Help Evaluating a Pre Purchase Inspection (1 Viewer)

[bigsaus]

Hey folks,

Hoping to buy a GX soon but worried about PPI results. I'm not sure how much I should be alarmed at with a 12 year old vehicle. I checked out an '05 with 145k for $11k and the PPI returned the following:

Here are the items I'm concerned with:

- Front axles vibrate upon acceleration recommend replacement with ABS rings
- Front lower control arms with ball joints, broken at bushings ball joints are leaking grease
- Front sway bar end links have broken boots recommend replacement
- Front outer tie rods have torn boots recommend replacement
- Rear differential control arms have broken bushings, recommend replacement

Here are the items that just seem like general maintenance that I'm less concerned with:

- Rear tires are cracked and unevenly wearing left 3mm right 6mm
- Front brake pads have pulsation present pads 7mm rotors 28 mm
- Throttle body and intake system services due by time and mileage
- Air filter is dirty, cabin air filter recommend replacement as pair
- Brake fluid is dirty and due by time and mileage
- Transmission fluid is dirty
- Rear differential, front differential, and transfer case fluid services due by time and mileage
- Coolant fluid service due at 100k
- Thermostat and gasket recommended with coolant fluid service
- Spark plugs due at 120k
- 4 wheel alignment recommended with steering and suspension work

Here's the thing, I might be able to get away with just replacing the front axles... mechanic said it'd be ballpark $1800... when I brought this to the car lot and offered $9k so I could repair, they balked and said they could do it for $300 and include it in the price of the vehicle. How much of the other stuff is critical? Mechanic also mentioned differential control arms and suspension work could be $3-4k...

This is the second GX470 I've taken to PPI (first one needed steering rack replacement), not sure if I should keep looking or accept these issues as normal with a 12 year old truck. Is the mechanic trying to upsell? Or are these more serious issues that I should be concerned with? As I'm less mechanically inclined I'm not sure if I should be running away from this deal.

I'm already $300 into PPIs and will probably be looking at a 3rd GX tomorrow (and 3rd PPI) - but will likely find issues in PPI where I'm unsure of the degree of seriousness. Thanks for looking, hoping to officially join this community soon.

 

[JLee]

I've never heard of a "vibrate upon acceleration" complaint about axles...that seems a bit odd to me. If you do need axles, get some from CVJ with high angle boots. Do you plan on modifying your GX and/or taking it off road?

Leaking ball joint boots and worn bushings are normal at that age/mileage. If you're getting charged $4k for those repairs I'd recommend a different shop.

Assuming this is a non-KDSS truck:

I am not familiar with the quality of these aftermarket parts, but I tried to avoid going bottom of the barrel. A few people recommend going with GX460 brake calipers/rotors if you're doing brakes (different caliper design and a thicker rotor, I believe?). I did not put brakes in this quote for that reason...up to you if you'd want to do an upgrade.

Now...

- Rear tires are cracked and unevenly wearing left 3mm right 6mm

You want beefy all terrains anyway, right? RIGHT?!

- Throttle body and intake system services due by time and mileage

Skeptical.

- Air filter is dirty, cabin air filter recommend replacement as pair

$20 in filters. DIY at home in 20 minutes. Easy.

- Brake fluid is dirty and due by time and mileage

I'd do that with brakes.

- Transmission fluid is dirty

2005's don't have a dipstick. Unless they drained the transmission to check, they're making things up. I'd have a fluid exchange done at a Toyota dealer anyway. There is no service interval for the transmission in an 05 ("lifetime fluid").

- Rear differential, front differential, and transfer case fluid services due by time and mileage

Likely.

- Coolant fluid service due at 100k
- Thermostat and gasket recommended with coolant fluid service

I would do that with the timing belt every 90k.

- Spark plugs due at 120k

Yup.

- 4 wheel alignment recommended with steering and suspension work

Definitely, though there's not really anything to align on the back, assuming OEM-spec parts go in.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

I would do that with the timing belt every 90k.

Timing belt is a key piece of the maintenance that was not mentioned. That would be several hundred dollars if not done already.

None of the things mentioned above should necessarily be a deal-breaker. Most of it is easy DIY stuff. However the big picture is that this truck was not maintained by the prior owner. My truck is only 9 years old, but at 120K miles, it has none of those issues listed above.

Mismatched tread depth (bad idea with full-time 4wd), dirty air filter, pulsing brakes, vibrations, rotted tires.... Clearly the PO had no interest in fixing things, much less maintaining it. Does it have any record of the oil changes?

 

[bigsaus]

Thanks folks, I'm a bit more at ease with these results. Carfax indicates timing belt and water pump was done at 120k so I'm good there. First owner to 120k had every 5k service done at a Lexus dealer, second owner to 145k doesn't have many maintenance records so I'm thinking most of this is just the deferred maintenance for 25k miles.

If I do go ahead with this vehicle, tires, filters, oil change would be first order of business. The car lot said they just replaced the tires too... Off to see my third GX today. Just curious, what website are you using to pull those parts together?

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Yep, I agree, the fact that the original owner took care of it is reassuring. So then, going back over the list, most of the concerns are maintenance items and fluids. You'd want to get those done but you could spread it over a few months. Brake pulsation could be fixed with resurfacing the rotors or new rotors. They aren't terribly expensive. Suspension bushings, IMO, should be replaced but this probably means replacing entire suspension components (ie, bushings not replaceable separately). If you're going to mod the truck for off road, this is a great excuse to upgrade.

My biggest concern would be the vibration on acceleration. Could be axles, the worn suspension components, bad tires, something in the larger driveline - or a combination. If the dealer puts some cheap axles on there as part of the sale and the vibration persists, you'll be in a bad position.

If you put new tires on it, you'll probably want an alignment pronto. But it would be cheaper to do any suspension replacement before the alignment.

 

[D21FJ60]

I'd stick them at your $9k given the amount of work needed. The website @JLee used was www.rockauto.com. Good luck!

 

[bigsaus]

Thanks, I didn't know if I was being unreasonable with expectations on a 12 year old vehicle. Gonna keep my eye out for the next one...