In the last *10* *years* it's done less than 1,000 miles because the owner's been living abroad. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Worth buying or would I just be buying a whole heap of trouble?
Not enough info really.
Price?
Where has it been parked? Alongside a northern trunk road, regularly being sprayed with salt and covered with snow, or in a cosy garage?
Personally, I would not have much problem with the low mileage, but need to budget for an oil and brake fluid change, and a set of tyres.
It's certainly not a good thing.
How's the 1,000 miles spread across that decade? MOTd every year, and pretty much just taken to the test and back? Or sat there untouched for years on end? It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it will certainly need a battery, a bloody good service, all fluids replacing, a full set of tyres, probably brake calipers all round, maybe master cylinder and ABS block - and quite probably have a few gremlins and problems as you bring it back into service.
I certainly wouldn't be paying any more than any other 12yo RX, probably less than one that'd been in regular use and had a fairly typical mileage for a 12yo car.
John submitted this idea :
Sorry, should have said that total mileage is just under 43k and he wants £5,500 for it. I'm attracted to it because it's already been converted to LPG which would save me the expense.
Looks like it's pretty much just been taken for the MOT every year and then stored again.
There's three similar cars on Autotrader filtering for "LPG", all trade sales.
170k, 03, £2,500 101k, 53, £5,250 43k, 53, £5,400, Cat D.So it's not really overpriced, but it's certainly not cheap given the potential for borkage. It's a 12yo very complex car, that somebody's been deep into the mechanicals of. Add a full LPG system check to the work- after-purchase list.
A while back I bought a motorbike which was four years old and had just
50 miles on the clock. I took it to a main dealer to be checked out and found out that vehicles need servicing whether they are on the road or off. Four years worth of servicing I had to pay for.
Thanks Adrian, good points.
Anecdote:
The 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel (yes I know, but I couldn't afford a replacement Disco) was as follows: Had full history up to 2013, was driven with no maintenance by someone awaiting delivery of new car for most of 2014. Son tested it extensively and nearly bought it at beginning of 2015. He was talked out of it by me because he needed a simple reliable car.
It sat in London under a tree for almost a year. My Disco died, I was offered it cheap and son trailered it to me.
Needed new battery, brakes, all oils, 2 tyres and a few other things. During its MOT a well-hidden brake pipe burst, but it eventually passed. Didn't seem to have much power, but would get up to 60 or 70 on flat roads.
Took for tracking 3 times. No-one could free the adjuster, so no charge. Still needs doing.
Found software eventually to read diagnostic codes and trailed round garages trying to find someone to fix it. Total of 5 sent me away, but two pointed out the black gunge from the rear, under the scuttle injector that had dribbled tar onto the gearbox electrical connector.
Finally found a garage to hack into the scuttle and fix the back 2 injectors, and "deal with" the swirl actuator that was the cause of what turned out to be the limp mode.
It still needs the remote locks and tracking sorting.
No garage had anything to do diagnostics, and they won't accept that anyone can have code reading that outperforms their expensive snap-ons. One garage charged for diagnostics that told them half of what was on my list left in the car.
I wouldn't buy another Jeep. I'd be very careful about any car left unused for a long period.
Those are all Jeep problems and not really low-miles related, I would expect a Lexus to be *very* much better.
What?
Charged 16 hours labour for one 4 hour major service?
Oil usually has annual change if it doesn't reach mileage. So they did what? Drained the oil, dumped it and filled with fresh 4 times? Put 4 new filters on, threw 3 new ones away?
Coolant usually lasts about 4 years for first time and then change every
2 years.Brake fluid change every 2 years. So they ran 2 bottles of brake fluid though the brakes?
Replaced the brake pads with new ones 4 times?
Replaced the air filter how many times?
Set the valve shims twice?
And then put 4 stamps in the service book?
And you still need the 500 mile service when it's run in, if it ever does bed the rusty rings in.
Additionally, it would depend on when those 50 miles were done.
The reason given for annual oil changes is because low annual mileage vehicles will have had their oil contaminated with the by-products of combustion that won't have regularly been boiled away.
If it had done 50 miles on the first day of use, then not been run for four years, it would not have needed an oil change at all. After all, would you discard an unused container of oil that had been stored in your garage for four years? I know I wouldn't!
Chris
That reminds me of when I ran a motorcycle shop, one customer told me that when he drained the oil, he then ran the engine till it had pumped out any oil from the oil system until he heard it start to rattle. then refilled it with oil. I did try to explain to him the damage he would be doing, but whether it got through ? The bike had a roller bearing crank and cams straight in the head.
It depends how the vehicle is stored, if its stored in a damp or cold environment a possibility of condensation arises, this can contaminate the oil , you also risk inadequate lubrication until the oil starts to flow again.
Better to drain , flush out and replace the oil before you start the engine.
The condensate that might occur in those conditions would be trivial in quantity, and mainly water. The real problem with engines run briefly but frequently over a long period of time (as opposed to being store without being run) is the build up of acidic combustion by-products.
I completely disagree with that!
An engine unused for a long period might have some bearing surface degradation. If you start it with existing oil, you minimise the time it would run with no or low oil pressure. If you drain it first, refill it and then start it, there would be no or low oil pressure until the system fills. Have you never watched the oil pressure gauge or light after you have done an oil change, and seen how long it takes to re-establish pressure?
The best way to treat an engine that has been unused for an extended period of time is firstly to turn it over for as long as possible without starting it. For a motorcycle, for example, by removing the plugs and rotating the rear wheel whilst in gear.
Then start it and allow it to idle until the *oil* reaches operating temperature.
Only then should an oil/filter change be done.
Chris
I'd go with all of that, too.
Salt spray covered BMW away from a Devon beach and then stored by someone who got cold feet maybe ?
G.Harman
Best one is inexperienced mechanics changing the oil on a Prius WITHOUT shutting it down first. Up in the air, oil out, engine starts, by the time it is lowered or the mechanic comes back from tea break the engine is wrecked.
A very meticulous engineer (dead now) I knew, rebuilt a Lotus Twin cam for his own Elan. After rebuilding it he filled it with oil while still on the bench and made up a crank handle, he then turned the engine over
500 times a day for a couple of weeks before fitting it back in. Now that is overkill.
Ouch!
Back in the day when plugs were changed or gapped at every service, I would drain the oil, remove the plugs, refill and crank until the pressure light went out, then refit the plugs.
Overkill maybe, but it cost nothing.
Chris
There was a time when I was working on a car on a mate's ramp. I'd changed the exhaust box, and before I lowered it, I reached up and started it to check the joints for blows. No blows, so I left it idling to cure the paste while I lowered the ramp.
As the engine bay came to eye level, I wondered why the oil filler was open... and what the drain plug was doing sat on the ramp...
I've never switched an engine off so damn quickly in my life. It always had a funny little top-end tinkle after that.
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