1991 Audi that had a bad alternator. I replaced the ground wire from the battery to the engine block, the car started, charged the battery and all the lights were brighter.
(Some of you may remember this, as I posted about it in a thread about a year ago when I was having trouble with the car, and it was someone on these boards that told be to clean all ground wires first for any electrical issue, that is now standard practice with all my vehicles, thanks GRM!)
The ingenuity shown in most of the posts is great. But does anyone else have an issue with deceiving an owner about a minor problem that can be fixed in seconds?
This kind of stuff never happens to me. Stuff that seems like an easy fix usually just ends up taking me six hours and I break four other things in the process 
My black 92 Celica was purchased for $600 because it wouldn't run. Over the course of two years, the seller had replaced literally everything electrical in the car, and some other things.
I found that somehow he had tried to use a ~96 camry distributor on the car, which doesn't work.
Not only did the car fire RIGHT up on 2.5 year old gas, oil, and coolant, but Carquest let me swap out the distributor for free.
Otto Maddox wrote: The ingenuity shown in most of the posts is great. But does anyone else have an issue with deceiving an owner about a minor problem that can be fixed in seconds?
I don't think I've ever deceived a seller on a car that needed a minor fix. I usually research the crap out of whatever system has failed (after taking a chance and buying it) and sometimes I find a cheap or simple solution to the problem.
bought a mk2 VW Golf dirt cheap that "wouldn't start without jumper cables". It would fire up and run/drive fine on a jump... but when you tried to restart it... click (then dead). no lights.
turns out the terminal was loose on the + post. tightened it up and commuted for ~6 months with it then sold it.
Woody wrote:Otto Maddox wrote: The ingenuity shown in most of the posts is great. But does anyone else have an issue with deceiving an owner about a minor problem that can be fixed in seconds?I don't think I've ever deceived a seller on a car that needed a minor fix. I usually research the crap out of whatever system has failed (after taking a chance and buying it) and sometimes I find a cheap or simple solution to the problem.
Yeah I think most of these are 'took a chance' ended up being a simple fix, I almost started another thread entitled "easy fix you wish you hadn't shown the owner because the price just quadrupled"...
Also, sometimes people just want cars gone, regardless of KBB price, I let my old 90 Eldo go for $450 and threw in the $50 factory service manual. Not because the car was trash or wouldn't run, I even told the guy to bring a battery and it would fire right up, car was woth 2-3x as much, but I just wanted it gone...
I love "just-want-it-gone-cars". Bikes, too.
Otto Maddox wrote: But does anyone else have an issue with deceiving an owner about a minor problem that can be fixed in seconds?
Absolutely not. It's buyer beware pay back time, that's all.
Dan
does my $free boat that didn't run count? because it was full of 13 year old gas. new gas and some rubber fuel hose later the thing runs like a champ.
i got a free sunbird too with a locked up motor. i dropped it off the trailer and had a guy stop and buy it within a few hours for $300. that was the easiest fix ever, because i didn't have to do a thing.
and my caprice wagon for $900 that didn't run. took a mallet, whacked the bottom of the tank to free up the stuck fuel pump, drove it home from indiana and got 4 months out of it before i bothered putting a new pump in.
my 91 saab was like that. I bought it cheap ($300) and got 6 months out of it before something let loose in the engine. I got it cheap because it was running rough and occasionally would bog.
A change in the fuel filter fixed all that
The Crop Duster was an ignition switch. $50 car, $330 total in it, sold on for $700.
There's also the Lincoln Mark VIII I owned for what, a week? I can't find the thread on it, but I think all I did was put a wheel on it.
My first car was a $900 non-running 924 that the previous owner said had overheated and seized. ACTUALLY someone had snipped a wire to the fuel pump relay.
$.10 later, I was the coolest kid in high school (just don't agree to race anyone because they'll figure out how slow it is).
1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee, given to me by a buddy at work who found out I was into cars. He said it didn't run, and that it quit on the lady who had given it to him (another co-worker). She didn't know what the problem was, only that it would not start and her mechanic said it was not related to the battery or alternator.
