Hey Veeky Forums,
I'm buying a cheap car today off craigslist. I own a compression tester and would like to test the cylinders before agreeing to buy the car. If you were a seller, would you allow a random dude from craigslist to compression test your econobox? Is my request to compression test unreasonable? Thanks in advance for your input.
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Why would I permit some rando to strip out my spark plug holes and then walk away?
It seems a bit excessive unless the car is very high mileage or you think it’s been abused. Still I wouldn’t care.
Does the engine have a ridiculous amount of miles? Lack of service records? Known for dying early?
If none of these things then you are being nit-picky, yes. And if you aren't a professional mechanic for whatever brand of car this is then you're also being a dickhead.
i'm trying to buy a rx8 and i ask every seller to compression test and they don't want to, so what should i do?
It's a 1985 Civic Wagon with 170,000. He doesn't mention having any service records. It's posted for $350 though so I guess even if it dies early in ownership then I won't be out too much money.
rotary compression testers are expensive and a pain in the ass to use
yeah but if a rx8 has over 100k miles and fails a compression test usually it's a piece of shit, so wtf do i do
All depends on the owner. Most people are ok with me crawling under the car with a flashlight, pulling spark plug wires to check for oil in the spark tubes, and general touching of the car.
I had a guy get real nervous when I asked to check the battery and alternator output voltage, he was afraid I would find something wrong and lower my offer.
But for most people, they have never sold a car and had a potential buyer show up with diagnostic tools. Might make them nervous. People are funny about cars like that, Ive offered $200 cash just to buy someones old Honda factory roof racks, they looked at me with mixed fear/confusion and said "they dont come off".
Cant hurt to ask. Show them you know what you're doing.
your first mistake was considering buying an rx8
You're joking about bringing a compression tester right? for a 350 dollar car. Not to mention your compression results may not accurately display the health of the cylinders and pistons. valve clearances that are off will affect compression. And doing a valve job is not too much trouble on a car like that.
>stop being a fag
>they looked at me with mixed fear/confusion and said "they dont come off".
hahahahaha. Thanks for the advice! On the phone the dude seemed reasonable. After reading a few replies I think I'm going to leave the compression tester at home.
Yeah I am being a fag. I'm just going to buy it after a test drive and look over. Not going to try and haggle the guy either. He's being super reasonable selling for $350.
Not a chance I'd let you pull the plugs out of my shitboxes.
Visually inspect if you must, but you're not doing anything more than that. If you ask I'll remove the engine cover, but that's it.
And no, I'm not removing the factory skid plate so you can inspect the seals.
It's a GM shitbox so you already damn well know everything is leaking.
If it drives. You have a good deal sir
Bunch of Scumbags ITT, least you can say is I won't allow you to do it but you're welcome to take to a shop for inspection
Having a stranger and a shop perform an inspection beyond looking it over are two different things.
The random stranger, user in this case, isn't liable for damages nor is he really obligated to uphold a reputation.
A shop is a professional environment that relies on a reputation. If damages occur the shop is liable.
Having purchased a vehicle that had plugs cross threaded in, I surely wouldn't let some random goon tear my vehicle apart during a potential sale. Who's to say he'll put it back together if his results don't come back as he had hoped?
>you're welcome to take to a shop
>Sir, our mechanic found that your spark plug holes number 2 and 3 are stripped.
I wouldn't even allow a shop to do the comp test.
Just pay a mechanic to check it over.
Other than being able to lift the car and check the wheels for play, I don't see what the mechanic would be able to inspect that I can't.
Depends on what they looked like and how dirty their hands were.
If it's some Veeky Forumstier nerd then no.
A mechanic could do a complete tear down.
Pre purchase inspections run under 150 bucks
does that include a compression test on all cylinders?
Depends on car, some guys might squeeze it in. Don't imagine they'll charge much more
Highly doubtful considering plugs alone would probably be close to a $70 charge for something as simple as an inline 4.
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A teen walks up to your car wish his bluetooth ODB sensor, and 3 sheet check list, and starts inspecting it, what do you do?
>ask if you can take it to a mechanic for a check up before purchasing
>have mechanic check compression
I personally wouldn't give a fuck if you wanted to test compression on my shitbox but normalfag will think you're gonna fuck something up. I had one bloke who sperged out at me when I wanted to hook my laptop up to his shitbox for a diagnostic.
He showed up, that's a pretty good start. I jam the bluetooth-sensor up his butt and show him how INPA works.
Laugh in his face, my "computer" is a series of electrical grounds and vacuum lines.
And hes gonna need more than 3 pages to cover everything that is fucked up, rusted stuck, or just plain missing from the truck.
What happens if you fuck something up?
I definitely wouldn't allow it. Some random idiot who wants to buy a car for under 5k is going to strip my shit and waste my time.
it's also very easy to fake good compression results by testing it extra wet. Some scrub wants to buy my 3k car that has shit compression in cylinder 2? squirt a bunch of straight 60 into it and I'm golden.
Rather than trying to buy an RX-8 with a working engine, buy one that has a totally dead engine for dirt cheap and replace it at home with a Mazda reman for 3-4 grand. You can spend under 6000 bucks and have a brand new engine, which is really the only major potential trouble spot on a pre-owned RX-8. Bonus points if you get one dead to engine abuse (being babied/overheated/not oil changed) that still has under 50,000 miles on everything else.
but he wont notice the car smoke like a freight train when you start it up?
It's already fucked