Take a look, how clean is the car? I would prefer to look at a dirty car because it is clear to me they aren't trying to woo me with a nice clean car lol. If I where to be looking at buying my truck from me, I would be very leary because I keep my truck in tip top shape. I clean the engine, I clean everything down to the door jambs. IF it is overly clean, they could be someone like me and takes great price in the car, or they are trying to hide something by wooing you with a clean car.

Next, pop the hood and check the fluids. This would be the brake fluid, oil, automatic trans. fluid, power steering fluid, and coolant. When checking these, make sure the fluid is at the proper level, not over full, and not under full. Too much oil can destroy an engine. Somethings like your oil and trans. fluid will have a dipstick (some cars have no way to check trans fluid without dropping the pan, these are newer cars). If you read the dipstick, there will sometimes be a crosshatched area, if the fluid is in this area it is good on fluid. It might just have a full and add line. Make sure it is somewhere in that zone. Other fluids like brake fluid will be in a reservoir with a full, and add line.

Brake fluid will be clear with a yellowish tint to it. This fluid will become brown or black, and that means it needs to be changed.

Trans fluid is a Bright red, almost pinkish translucent color. If it is dark red, it is still alright, but when it is brown or black, it needs to be replaced. You might find metal shavings which is normal. In the trans fluid pan, there is a magnet that usually catches this. If there is a lot, it might mean there is a serious issue with the trans. When you check the fluid level, make sure the car is warm, and running. Be careful as since the engine is warm, things are hot and can burn you.

Coolant will either be orange or green, but green is the most common. Orange coolant is called Dexcool, and it just really isn't used much. Some cars like the newer Mustangs use it though. While we are on the topic of the different colored coolants, DO NOT MIX THEM. Mixing the two will create a jello like substance that will clog your cooling system, overheating and murdering your engine.

Oil is an amber color. When you check the oil, also open up the engine oil cap like you are going add oil. If there is a milky substance on the cap, then you may have a bad head gasket (really expensive repair, it may be cheaper to get a new engine). Oil can sometimes be brand new, but black because of the additives they owner put in. I would still be VERY Leary if it is black though.

Power steering could be clear, amber, or a pinkish color.

While you are checking the fluids, go ahead and check the air filter. It will generally be a whitish color, it might be red, or blue, or what ever if they have an aftermarket one. Just make sure it's not caked in dirt.

Now that you have that out of the way, check the brakes and rotors. The rotos should be smooth. Some rotors will be drilled and slotted which normal, you will be able to tell a machined edge, from bad wear on the rotor. When feeling the rotor to see if it has un-even wear, keep in mind that at the tops and bottom it may have a bad edge, like it is 1/16" thicker than the rest of the rotor. This is because someone high up in the office decided it would be a good idea to make a smalled brake pad and a bigger rotor so when you redo your brakes, you have to replace the rotor too making them more money. Anyway, it is normal for some vehicles. That would just be fore disc brakes. Some vehicles have disc brakes all the way around, and some just in the front with drums in the back.



Look at the brake pads, are they nice and thick? Or extremely thin? If they are really thin like they only have 1/8" of pad left, they need to be repaced. If the car has drum brakes in the back, you can take the tire off and the drum off (it just pulls off) and check them, but I usually assume that if the fronts are good, the backs are too.

Now take a look at all the edges of the car, the edges of the doors and fenders, hood and fenders, trunk, etc. If there is a small gap at the top and a huge gap at the bottom, the panel may just be aligned badly, or it can be a sign that the vehicle has been in an accident. While you are looking at the outside of the vehicle, go ahead and look at the bottom and see if there is rust say on the bottoms / inside of the doors, right in front of, or behind the tires, etc.

Do the tires look evenly warn? Or is one side warn a lot more than the other? This could be as simple as they don't have the right PSI / kPa, or it might be camber wear, bad ball joints, bad alignment, bad wheel bearing, etc. Stick a penny upside down in the tread of the tire. They say that if Lincoln's head doesn't touch the tread, you need new tires (sorry people not in the U.S. I got no tips for you). When you do this, do it on all tires, on bot sides of the tire, and the center. Some tires have wear bars on them. If they are at the same level and the tread, you need new tires. These wear bars are usually on the outside of the tires, and are just a little bar maybe 1/4" thick if that, and connect the blocks of tread on the outside. You can look it up on Google if you're confused about that. Don't rely on them as some tires don't have them.

While you are down there, take a look under the vehicle. If it is a wet day, don't worry about it, everything will be wet. So if it is dry take a peak under the vehicle, and look in a few areas to see if there is leaking. These areas should be the differential (the big ball thing in the middle of the axle), where the drive shaft goes into the transmission, and under the engine.

