mechmagcn

Ok folks, I know most of us buy used, so the trucks had a previous owner. Post up some of the goofy and downright stupid things you have found that the PO did to your truck.
1: I bought my truck with a known bad NV4500 in it. It might have lived longer if it had some lube in it, holds a gallon, had maybe a half pint.
2: When I brought it home, I noticed there was no fuse in the tail light position, put it in and the lights came on. PO had used the assumption that if a fuse blows, put a bigger one in......Ooooopps! just let out the magic smoke from some wires. Wires were melted together from the headlight switch to the fuse panel.
3: Upon further inspection of the wiring I find wires going nowhere and some of them are still hot
4: Truck also had a known starting issue, if the PO hadn't used the cheapo battery terminals and cleaned them occasionally, the truck would have started great. It does now after I replaced all ends with crimp on terminals from the parts house.
5: The front bumper had been pushed up somehow, they had broken most of the tabs off of the grill slamming the hood against the bumper.
6: Had a serious fuel leak, about 2 turns on a hose clamp solved that one. I don't know about you, but I can't afford to let this precious liquid run out on the ground.
I'm sure I'll run across some more things that are not right before I get it ready for the road, but so far my $500 truck is looking better by the day.

mopar-or-no-car

My truck was bought at an auction in the U.S. by a dealer who imported it to Canada to sell. To pass inspections they wired in daytime running lights, but they would backfeed through the headlights so that the truck wouldn't shut off if the headlight were turned on. Someone had also forced a 9007 bulb in place of the 9004 or vice versa on the drivers side, which made it like one side was on high and one on low and when i flipped the switch they just went they would go the other way so one was on low and the other on high.

roughstock

A PO once told me that the 02 we have at work had a bad head gasket. I said OK.
I found that the Puke bottle had fallen off(or taken off) and the blow-by oil had clogged the radiator, causing it to run hot. I pulled rad, powerwashed, extended the blow-by tube below the frame, and it still runs like a top,(40,000 miles later)

OldDodgeOwner

I guess I was lucky. Only thing I questioned was the piece a junk brake controller the PO had installed. BrakeSmart cured that...

sheriffav8r

My PO was just an idiot. Wait a minute.... I've had this truck since new....

Ram1999

I bought mine new and still I questioned the way some things were done by the builder.

grouch

Geez.......I don't know how many vehicles I've had where I had to repair something the previous owner did, really for no good reason. The most recent was a car I bought to haul mom in. I bought a Ford Taurus as mom is 91 and she can get into it okay and her wheel chair fits fine in the trunk. When I test drove it, it drove just fine. When I went back with the money later that day, I paid for it and as I went down the road, it wouldn't shift. Great, a bad transmission. It started shifting and after this happened a couple of times, I figured out it only would happen when the engine was warm and then the car would sit. Like going to dinner or the grocery store. Then I realized the speedometer wasn't working when this would happen. I also had a major oil leak.

Somebody who didn't know what they were doing had worked on the oil pan and didn't get the gasket back right. It had oil soaked the vehicle speed sensor and when it would get hot (it is right over the catalytic converter) the VSS would fail. They probably thought they sold the dealer a car with a bad transmission. $45 worth of parts later I've got a smooth running and driving car. In the past 8 months I've put 12,000 miles on it and it uses about a quart of oil every 2000-2500 miles.

CORed

ROTFLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

rebal

My 01 PO was a girl..and left it stock that way I could mess it up

jcw74801

Bought a $500 truck once. PO said the A/C had quit years ago and he wasn't willing to pay to have it fixed. After I bought the truck I tightened the extremely loose belt and had about the coldest A/C I've ever seen.

Kody

well,

I bought my 96 for $1500. Some people broke in stole stuff out of it like,

radiator
intercooler
batteries and cables
the overhead temperature console
power window switches
door pocket things
catalytic converter

but that is the least of my problem.
The owner of the truck heard the U joints were slappin around, so he decided to cut them out. Well the Dumb*** went and cut the yokes on the axle shafts both the inner and outer shafts for BOTH SIDES!

needless to say it cost me $400 to buy another axle for the shafts....

this guy also told me the transmission was recently rebuilt. well in febuary it died on me. left me an hour from home i had to borrow my buddy's ford and gooseneck to go down and get it. this was all during a huge snow storm.

MATTIEBOB

well my story is kind of my fault, always inspect everything when buying a truck, including paint. when i purchased my 98, it was covered in red clay. the po was in the landscaping buisness in stillwater, ok and the name of his company was pokes landscaping. well needless to say i fell in love with the truck and drove it home. the next day i went and washed the red clay off, and once it was clean and in the sunlight you could read pokes landscaping all the way across the rocker panels. i guess the po had a vinyl sticker across the bottom of the truck and when he peeled it off it pulled the clear coat with it. so that is probably why it was covered in red clay, but i fixed it with stainless rocker trim.

RAMRODD

Why complain about the previous owner?? Look the vehicle over before your buy it. You do realize your buying as is

Bluedually4x4

My truck was owned by an older couple, bought it for the sole purpose of putting a slid in camper in it. They put 40,000 miles on it over the course of 6 years, decided to sell the camper and the truck and got a self contained camper. Only problem with the truck where the tires, had some goodyear work horses on it, which were not worn very evenly.

Robert Rausch

I didn't know very much about Dodge/Cummins trucks when I bought mine, except that I wanted one. In 2000 I bought a '95 2500, 2wd, and paid a bit over blue book for it. The PO was retired, and possibly a bit senile, but his wife dealt with me and handled the sale. I didn't look very hard at the truck, and it only had 56,000 miles on it, and everything seemed to work. After I got it I began to count up all the aftermarket stuff he had put on it, and I realized I made out pretty good. In fact I think they underpriced it by a fair amount, given all the stuff it had on it.