Be cautious buying a used car!

[JonRGV250]

I posted this comment in another thread yesterday, and today I inspected the car..

"Completely off topic, but I took a call yesterday from a customer wanting a hub/bearing replaced.
I asked why and it turned out he'd bought a car from some sort of dealer and upon driving it the front wheel had very nearly come off.
Further into the conversation it turned out that the car has massive spacers on with the standard wheel bolts which weren't long enough and had stripped the threads and fallen out (he also said one had snapped).
He took the car back, and I kid you not, they removed one bolt from the other wheels and fitted them to the loose wheel and sent him on his way.
The car is due in tomorrow and it'll be interesting to see the state it's in.
Main dealers are expensive to buy from, but in my many many years working for them, I've never seen anything even remotely close to that happening."

Today I had a quick look at it in the carpark before we got it into the workshop and things weren't looking good..

Those 3 of the 4 wheel bolts just don't look right..

A quick look at the wheel spacer..

The 3 bolts supposedly holding the wheel on..

The wheel spacer removed..

And the hub, complete with a snapped wheel bolt and oddly placed R clip

This is how well the wheel was held on..

Not great to say the least.



Only one pic here, but yesterday I MOT'd a customer Fiesta and it became very apparent that It'd been in quite a heavy crash.
Both headlight brackets had been hot glued back on, and it obviously had parts from a scrapyard fitted and the sub frame wasn't even close to where it should have been (the anti-roll bar was nearly rubbing on the drive shaft).
More importantly though was the bent chassis rail.
Someone (apparently the garage/dealer that sold and MOT'd the car) had fudged on another front end and neglected to even bother to straighten it..

The 2 surfaces arrowed should be butted up together and you can't see it in the pic, but the rail has deformed in the impact.
The car was sold as a Cat S, but as there's no requirement to get the car inspected before going back on the road then unfortunately the poor customer (a young lady, and that was her first car) is up poop creek without a paddle
I suggested to take it back to the dealer, but as she's had it a year and shes got zero recourse with the previous MOT, then sadly the car will cost more to repair than it's worth.

Sorry for the ramble, but I despise seeing dangerous cars on the roads and also utterly hate people getting ripped off!

 

[jigger]

It’s so disappointing when people climb this far up the stupid tree and don’t fall out.

Any spacer is bad, but this looks like brittle die cast junk.

 

[Slam62]

Obviously that's illegal and trading standards should be involved.

 

[JonRGV250]

Any spacer is bad, but this looks like brittle die cast junk.

Yup, and the spigot ring was missing which didn't help, along with the wheels having completely the wrong offset to start off with.
I was working at another garage last week, but my boss said he'd had a 69 plate C63 in for snapped wheels bolts due to spacers being fitted.
The mind boggles that someone who could afford such a car would be stoopid enough to do that to it.

 

[Dis86]

Yup, and the spigot ring was missing which didn't help, along with the wheels having completely the wrong offset to start off with.
I was working at another garage last week, but my boss said he'd had a 69 plate C63 in for snapped wheels bolts due to spacers being fitted.
The mind boggles that someone who could afford such a car would be stoopid enough to do that to it.

Unfortunately a lot of very stupid people seem to be capable of earning a lot of money.

I've never worked out how!

 

[DRZ]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with correctly fitted hub centric spacers, they are essentially no different to fitting a wheel with a slightly bigger offset. Clearly the ones in the OP are junk and shouldn't have been fitted at all (and the garage should have known better than to do what they have done) but that's not the case for all spacers.

 

[Rroff]

You certainly seem to find them heh.

Really feel for anyone who has saved up to buy a car only to find it has serious underlying faults someone has tried to hide and no comeback.

 

[jigger]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with correctly fitted hub centric spacers, they are essentially no different to fitting a wheel with a slightly bigger offset. Clearly the ones in the OP are junk and shouldn't have been fitted at all (and the garage should have known better than to do what they have done) but that's not the case for all spacers.

That’s debatable. If I needed to alter the offset for some reason, I’d change the wheels and bolts to suit. Assuming the wheels within arch, clearance and stuffs.

 

[JonRGV250]

You certainly seem to find them heh.

I'm not sure it's me finding them rather than me finding the time to post up what I see.
I guess most techs/grease monkeys etc just get immune to the state of the cars we see on a daily basis.
For example, this is a Mini from last week..

The customer had no idea that a problem had occurred.
I'm assuming they had the radio turned up so loud that they couldn't hear the noise that that suspension leg was causing.
The only reason I keep posting this stuff is that it may help people to avoid some of the absolute wrecks out there, or least know what to look for.

 

[jigger]

Just noticed the state of the split pin. Nice.

