THis is sort of a spin-off of the other thread, as nothing was really accomplished...... ;)

Anyway, this is more/less directed toward what you should look for as in records or doing an inspection.....

Im gonna start, and then people add as necessary.... BTW, this would be something that would be done IN ADDITION to a dealer inspecion.....

First, when I get into the car, take a big whiff of what it smells like.... You can usually tell if the cars been a smoker car by this, as you may not notice it any other time.... So get into the car and start looking around, pressing buttons and making sure all the features work, all little compartments open correctly and smoothly... Check the glovebox for the owners manuals and possibly the spare keys.... Make sure all the doors open and close from both inside and outside....

For exterior inspection, make sure its a bright day, or have a good source of light.... Take your finger and feel the paint.... It should all feel the same (assuming its clean).... Also, you should see some orange peel to some degree... If not, its possible it was repainted, which might mean there was an accident.... ANother way to tell this is (hard to explain, but Ill try) if you can see scratches but are painted over.... Sort of like little grooves in the paint... These can be very hard to see, and usually require to move around a lot to see them.... However, if it looks like a good quality paint job, its not always bad, because if you start getting chips, it might just chip off one layer to reveal the bottom layer....

Now, make sure the tires are all the same size (not necessarily brand), load rating (important) and they should have similar wear... I know there is a trick to tell how the tread is (besides the TWI)... I think its if you put a penny up to the tread with heads side, upside dow, if you can see the top of his head, you need new tires..... Also, make sure the sides arent cracked....

Open the engine compartment, and the engine should be semi clean, but it can be self obvious if it was detailed... Feel some of the hoses, they should be very soft, but not really soft.... Also, they may be brittle so be gentle at first so you dont crack one! Now start checking fluids.... Check the oil, and make sure its a good color and at a good level..... Now check teh tranny fluid.... Dont be so concerned about level (check that later after its warmed up), but look at the color and smell... Smell it, and if it smells like burning the tranny fluid hasnt been changed for a long while.... Open up the oil filler cap, and shine a flashlight down in there, and you should see some oil but mostly clean metal (ie no black stuff fused to it.) If you do, it might be that maintennace wasnt up to snuff.....

Now fire up the motor, and make sure there are no squeels or anything coming from the engine compartment... I wont go into a lot of details, as most people should know what to look for in a test drive (IE the tranny shifts smooth, gets up to temp timely, etc).....

Also, when you get back, before you shut off the engine, leave the engine in park and check the tranny fluid level..... Just pull it out (not pull, wipe, check again) and check the level.....

If Ive forgotten anything, please add!!

Open the trunk, pull up the false bottom, and look at the spare and the jack. Look for rust on the spare wheel, as well as on the jack. Feel the carpeting underneath for moisture. I was ready to make an offer on a beautiful green '98 DeVille until I saw that. Apparently the weatherstripping on the trunk had gone bad. It's not uncommon, either.

Also, feel the carpet on the floor of the back seat for moisture. Most of the used Caddys I've looked at had been shampooed with some kind of mildew-cide that covered any and all odors. Hell, I'd almost rather smell smoke or mildew than that chemical $h!znit.

One thing I occasionally look for is engine or hose leaks. This may sound strange but park in a dark area like your garage or parkade, get a good light like a Maglite, and check all over the engine for wet shiny areas. I found several wet spots this way with other higher mileage cars, and for some reason, they show better with a flashlite and a darker area.

I check the fan belts or serpentines for extreme cracks or fraying. I check the weatherstripping because usually no one bothers to maintain this, and maintenance for rubber seems to be controversial, ie. armor all, silicone, etc.


Look under the car, check the exhaust for rust, as well as the muffler. If it's an older car, you can "rap" around the fenders with your knuckles to hear if there is body filler in there, meaning an accident or rust was there.

Thats a good idea..... Also dont certian fluids glow under a black light, or something like that.....

