would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
L.

mountainmanjoe

I'm unclear if this van is yours or not

oldchevy

At 18 years old and 260,000 miles the van is not worth $10,000 plus whatever you paid if you bought it. If you haven't bought it, DON"T. Many of those items you mentioned are easy to see. You shouldn't be so trusting when buying a used car. Next time take it to a mechanic first.

L8034

Hi there, yes, I brought it.

L8034

Hi and thank you, and lesson learned indeed.

Derrick71

Some mechanic shops offer pre-purchase inspections where they do a deep inspection and give you a worksheet with everything they found. A shop I'm associated with does them and looks at pretty much every system. They pull codes and look for codes that may have just been cleared. Put it on the lift and look for leaks, rust, collision damage or repairs. They looks at brakes, tires and other wear items as well as a lot of other things. It's really thorough. It's best to set it up with a mechanic before you find a car so you can bring it right in. It's cheap insurance if you don't know a lot about cars.

You might also take it somewhere else and see what it would take to bring it up to standards to pass. The guys you took it to may not have wanted to mess with it and just wanted to send you down the road. That list seems kind of excessive talking about replacing entire systems.

If it is that bad your best bet would be to sell it to someone who can do the work or someone in a state with less restrictive, or no, inspections.

L8034

Hi Derrick, Thank you and really appreciate your response here. I didn't know car garages did that so that is really good to know. If only I could go back in time. Before I brought the car I did pay for and get a car history report and the car was extremely well serviced for the entire history except from when these people who I brought it from had it which was for approximately 8,000 km. I'm trying to be positive and now I'm going to have to start learning about cars! Going through the list of items and I'm trying to get quotes from different supplies and going through wreck yards to see what I can find part wise and writing to different garages. I'm not sure if ''leaking'' means a whole assembly needs to be replace. From your knowledge if something is leaking would you assume it needs to be replaced? from my google/video searches it doesn't seem if that is the case or not?

Thank you!

Rednucleus

BTW if a seller is unwilling to allow a pre-purchase exam, walk away from the deal.

L8034

Very good point. I guess that should be the first question to ask!

Triaged

Start with the things you know you can do like windshield wipers. Have someone replace the windshield if it's cracked. That isn't something you want to mess with. Then clean degrease everywhere that is leaking. Try to find the exact location of the leak. Some of the hoses have o-rings or sealing gaskets that seal them on the ends and that might be where the leak is. If that is the case you could replace those seals and might not have to replace the components and or the hoses. Are they really going to make you replace rockers to be able to drive it?