 

[ShiWarrior]

So I'm guessing the new owner didn't inspect the car before buying it, anyone would have noticed that and walked away..

 

[AWPC]

Hmm well main dealers are no better in my opinion either!

Last service they told me my brakes (front discs & all pads) needed urgent replacement....but they could not supply the parts so I got them all myself elsewhere! Earlier this week booked time off work to DIY the job as its not exactly hard as Brembo braking system.

Found my front pads still had another 4-5 months life left in them approx 40-45% left compared to the new pads. They told me they only had 30% left I think they meant they were ONLY worn 30% LOL big difference!
Found my front discs still have a lot more life left to them & pad wear is even they are easily good for probably another 24K miles as hardly worn at all I am a light braker anyway as read the road conditions ahead a lot!
Rear pads are also fine good for another year or so as only worn approx 40%.

So basically the main dealer was being very dishonest in scaring me that my discs & pads needed urgent replacement (pads were only changed in December 2022 LOL! & not done that many miles since then!) & hoping I said yes until they can source the parts then I would book the car in with them to get all the work done (about £1.4K worth of parts & labour no less!).

Extremely dishonest of them times must be real hard to try pulling that stunt on a brand new car I bought from them no less! When the pads & discs are due I can DIY as I have all the parts already now just very disturbed they would try to con me in such a blatant way for just a few 100 worth of labour!

 

[AWPC]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with correctly fitted hub centric spacers, they are essentially no different to fitting a wheel with a slightly bigger offset. Clearly the ones in the OP are junk and shouldn't have been fitted at all (and the garage should have known better than to do what they have done) but that's not the case for all spacers.

Hmm well I disagree somewhat as they would alter the handling of the car as its designed around the wind tunnel aero they spend many hours perfecting!

So changing spacers must disturb the aero a bit & alter fuel consumption as well as handling as the tyres will sit closer to or even extend beyond the wheel arches creating drag or disrupting air flow! Not sure that's OEM & something an insurance company perhaps should be told about!

 

[Janesy B]

You tell your insurance company obviously, and you get the car aligned to make sure it's to spec. You wouldn't have the wheels sticking out the arches anyway as that's an MOT fail. Doubt it has any meaningful effect on aero.

 

[JonRGV250]

It’s not a fail anymore, it’s a non component advisory

 

[jaybee]

So I'm guessing the new owner didn't inspect the car before buying it, anyone would have noticed that and walked away..

I would hazard a guess a lot of people honestly wouldn't notice it. Not all car buyers are savvy or in the know. They need/want a car and expect a dealer to be more safe than private. It's an abuse of trust by dealers and absolutely disgusting that these people can sleep at night selling cars that could kill as soon as they are driven away.
Imagine your <insert family member here> turns up with their new car and you see that.

 

[AWPC]

You tell your insurance company obviously, and you get the car aligned to make sure it's to spec. You wouldn't have the wheels sticking out the arches anyway as that's an MOT fail. Doubt it has any meaningful effect on aero.

Depends on how far the spacers go I have seen wheels go beyond the wheel arch to me that's a bit too far & clearly going to affect aero!

 

[Kenai]

I would expect aero is the least of your worries if you're sticking on spacers so large they cause the wheels to stick out like that

 

[Diddums]

Loads of this about sadly. We've bred a generation of people whose knowledge of cars ends at "press pedal, car go".

As the old adage goes, "back in my days a car's manual would tell you how to adjust the valve clearances, now they tell you not to drink the coolant".

Does make me wonder though, which is the cause, and which is the effect? Have we bred stupid people because cars are too safe and reliable, or have we had to make cars safer and more reliable because we've bred stupid people?

Sidenote, this happens to bikes too. This afternoon I was riding next to someone on a larger scoot than mine and by all accounts he should've dashed off in to the distance and left me behind, but he was riding really slowly. I got to a red light and he pulled up next to me and hit the brakes, his front wheel must've moved 6 inches back as his bike went "CLUNK". Clearly headstock bearings shot to bits, and yet there he is, riding it around like it ain't no thang.

 

[JonRGV250]

As the old adage goes, "back in my days a car's manual would tell you how to adjust the valve clearances, now they tell you not to drink the coolant".

That made me laugh and cry at the same time, it's like McDonalds had to put "contents will be hot" on their coffee cups.
A lot people now just seem to think that if it starts and gets me to where I'm going then it's ok.
I failed two cars today, one for a airbag light on and the other a ABS light on.
Now, it should be obvious to even the most dim witted person that if a red symbol is showing on the dash that there may be something that needs looking at, but no, they just ignore it and are gobsmacked when it fails the MOT.
I've no idea what is needed to pass a driving test these days, but surely there must be some sort of mechanical education required?