I was also going to mention when inspecting the exhaust, don't ever let the guy at Midas or ? use the pliers to check it's strength! After they did that to my friends car, he had rust spots every couple feet on the entire length of exhaust pipe! They squeeze with the pliers, and I think it produces weak spots that may rust sooner.

well i think you guys pretty much covered everything, one extra thing is to check the waterpump belt, as it is separate from the serp belt and it on the other side of the engine compartment. Ask the dealer (if its a Gm dealer) to pull up the service history on the car, and see if there were any recalls on it and see if they were done. the common ones are seatbelt pre tensioner, and fuel pressure sensor. there really arent that many recalls on cadillacs. but there are some thigns which are notorious for breaking on some models are:
Hot water valves and oil coolers on Cateras
tie rods on either sevilles or devilles i forget which (this may have a recall , i can't recall [lol])
there are a few others, ill list them all when i go into work tomorrow and ill post them up on here.

Why dont you post that in the FAQ sticky in the CF SUGGESTION forum.. I should have the best FAQ done by the end of Jan.....

one extra thing is to check the waterpump belt, as it is separate from the serp belt and it on the other side of the engine compartment

:confused:

The waterpump belt on the newer northstar motors. it's on the right side of the engine, seperate from the serpentine belt. some people may not think to check it.

I check the weatherstripping because usually no one bothers to maintain this, and maintenance for rubber seems to be controversial, ie. armor all, silicone, etc.

How DO you maintain weatherstripping's flexibility an elasticity?

How DO you maintain weatherstripping's flexibility an elasticity?

I have a 24 year old Pontiac and the weatherstripping is like new, seriously! It is driven in all types of climate. Keep in mind that weatherstripping isn't in the sun so I've had no problem using a rag and Armor All on the stripping when I do everything else. I also do the rad hosers, oops hoses :D that way too. Because of all the discussion we've had here where people have warned me to avoid AA like the plague, I've been using stuff w/o petrolium distilates in it now. Namely that "No Touch Wet n' Protect" tire care stuff. Everyone has their preference, be it AA or silicone spray that GM even sells.

This info is very informative. I am looking for a 'lac as well

I believe one of the most important and easiest things has been forgotten... run the on-board computer check! ;) I suggest having a code list with you and a notepad to jot down the codes. That way if anything pops up you can ask the seller to have it fixed or at least use it as a negotiating tool.:Poke:

funny, i didnt see anything about testdriving!? make sure the suspension feels nice/ tight/ responsive. you dont want to inherit any suspension problems. get on the engine and see if it shifts properly. also, give the brakes a work out and see if they need new pads/rotors. this is general car info.

i like to check the door panels on the interior and feel around the edges to see if any plastic clips have been broken. alot of times a window motor or something needs to be serviced and the dummies dont know how to take off the panels so they just rip it off. also, for eldo's check the paint under the door jam. if its rubbin off it prolly means that heavy door is saggin. thats it for now.

Day late, dollar short? Wonder if there is anyone around that can comment on buying a like new 1985 Cad Eldo Coupe with 14K on the clock that has been sitting in a recently deceased lady's garage since 1987, Current family member (heir?) inherited the car and had it shipped about 2K miles to his place. Did some initlal maintenance, got all the apparent glitches staight - drained gas tank (gas had gelled), cleaned, replaced gas filter in tank and remounted. Changed all fluids less trans (?), replaced hoses, cleaned metal hoses, mounted new tires.
Does anything else come to mind? I plan on driving this car to my home - about 900 miles, sometime next week.
Thanks for any pointers.

well, testdriving is good. if it can lay down a good 4 feet of thick rubber on dry asphalt without causing the low oil pressure light to go on, or make the engine stall, i would be ready to make an offer.

Also, look into the history of it. Who drove it, where, when and how. If an old grandma drove it 1 mile each day to the store and back from the day it left the factory, i wouldnt buy.

If a teen-ager had this car for more than a few hundred miles, (or if the right rear tire is bald) i would consider something different.

This is a little off topic but how long does it take gasoline to gell in a tank?