If there is leaking in the engine area, it is safe to assume it is oil. I would stick my finger in the fluid (if the vehicle / area the leak is isn't too hot) and smell it to identify it.

If there is a spray in the wheel well, it may be a bad axle seal (solid axle only). Check the U-joint (google this, hard to explain but it's a + shaped thing)and see if it has all 4 caps. If the vehicle has an IFS (independent front suspension) look at the CV axle boot, there may be a rip in it and that could be where the fluid is from. If there is, the CV axle will need to be replaced.

When you look at where the drive shaft goes into the transmission and notice there is something spraying the under carriage, it could be a few different problems. The slip yoke may be bad and is tearing up the output seal, the output seal may be bad, or the drive shaft isn't balanced right and is wobbling in there (unlikely, but you would feel something isn't right when you test drive).

If you notice the differential is leaking, it could be as big as it needs a complete rebuild, or just a new seal. Again, you would be able to tell something aint right if it needs a rebuild.

If you can, try and wiggle / spin the drive shaft. It should not wiggle at all, and only spin a very little bit. If it spins a lot look at where it bolts to the rear diff. Is that moving? If it is then the rear diff needs a rebuild and you will feel a hard shift when shifting gears. If that is not moving, look at the U-joints, are they moving? They just may need to be replaced, not a big deal. If the vehicle is 4x4, the front drive shaft should spin freely unless 4x4 is engaged.

Now when you get in the car, put the key in the accessory position if the car has it (a position right before start). When you do this, make sure all the lights come on (some will go off). These lights are things like the check engine light, oil light, etc. If the check engine light does not come on, I would walk away unless you have an OBDII scanner (for all 1996+ and some before 1996 vehicles) to check it out. It might mean they took the light out, put some take over it, or otherwise made it so you don't see the check engine light because it has an issue.



Now make sure the lights work, head lights, high beams, DRLs / fog lights, turn signals, hazards, tail lights, brake lights, etc.

Make sure you bring a jack with you. Most vehicle have a bottle jack, but I like to bring a jack just in case. Jack up one side (I.E. front left, front right, etc.) and pull on the tire at 12 - 6. If it moves, there is a bad ball joint. Now grip it at 3 - 9. It should move a little bit, but if it feels loose, look at the ti-rod. If the ti-rods are moving badly, they need to be replaced (this is your steering to that side). If the tire moves no matter where you grip it, and you noticed it moved when you jacked the car up, it has a bad wheel bearing. For your safety I would walk away. Your tire could literally fall off going down the road.

If you can, try and wait to do the test drive until the vehicle is cold. When you are on your test drive, don't just drive around the parking lot and call it good, spend a good amount of time, like 30 minutes out there. Even if the owner is with you, don't let that scare you. Floor the gas to make sure the vehicle has no downshifting problems (I don't like doing this from a stop, I do it at like 10-15 mph), slam on the brakes, make sure they work, etc. Try and find a street that is stop and go to see how the vehicle handles it. Then get on the freeway, make sure it can handle getting up, and keeping freeway speeds. Drive it like you stole it if you will.

This is questionable, but I like to see how the front end reacts, so I will hit a curb at 10 or so, or maybe hit a pothole in the road to see if it has bad bump steer. Yes, it will move the steering wheel, but it should by no means try to break your arm. Does the vehicle shift the same every time? Is it slipping? Is it banging out gears like it thinks it's a race car? Or is it just a normal smooth shift?

When you park the vehicle, pop the hood, and have them rev the engine to see how the engine move. The engine should move a bit, but make sure it's just trying to roll over like a dog. If it does, it has a broken motor mount.

If the vehicle is a 4x4 (not AWD), make sure that 4x4 works properly. when you drive in 4x4, NO NOT DRIVE ON PAVEMENT, DRY OR NOT. If you do you might bind up the T-case and brake it. Make sure you are in gravel or otherwise an area that will let the front tires spin freely. Make sure 4 hi, and 4 low works good. 4 low is just a tractor gear if you will, this isn't meant to be doing 50 with, you go like 5 in 4 low. This is the gear you pull people out of ditches with.

If you can, get an overall feeling of the person. Are they honest? Ask obvious questions, are they giving you excuses as to why this does that? Or are they saying that yeah, it does that.

If you are spending a good chunk of money, I would go to a mechanic you trust and have them go over the vehicle. Compression test the engine and things like that. The car might be a V8, but only 5 of those cylinders are firing. (happened to a friend of mine). Yeah, it's a couple hundred bucks, but it might save you thousands later on.