What do ya'll think?

Tim.plante

Tim.plante

Observer
-full story first or you can skip it and get the readers digest version under it

Looked at a 99 SR yesterday...right away i could tell that it was well taken care of and wasnt abused at all, it literally looks like it just rolled off the show room floor. Chrome wheels, brand new 31" tires, window visors, heavy duty towing hitch, basically if there was an option for it brand new they got it. It was owned by two women in its life before this guy got it. It was his mothers and then it was his sisters while she was in the Army and now he's had it about a 6 months and uses it "every now and then for groceries" or if he has a date...the reason he wants to sell it is cause he's single and doesnt need 3 trucks. Now to the inside. he hands me the keys and this is the first Montero I've ever looked at and the owner still had the clicker for the door lol. Opened it up and the only thing wrong with the inside was the PS visor was gone..other than that you could see that it was taken good care of..other than the slight smell of cigarette smoke, but I know how to get rid of that. Started it up...and it sounded good very smooth and easy. looked down at the dash first noticed 199,627 on the odometer, no biggie, but then I saw that the two front tires were flashing on the dash display while it was in 2h, so I went through all the drives and it shifted nicely and the lights were solid on each till i got back to 2h and then they stayed blinking and never stopped?? Also noticed the check engine light was on too? Popped the hood everything was clean slight oil leak in back of the rocker cover but he has the gasket for that and I can do it when I change the spark plugs. He says there is a leak somewhere in the cooling system cause he has had to add coolant a few times how bad does that sound how would you fix something if you dont know where to start? At the end i did one last walk around while it was running and noticed a steady flow of white smoke from the tale pipe, now it was cold lastnight so im not sure how much of it was white smoke and how much was hot exhaust...didnt get to drive it cause i had my baby girl with me hope to test drive it friday...Thoughts?

-asking 5,000
-has 199,627 miles
-owned by two women for all except 5 months of its life
-2h the front tire lights blink??
-check engine light is on
-oil leak from the rocker cover
-coolant leak somewhere
-what i think was white smoke
-and i didnt get to test drive it cause i had my baby girl with me but i hope to test drive it this friday
 
Justice R

Justice R

Adventurer
1. There is no Such thing as a 99 SR the SR/LS/RS designations were dropped in 98.
2. 5K is way too high especially with a CEL on.
3. Buy a cheap code reader for 40 bucks and find out what code its throwing and let us know.
4. Losing Coolant could mean a blown head gasket. You need to look very carefully at the exhaust and coolant. How's the oil look?
5. white smoke? could be byproduct of head gasket blown..OR valve guide seals causing it to burn oil.
6. Test drive and report back blinking lights will probably go away after you drive it. If the Tcase was put into 4wd it will take some rotation to disengage.
 
Tim.plante

Tim.plante

Observer
meant to put the code part in there my bad.
code read something to do with the EGR valve
the oil he had changed about a month ago and when i pulled the stick out to have a look it looked like it had a very faint greenish tint to it either that or i just have shell shock from when i blew mine
 
Justice R

Justice R

Adventurer
Usually coolant in the oil will result in a milkshake like appearance as the oil and water mix. Also, you can still loose water out the exhaust without getting water in the oil, so look carefully.
 
Sabre

Sabre

Overlanding Nurse
Thoughts?

I see a lot of vehicles advertised with the wrong year. There was no SR in '99.

The flashing lights might just be a quick adjustment, provided that the actual transfer case function behaves correctly, but it might be expensive for you.

Using coolant? Listen, it's not evaporating into thin air; it's going one of two places: on the driveway or out the tailpipe. If it's leaking outside the cooling system it's not hard to find, as the sticky coolant attracts a lot of dirt and you'll easily see where the stuff is dripping out. But you mention white smoke. "Hot exhaust" shouldn't smoke. Sure, it will when the engine is cold on a cold day, but you shouldn't see much vapor from a hot engine. After the engine is hot, have someone romp on the throttle. You should NOT see a puff of smoke. Following the vehicle as it drives down the road also gives a good impression of this.

Smell the white smoke/vapor. If it's coolant it won't be stinky in the exhaust, but if it's valve guide seal leakage (oil) you should easily smell it. Run your finger around the inside of the tailpipe. They all have some black soot (try this with a couple of known good vehicles before checking the vehicle in question), but a lot of greasy black stuff is bad on a gasoline engine.

Regardless of any of these results, I wouldn't pay $5,000 or anything close to it for a '99 with 200,000 on the odo.
 
Tim.plante

Tim.plante

Observer
Got to drive it today...it started out running normal but after about 10min. into the drive it felt like it didn't have as much pep in its step as when it first started out so we headed back to his house so park it and by the time we made it there and parked it the temp gauge was pretty high...and since i had the ability to do the 5000 (though i wasnt going to settle for that) i started to talk price with him and he thought he could get the 5 so he didnt want to take anything lower than that. he was "well these 'full sized' monteros are hard to find around here and everything besides the engine is in great shape" and i explained that you can put a tux on a goat but its still a goat...so we parted ways and now im back on the hunt :costumed-smiley-007
 
Justice R

Justice R

Adventurer
"Everything but the engine is in great shape" Classic one there. Probably has a blown HG. would not go over 1500 on that one.
 
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