I believe one of the most important and easiest things has been forgotten... run the on-board computer check! ;) I suggest having a code list with you and a notepad to jot down the codes. That way if anything pops up you can ask the seller to have it fixed or at least use it as a negotiating tool.:Poke:
How is this done, or how does one find out how to do this? Urgent!!!

How is this done, or how does one find out how to do this? Urgent!!!

I think I might be able to help on this ;)

Go to your local autozone/checker/kragen or whatever your local autoparts store is, and they usually rent code checkers free of charge (deposit of course). Make sure you get the one that will be right for the year of car, and if you don't know how to hook it up, consult a haynes/chiltons before you leave the store, or ask on here. You could also just buy a code reader, if you are serious about cars, that way you just have one, instead of borrowing one all the time.

Hope this helps!

Dane

This is a little off topic but how long does it take gasoline to gell in a tank?

I have never heard of gasoline gelling in a tank, (diesel is all I have heard of) All I have heard is that the gasoline turns to a varnish, and gums stuff up. On older cars, sometimes you can force bad gas through the carb, and get the crate to turn over. Even then, that hasn't worked, and I have helped blow out fuel lines that have a very disgusting varnish plug blow out the fuel line! It looked like a mouse turd! That I think is the biggest fear of a car sitting, is the varnish setting in, especially with a fuel injected engine. You can use stuff like Stabil to take care of the gas varnishing up. I think gas usually freezes up in winter like water doesn't it? I believe diesel usually gells up when it freezes, but that is way off topic at this point! :canttalk: I did pull gas out of a 1967 dodge that sat since 1994 about a year ago, and the gas stank like varnish, but the tank wasn't as bad as it could be. A concern I think would be the electric fuel pumps in the tank also. I imagine the pump would be killed by the varnish, because of not having the gas flowing through it.

Dane

A couple of comments then some suggestions: First of all, you cannot always tell a smoker's car by its smell. (As a smoker, my nose doesn't apply; instead, it's critical non-smokers' opinion of the smell of my car.) I smoke like a chimney and, of course, had to get the smoker's package, for free, on my 01 STS. The clock said 7.3 miles when the first cigarette was burned in the car.

Even with 62k on the clock, nonsmokers say, "I cannot belive this is a smoker's car. The only thing that I can smell is new leather smell. Smoker's tip: Always, always have a window cracked, the more the better, when you smoke. Never, never extinguish a butt in the car. The fist butt that you extinguish in the car will brand it as a smoker's forever. Also, never, never smoke while running the A/C. I don't know if its' something in the evaperator/condenser, but the smell of smoke marries something in the A/C system. My STS is a garage Queen, so most of the time, I leave all the windows open and the sun roof open.

The big thing you want to watch of when buying a used Cadillac is wrecked cars. Late model/low mileage cars--10 to 20k--are usually wrecked cars. Because I have worked on wrecked cars for years, I can tell wrecked cars fairly easily. I'm sure that it also applies to other models as well, but I worked at a Cadillac dealership in the late 80's early 90's. When we fixed a new wrecked Cadillac, it was out on the used car lot as soon as the customer signed off the bodyshop paperwork. (I think that the loaner Cadillac is condemned at 40k--I don't know. The thing is that a loaner Caddialc isn't much better than a wrecked one.)

The question is whether or not a wrecked car is okay. That depends, and it doesn't depend on the amount the damage, but the quality of the craftmanship, at putting the car together. I knew a bodyman, from Renolds Buick, Irving/Dallas, TX, who put together a then-new 1985 FWD 4D Park avenue. The car was beyone total and had 900 miles on it. The insurance company crunched the numbers and because the repair was less than 80% of the vehicle value, the insruanc company repaire the car. He built the car from a floorpan, the firewall, and windshile pillars. Everything else was hand bulit--roof, rails, core, door posts, outar/innear quarters. My point is that, despite the fact that the customer sold the car, I would have bought the car because I knew the builder and was more than confidant in his superior skill levels.