Dad and I go pick it up, winch it on the trailer, drag it home. It's complete and fairly nice except for the lack of battery. We get it home, put a battery in it to diagnose what's wrong....and it fires up and drives perfectly. Drove it for two years, sold it for $900.
Bought the 318is from a guy in FL for $650. He indicated that he blew it up and all it would do is turn over and never start.
Got it home swapped the plug wires around and it started; has been Mrs. Zero's DD ever since. We have put close to 20K miles on it. Did buy some tires for the M3 wheels and added Bilstien/Tokico suspension set I had on the shelf.
Several offers, but I've heard " . . . pry it from my cold dead hands " on several occasions from Mrs. Zero.
I have a friend who asked me to go look at a dodge pick up (slant 6 powered) as it was close to me. I look at it take for test ride tell him Ya it's worth the $600 the guys asking.. Friend waits two weeks comes up to see it himself go to start it for test ride motor is rapping like 50cent.... Seller looks at him and says F this POS give me $100! So he calls me i said BUY it i have a motor here. He drive to the house we get ready to swap motor i go to pull the coil wire off and it will not come out of the distrib cap so i pop the clips and low an behold the cap is FULL of CARBON. Grab the air hose blow it out, Blast it with brake cleaner and air twice more replace cap and rotor with new ones truck runs fine for three more years...
Years ago I bought a 85 Shelby Charger for 150 bucks.. It 'needed' a transmission... I started the car.. put it in gear.. and nothing but a thumping in all gears.. Almost sound like the all to common differential explosion.
Ok.. So it needs a tranny.. No problem..
I then reach under the car to hook a strap to pull it on the trailer. and wait.. A quick trip to auto stoned.. 50 bucks for a driveaxle.. and I drove it home..
two weeks later a lady sideswiped the car.. caught the drivers rear quarter.. totaled the car.. yet didn't make it one lick uglier than it was.. The dent was very minor.. plunger stuff.. but it scuffed the painnt and stripe kit.. that put about 1k in my pocket..
Then about 2 months later someone hit the other dent which was already in the passenger front fender.. Than one netted another 800 bucks..
None of this damage made the car any uglier..
Sold it a couple months later for 600 bucks...
Never fixed anything other than the axle.. just beat the hell out of it.. Not sure I even changed the oil...
I bought 2 different rx7s that were free to fix.
Both of them had "blown motors" and therefore went for $200-400. I pulled the fuel pump relay while cranking to start the car and then hurry and plug it back in. (Rx7's like to flood if the injectors haven't been cleaned for awhile)
Got about 5 years of driving on the one car and about 3 on the other.
My friend like to talk about his first Alfa buy. He joined the local chapter for a few reasons- one being the motorsports aspect. After a short while of looking, he found a deal on a GTA Jr in the north east, and contacted the dealer (yes, a dealer) and assuming the car was ok, it would be traded for a decent Datsun 2000.
Now, a Datsun 2000 is a fine car, but the GTA Jr is a homologated car that is largely a aluminum bodied special, and it had a very special short stroke, twin plug 1300 that made somewhere near 125hp, in street trim. It was made for sedan racing in Europe, and very, very few street cars ever made it to the US that didn't go racing quickly (lots of them did TA and C-Sedan racing). So, yes, the 2000 is a fine car, and very collectible, but nothing near the GTA.
So my friend, and another friend who was at the time more of an Alfa specialist jump into the 2000 and drive to the north east to see this car. Get there, car is in good shape, start it- it's making a horrible sound in the front of the engine. My friend seems concerned, but friend 2 whispers "don't worry about that..."
Bad sounding GTA Jr is traded straight up for decent 2000 (and at the time, it was just another used car- this is the early 70's, but the Jr was still more valuable). Friend 2 asks dealer if they can jump into the garage and borrow a 14mm wrench. Start car, turn to loosen chain tensioner, turn to tighten, sound immediately goes away, runs great, dealer's mouth hits floor. His ignorance cost some serious $$ on that deal.
