Why DealerShip; Used Sale

Long story short. Bought 08 SR5 CrewCab with 122K miles. Previous owner is the mechanic at the same dealership I purchased truck from.

My expertise is good enough to help buddy dropped a tranny and engine before, run electrical etc..... so I have tools and not afraid to do maintenance.

Dealer performed Oil change prior to delivery. Have 30days bumper to bumper. So I decided to do tune-up since cold and nothing to do outdoors Ordered spark plugs and engine filter via Ebay.

Pulled 1st spark plug - - brown all around the plug threading. 2 of the 8 plugs I literally twist out with finger power. two plugs bottom end soaked with oil (need to replace valve cover gaskets - - nice weekend project)

Engine air filter dirty as crap.

Luckliy I drove truck 2 times / less than 100 miles in 3 weeks... could have turned out worse if the plug blow out.

Yet to get to cabin filter. Changing front and rear differential fluids also.

Not happy knowing that if it was some non-mechanical soul who had purchased this vehicle could have been up the creek ......how does someone finger tighten the spark plugs???? Will post pics of the plugs

 

guess the previous owner didn't like being a "mechanic" on his own vehicle. Or, it is intentional hoping for catastrophic failure just beyond the 30 day warranty

 

I'd rather have a truck that someone didn't tighten the plugs enough instead of someone who over torqued them... one is easy to fix - the other - a lot less so. Spark plugs in aluminium heads should go in with very little torque - I think i remember somewhere that they should be 150 inlbs but don't quote me on that... not as tight as you think.... finger tight plus a tiny bit!

 

am not directly blaming the mechanic for the loose plugs, yet the old ones looks like they were never changed ever.... the salesperson harped on how the mechanic took great care of this truck so I felt like he is like me "to always fix, and look for fixing something on my car...."

I am going through the maintenance as if it was never done from day one before I start putting my fingerprints over it (installed Tonneau..... yet to order rims and lift kit, plus back up cam....)

 

Honestly the last thing a mechanic wants to do after 10 or 12 hours a day is work on their own stuff lol.
Good catch! Ya always go behind and check.

 

Every mechanic I have known has driven a POS. They don't feel like fixing their own cars after fixing everyone elses so they just patch it up. The head mechanic at a Sunoco I worked at in high school drove a chevy luv pickup that was so rusted it literally broke in half one day when he hit a pot hole. no shittin, the bed stopped moving and the cab drove about 35 yards, funniest shit I saw there.