(I you get offended by this comment, you fall into the one group, and if you don't, you fall into the other group. Oh, by the way, my NQPI average was 97.3%--what's your's?)

About 90% of the time, the car has been assembled shoddily. A rebuild from a Cadillac-dealer bodyshop is the best bet. It certainly doesn't mean that it's a quality rebuild, but it's a game of russian roulette, and you have a less chance of getting a poor rebuild.

A good builder can put one together well engouh so a CarFax inspector cannnot tell hand fabrication from factory. (About Carfax able to distinquish wrecks from cream puff isn't saying much, but that a different story. Suffice to say that just because it has a clean Carfax history doesn't mean that it hasn't been wrecked.)

Of course on major low quality rebuilds, you'll see tape lines where the car has been masked. If the car shows signs of being masked, or you see overspray, you can rest assured of low quaity body repairs.

This isn't a garuntee that the car hasn't been worked, but it's another sign of low quality body work. Around the windows and the back glass, lots of Caddies have rubber/plasitc garnish mouldings. With your fingernail, gently lift these up. On the bottom and top of the doors, you can gain easy access by starting at a end cormer, such as where the front and back doors meet. Inspect for a paing line under the granish moulding. A flat rate trick is to insert a small rope or some type of spacer, lifting the molding so that the paint line is under the molding. Most windsheilds have a non flexible reveal molding on the top, so it may be impossible to inspect under that molding.

Now if these areas are on the roof, it might be a sign of minor body work, such as a ding or scratch. It's an awfully agressive repair to r & i the back glass or its molding for minor touch up. Without an elaborate explaination about altering, and possibly compromising, the structural integrity of the vehice, suffice to say that this is deemed a quality repair for minor dings and scratches on the roof.

Doors that show paint lines, however, are unacceptable, even for small scratches. If the guy is so lazy--or lacks the skill level, whereby he cannot beat the book by removing belt moldings, handels, and locks, I would question the quality of the repair.

With inspecting the sail panel for such masking tecniques: (That's the peice of metal along side of the backglass, going down to the rear quarter panel.) There may have been minor damage; even so, there is a good chance that it's a sign of a belt cut. A belt cut is a most shoddy, half a$$ed way to replace a quarter panel. Instad of pulling the back glass and grafting onto a factory seam, the body man simply cuts the origional quarter, at whatever given point below the backglass. Next, he cuts the sail panel off the new quarter panel so that it fits to the cut.

Belt cuts are dangerous cars. I'd rather have a clipped car--one that is the front half on one car married to the back half of another--before I'd have a car that had a belt-cut installed quarter panel. (Then again, I'd rather have a car with a quarter panel that had a couple of gallons of bondo as fill before I'd have a car with a quarter panel replacec correctly.) All new cars have areas called crush zones. In the event of a hard collision, these areas crush similar to an accordian. This absorbs the shock waves. It's the reason why the new cars don't hold up like old ones do in collisions. It is also the reason why injuries and fatalities have been reduced in an exponential amount on the per thousand collisions. A belt cut increased the ridigity of the car, compromising the crush zone. It's just like welding a heavy meal ram-rod the lenght of the vehicle.

You can also detect collision damage by looking at the bolts. Often, the paint is scarred on the bolts and there are existing ringlets in the paint where the bolt's aligmnent doesn't quit match the old position. Look the welds on the frame rails, core support, (this is the carrage under the hood where the engine raidator sit and suspensiton attach) and look at any other obvious weld spots on the car.

The factory's robot spots weld like a machine, and they are quite consistant. Replacment parts have a hole in one peice, and MIG rod is floated in the hole, fusing the peices together. Many artists, like the mentioned bodyman can duplicate almost exact replecias of factory sopt welds. No mater how well they are done, I can tell a MIG weld from a spot weld. The point is that if I have to study the metal at the molcecuar leve, it means that the repair was done by a very fussy person, pretty much ensuring a quality repair.

