What To Look For When Buying A Used Car or Truck *In Depth*

good afternoon guys welcome to welcome back to the channel today's video is one that was actually thought of by one of you guys and the reason I say that is about a week ago over on Instagram I put up a one of those questioned things asking video ideas that you guys would like to see right now we're kind of in a lagging on videos with the cat eye down at the shop being torn apart and nothing coming in for the Duramax this week so I reached out to you guys one of the video ideas and a couple of you guys asked about a video on what to look for when buying a used truck so what I have got for you guys here today is a used truck this is a 2011 half-ton I would use the Duramax but it's not a good comparison because there's a lot less Diesel's being bought then there are gassers so what I have here is the newer body style half-ton because these are becoming really affordable and really into the price range but don't think that this video is just for Chevy's this is gonna go for I'm gonna try to keep it Universal amongst all pickup trucks and what to look for so without further ado let's go ahead and get started so the biggest thing that you're going to be looking for when you're going and looking at buying a used truck is the truck worth what they're asking for so you're gonna have to do your research as far as Book value and stuff like that but if the truck seems to be and about that value you want to start getting more in depth in deciding if it is worth it's Book value or not because there are a lot of factors that could change it's worth alright so one of the first things you're gonna want to look at and look over is the exterior and the physical appearance of the truck and reason being if you see dense thing scratches and stuff like that that can help you work on your price to potentially get the price down lower to about where you want the biggest things be paying attention to are like the tires that can be very costly if you have to buy a whole set of new tires as the tires are getting low then you can definitely expect a major expense coming up but body damage does not necessarily mean the vehicle is going to be a bad vehicle it does give you an indication of how the vehicle has been treated so that can give you kind of an idea on its mechanical condition so the exterior can definitely give you a little bit of a background story to how the vehicle has been treated now while you're walking around the exterior and trucks are nice and easy for this to do look up in underneath of the truck get down inspect the frame expect to see if maybe there's a lot of rust on the frame look and feel the frame if it's really really rough like somebody's painted over rust and I'll tell you the frame is really rusted inspect your components like your axle your drive shaft your exhaust system if you can get under the truck and be looking for things like maybe buggered up welds on the exhaust system or maybe something's happened to it make sure the drive shaft is it dented or Dean it can cause a bad vibration look for leaks any type of what looks like greasy or shiny components around the differential the transmission the old pan that'll kind of give you an indication that it could potentially be leaking something and not that this is always a telltale sign but if the transmission and if it's a high mileage vehicle the transmission and engine are absolutely spotless like somebody has meticulously cleaned it look even harder they could be potentially hiding something from you that you're not seeing right off of the bat once you have done that once you've inspected the physical visible parts of the truck then you can really start diving in to the mechanical components so first thing I always do is I always pop the hood in what I'm looking for when I'm popping the hood is basically kind of a visual representation of the service that's been done to the truck and how maintained or not the truck has been the biggest way to do that is to be looking at the hoses if the hoses are really dry rotted and cracked they could be potentially getting ready to bust and leak which would be could be a big expense for you inspect the plug wires if they look really really old it's a good chance that not even the spark plugs have been changed in a while inspect your belts like your serpentine belt and even down there at your AC belt and make sure that they don't look cracked or worn out and then the next biggest thing and something that a lot of people ignore or skip over the battery now the reason I say look at the battery a lot of times they have a date sticker on it or just kind of get a visual idea of how old it looks like it's been in here if you have to go buy a battery you're talking for a truck sometimes upwards as much as $200 to replace the battery so not saying that everybody is out to get you but the truck may start fine when you go to get it because they kept it charged or the vehicle has been running but once you purchase the truck a week later you let the truck sit for two days and it doesn't start because the battery is weak so definitely inspect the battery and if it has a really old date on it maybe potentially get the dealership to put a brand new one in there for you that's a part of the deal or make them work on the price saying that well the battery is a little bit old that's a big expense that I don't want to have to take on once I purchase the vehicle but that is about what's gonna do underneath the hood here as far as visually inspecting it and you can look at other things like the coolant level the oil level that is kind of a general normal thing that you do now the coolant level which you don't have to take the cap off to look at but they always have right here your fill line that shows high or low well the reason I took the cap off is you want to look in there and if that fluid is really black or dirty that could be a sale tale sign if somebody has not flushed the coolant system out in a while and that is gonna be if you