4ランナー

So I bought a 1990 Runner up near sacramento and I was originally skeptical of it being priced at a far too resonable 2,000. The listing stated new engine,trans,speakers runs great .

Well checked it out, did idle awfully smooth and the engine and trans *looked* very clean along with a fair decent interior/exterior. After the test drive went smooth, I decedied to go ahead and bite the bullet. When the pinkslip was shown I noticed salvaged...

When I asked about it he pointed to a few weird outward dents on the hood and mumbled about the previous engine. I quickly checked the frame and for any signs of a crash, there was none seemed untampered with. I know its a general rule of thumb to never buy a salvaged but kinda was in the heat of the moment thing.

NOW the noise. So i live about 2 1/2 hours west of Sac and while taking rest stops I noticed that it makes a horrible grinding noise while turning right(only right) and it starts grinding on sharp turns about more then 90 degrees, WIERD thing is it goes away if a crank my wheel towards lock some more. It only grinds in the middle of the wheel travel to the right...

So I did some searching I greased my wheel stops just like they said here
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f16/...e-sound-57080/
its not it. Any ideas on what it is, could of it possible be damage from a crash or excessive offroading.(the guy was pretty wild telling me about river crossings and snow trips, and i found the devils lettace when i folded the back seat down)

Any help or previous experiance would be great. Maybe a steering box?Sorry for kinda rambling

Edit- I ended up paying 1700 so..not that bad of a deal right?

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

rebuilt title means an insurance company totaled the vehicle.

Not from some little dents or engine work. An insurnace company wont ever total a car for engine damage, since thats not covered. And a vehicle under warranty would have had it simply replaced, but there would not be any history of a salvage title.

Sounds like you bought yourself some previous fix frame damage fun!

dr-dirt

my 91 does the same thing. more so when i am on un-even ground. i am taking a guess that is possibly old torsion bar or other suspension components. i've only had my runner a couple of months, and not salvage title, no accidents, good alignment, 198000 on the clock

norcalsvx

some pics would help, lots of hippie lettuce up in norcal
1700 isnt to bad for a runner

stormin94

You thought that was bad....you should've seen when I pulled out my old interior.... Let's just say I found out for sure that my suspicions about that funky smell were very accurate..

Salvage title is not as bad as people claim it to be. For example, many times it is simply someone who reports something as small as a fender bender to their insurance company. Many times, the insurance company will total the car, and the owner will just pay to fix the damage, which I'd say 90% of the time does not even contact the frame. A lot of other times, the car may have been sold at a salvage auction, such as Sac Salvage, and then sold to either a private buyer, or a dismantler, or even a car lot. Or even, it may have been a theft recovery, or even purchaced from a tow yard for being parked in short term parking at the airport for too long.

On the other hand, many clean title cars are actually worse off than "salvage title cars". For example, If the owner knew the insurance company would total the car, and they wanted "better resale", LOTS of people don't report the damage, and take it to a cheap repair shop, which makes the vehicle appear normal to a non mechnic, and they go on to sell their "clean titled" vehicle complete with shoddy repairs, and boast about how it has never been in an accident, and that it has a clean title.

Also, it has been mentioned that insurance companies will not total a vehicle due to engine damage, or transmission damage. You can find many clean titled cars with blown up motors/trannys. Or even better yet, a lot of the times, the people selling these cars know full well that the engine/tranny is on it's way out, but put additives in it(like that stuff that makes your transmission shift stop slipping.....for a week or two) Then when you drive it around, after you've bought it, it tanks. And the Previous owner is happy that you just paid them top dollar for their picture perfect "clean titled" car.

My 4Runner is Salvaged title. I've made sure that all repairs on it were done correctly.

My point here is that Salvage title is almost exactly as likely to dissappoint as a clean titled vehicle. Bottom line here, is that if you are buying a used car, you need to really really really thoroughly check it out, then check again, and take a nice long test drive.

My question for the original poster is:

Do you really think that the Salvaged title gave it problems??? Are you sure it's not just that the previous owner might have been a little rough on it, or maybe because the rig has a lot of miles on it???

I'm just saying, that people are just as likely to beat a clean titled car as a salvaged titled one, and 150,000 miles is 150,000 miles, reguardless of what the title of the car says in the "vehicle history" box.

Also, many times, flood damage is not reported either. Thus it does not earn the car a Salvaged title.

frost203

"Salvage" does not alway mean it was in a wreck. sometimes there are mecahnical problems like blown engines or tranny that the owner does not want to deal with so they junk the car. once in the possession of a junk yard many states require that if the vehicle is resold the title must state salvaged, reconditioned, or rebuilt. aswell as marking odometer reading as not acurate or in excess of mechanical limits. For the typical buyer most should shun salvaged titles but for those with good mechanical skills these cars might be a real good buy. One of my last truck was like this, engine blown and removed by a shop and left in the bed, the truck was junked and i bought off my local salvage yard. she gave me many yrs of hard work before my brother trashed her in an actual accident.

toytech76

could be a bent brake backing plate rubbing on your brake rotor

machabees

I agree with the previous posters about salvage titles.
My neighbor got into a minor head on with his Ford Explorer. the cost of replacing and straightening all the parts in the front clip was more than the cost of the vehicle so the insurance company totaled it. they gave him the the amount the vehicle was worth and took it off insurance. The truck still ran and drove just fine it's just the front body panels and grill were dented and scratched. He still drives it.

