Summit Truck Group - Be Careful !

I realize all that but like you said prior to putting it up for sale they change the oil so taking a sample is a waist of time.

 

One thing you can do is run the vin # at a dealer and get the warranty History. I’ve done it 3 times.

 

AN oil change doesn't mean that the sump and galleries are cleaned out and many times if you put it on a dyno, pull the oil after all the oil is circulated under a load, you will get a good snapshot of the condition of the engine.

I've done this with a lot of used trucks where the oil has been changed, I always get indicators popping up when it is done that way and have rejected trucks with fuel in the oil or coolant leaks in the oil that cropped up after a dyno run. Another one that came up is copper levels went up sharply after a dyno run to indicate that the bearings were worn. I saw this in a fleet of trucks I was going to purchase, they did PM on all of the trucks which raised a flag and each one was dyno'd, producing 80% of full power but when the OAs came back, the before and after results were quite different, and this was with each one on the dyno for just a little while.

Not likely thing will be changed. The service reports tell you if there is an on-going issue with something on the truck, seen it happen before but I have yet seen any evidence of "doctoring".

The ECM dump is done to see if there are anomalies, like hours and miles being off, past history does show up with a complete report and so does the ECM change out which happens a lot.

Again putting the truck on a dyno and letting error code show up with the ECM is a good thing, not to be ignored.

I would think you can but 80% of the drivers out there can not judge the truck, they don't have the skills to understand what's good and what isn't. There is something about a driver becoming apathetic when they drive a vehicle for a while, they get used to the feel or rhythm of the truck.

I disagree with this, part of buying has to do with the Due Diligence of buying, which includes steps to reduce the risk of problems and/or breakdowns.

My goal isn't to bash you but to add to the advice on how to buy a truck and not get screwed, I've seen it happen so much that I am surprised most still ignore the advice of others who've done it for years.

 

Take vin # to dealer, they have everything build date delivery date and all warranty history. And any recall or updates and whether they have been done. Dig around a little deeper talking to mechanics and learn about technical bulletins . Saw one once on Cat smaller C-? back in 1996 that had JB weld as a repair for cracked block. I’m sure some would call BS but I saw it.