---
title: 'How To Properly Inspect a Used Car So You Wouldn''t Buy a Lemon'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=PAxh4gqwHbY'
video_id: 'PAxh4gqwHbY'
date: 2026-06-29
duration_sec: 3703
---

# How To Properly Inspect a Used Car So You Wouldn't Buy a Lemon

> Source: [How To Properly Inspect a Used Car So You Wouldn't Buy a Lemon](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PAxh4gqwHbY)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to inspecting a used car, demonstrated on a 2014 Lexus ES 350 with 275,000 miles. The host walks through the entire process, from the initial test drive and on-road checks to a detailed under-hood inspection, fluid tests, scan tool diagnostics, and a thorough undercarriage review. The goal is to teach viewers how to systematically evaluate a used car's condition and avoid buying a lemon.

### Key Points

- **Cold Start Check** [0:58] — Always start the car when it's completely cold to listen for startup issues. Check for smooth idle and any unusual noises.
- **Diagnosing Brake Rotor Warpage** [3:33] — Pulsation in the steering wheel indicates front brake rotor warpage; pulsation in the pedal or seat indicates rear brake rotor warpage.
- **Wheel Bearing Test** [4:22] — Safely swerve the car left and right within your lane. If the noise gets louder and quieter, it's a wheel bearing. If it doesn't change, it may be tire noise.
- **Torque Converter Shudder Test** [6:00] — Drive at a steady speed with light acceleration to let the torque converter engage. If the whole car shakes when the converter locks up, that's a torque converter shudder.
- **Testing Door Locks Multiple Times** [8:28] — Operate them two or three times to check for a weak motor that may stop working after the first operation.
- **Identifying Repainted Panels** [11:27] — A rough edge on the paint, called a tape mark, indicates the panel has been repainted.
- **Quick AC Refrigerant Check** [16:55] — Squeeze a rubber part of an AC line. If it squeezes very easily, the system likely has no refrigerant (freon).
- **Identifying Non-Original Glass** [28:56] — Check the glass for original manufacturer markings (e.g., 'Lexus'). A missing logo suggests the glass was replaced, possibly due to a significant impact.
- **Detecting Code Erasure with a Scan Tool** [34:43] — Check the 'time since DTCs cleared' parameter. If it's only a few miles, the seller may have erased codes to hide a problem.
- **Best Used Car Recommendation** [58:14] — The 2013-2017 Lexus ES 350 is considered one of the best used cars because of its reliability, comfortable interior, and lack of common issues like power steering leaks.

## Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Caron channel.
In today's video, I want to show you how
to inspect a car properly. Whether it's
a used car you're buying, your own car,
you want to give it a proper check over
to make sure it's all in good shape and
everything. And at the same time, this
video will serve as a second purpose.
This particular ES 350 has 275,000
miles. We've never seen this car. I've
never inspected it. This is the first
time we're doing it. So, we're going to
show you how to do used car inspection
and then we're going to actually see
what does this 275,000 mi Lexus actually
need service-wise. Let's get
started. So, every single used car
inspection or car inspection in general
starts with a test drive. Let us test
drive this car. Engine sounds healthy
when it's started. That's something you
want to listen to. This car is
completely cold. That's how you always
ideally would like to get the car. So,
this car is uh barely broken in.
275,000 mi. Barely broken in. Just got
to say something. This ES 350, this
generation, one of the best Lexus ever
made. I mean, this thing is coming up on
300,000 mi. Leather's fine. Everything
else is looks fine. starts like any car
with 15,000 miles sounds wise. So, let's
take it for a drive. Transmission
engages pretty quick. Reverse engages
pretty quick. Camera works. That's the
first things we're going to test. Now,
let's go for a drive and just check the
steering column. Make sure we don't have
any strange noises. We got a bump here.
So, that's the first thing you want to
purposely go over some bumps to see.
Actually, I'm going to go over this
again. Few more bumps to
see. This sounds almost
perfect. The only noise you're hearing
is something rolling around in
here. Let's take it for a drive. We'll
test a few
things and we'll see where things are
at. AC works. I already turned it on.
That works pretty good.
So far so
good. Brakes work. That's
good. So when you take off initially,
we're feeling for transmission
shifts. Two things you're going to
check. how the car tracks. We're going
to get it going at a steady speed and
very safely. We're going to let go of
the steering wheel to see if it tracks
left and right. This one drives
perfectly straight. It is perfect.
That's That's how I'm going to say it.
The next thing is steering wheel. It is
perfect on
center. Almost 300,000 miles on this
car.
The next thing we're going to test is
going to be the brakes. I'm going to
speed up a little bit. We're coming up
on a traffic light here. I'm going to
hit the brakes a little bit harder than
usual. Very little pulsation I feel. So,
here's with pulsation how you can
determine. If you feel the pulsation in
steering wheel, slightly front brakes.
If you feel it in the pedal on the body
of the car, the seats, but not in the
steering wheel, slightly rear brakes.
So, these brakes have a little bit of
pulsation. I feel in the steering wheel.
I feel it in the seat. So, we
potentially have both rotors have a
little bit of warpage, but again, these
rotors are still cold. It's important
that you try this a couple times. So,
safely. I have nobody behind me. I'm
going to break a little
bit. Yeah, I definitely feel it all
over. So, we may have a little bit of
warpage front to back. Not terrible.
We'll test it a little bit more. Here's
the important stuff. I don't hear any
roaring weird noises. And here is what
you do if you do hear a weird roar or
noise.
Safely swerve the car left and right
just like I am doing right now within
your lane. You know, especially in the
United States, we got pretty wide lanes
there. You can swerve safely within your
lane. If you start hearing the noise get
louder and then get quieter, louder then
quieter, you have a wheel
bearing. If doesn't change at all, it
may be something with tire noise. And
I'll show you how we check both when we
get it on a lift. But this particular
car, it is checking every single box.
The only thing I have so far is a very
slight pulsation from the brakes. And
let me tell you one thing. You buy a car
for 275,000 mi and all you need is some
brakes. Yeah, you uh you're doing pretty
good. I'm idling right now. It's pretty
smooth idle. 2G RF will always have a
little bit of a rumble at idle. That is
normal. But it's pretty smooth. I don't
feel any vibrations, anything abnormal.
The next thing we want to do now that
we're at almost a stop, the street is
empty. I'm going to push it. Never go
over the speed limit.
But that is a pretty healthy engine. The
traction control actually came on. These
are your initial impressions because you
have a problem with this engine mass air
flow is
dirty, spark plugs are never been
changed or whatnot. When you push it,
it's going to start hesitating, bucking
and whatnot. This one is perfect. It
almost let the tires up and the
transmission is very healthy. Speed
limit here is 45. You want to drive
right around 40 and just coast very
light acceleration. Let that torque
converter engage. We want to see
shutters. If all of a sudden you you
engage that torque converter and the
whole car starts shaking, as soon as you
accelerate goes away, that's a torque
converter shutter. That's a big problem.
You got to catch it. If you drive it a
little bit faster, you're not going to
notice that. So, you want to drive it
hard to push the engine, see how it
does, and then very soft to see how it
reacts. That's the next thing. The last
thing with this ES is, which I hear it,
the sunroof seal. You can check it
easily. Like right now, I have this
open. I hear all kinds of wind noise.
When I close
it, it gets very quiet. I open it again,
it almost feels like a window is open.
That's how it feels like. The sunroof
seal is worn out. This is very common in
these particular cars, but it could be a
thing with any
car. GPS is tracking properly. I mean,
this car, if this car at this point had
50,000
miles, I'd go with it because it's
checking every single box so far. Here
are a few things we're going to check.
Let's check the wipers. So, Jose, show
them the view of the
wipers. Yeah, that's
uh Yeah, that wiper have seen better
days. And I'm noticing one thing about
these wipers. Do you see how they stick
up? I think they need an alignment. So,
we need to reposition them down cuz
they're way too high up. Yeah, the
brakes are definitely pulsating a little
bit. And then while we're here, let's
operate our sunroof. Check it. Sure it
works. That
works. Let's do the
tilt. That
tilts.
Beautiful. Born.
That works. We already tested our turn
signals. Now, before we pull into the
shop, we're going to do a quick function
