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October 13, 2009

The Perils of Buying a "Mechanic Owned" Vehicle

Sound Classics

You’ve seen it frequently in Craigslist and eBay advertisements: “mechanic owned”. No matter what the make, model or age of the vehicle, those two little words are supposed to evoke confidence in the quality and completeness of the service history.

The only problem is that if you ask most mechanics, they’ll tell you that mechanic-owned cars are usually in more dire need of past-due maintenance than most urban public schools. As the saying goes, a cobbler’s kids wear no shoes…and when it comes to a mechanic’s car, its brake shoes are probably down to the rivets.

The crux of the issue is that anyone who spends all day doing something for someone else doesn’t want to continue doing the same monotonous task for himself. I can understand, because I once tried doing oil changes on just four of my cars in one day and by the end of the afternoon I was ready to set myself on fire.

Despite all I’ve just shared, it didn’t stop me from jumping at the opportunity to buy a 1979 Chevy K10 pickup from a friend who is a professional mechanic. As fate would have it, he had purchased the truck from another mutual friend who is one of the best professional mechanics I know.

When I bought the truck, it came with a set of plug wires on the car seat, a thermostat and gasket in the glove box, and a warning to check the power steering fluid due to a rather excessive leak. On the whole, though, the truck ran pretty well, although it was running a bit rich and slow to warm up.

There were some issues that would need to be addressed. The aforementioned power steering leak was less noticeable than a rather nasty oil pool that would form under the truck after a night or two. There were also a few drips of coolant from the seal of the water pump. Then there was that ticking sound indicating a probable exhaust leak from the V8.

In preparation for using the truck to tow my father’s 1929 Franklin to a show, I decided to address some basic maintenance. First came the oil change, at which time I figured I’d try to find out from what seal the oil was leaking. As it turned out, the oil sump drain plug was the culprit. It wasn’t stripped, nor was the washer crushed. No sir, it was loose – like four or five threads loose. With the jet-black oil drained, a new filter and a properly torqued bolt, none of the new lubricant escaped.

As long as I had a new set of plug wires, I figured that I’d install them along with plugs. When I removed the first plug, I was astonished at its appearance. It looked like it had been removed from the V8 in Chrysler Norseman while sitting in the Andrea Doria’s cargo hold at the bottom of the ocean. The picture doesn’t even do the situation justice, as a big chunk of crap crumbled off prior to creating my pictoral historical record. Luckily, the other plugs were not quite as bad, but no wonder it was running rich! It’s amazing this truck ran at all.

With no time left before needing to tow my father’s car to a show, the K10 was pushed into duty. On the way back on I5, however, the cooling system finally gave up. The small leak in the water pump turned into a gusher. The stress also ruptured one of the engine’s freeze expansion plugs, sending coolant splashing onto the exhaust manifold. And that extra thermostat – yeah, I probably should have installed it, because the one in the truck evidently got stuck.

As a tribute to the solid nature of the smallblock Chevy engine, no severe damage happened due to the overheating. A new thermostat, water pump, freeze plug, power steering pump, belts, and hoses are all now in.

But so much for mechanic owned. Next time I’m buying a vehicle that’s advertised as “neurotic type-A soccer mom who brings her vehicle to the shop religiously on schedule and pays for whatever maintenance the shop or owner’s manual suggests.”

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Posted at 3:09 am in car buying, Chevy, DYI, K10, maintenance, Sam Barer, Sound Classics, Trucks

Comments

backinblack2
Oct 16, 2009 at 8:41 am

Wow the professinal diesel mechanic wouldve guessed it needed work from the start, well no shit, its a 79 chevy of course it’s going to have problems. Oh and thanks for speaking up for all the decent mechanics everywhere, ill give you a big pat on the back for that.

EricShoHo
Oct 16, 2009 at 5:15 am

Well…I guess that I have to speak up for the decent mechanics…I am a professional Diesel/Heavy duty Technician with 11 years experiance,and I do 99% of the work to my own cars,and I have restored/modified them to the point that they are beautiful,but when I bought them they where both bound for the junk yard.I can only speak for myself,but I take very good care of my cars.I invite everyone to Come by and check them out if you dont belive me.

