Value of 03 highlander with a blown head gasket?

coworker just had her highlander lose the water pump, then overheated and puke the head gasket this week and she's looking to unload it. its the 4cylinder model, not sure if its 2wd or awd but she is the original owner. dealer told her 3800 minimum to fix if the head isn't cracked. i'm thinking this might be a decent flip opportunity as she's taken care of it mostly and just had the brakes done.

my question is - what's a fair price? she said "whatever kbb is minus 4k for the repairs" which is between 6700 and 8k. that sounds way too high for a car that could have much more wrong with it.

i don't think the standard $500 non-running car offer will work here, what says the hive?

How many miles are on it?

How much can you get a warrantied engine for from a salvage yard? I would subtract that from the $6700 plus whatever you think your time is worth, then ask if she wants to pay you to take it away. Then wish her luck getting $4k for it lol.

there are a couple yards around here on car-part showing a used head for 225-450 bucks, if it needs it, plus another 100-150 in parts for water pump, timing belt and hg.... its damn tempting.

just got some more info, its got 135k miles on it, and she expects that nobody would offer more than 1k for it

$2000, tops.

she'll take a grand for it, and that would be the most i'd pay for it. assuming it needs a new head, gasket, wp, and timing belt i'd budget 2k for the flip and expect to get at least 6k for it when done.

Travis_K wrote: How much can you get a warrantied engine for from a salvage yard?

Becarefull if you go this route. There is someone on the board that bought a cheap Xterra and then found out the engine is more or less a hassle to find used.

Slippery wrote:

Travis_K wrote: How much can you get a warrantied engine for from a salvage yard?

Becarefull if you go this route. There is someone on the board that bought a cheap Xterra and then found out the engine is more or less a hassle to find used.

I don't necessarily mean to actually buy one from a salvage yard, but the max value of a car in that condition is either scrap or bluebook minus the cost of a used engine, whichever is more. Its not worth buying otherwise.

I'm the guy with the Xterra, and I located an engine kind of close to me for $1500. So for $1850 plus the work of doing the swap, I have an Xterra.

All I can say is if Google starts to fail you, go old school and call the yards. Some of them are less than obsessive about keeping their online inventories up to date.

well i agreed to buy it, and it'll come home on monday after work. i'm not entirely sure the head gasket popped, she said it never puked coolant or steam, and was almost to the top of the temp gauge when she parked it, so i'm not entirely certain what the extent of the damage might be.

It might be OK. If there's no chocolate milk, I'd just put a new water pump and try it.

Dr. Hess wrote: It might be OK. If there's no chocolate milk, I'd just put a new water pump and try it.

+1, back when I owned a Toyota they seemed to eat thermostats. I had 3 stick closed on me in one summer, never popped the head gasket. Source a new thermostat with that water pump and see what happens, nothing to lose..

I think a grand will be a good price, but remember the cardinal rule: It almost always takes more to fix it than you think it will.

The fact that she doesn't want to pay to fix it means something too. She will be happy with the kilobuck, and you have taken her pain away. Now she just has to make car payments for a few years, and many people are perfectly happy with this.

Maybe don't flaunt the several thousand dollars you will pocket.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I think a grand will be a good price, but remember the cardinal rule: It almost always takes more to fix it than you think it will. The fact that she doesn't want to pay to fix it means something too. She will be happy with the kilobuck, and you have taken her pain away. Now she just has to make car payments for a few years, and many people are perfectly happy with this. Maybe don't flaunt the several thousand dollars you will pocket.

she's a smart lady, and knows the score. she was considering trading it on a new MINI last week and didn't because her daughter wanted her to keep it for her to drive. she bought it new 10 years ago and feels she got her money out of it, mostly. she knows that i know how to make it live again and my skills/knowledge will net me some dollars in my pocket. she say that she probably doesn't want to know how much i pocket from it.

she was told by the dealer that the head gasket is blown and the head might be cracked, but with no release of fluid or steam and the fact that she had it towed to the dealer, i'm betting they ASSumed it overheated and died.

Strizzo wrote: she was told by the dealer that the head gasket is blown and the head might be cracked, but with no release of fluid or steam and the fact that she had it towed to the dealer, i'm betting they ASSumed it overheated and died.

Speaking as someone who sometimes has to do it, Its kind of tough to make those estimates. Really, the only way to know what is wrong is to fix the leaks and run it, and even that doesn't guarantee no trouble a couple of miles down the road. I'm not doing that on my dime, and if she's not willing to pay for the exploratory surgery, it gets explained that the estimate she gets is for the worst possible scenario.

Streetwiseguy wrote:

Strizzo wrote: she was told by the dealer that the head gasket is blown and the head might be cracked, but with no release of fluid or steam and the fact that she had it towed to the dealer, i'm betting they ASSumed it overheated and died.

Speaking as someone who sometimes has to do it, Its kind of tough to make those estimates. Really, the only way to know what is wrong is to fix the leaks and run it, and even that doesn't guarantee no trouble a couple of miles down the road. I'm not doing that on my dime, and if she's not willing to pay for the exploratory surgery, it gets explained that the estimate she gets is for the worst possible scenario.

ed zachary.

Update: brought it home today, took a gallon of premix and topped the radiator and overflow tank off, it started fine and came quickly up to temp, and stayed there. About a needle above center mark on the temp gauge. Did a bit of looking and it looks like the wp has been leaking a while, a lot of scaly looking dried coolant. I haven't been able to find where they said they saw the head gasket leaking, but I think it was a bit of cya on the dealers part, as she had just spent $600+ on preventative maintenance like fluid flushes and brakes. "there must be a large internal leak for it to lose that much coolant that quickly". I didn't bother to ask the advisor what the chance was the tech missed the coolant being low two weeks ago.

If you're feeling guilty you could sell it back to her for $2k and your karma will be all tuned up.

I feel bad that the dealer screwed the pooch, and was going to try and bend her over the barrel again rather than admit their mistake. Bottom line is she is happy to be rid of it and have the recent service paid for and then some.

We found out today that the wifes cancer check up came back clear for the first time in a couple years after several painful procedures, three more clear tests over the next year and she is certified cancer free, so we feel like our karma is OK.

Thought I would post a quick update, swapped the water pump last weekend, which definitely needed to go, but i'm now more sure that the head gasket has let go. it is fine at idle, but a short drive putting any load on the engine will push coolant out the overflow and puke all down the inner fender.

i've done some reading and this seems to be fairly common due to head bolts pulling the threads out of the aluminum block either due to overtorque from the factory or metal fatigue over time. it seems to be most common after 90k miles, but I found at least one that had them let go right after the factory powertrain warranty ran out at 63k.

I knew of Timesert that the northstar guys have used with good results, and also NS300L, which uses a longer threaded insert that has coarser threads for a stronger repair. Timesert has their "standard" thread repair kit for M11 x 1.5 threads for around $100, and a "toyota" kit that sets the insert further down in the block for about $400 and change. anyone know if the difference is worth it? the NS300L is between the two in price but closer to the high end.

Datsun1500 wrote: So the Dealer was correct, and you ASSumed you knew better?

the dealer claimed it was losing "a lot" of coolant through the HG despite no water in oil or steam from the exhaust, so yes, i assumed that they were CYA because they were supposed to give it a close going-over to the tune of 600+ bucks two weeks before and somehow didn't notice the water pump leaking or the staining down the back of the block and onto the CV shaft. did I mention they changed the oil? did i mention that the oil pump and oil filter is about three inches from the water pump?