I have a friend with a body / repair shop who specializes in rebuilding smashed one and two-year-old Dodge trucks. Lately they're going for too much money so he has been buying low-mileage, older GM products. The last three turned out to have engine problems, (He bought one knowing that. It wasn't a crash-damaged vehicle). Most of these trucks already have a home when the repairs are done. He rarely puts one out by the highway with a
"For Sale" sign. My 2014 Ram was one of these rebuilders. I bought it with 4200 miles, but it didn't have any frame damage. I didn't get to participate in the repairs. They were done too quickly, before I had a chance to visit him.
I had the opportunity to help him straighten the frames on three or four trucks, and I helped him replace the back half of the frame on a dump truck that was tipped on its side with a full load. With all of these vehicles, he drives them for a few weeks to be sure there's no bugs or defects he overlooked. I know just enough to observe that he knows what he's doing. As an example, "crumple zones" came up more than once in some of the Chrysler classes I attended while employed at the dealership. Some of those include the little dents and creases in the frame rails that were obviously stamped in them at the assembly plant, but appear to be "unnecessary". Those are intentional weak points to cause the frame and body to absorb crash energy slowly and in specific areas. When straightening a frame, which is actually pretty easy to do, you don't want to add anything to strengthen those areas. That includes adding welding beads or small patches over a spot where the frame was cracked. Things like that are difficult for the average car owner to see.
Frames rarely get damaged when another vehicle hits it on the side. The most common damage comes from a head-on hit more on one side, and a hit from the side ahead of the front doors. Frame damage is the last thing to suspect when a vehicle is rolled on its side unless it went airborne and landed on a boulder between the two doors.
Given the history of the vehicle you're looking at, the best thing to start with is the fit of the doors. The gaps should be uniform all the way around and the same as the doors on the other side. Way back in the '70s I remember hearing a story of an owner who went to pick up his repaired car, and the gap at the front edge of the driver's door was over twice what it was supposed to be. The shop owner explained that model had three different lengths of fender available. He ordered a "standard" fender, but was sent a "short" one by mistake. Don't fall for sorry excuses like that. There is no such thing as different sizes of replacement panels. If that were true, the shop should have reordered the right part. No reputable repair shop is going to risk their reputation with sloppy work or wrong parts.
The doors should close with equal force on all of them. Open each one and look for dust on the sealing surface of the rubber weatherstrip. Dust in that area indicates it's not sealing against the door. You'll get road noise and possibly water coming in. The doors should pop open with equal force on all of them. If the weatherstrip seal isn't being compressed as much as it should be, there won't be the normal energy to push it open when the latch is released. If one pops open with too much enthusiasm, it probably will take too much effort to close it fully. That can be caused by improper alignment / adjustment, or improper fit due to the repair parts not being positioned correctly. Some owners will overlook things like that, but it does suggest other areas should be scrutinized more closely.
I'm not afraid of crash-repaired vehicles, but be aware if it came through an insurance company, it will most likely have "Salvage" recorded on the title. That lowers the vehicle's value, both when you buy it and when you resell it. The cost of repairs in terms of paint, parts, and time is the same whether the vehicle is two years old or 20 years old. Shops that specialize in this type of work are only going to want to work on the newer models so their finished product can command a higher price. No one wants to stick $10,000 of repairs into a vehicle that will be worth $6000 when they're done. The total to buy and repair my truck was less than 2/5 the cost of a similar new one on the dealer's lot, when it didn't even have enough miles to warrant its first oil change. Even when you add a decent amount for profit, you should be able to buy a repaired vehicle for much less than the going rate for a non-damaged similar model. The crash history is only partially responsible for the lower cost The bigger factor is that word "Salvage" on the title.
If you care to see what kind of damage these specialists are willing to tackle, do a search for 74 Auto in MO. That's where my truck came from when it was two years old. My friend has about 50 regular customers who tell him what they're looking for, then he finds it for them and repairs it. This is one of about five regular places he buys from.
With any used vehicle, consider having a safety inspection performed at an independent repair shop. Pick the shop yourself. Don't go to one the seller suggests because an unscrupulous repair shop may have friends at the shop, he recommends who will purposely overlook serious problems. Also, if that shop already did the inspection for a previous potential buyer, they may charge you for it, then just let it sit and give you the same information they did for that last person. Reputable shop owners will tell you they looked at that vehicle already, but you still don't know what took place after that. A typical safety inspection takes about an hour. Add perhaps as much as another half hour to look for crash-related problems. If the seller refuses to let you take the vehicle for that long, that is my number one reason to walk away and find something else. If they tell you the vehicle can't be driven because it isn't licensed or it doesn't have insurance, point out that is your problem, not theirs. Your auto insurance policy may cover you if you're test-driving a vehicle, and if you get stopped for no license plates, the seller is not on the hook for that.
Checking tire wear patterns in this case is a little tricky. If new ones were just put on, there won't be any wear patterns yet to "read". If one got badly damaged in the crash, most people won't put on just one or two new tires. They'll put on used ones with wear, or remaining tread, close to what is on the other tires. If you don't know that, you might be reading the tire wear of the vehicle those tires came from. What you can do is observe the steering wheel is straight when you're traveling on a straight road, and it doesn't pull to one side when you let go of the steering wheel. On a smooth, flat road, you should be able to go a good quarter mile before you have to correct the direction of steering.
Look for any unusual vibrations in the seat, the mirrors, and in the steering wheel, at various road speeds, and when accelerating moderately around 20 - 40 mph. Air bag, anti-lock brakes, (yellow), parking brake, (red), Check Engine, and other warning lights should light up for a few seconds when you start the engine. If one does not, that system may have been disabled rather than repaired. That's really hard to hide now with those lights being built into the computerized instrument cluster. None of those warning lights should stay on after that few-second "bulb check" sequence.
There's a good chance the side-curtain air bags deployed during the rollover. The driver's and passenger's air bags would not in that type of crash, but for them to work, the entire system has to be working properly. That also includes seat belts with explosive charges to tighten them during a crash. Once those seatbelts are deployed, they can't be repaired or unlocked. They must be replaced. Be sure each one can be pulled out and latched. If one is tight and won't budge even a little, it has deployed. The Air Bag Computer should see that, turn on the yellow warning light, and turn the system off. There will also be a diagnostic fault code that can be read in that computer. During the safety inspection, ask to have those safety-system computers checked for fault codes. The test will show "None" when everything has been repaired properly. Be aware with some models the codes can only be erased with the dealer's scanner, but even though they're in memory, if the warning light turns off six seconds after you start the engine, there are no defects at that time and the system is working and will deploy air bags during another crash. Most of the better aftermarket scanners will read the fault codes in Air Bag and ABS Computers, but not all of them will erase the codes.
You might get a few more ideas from this article:
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/10-questions-and-information-to-ask-before-a-repair-shop-visit
Saturday, May 7th, 2022 AT 5:36 PM