can't do that yourself that gets kind of costly to have a shop take the time to do all that so that is one thing to be looking at under the hood is oil how clean does it look does it look really black or doesn't look like it's recently been changed and the coolant is it a green or a pink or a good looking color or is it black and really dirty and if it's low same thing goes for oil if the oil levels low not good if the color levels low not saying it's super bad but it's a chance that it could be burning coolant and that's not something you want to get into because we could be talking about head gasket issues when you're looking at something like that but if the coolant and all level looks good bring your way up into the inside and we're gonna start now here is the most important part of walking up to a used vehicle if the vehicle is warm and somebody has already run it come back do not start a vehicle while it's warm and listen to it because it can hide a lot of symptoms once the vehicles warm if it does have clicking knocking ticking it could go away that you could hear otherwise while the vehicle is cold so of course it goes without saying when you start it up if the temperature gauge goes all the way up to running temp but then it's obviously warm but you see there it's pegged all the way at the coolest setting we can go back up here and listen to see if we hear any knocking ticking or smoking out of the exhaust and the worst that I hear on this truck is a little bit of belt squeak and if you have somebody with you or even adjust your passenger mirror when you start the vehicle watch your exhaust pipe and see if you blow out any white or blue smoke and that can also be a telltale sign of gasket issues or oil burning issues so a couple things to recap on what I said on the first start up make sure the vehicle is cold when you start it up have somebody with you or adjust the mirror to the exhaust pipe so when you start it you can watch to see if any white or blue smoke puffs out of it not a good sign once the vehicle is started let it run let it get up to temperature and then start inspecting things like the hoses maybe listen for an exhaust leak or take it for a ride and then when you come back and Park it then you can look for the leaks or anything like that could be happening while the vehicle is hot so now that I've got it started up let's go for a ride and I'll tell you what to do and what to look for while you're driving the vehicle all right so other than obviously visually inspecting the interior to look at the condition of it is it in good shape is there broken components as they're missing knobs once you get through that inspection always run through every electrical component you can possibly find the windows the locks the turn signals the wipers the radio the heat that they see in the a/c is a big one even in the winter time I know people may be thinking you're not gonna check that a/c in the wintertime but it's going to suck when you buy a used vehicle and in two months from now when it starts getting hot you turn on that a/c and it doesn't work and now you have to pay to have the a/c recharge or it needs a new compressor so let's go ahead and go for a drive and I'll tell you guys want to be looking for while you're driving the vehicle so before I leave a lot a lot of times I'll put it in reverse and then back in forward it maybe forward and reverse one more time and what I'm feeling is how clunky does the transmission field is I feel like it's slipping in and out of Drive and reverse or does it feel solid this would especially mean a lot if you were talking about a high mileage vehicle this one is actually has a newer transmission it was replaced just a few thousand miles ago so it's super solid but if the transmission was slipping you would be able to feel it it be lurching or slipping when it was engaging in the gear this one feels really really solid now before I leave a lot if we're talking about a full wheel drive truck I personally know people who have been screwed about full wheel drive not working not that this is the greatest thing for the vehicle but this is the best way I know how to tell you guys some figure out if the four-wheel drive is working or not move it over into four-wheel drive most vehicles require that you have it in neutral put it back in Drive now this truck is in full wheel lock so what I'm going to do is I'm gonna go out here on dry asphalt and normally when you go to make a turn on dry asphalt when the four-wheel drive is engaged it is extremely hard to turn or it acts like it doesn't want to turn which it just did I know it was hard to tell what that tells you is that the front diff is locked and so is the rear four-wheel drive on dry asphalt is gonna try to grip there's not going to be a lot of give to it when it's turning so you're gonna physically feel the full wheel drive trying to grip the asphalt and that would tell you that the four-wheel drive is engaged now if it drives just like it only does an two wheel drive then that would tell you that it did not engage in four-wheel drive now all the ways you can do this you can have the shop put it up on a lift and then have them put it in full wheel drive and then drive and watch to make sure all four tires are spinning but if you don't have that option that's kind of a easy way to tell if it's working or not so this is kind of the fun part is testing out all huffy brakes in the motor and stuff like that get the vehicle up to speed and hit the brakes really hard now what you're doing is you're feeling the abs to make sure the ABS is working fine if the lines have gotten cut or snagged on something and the ABS is acting funny you'll throw the ABS light or you'll actually feel it in the gas pedal that is one of the easiest way to see if the ABS system is working fine is to get up to speed and just slam on the brakes make sure you're in a safe area to do that please do not do that on the interstate when there's a ton of people behind you if the brakes feel fine and of