Gah what a headache.

I bought a '97 GMC Jimmy 4x4 as a low budget project from a guy who said it "wouldn't stay running" for some reason but otherwise was a fine driver and his dad had been driving it until it had issues.

Never before have I gotten so screwed on a used car buy.

I figured worst case, even if it needs a whole used motor, that would be okay. So I bought it.

Phase 1)
Wow... digging deeper find some problems. this thing is filthy. Did they sink it in a mud pit? The frame is packed completely solid full of mud. wtf? rear brake lines disconnected... that's weird. Jack the truck up, front wheel bearings are basicaly non-existent... sweet. Ah, oh well.

Phase 2)
New battery got it to start. Wow, this motor was broke! Cranked jumped all over. Found a used motor and put it in. Do it right, new gaskets, seals, belt, etc.. This sucks, but at least it should be running now.

Phase 3)
First test drive... won't... shift. Herp derp. 1st gear only. Diagnose... bad trans. WTF. how do I get a truck with a bad motor AND a bad trans. Pissed. At this point I have too much into the truck so I have to put a trans in it to even try to break even on it.

Phase 4)
Find a friend who has a '96/'97 trans that should be good for a fair price. Fresh fluid and filter and install it on my back in a garage.. dirt in my eyes, ears, create a exxon valdez spill scenario on the garage floor. Finally, this terd should be done. Test drive... shift, shift... no downshift. no overdrive. F U. #2 trans is better, but also bad.

Phase 5)
Just make it go away. At this point I have a truck that runs, but still has a bad trans, I have waaaay too much time into it, and too much money, and the list is far too long to even be worth doing:

NO rear brakes (they were missing when I pulled the drums???)
4x4 doesn't work. Tried to diagnose and found the PO had removed the bulbs from the pushbutton ????
Bad MAF. Unplugged it for now.
Tires are way out of balance and shocks are smoked, making it scary over 40mph.
Missing door speaker... just one ????
fuel gauge is flaky
a/c doesn't work
rear taillight running lights don't work
rear diff leaks all over my driveway

I give up.

Anybody else ever have a used car buy that turned into a nightmare?

 

Wow, I've had some car nightmares before, but not as scary as yours. I have been in that situation where I was too far into a vehicle with time and money for me to sell it as it was. The Previous Owner needs his a$$ beaten with the camshaft from the junk engine that came in the truck.

No rear brakes? That should be a free a$$ whoopin' in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico and all other countries in the northern hemisphere. An "oh, by the way, the rear brakes are missing." would have been some good info. Some people.

Hang in there. Just walk away from the truck and go try and cool off. Only work on it when you are calm and focused. Otherwise your mood and attitude will reflect in your workmanship. Trust me, Ive done some **** poor work when I was pissed off. It just makes more work in the long run. As you work on repairs, you will undoubtedly discover more jury-rigged things on the truck. Thats when you need to make a note of it and take a break.

Poetic justice would be if you ran over this PO in the Walmart parking lot because of brake failure.

What part of the country are you in?

 

Ive got one for you. Years ago when i was 16,i was looking on craigslist for a car dirt cheap,maybe something i can fix and sell etc. Well i came across a saturn Sl2,5 speed,121k miles for ONLY 200.00. Well It had a bad motor. I went and purchased it and had it towed home. Well at the time i had a really good friend who helped me work on cars since i didnt know too much about the bigger things like clutches,etc etc. Well He decided to screw me over on another deal and left me hanging and never talked to me again. SO im on this one by myself. I figured eh well ok i can do this. At the time i didnt have a job,hence wanting to make some money off the car. I purchased it with some tax money from where i worked the previous year at tax time. I decided to keep the car and get it running for myself. So i posted a ad on craigslist "need engine swapped". I offered $250.00 to have it done and bring them the car etc. Well had a guy to call me and they worked in a shed in the backyard. They also built dirt cars etc for racing so i figured they knew what they were doing. Well in the mean time i was trying to find a motor for it. I found one from a individual for $125 that was out of a wrecked car. I didnt get to hear it run,and i turned the crank over with a wrench and it felt like it was good. So i got it. Well i brought the motor with the car to the guys shop to have it done. Well a few days go by and i call them to see whats going on. They had been busy etc with other things since me and him already agree'd he can only do so much a day due to work etc. Well it was going great. Old motor out,new motor in,few things such as radiator,fuel system etc had to be hooked back up. He asked me to come down there so we can talk. So he got word from his friend that picked up the car that i had 250.00,Which its really all i had. He said he thought it was 250 to pull old one out,and 250 to put new one in. Well we called it fair if he could keep old motor,a Milwaukee band saw i had,and i finish the swap which was easy enough for me to do at the time. Well ok i can do that.

