in law had no oil on dipstick...99 camry

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
1,408
Location
NH
but would i expect any different?...the 3 times i have checked over years it has had little or none, luckily for him i had QS syn torque stash in my car so he dumped in close to 3 qts in a 4 cylinder..car has 263k on it and he doesnt baby engine when driving it either...i think he changes oil once a year or every 25k, whatever comes last...ihe burns around a quart every 2,ooo miles and he wouldve had no qualms going to canada on 800 R/T with no oil on dipstick...the timing belt broke one time when he was up there at 210k and car broke down again for some other reason in canada...i must admit i am pretty impressed by his indifference...last time i checked his oil in 2006 he had 3 qts of coastal in trunk and he dumped it in..he would buy the cheapest store brand he could find too, not M1 or Pennzoil...my sister has a VW turbo and if he starts driving it eventualy i wonder how long it will last, i told them they cant do their usual maintenance on it
 
oh but it did have some crud on end of DS..he travels a 100 miles a day too..just goes to show 7500 miles on any oil is adequate, as long as you have enough in engine
 
That's why you judge the seller and not necessarily the car. If the car looks good but you get a bad vibe from the person during the conversation, I walk away. Just take a look around: is the lawn mowed, does the property look well maintained, did he put in some effort when cleaning up the car? If so, the previous owner probably took care of it. If the property is a mess, means the seller doesn't take care of it and probably didn't take care of the car either or anything else he owns. Why would he remember to change the oil in the car on time when he can't even mow the darn lawn? Is there another car in the back yard on blocks?.... In the words of Bill Engval, Here's your sign.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: 360kid
That's why you judge the seller and not necessarily the car. If the car looks good but you get a bad vibe from the person during the conversation, I walk away. Just take a look around: is the lawn mowed, does the property look well maintained, did he put in some effort when cleaning up the car? If so, the previous owner probably took care of it. If the property is a mess, means the seller doesn't take care of it and probably didn't take care of the car either or anything else he owns. Why would he remember to change the oil in the car on time when he can't even mow the darn lawn? Is there another car in the back yard on blocks?.... In the words of Bill Engval, Here's your sign.




i see what ur saying but not always true. Some pay to have yard work done, are required to keep it nice, or community dues pay for it. I care better for my car than anything else.... but that is bc i see it as mine until i cant drive anymore.

some think taking care of it is Jiffy Lube. or they are very anal about everything except the car...
 
Originally Posted By: 360kid
That's why you judge the seller and not necessarily the car. If the car looks good but you get a bad vibe from the person during the conversation, I walk away. Just take a look around: is the lawn mowed, does the property look well maintained, did he put in some effort when cleaning up the car? If so, the previous owner probably took care of it. If the property is a mess, means the seller doesn't take care of it and probably didn't take care of the car either or anything else he owns. Why would he remember to change the oil in the car on time when he can't even mow the darn lawn? Is there another car in the back yard on blocks?.... In the words of Bill Engval, Here's your sign.





Ummmm yah but on a used car lot you really get to see their yards.
 
Quote:
That's why you judge the seller and not necessarily the car. If the car looks good but you get a bad vibe from the person during the conversation, I walk away. Just take a look around: is the lawn mowed, does the property look well maintained, did he put in some effort when cleaning up the car? If so, the previous owner probably took care of it. If the property is a mess, means the seller doesn't take care of it and probably didn't take care of the car either or anything else he owns. Why would he remember to change the oil in the car on time when he can't even mow the darn lawn? Is there another car in the back yard on blocks?.... In the words of Bill Engval, Here's your sign.


I think this is a very good advise.

Also, I would take a look at the other car/s that are not for sale by the guy, they will be a good indication of how well/terrible the car being sold was maintained.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: chet2
but would i expect any different?...the 3 times i have checked over years it has had little or none, luckily for him i had QS syn torque stash in my car so he dumped in close to 3 qts in a 4 cylinder..car has 263k on it and he doesnt baby engine when driving it either...i think he changes oil once a year or every 25k, whatever comes last...ihe burns around a quart every 2,ooo miles and he wouldve had no qualms going to canada on 800 R/T with no oil on dipstick...the timing belt broke one time when he was up there at 210k and car broke down again for some other reason in canada...i must admit i am pretty impressed by his indifference...last time i checked his oil in 2006 he had 3 qts of coastal in trunk and he dumped it in..he would buy the cheapest store brand he could find too, not M1 or Pennzoil...my sister has a VW turbo and if he starts driving it eventualy i wonder how long it will last, i told them they cant do their usual maintenance on it

Why add synthetic? The engine will add even more. Be the good son in law and buy some diesel oil. It may slow down the burning and may clean out any crud thats in there.
 
Quote:
Why add synthetic? The engine will add even more. Be the good son in law and buy some diesel oil. It may slow down the burning and may clean out any crud thats in there.


Yeah, and then get the blame when the car breaks down, even for unrelated reason.


My advise is to stay away and don't touch the car!! This way you will stay a good son in law.
 
Put a big sticker on the instrument cluster so he has to see it every time he drives!

He is the kind of person that needs the 3 month 3,000 mile oil change.
 
Last edited:
Sounds as if you should have slapped him with the dipstick and yelled-think your dipstick Jimmy.
 
Originally Posted By: ZZman

He is the kind of person that needs the 3 month 3,000 mile oil change.


He doesn't the need the 3 month/3k oil! Did everyone overlook that he has 263k MILES ON THE ENGINE! his method is working. I bet he will get 300k miles out of that engine. The praise here goes to Toyota. Toyota I'm your newest fan
LOL.gif
 
3k mile oil changes and you hear about bearing issues, mechanical problems all the time while these folks get 200k+ miles changing the oil every 25k. So many variables come into play...engine build/break-in the most important. Once the engine is built/broken in properly, it's not science.

I stick to my 10k mile oci's and feel great about it.
 
Thicker oil might help the guy.

When I buy used, I like to interview the seller, questions like "how much oil does it use?" and see what their response is. A long delay in responding is not good. I also like to have them drive me in the car, noting how they start the engine and engage the trans.
 
..and diamonds fall from the sky. The car is on life-support just like any other car in that scenario. You could claim it runs, and that's it.


Originally Posted By: chet2
oh but it did have some crud on end of DS..he travels a 100 miles a day too..just goes to show 7500 miles on any oil is adequate, as long as you have enough in engine
 
It's always the ones who treat their engine like [censored] that end up with all the luck but I would not want to drive a car that ran like [censored], it would eat at me every time I drove that POS
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top