help, wife wants to buy a 4 runner w/ crud under oil cap

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my wife test drove a 2000 toyota 4runner 6cyl w/ 5spd (this is why she wants it and they're hard to come by) with 21k on it, they want $22k for it.
i looked under the oil cap and on the little metal oil deflector or what ever it's called, there's some crud. i scraped it off w/ my finger nail and with a rag and looks like dirt.
as a diesel mechanic, i'm thinking this is a no buy
shocked.gif
any one else agree w/me? her tacoma 4cyl w/ 26k on it has only had amsoil in and it's clean as anything.

other than that the 4 runner is in perfect shape.

would this be a job or auto-rx?
i plan on telling the stealership, that as long as they put a new engine in, we'll buy it.

thanks for any input
 
ok i did some searching it seems that, since there is no oil flow under the cap, the oil no matter what type just cokes there? sound good

great, i tell her this she'll want to buy it
 
If the milage is correct you should not worry about this crud. Seems to collect on most cars some more than others. I would spend my time varifing the milage and if correct give it an auto-rx treatment and you'll be good to go. Its a Toyota for goodness sake. Best of the Best!
 
If your a mechanic, maybe you could advice them you want to take it to a mechanic for a pre-purchase/independent inspection. Take it home, pop a valve cover off, and have a looksy to see how it looks.
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i was actually thinking about popping a valve cover off. it's in the driveway as i type. we have it for the night.
 
Ask yourself this:

Why are they selling a "perfectly" good 4Runner with only 21K miles? It's a toss up. Toyotas can take a lot of abuse, but the oil could have 10K-15K miles on it. Did you check the oil level on the stick?

We lucked out last year when my wife found a 2002 4Runner LTD with only 16K miles. We found the service records in the glovebox. They had serviced it at 5K and 10K miles with oil changes at the dealer. So, I changed it at 16K to M1 5W30 then just recently to Delvac 5W40.

[ March 29, 2004, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Grossomotto ]
 
My Tundra has the 3.4L engine. Ive got 9300 miles and the oil looks like honey going in and slightly darker coming out. No sludge, just a light layer of clean oil on my cap, I just checked it. Ive changed the oil in it 3 times now I believe. Its a solid engine that puts down 150-160 rwhp. But if you have doubts, $21K is a lot to gamble.
 
Is this one of the Toyota Sludge Monster engines??

You could verify this via the web and get a rush uoa, if you really want to buy it.
 
The 3.0L sludged up and those were the ones that were not changes at regular intervals. Not the 3.4L. I've yet to hear of a Toyota engine sludging up with regular service oil changes.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Grossomotto:
The 3.0L sludged up and those were the ones that were not changes at regular intervals. Not the 3.4L. I've yet to hear of a Toyota engine sludging up with regular service oil changes.

I have. My friend on another board was a professional auto Tech with an Avalon. It eats quality synthetic oils for breakfast.
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