I forgot to add but that night i brought down a motor mount i forgot i had so he could finish putting the motor in. He wasnt home,his 8 year old son opened the door and i told him to tell his dad i brought the mount by and dropped it in the car. Later that evening i get a phone call with him threatening me etc saying i stole his snap on tool set and that when i bring him back the set,i can get my car back. Well cops got involved that evening etc,i got my car back. and for days he would call me threatening to come "beat me up" etc that they know where i lived,which they did since they came by to look at the car 1st before this deal took place.

Now cars in my front yard,i spend 3 hours getting everything back in,oil,coolant added etc. i turn the motor over and no start. After a few days of checking things etc i had no spark. Remember i didnt know much,i was 16 at the time. Well after hours searching online i found that the crank sensor will cause no spark if its bad. So i go outside and pull it out. It looks like a single coil pack slides into the block which reads the crank position. it was bent and cracked. I knew something had to of hit it inside the motor for it to be damaged the way it was. Well i purchased a new one,dropped it in. Started the car up. It RAN!!!!.....for 2 seconds,started stumbling and died. I got out and looked at the motor. Oil was POURING out the exhaust manifold. I didnt have the pipe hooked up yet. After a few days my uncle helped me pull the head,which to find out there was a hole in the piston.. I scrapped the car and got 172.00 for it. I lost over 500.00 in it,anxiety,cops etc for nothing.

*sigh*

 

Here in the house we have a saying for people like the guy that sold that to you.
"You can only be an ***hole for so long and then somebody burns your house down"

 

Yeah, those kind of people eventually get found out for the a-holes that they are, and no one will do any kind of business with them. It is too bad that our world is populated with so many of them. I beleive that they get whats coming to them in the end.

 

make that turd into a offroad truck. manually lock the front axle and transfercase and enjoy. when i got my 93 same crap, PO forgot to inform me front axle was busted, trans was fubared and heatercore was toast

 

No doubt. It was so late into the findings of BS when I pulled the drums off all I could do was laugh. I wasn't even mad at that point. I had figured maybe the wheel cylinders were bad so he cut the lines and T'd them off, but I didn't expect to find literally nothing behind the drums.

That's all I can do any more. It's been sitting for weeks at a time. The bummer is I'm out of money. I budgeted about $1500 for it, I'm over $2000 into it, and it's only worth like $1000 as is, if that.

I guess at this point the next logical thing is to buy yet another trans, or to see about diagnosing this one, as it may just need shift solenoids or something I can do from the pan (maybe?). Perhaps I'll start another tech thread.


west Michigan.

 

Jeez, this thread makes my 01 Blazer seem like a Saint! My engine blew in November...the "dealership" where I got it put in a "new" junkyard motor, replaced a vacuum line with clear aquarium airline tubing, friend a vacuum module for the 4x4, melted a wiring harness and left his empty beer cans in the back seat. Other things have been done to it by this guy before. Right now my rear brakes are gone, the air pump is gone again due to no one replacing the pump with the retrofit kit. I feel so bad for grounded87 and his Jimmy.

 

Well, I've bought probably 25 cars and none matches those stories. And that's pretty good considering I tend to make snap decisions on buys.

Worst idea ever was to replace a bad beetle engine with one from a tornado-wrecked car. LOL, talk about not thinking! Would have been better if it had been flooded. {tornados fill everything with dirt, even engines}

Biggest shock on a new buy, changed oil on a 93 Tbird I had just bought and found it had rear axle lube in it because the bearings were shot from head gasket fail. But I just ran Mobil1 20w50 for 70,000 miles and didnt otherwise spend a dime fixing that.

Worst car buy decision overall was a 76 Grenada. Damn I hated that car. Why I say never buy a car that doesnt fit you the first time you sit in it. You will NOT 'get used to it' and will only grow to despise it.