All I can say is good luck. The whole auto industry, from repair to new cars is a shady business with lots of shady charaters.

One thing to look for which mite not always be easy is the presence of critters. Rats especially like to get in to the engine compartment and squeeze into the tight spots and set up homes.

A major hassle is that they will chew wiring for nests and cause electrical problems that can result in some pricey repairs.

Speaking from first hand experience, a rat made a home in my car before I got it. Seems the STS was sitting on the lot for quite some time. This lot dealt mostly with used European designs, so my Caddy just waited patiently for about a year for me to come along.

The rat chewed wires and caused the A/C prgrammer to short out.

Thats a good idea..... Also dont certian fluids glow under a black light, or something like that.....

Yeah certian fluids glow under black light, almost all of them. I tried to find an fuel leak on my 6.2 diesel blazer i had. They told me here, this stuff will show up under black light and then u can find out where its coming from. Hmm, that didint work at all, because the whole engine and engine compartment all glowed from all the oil and fuel and everything else that was glowing. 6.2 had problems with oil lines so they almost all leaked and even fixed line still leaked. Good luck with the black light.

Something I do when on a test drive is get the car up to about 70. I let go of the wheel and see if it pulls to either side. This speed also shows if the car shakes at speed. Get on the brakes hard from this speed to see if it pulls from either direction as well.

Try to drive the car over a rough road. Bad roads will reveal rattles and squeeks inside and will make any worn front end components obvious.

Let the car idle for a while. Keep an eye on the temp. Check the condition of things like serpentine belts, brakes, etc. It's easy to spend 500.00 on your new ride just to get it completley road worthy as you want it to be.

After driving the car for a while I turn it off and then back on. I like to make sure there are no hot start issues.

Lastly, and this has nothing to do with how the car runs but if it has a power antennae, make sure it works properly. To me, this says something about how the owner cared for the car. Many break them off one way rt the other or if they stick they just leave it up. I don't like broken power antennaes at all!

This may have been covered, I didn't read every post. But when looking over the paint, look to under the hood and under the truck for any masking marks. Most places that repaint a damaged car might not paint under those areas and you will see masking marks from the new coat of paint on top vs. the original coat under.
Also, look at the bumpers. Any road nicks or rock chips that are in the bumper but have not scratch the paint, might indicate a repaint or replacement bumper. Pretty tough for a rock to hit a bumper and not chip the paint but leave a little mark, right??

Hey folks, found this site very informative. I just bought a 1988 Seville Elegante from a friend, who bought it @ an auction.

A couple of things I would like to mention is to check the engine oil and make sure you don't see anything white, engine oil and anti-freeze mixed. Also, inspect and smell the radiator fluid as well. Those are tell-tale signs of engine gasket/seal problems.

The original post is not very definitive. Some things to check for, of course like the first post says is to make sure everything works. As far as everything else, push down on all four corners of the car make sure the suspension has resistance and will go down with the push and return you don't want any bouncing, have someone follow you on a test drive and tell you if any smoke or anything irregular happens during the drive, check for fault codes(most cars not just Caddy's have a way to check for DTC's). Check all fluids, start and run the car at idle for 10 minutes smell for gas, freon etc... push the car to redline make sure acceleration is acceptable and the transmission downshifts appropriatly, push the accelertor all the way to the floor until it downshifts and abruptly let off the gas, make sure the transmission does not hunt for the proper gear and shifts smoothly, have someone put the car in reverse and slightly push the gas down with the brake depressed while you make sure the engine does not move forward(test for bad mounts). Test the brakes, on a residential street get the car to the allowed speed limit and slam on the brakes make sure they are not spongy, make sure there is adequate braking, no squeeling, and especially no brake warning lights. Basically read up on the car you want before you buy it than with the knowledge you have test every system on the vehicle.

Missed this thread :(

Lots of good info, thanks to all!!

The trunk check is very important. You should remove the spare tire, because water can collect there, and in our 2000 SLS, it is 100% sealed. No holes to drain or anything. Check for moisture etc...

