Just had two people show me a cup filled with water & oil on a car they want to buy

They drove from Va. to Md. to purchase a Chev Cavalier. I work in an auto parts store and they come walking in showing me a cup with oil in it saying it came out of the radiator. It looked nice & clean so I was thinking the oil cooler was bad leaking into the radiator.. Wrong.. He gets a spoon and stirs it up and it's mixed with water of course. He couldn't understand why their was oil in the radiator and why no water was in the engine oil. The seller tells him he just needs a new radiator. I told him the seller must have just changed the oil before they got there. Their is no way the engine oil will stay clean while oil is mixing in with the coolant.

He still wanted to know if he should still purchase the car.. I told him to run not walk away from the deal.. He then got a little upset that he drove all this way for nothing.. I told him at least you only spent some time & gas on this trip and didn't get ripped off.

Reply to
m6onz5a
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Usually true, but I wouldnt say "no way".. absolute statements have a habit of coming bach to haunt me.

I think you told him as straight as anyone could say it. When you see this sort of situation, you dont really know what happened until you diagnose it thoroughly or pull it down. If it were a hole between the tranny cooler and the radiator, you could also be looking at a new tranny.

Reply to
hls

yup, *something* was hosed, or at least has a good possibility of being so.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

m6onz5a wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@v41g2000yqv.googlegroups.com:

Some people simply *won't* take advice, but insist of asking for it. Annoys the hell out of me too.

Reply to
chuckcar

snipped-for-privacy@v41g2000yqv.googlegroups.com:

yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they still purchase the car.. I guess I'll never know.

Reply to
m6onz5a

yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they still purchase the car.. I guess I'll never know.

********* I wouldnt be surprised either. You get to the point that you can see this sort of thing coming.
Reply to
hls

Retired KMOX Saint Louis radio talk show host Jim White used to holler all the time on his radio show, You cant fix Stupid! cuhulin

Reply to
cuhulin

Their is no way the engine oil will stay clean while

Why not? Cooling system is 16ish psi. Oil pressure is 30+ psi. Could be an oil cooler, head gasket, cracked bolck or head. Telling your customer not to buy the car, however, was spot on. HTH, Ben

Reply to
ben91932

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