As for the truck that you bought…that thing looked like trouble from the start,and I would have guessed that it needed work…Asfor me rule of thumb is I always tune up a used car after I buy it,just to possably restore lost power,and to look at the state of the plugs(you can alot about engine health from the plugs,if they where changed in the normal interval, anyway).And I myself am weary of buying a car that comes with parts to fix it…thats automatic trouble.,but it seems that you have it all sorted out now,so good luck the rest of the way.

satty12
Oct 15, 2009 at 7:01 pm

I have two mechanics I go to depending on the situation and both drive some pretty sweet rides in mint condition heck one of them even has the 2.4 litre in his sunfire removed and swapped with the 3800 seriesII 3.8 litre six under the hood from a supercharged bonneville that car is quick and the other one i see has an awsome custom off road 1978 ford bronco with the 351 windsor running EFI and a piggy back ecu on 33s (thats tires not rims) its a fun off road vihicle and the paint is a flawless burnt orange with gold and silver pearl flake. so i guess not all mechanic owned vehicles are clinging to life and yes these 2 vehicles mentioned are their daily drivers. i live in small towns so commutes arent bad for these two lucky mofo’s

MidnightLuckey
Oct 15, 2009 at 5:14 pm

I cannot believe those were in a running vehicle. Are you sure it wasn’t just missing on ALL cylinders? That it was some random act of god kept the engine turning?
Well, at least you’ve got it running right this time. It’s always nice to see somebody rescue a vehicle that’s close to death.

10secondsflat
Oct 14, 2009 at 8:54 pm

that spark plug reminded me alot of my old ones i replaced in my 92 ford. i had a head gasket leak. there was coolant leaking into my oil. i changed the gaskets then bought accel plug wires and new plugs. the old ones i had in it looked alot like that one in the photo. needless to say i noticed a HUGE power difference after i put those in

buickpimpin101
Oct 14, 2009 at 4:26 pm

I Know!! Lol stay away, for the most part anyway, check out this beauty!
http://kelowna.en.craigslist.ca/cto/1420196476.html

GTwildfire
Oct 13, 2009 at 7:26 pm

Given a choice between “mechanic owned”, “clueless bastard owned” or “substandard mechanic wannabe owned”, I’d choose the mechanic owned every time.
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I have seen some seriously stupid shit done to cars that I seriously doubt mechanics would do. Example: the headlight motors were MISSING in the Fiero I owned and sold yesterday. Who the hell removes headlight motors and never rebuilds or replaces them? Another example with that car was it had a failed stereo install that shorted a circuit. That shorted circuit in turn took out the speedometer, and gave two false ECM codes indicating the vehicle speed sensor and Throttle position sensor were bad. – a real mechanic would NEVER fu%k things up so much.
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yeah, I’ll take my chances with a mechanic’s car anytime.

FordRulesAll
Oct 13, 2009 at 5:22 pm

I would have to disagree, every mechanic I have ever known has had above par vehicles or very decent vehicles. My dad’s friend, Ford Mechanic, has an early ’90′s F-150, and that beast is still running perfectly, ASE tech with a modified Taurus and that thing kicks a bunch of tail, or the mechanic that my ride’s at right now has a spotless Pontiac Grand Prix GT. And I could go on, but I think my point is made.

___nes___
Oct 13, 2009 at 9:32 am

When I see “Mechanic Owned” I don’t think “The engine must be well kept and running perfect.” What I actually think is “So they know enough about cars to barely keep them running without spending much money”

GTwildfire
Oct 13, 2009 at 8:49 am

I think it’s a crapshoot, You have a good point about having to work on personal cars, etc – but mechanics have tools available that enable them to do repairs much easier. I’ve gone through hell trying to replace a heater core in a Saturn SL before, gave up because I didn’t have enough elbows on each arm… it was a piece of cake for my mechanic on the lift. Working in a vertical orientation can never be understated. Also, mechanics have pneumatic tools and generally better quality handtooks i.e. metrinch, etc.
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But, even with all that yeah I’m sure there are a share of them who only grease the squeaky wheels… eventually.

troutster52
Oct 13, 2009 at 8:21 am

I bet this is partially because mechanics feel that even a catastrophic failure they can fix and also because they know the best of anyone when a thermostat, spark plugs, and oil leak are going to be fatal. If it aint broke don’t fix it, wait until its broke.

fortyfordsedan
Oct 13, 2009 at 5:57 am

I have known a lot of mechanics over the years and it seems like most of them do the bare minimum to keep their cars on the road. Like anything there are exceptions, one mechanic I know every car truck and motorcycle he owns looks as though it is brand new and runs great.