4ランナー

All very good replys, my friends reactions to to salvage were similar to the first replys but I definatly feel better about my purchase now.

Stormin94- I think its more of the previous owner being ruff on it/high miles on body, then it being a salvage...hopefully

Thanks for the tip about the brake backing rubbing would'nt thought of that and it sure would be a painless fix, i'll check after work and take some pics if it isnt.

Belize Off Road Team

post pics of it!

4ランナー

Well I finally got back over to my other house and took a look at it...I dont know how I didnt notice this but there is a huge hole on the front top of my cv boot on the driver's side.

I take it this is the culprit the noise seems to be coming from there. I hear its not so hard to change em myself. Remanned Cv's run about 70.00 with core exchange, is that all I need or should I buy new axels etc?

Tofer

get the autozone CV axle... 70 bucks and a no questions asked life time warranty..... i got a total of 5 CVs from them for 70 bucks... well worth it.

MonsterMaxx

Also get lockout hubs. Your CV boots will last years longer if you aren't spinning them on the highway. Even with ADD the CVs are still spinning. Every time you turn the tires the ribs rub each other, since they are different diameters this scrubs them and eventually wears out the CV boot. If you have the IFS cranked up a little, they rub nearly all the time.

I used to go thru a boot in 1-2 yrs (IFS cranked up a little), once I put lockouts on it never killed another.

infiltrator

Stormin hit the nail on the hammer with this post.

You do not know how many times I have seen people settle outside of insurance. It makes me think why get insurance in the first place.

Example: My friend and I were eating in his Pathfinder in the parking lot of BK, and then we hear a bang, and we feel his SUV jump up on the curb. At first we think something went wrong with the engine and it jumped ship lol. But the car was off. We look behind us, and see a red sports car.

Some little 16 year old who was on her 3rd accident hit us. Her mother quickly called us and wanted to settle out of insurance. My buddy's bumper was messed up a little, but her car looked worse. Looked like her radiator busted.
Now, my friend just beats his car to hell (takes care of the engine, but nothing else lol) and he didnt care about fixing his dented bumper, and the mom to the girl wrote him a $1950 to cover "damages" since she doesn't want her rates going up even more.

Also I wanted to say I have bought a salvaged title and have had GREAT LUCK! It was my girlfriends now '92 Honda Civic LX (4 door). It had 118,000 miles on it, and was hit in the back really hard and crumbled. I looked at the frame and it looked perfect, the car was re-painted, and everything looks good as new. Brakes were recently done, and it even had Castrol Syntec! Tranny fluid looked perfect too.
Sure it needs a little work like a weather stripping is comming apart now that we have to fix, but we snagged this Honda for $2200!
What I figured was if it got hit in the back, its a front wheel drive car, so nothing to worry about in terms of engine damage...
I think it needs a slight tune up but nothing more.
Body shops these days are amazing. They can reach perfection...

mt_goat

I bought this salvaged title truck:
http://rides.webshots.com/album/383446112ZpbXpN

I've heard of vehicles being totalled by the insurance co. for engine damage, if it was caused by a wreck or driving down a flooded street.

CJM

It all depends on the vehicle, IO would only buy a salvage if I could fully inspect and drive the vehicle. I have seen a few friends get taken on what they thought were deals b/c it was salvage and repaired, only to find out it was a pos..

4ランナー

Well heres a little update of what happened to me so far...Turns out that grinding noise was me being an idiot, the tire was rubbing agianst that lower bumper lip that was half unscrewed toward the right side making it grind

But then the ignitor box went out, seriously why is that thing so expensive 500.00 new??I got one at TAP recycling in Rancho cordova at 65.00

Then my clutch falls to about an inch of the floor and sticks there,while the clutch functioned almost fine. Turns out to be my clutch pedal bracket broke, I guess a common problem?? That was a pain to install, then shortly after that my master AND Slave went out

THEN my distributer shaft seized up. I was coming to a stop and she just died, I worried my timing belt broke because when I toke the cap off and looked at my distributer rotor it wasnt spinning when turning over.
But when I took the shaft out I realized it was almost impossible to spin

Shes running now but its a definate POS, I gotta wash my hands of it. Anyone hear a distributor doing that before

Heres a pic, my friends 1st gen in the back just got a fully rebuilt engine from yotaman in santa rosa, looks really slick Ill get a pic

space-junk

iTrader: (1)

hmm... some vehicles just have problems... i say either get another 3.0 and drop it in and sell yours as a core or at least part it out to recoup some cost, or just do a motor swap...

4ランナー

It runs now with no foreseeable problems:guiltface: Would asking 2000 be a rip off? I replaced the Speedometer cable, Master/Slave Cylinder, Parking Brake Cable, Clutch Pedal Bracket,New Distributer Shaft/Cap/Rotor, and Ignition Igniter

EDIT: I also have an extra Ignition Ignitor+Coil if anyones interested 50.00 icluding shipping through paypal?