I've bought two vehicles that appear to have been tampered with while at the auction. The tampering was designed to disable features or make the car run badly. In both cases, the repair was simple and I ended up with a good deal. Both cars were bought using Manheim's online feature, somewhat sight unseen.
2003 Mercedes E320
This is a very clean car that had about 140k miles. When it originally arrived, the AC did not work. I noticed that the engine fan was running 100% even with a cold engine. So, I did a little checking. Plugging into the computer system I found that the high side pressure switch was reading beyond any reasonable pressure. So, I checked and the high pressure switch was unplugged. It was sitting on the plug, but unplugged.
The engine computer saw this as an ultra high signal, boosted the fan to 100% and shut down the system. I plugged it in and everything worked normally.
I ended up with a good deal and gave the car a full service. Sold it and did well.
2004 Volvo S60 2.4 Non-Turbo
This one was very clean and had about 142k miles. The car is garage kept, clean and appears to have been serviced its entire life. The car shows up today and runs like **bleep** at idle with both a "check engine" light and a message on the dash that says "Anti-Skid Service Required".
Plugging the car into the scanner, it is full of codes. From the codes in the modules, a lot of things were unplugged to get warnings or messages to appear. One code suggested a dirty throttle body so I pulled and cleaned it. It really wasn't dirty but it is a step that we do anyway.
Clearing the codes two came back. One was "RPM Signal Missing" and the other was for the heated oxygen sensor circuit. I checked the crank sensor and it is unplugged. Plug it back in, clear the codes, the car runs beautifully.
I'll change the front oxygen sensor and give it a full service. Again, we got a deal and will do well with this ride.
Thank you to the dishonest dealers in both Atlanta and Orlando that allowed me to buy two nice cars for a song!