The owner's manual for my deVille says to use silicone lube once a year, apply it with paper towel or a clean rag.

If a car looks good, accepting some minor flaws, I think its more important to look at the history, the character current owner. Whats documented? Past maintanence/repair bills with big numbers at the bottom I see as a good thing. Dealerships suck as a general rule. You pay 25% or more over actual value. Although there may be some recourse if a repair surfaces immedietly or the cars needs to be returned because of misrepesentation. I prefer to buy from private owners.

The car must not have been started overnight, I look in the AM whenever possible the car must be dead cold. (a two minute warm up can hide many problems i.e. small head gasket leak, valve noise, oil burning, sticky lifters in Big Block Cadillacs etc. Sellers often claim they didn't start it when the really did. I warn sellers the night before that it must be dead cold or I won't even look at the car.

I ask a ton of questions on the phone and make notes, if I look at the car and find the owner straight up lied about anything then I assume they lied about all and I usually walk away right then. (sometimes I stay for laughs and point out all the lies)

Ask where it's normally parked... Then walk over and look for evidence of leaks. (I got tagged by a leaking rear main seal that only leaked if the car was leaning slightly to the right, expensive lesson)

Then walk the car, if the car visually appears to have the original paint or to have minor body repair, then I continue (unless it's cheap or old transportation, then I expect a repaint).

Open hood, put my bare hand under an exhaust manifold to verify the car is dead cold. Open ALL fluid caps/ dipsticks, visual and smell (for burn) test on the bottom of the cap for rust, beads, evidence of moisture and/or over heating on the caps or at blistered engine paint, look inside the air intake for oil buildup, inspect belts etc.

Leave hood open and have the seller start the car (you must verify the Check Engine light works upon or prior to start up, some folks will put black tape over that or disco the bulb), I usually stand at the tail pipe for start up wait 10 seconds or so and go for a listen to the engine. I let the car idle for at least 10 minutes before a test drive

Test drive, floor it in a straight line, at about 20 MPH stand on the brakes (don't lock 'em up) come to a dead stop then slam the auto in reverse and do the same, then forward again, then backward again looking for delayed gear engagement (2 or 3 times). If the car survives then I get FWD cars in a big parking lot and heavy foot the gas and brake at the same time in lock to lock steering wheel circles and listen for horrible noises from the CV's, halfshafts or Transaxle. If the car survives then a basic FWY 70 plus MPH road test is done. If it's a stick you get the car in 4th on the FWY and stand on the gas and the brake and maintain 70MPH to see if you can make the clutch slip. At some point let it coast for a long way down a hill if possible and look for smoke.

When I return from the drive I leave the car idle at all times w/AC running(waiting for it to overheat) while I'm there, (beware of the owner that keeps shutting off the ignition) and look over the trunk and undercarriage for rot or signs of repair. (Grease pencil numbers on parts, wrinkles, overspray, rust, wrong color of bolts, one A arm is clean, saw cuts, radiator and core support damage that sort of stuff)

If the car gets past this stuff a quick call the the Dealer for a Warranty repair run down (or MFG 800# GM is great in this regard so are many others), verify the warranty is intact. If the car is out of warranty the warranty run down / history will tell you if it's a lemon or a POS.

If it's a high $ car with that's out of warranty I usually take it to the agency for a complete inspection after all of this, but I do that after the seller and I agree on a price so I can beat 'em down some more after the dealer says it needs a belt and brakes.

Last, make sure the VIN matches on the car and title also look at the Sellers ID to make sure you got the right owner and car.

I've bought hundreds of used cars, the only time anyone gets pissed at you for doing this stuff to their car is when they have something to hide, otherwise most are proud to show off how nice and solid their car is.

You can't expect a classic to pass all these tests, but it's best to buy with your eyes open

Maintenance records are prefered, but not everyone keeps them. If they claim Jiffy lube down the street did the oil changes be sure (don't mention it) and stop in on the test drive and ask for a print out on the car. The truth is out there.