Scotty,
I test drove a 2004 Toyota 4Runner v8 4x4 today. It has 197000 miles on it. The owner (Tony) said that he got it from his in-laws 4 years ago and only put 7000 miles on it. He said that his in-laws were the second owners, but owned it for years. Tony, said the valve cover used to drip oil on the exhaust manifold. When Tony went to replace the valve cover gasket the bolt was loose on the valve cover. After changing the valve cover gasket and torqueing the bolts he said it never leaked oil again. The vehicle was overheating last summer and Tony replaced the fan clutch, problem solved. The frame and underbody have little to no rust showing. What rust is on the car is very superficial.
The VSC light is on, abs light, airbag light, and check engine light. The Transmission is silky smooth forward and backward, could not feel it shift. I did think I felt hesitation when the engine idled. After stopping at an O'reilly's auto store and having the codes read (There was a wrap sheet) I learned that almost all of the cylinders were misfiring. Tony said that he replaced the spark plugs, but nothing else ignition related. Two of the codes the computer displayed were Evap related and O2 sensor related.
I'm thinking about purchasing the car on Tuesday. How serious can the misfiring be?
Thanks Scotty.
A LOT of different things can cause misfiring, some cheap to fix, some very expensive. You could do a compression test to see if the basic engine innards are still viable (valves and rings). But you could end up throwing substantial money at the fuel injection system and the ignition systems.
People who are selling cars with bad news dashboard lights, those almost always expensive problems. Now, sometimes they are cheap fixes, but you have to be a pretty good mechanic with the right tools to tell the difference and get a good deal on a car like that. Toyotas are reliable, but they are not unbreakable.
It’s time to ghost Tony..
I would personally pass on that car. Too many unclear stories and you can find better options. Also, never fall into the "one owner car" trap. If the car is not well taken care of, it does not matter if it has one owner or it is owned by a rental company.
