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Passed at least 1,500 miles in my “new” Acura today. 30 miles a day, give or take a few.
When I first got it I was wondering if maybe the thing was kept running with snake oil. New car jitters really… However, aside suspension and rear brake problems (now fixed), it runs decent. I figure if there was snake oil in the engine or trans, it would have crapped out by now.I got to thinking though – do dealers (reputable or not) even bother with stuff like snake oil? Yeah it MIGHT get the car off the lot but is it money they want to spend?
Plus, I went to some dealers and I could tell the problems the car had by what empty bottles of fluid were in the car, right there with the fast food garbage or maybe the 1/2 empty bottles of pepsi. That, a full ash tray, and empty packs of cigarettes.
So it got me thinking. If they won’t take 5 minutes to empty the trash in the hoopties, is there ANY chance they are gonna invest even a dime’s worth to jury-rig the car into running long enough to leave the lot?
For those wondering what snake oil is (somebody is wondering) – it is a scam-type product that promises big things. Like fluids that are suppose to “fix” head gaskets…
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Most of the dealers I’ve worked for had the trade in cars looked over and repairs done as necessary. If one of them turned out to be a real POS it went to a wholesaler or auction.
Those type of cars can often end up on the tiny corner lot with a dozen or so cars on it and they are not going to sink a bunch of money into one of them.On the flip side, there’s no end to the things that car owners will do before trading a car in at a dealer. Filling the engine up with motor honey to shut up rod bearings, stuffing sawdust in a whining rear differential, you name it.
The dealer cleans the car up, sells it, and then gets blamed by the new owner for problems that the new owner swears the dealer knew about from the start.“Motor Honey”? What would sawdust in the diff do? I once was looking for oil for my car and coundn’t find the 5w40 i needed when i saw i grabbed it… wasn’t ’til i got home i realized it was DIESEL oil. I returned it and exchanged it (un open and unused of course) but did wonder to myself…. What would DIESEL oil of done to a unleaded engine?…
Motor Honey is extracted from the hives of the rare Africanized motor bee, sometimes confused with the Dodge “super bee” I give great credit to the brave souls that risk their lives to extract it just to have unwitting consumers put it in their cars. LOL
Actually motor honey and many other products are just some lab created thick lubricant that will quiet things down for a bit but are not a substitute for an actual repair.
Sawdust in a differential has risk of attracting carpenter ants that could follow your used car purchase home and eat your house.
Actually sawdust would have the effect of quieting down any noise in a bad differential by softening the meshing of a bad ring gear and masking a potential catastrophic failure.I have also heard of adding brake fluid to transmissions to cause seals to swell and make them get thru the lemon law time period.
Buying a used car is tough, I try to size up the previous owner a bit before committing to a purchase, if he is covered in sawdust, smells like brake fluid, has an empty can of motor honey sticking out of his pocket and interrupts our conversation to check in with his parole officer I usually go right ahead with the purchase with no worries.I think sawdust is the main ingredient in those health bars also. :sick:
But this –
“I try to size up the previous owner a bit before committing to a purchase, if he is covered in sawdust, smells like brake fluid, has an empty can of motor honey sticking out of his pocket and interrupts our conversation to check in with his parole officer I usually go right ahead with the purchase with no worries.”I think a lot of cheaper Camaros on craigslist fit that descript pretty well.
You would think some Stop Leak in the tranny would do the same thing. Motor honey to quiet the engine down huh? I would be nice to have my car be as quiet as the day it was new 🙂
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