My friend has been agressively driving that car for close to 40 years now.... Probably worth 5-10x that of the 2000. And a very, very nice car to drive.
ronholm wrote: Years ago I bought a 85 Shelby Charger for 150 bucks.. It 'needed' a transmission... I started the car.. put it in gear.. and nothing but a thumping in all gears.. Almost sound like the all to common differential explosion. Ok.. So it needs a tranny.. No problem.. I then reach under the car to hook a strap to pull it on the trailer. and wait.. A quick trip to auto stoned.. 50 bucks for a driveaxle.. and I drove it home.. two weeks later a lady sideswiped the car.. caught the drivers rear quarter.. totaled the car.. yet didn't make it one lick uglier than it was.. The dent was very minor.. plunger stuff.. but it scuffed the painnt and stripe kit.. that put about 1k in my pocket.. Then about 2 months later someone hit the other dent which was already in the passenger front fender.. Than one netted another 800 bucks.. None of this damage made the car any uglier.. Sold it a couple months later for 600 bucks... Never fixed anything other than the axle.. just beat the hell out of it.. Not sure I even changed the oil...
I had one of those. Bought a '94 Saturn in 2000 for $3,500. Nice car, kept it pretty nice. Hit in a parking lot a year later, $1,200 check from the insurance, fixed it for $250. Caught in a hailstorm a year after that, $2750 check from the insurance company, fixed it for $150 (found a matching hood and trunklid in a junkyard, lived with the dents in the roof and chip in the windshield). Two more fenderbenders, probably netted me another $1,000 total. Sold it for $1,250 having driven it for 65k miles and never had to fix anything that wasn't a wear item or crash damage except for one alternator and an upper motor mount. I think I actually made money to drive that car for four years.
Raze wrote: Yeah I think most of these are 'took a chance' ended up being a simple fix, I almost started another thread entitled "easy fix you wish you hadn't shown the owner because the price just quadrupled"... Also, sometimes people just want cars gone, regardless of KBB price, I let my old 90 Eldo go for $450 and threw in the $50 factory service manual. Not because the car was trash or wouldn't run, I even told the guy to bring a battery and it would fire right up, car was woth 2-3x as much, but I just wanted it gone...
I think there needs to be the alternate "I thought it was an easy fix, but three years later it still isn't right" thread for those that took a chance and lost.
bearda wrote:Raze wrote: Yeah I think most of these are 'took a chance' ended up being a simple fix, I almost started another thread entitled "easy fix you wish you hadn't shown the owner because the price just quadrupled"... Also, sometimes people just want cars gone, regardless of KBB price, I let my old 90 Eldo go for $450 and threw in the $50 factory service manual. Not because the car was trash or wouldn't run, I even told the guy to bring a battery and it would fire right up, car was woth 2-3x as much, but I just wanted it gone...I think there needs to be the alternate "I thought it was an easy fix, but three years later it still isn't right" thread for those that took a chance and lost.
This has my Trans Am written all over it. I have nicknamed that car "Worst Case Scenario" for a reason. And stupid me, I'm "celebrating" 10 years with it this June. 
It's still broken in my driveway.
My son in law bought an 05 Focus for about 1/2 what it was worth. The PO had put new rear struts in to fix a horrible clunk whenever it went over a bump, but the clunk was still there.
Once he removed the trailer hitch bar from under the mat in the trunk, the clunk was gone.
The only car I felt a little bad about the previous owners plight was a bad head gasket on a 96 Mustang with a 3.8.
This was repaired under an extended warranty/recall....even paid for the tow to the dealership.
One I was going to pass on and actually informed the owner what the problem was before I purchased it was a Toyota truck that the Mom was convinced that the son had broken as he was the last one to drive it. She still sold it to me after I explained that all the son had done was move the seat back a couple of notches and she was not pushing the clutch far enough to start it.She had already guilted Dad into a new VW beetle so she didn't care and the son was forgiven...I think!
Bruce
You guys have me beat. I thought I was doing good buying a 97 Jetta that needed a clutch for $250. And then driving it for 6 months with the bad clutch...
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