course you're listening for squeaking and making sure that it stops fine and you don't throw an ABS code you're probably pretty safe to go ahead and make sure that the engine runs fun so I've just been driving around kind of normally and letting the truck get off the temperature but now that the truck is up to temperature I'm pretty much gonna floor it and just run it up and listen for the ins you're not sounding good maybe the transmission slips or there's a drop so that kind of sounds like a silly way to listen to make sure that the motor is running fine but you have to think about it there could be problems with the motor it could throw an engine light or give you a code that the dealership or an individual is trying to hide when a vehicle turns higher rpms so maybe it doesn't throw a code for a knock sensor an o2 sensor if it's just driving around town but ii should get above 3000 rpm amazingly a check engine light comes on and that that could have cleared previous to you coming down so that is why I say run the vehicle up to whatever max it'll let you do it take it out try to find a higher speed limit Road punch it and run it wide open maybe do it a couple times just to see if the vehicle doesn't have an issue of lagging throwing a check engine light code or revealing some other issue that you've skipped over up to that point all right so I just parked the truck and now we've got the engine up the temperature now what you're gonna want to do now that you've made it back pop the hood again also get under the vehicle and it kind of goes without saying maybe don't wear very nice clothes we can go to look at a used vehicle because you really do need to get on the ground and get under it make sure everything's fine now that it's up the tip we can reinsert anything seeping out of maybe radiator hoses any type of oil lines as you can possibly see from down in the engine bay and the same thing goes for under the truck around the oil pans transmission lines and stuff like that visually inspect all those now that's bent at the temperature and be careful being under the vehicle while it's hot of course the exhaust system is going to be hot so before I continue on a couple things that I was thinking about that I forgot to mention during the under hood inspection as far as fluid change power steering is another one to check while you're under there if the fluid smells really burnt it could be a sign the pump or the box is going out and Chevys especially we're bad for this back in the earlier body styles you'll also be able to feel it or hear it in the steering the cirrie may make a weird noise or it might be really hard to steer that could give you an indication that the power steering system is failing in some some sort former that so now if you've gone through all those checklists and everything seems to be fine and you like the truck now is probably the time to buy the truck so the biggest things that I want to get at and I do this on when I've made my vehicle purchases used don't don't get so caught up in buying the vehicle or wanting the vehicle that you miss blatantly obvious things you have to contain your excitement sometimes even though you may want the truck so bad you just you're gonna ignore anything that's wrong with it because you want it so bad you don't want to screw yourself so the biggest things that I want to hit on that I really you should always do in buying a used vehicle of course you need to drive it more than just a couple minutes tell the person tell the dealership I would like to take this on a long test ride I did it for the Duramax the dealership was really understanding I asked the guy I was asked him what his average time was on a test ride and he goes well probably about 15 minutes and I said I would like to have the vehicle for anywhere between half an hour to an hour and he was perfectly fine with them and I did I took the Duramax on in a half an hour to an hour trip I went up the interstate I went through town I even found gravel parking lots and off-road spots to really shake the truck down to see if anything was wrong with it dealerships to make the sale or normally going to do anything they can to get the sell and if they've got nothing to hide they'll have no problem with you driving the vehicle a little longer than five to ten minutes so on top of a good test ride letting it start up cold doing your mechanical inspections and an electronics on the inside and especially if it's a four-wheel-drive truck making sure that full wheel drive works is very very important when buying a used pickup truck so I hope you guys found this video valuable and you learn something from it that's been my experience buying used vehicles everyone's got somebody or they have their own Horror Story from buying a used vehicle unfortunately there are people out there that are looking to get one over on somebody else or to pawn off their problems onto another person and I hope that after watching this video maybe you'll be able to spot somebody that's doing that with a video and maybe you don't end up in that situation screwed on a vehicle purchased I apologize that the video was so long but there is so much to go over when you're buying a used vehicle that I felt like I needed all that time to cover it sorry if I flew through and I was trying to cram it all into one video but I really appreciate you guys watching like I said I hope you found it useful hit that subscribe button if you're not already drop any comments you got down below maybe advice that you have for anybody watching the video down below that maybe I have missed or if you just want to ask me a simple question you can do it down in the comment section below or over on Instagram at Austin oh four underscore c71 I appreciate you guys watching thank you for all the good video ideas I have a lot more coming for you guys take care have a great day

Channel: BTG Performance

Views: 103,002

Keywords:

Id: rs5F4iEWto4

Length: 17min 9sec (1029 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 28 2019