what to look at when buying a used truck?

[bigbadbrad]

i am looking at a used 1988 for ranger ext. cab v6 std. 4x4 that is for sale at a local dealer. it has 152000 miles. if i get it i will only be using it for a few years until i am out of school. it was repainted last year so there is no rust on the body and it has a spray on bed liner. it has no cd player but it has a brush guar and a roll bar. each have 2 hella light on it. it also has fresh tires and a body lift and aftermarket rims. what should i look at on this vecichle?the engine block looked a little gressie(sp) or it might of just been dirty becase the fenders dont cover the block no more because of the body lift. we are going to check it out on wendsday and i am bringing my uncle who is a very good mechanic to look at it. please help me out this is my first truck.
thanks
bradley

[DGR Designs]

well i'd say the basics like take it for a drive and put the transmission through its paces to make sure nothing slips or anything and listen for knocking and stuff in the engine. check your 4wd also take it and see if you can get all 4 spinning without any bad noises. but overall, sounds like a good truck! get us some pics cause it sounds sick!
~Dave

[Honda2003]

Originally posted by roost_maker
well i'd say the basics like take it for a drive and put the transmission through its paces to make sure nothing slips or anything and listen for knocking and stuff in the engine. check your 4wd also take it and see if you can get all 4 spinning without any bad noises. but overall, sounds like a good truck! get us some pics cause it sounds sick!
~Dave

what he said.

[2000SPORT]

Be sure to check the 4x4, especially if it has auto locking hubs, they tend to go out on pre 98's. Check for oil leaks, although valve cover gaskets can easily be replaced on the 2.9L which I assume it has. That maybe why it looks oily. I'd look at the air breather, see how dirty it is, kinda gives you an idea if they kept up on maintenence. They are solid trucks otherwise. They have few engine tranny problems, I've owned a '92, '96, and now a '00 and haven't had a lick of trouble with any of them. I haven't had a 2.9 v-6 but my uncle has ans it seems to have as much umph as my 4.0L. I don't believe the 4.0L came out until '90 though. I've always heard good things about the 2.9L.

[bigbadbrad]

bump
yeah it is a 2.9l v6
it has manual locking hubs
if i get my scaner working i will get pics if i get it
and also i will check out the 4x4 when we take it for a ride
and i iwll look at the bay
we might put it up on a lift if they let us and we will ask about geting a warrenty for it from them

[DeDo]

Brad,

I would take a look very carefully underneath the truck. If its got a lot of off-road "stuff" then it was probably taken off-road a lot. This could be bad for you, especially with all the miles.

I would look for things that are banged up/dented underneath (if it was bottomed out) as well as mud/dirt behind the bumper. That is a good sign that the truck was off-road and its an area that the detailers never look to clean...

Beyond that, I would never buy a Ford, much less one with 150k miles... But I am a Chevy kind of guy....

Good luck, let us know how you make out...

DeDo

[bigbadbrad]

bump
i doubt it was taken offroad much. the guy that owned it before had a 4-wheeler so he took that off road and also there are not much places to go off road where i live. the offroad "stuff" is just for looks. but hopefully we are going to be able to get it up on a lift to check out the bottom

as for liking ford i dont like ford that much. but this truck is for until i get out of school and once i graduate for a beater truck

i like chevy and toyota better than ford