How to Check a Used Car Before Buying (Checking the Engine) - YouTube

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?