test of things. We're going to just come
to a
stop again. This suspension
is Yeah, I wonder if it's been replaced
before. So, right before we pull in the
shop, let's do a quick function
test. Door locks.
They all work. This is something very
important that you do. Don't operate the
door locks once. Operate them two, three
times cuz you could have a weak motor
here and you operate it two, three
times, it just stops. Always operate it
multiple times. Let's check all our
windows. These motors are running now,
not just opening. So, we don't have any
issues with the window motors. We
already tested the sunroof. Let's test
our mirrors real quick. Although rare
for these cars to have mirror issues,
but check the mirrors. I already saw
that the navigation was tracking. It's
tracking correct. We can test the shade
in the back. Shade in the back works. We
can kind of go over all the features.
This is not a bad
idea. The seat coolers work cuz I hear
the fans running. We're not going to
test the seat heaters because it is 77°
outside. We don't want to do that. And
steering wheel heater. You can also test
it, but really when you're testing a
Lexus or Toyota, you could test the
radio, check the CD player if you're
interested in that. But this car is
checking all my boxes. And some of the
safety features you do want to check
things like the blind spot monitor. See,
when I turn it on, it do does a self
test and then it goes off. So far, the
only thing I see with this car, the
brakes slightly pulsate, the wipers are
a little bit off. We can adjust it.
That's very simple. And if you look at
that mirror, see how the edge of it is
broken? Not really something that's
going to affect the operation of the
car. But if I was buying this car, I'd
say, "Hey, this mirror is broken. Should
we can you give me a little bit of a
discount on the price because I got to
replace that?" And maybe just proceed to
not replace it because there's
absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Let's pull it in the shop. Let's start
our proper inspection. Now we we have
familiarized ourselves with the car.
Let's really get the full story of this
car. So
far, the vibes is giving me are very
good vibes.
So, now that we uh did our test drive,
let us take a look. First
thing, this hood has been painted.
First, from its appearance, I see like
stuff in the paint. It's going to be
very hard to show you, but if you look
at this exact spot, if I pass the light
across
it, you will see like a little right
here. If you pass the light across that
part, you will see like an imperfection
in the paint right
here. May be hard to see it on camera,
but there is an imperfection. But the
second way I know that is you pass your
hand around the edges. It's very rough.
That's the the tape mark. That's called
a tape mark. Well, the engine doesn't
look like it's never been cleaned in its
life. It's actually pretty clean. Let's
start the first part of our inspection.
Simple stuff. Let's test the
battery. There's a lot of battery
testers out there. This is just the one
we have laying around. They all do
basically the exact same thing. Let's
see. This battery is a 700 cold cranking
app. It is a interstate battery. We're
going to set it to
700. 12vt battery. Start testing.
Testing in
progress. Almost done. Hey, you look at
that. Look what this
says. Good
recharge. Let's look at the rating. So,
the capacity is 700, measured 644. It's
actually pretty good. All this battery
needs is a quick charge, which indicates
it is actually a healthy battery. Now
that we did that, let's pull the engine
cover. Let's start looking
around. It helps if the car you're
looking at, you've researched some of
their common problems. You know a little
bit about them, what kind of engine they
have, what their common quirks are.
because in this particular engine, a 2G
RF, one of the best engines ever, and
this is a third generation. Let's start
with very basic stuff. Let's take the
oil
cap. This is a third generation engine
now. You know it in this particular
case. You have two slits here. You don't
have an opening, but I can still look
inside. I mean, this thing looks pretty
clean. I don't see a lot of varnish
inside. Don't definitely don't see
sludge. So, that's a good thing. Second
thing we're going to
do, check the oil level real
quick. This car has been sitting
probably while we switch the cameras and
whatnot. Probably been sitting for 10 15
minutes. Oil level just over. So, I'm
going to call that decent oil
level. And we're going to call this
engine from an initial looks pretty
clean. Now, we're going to start looking
around. This is where it helps if you
know the model you're looking at
slightly or at least have researched it.
Obviously, we're not expecting you to
know every little thing about them. For
this particular car, I'm going to start
my initial look around. Do you see
anything out of the ordinary? Looks like
it doesn't belong. We're more interested
in shiny stuff, stuff that was just
replaced. We're looking at something and
it looks like aftermarket modifications.
I don't actually see anything in this
car. See how everything
looks perfectly
original. Then we look at start with the
basic. Start. Here's what I like to do
inspections. Start from one side. Walk
your way around. That way you don't miss
anything. We're going to start right
here. Look down. I don't see any wetness
from here. So, we know what we're
heading into. Going to look underneath
the intake plenum.
I see a tiny nest. Do you see it? Like
if you look right here, Jose, if you
bring the camera, show them. Right.
Right in this area. Yeah. It maybe be
hard to show
you. Right in that area. I see actually
a little potential nest. And the next
thing we're going to look at this
engine, although in the ES350, it's not
super common, but it is somewhat common
for external head gasket leaks. It's
going to be hard to show on camera, but
we're going to look underneath the
intake manifold. Look inside the valley
for signs of
coolant, which I don't see anything from
this side. Just take a quick peek from
this side. I don't see
anything. Nothing. I think we're good on
that. Then we're going to check
our This is called a torque rod. It just
keeps the engine from going side to
side. So, this one, you see how it has
like dry rot a little bit, but it's
actually not
torn. So, this one is good. We're going
to take a quick peek here at the belt.
Do we have cracks? I'll show you a
little picture of a cracked belt how it
looks like. But this
one looks actually perfectly fine. I
don't see any crack down here. I don't
see big signs of coolant from the water
pump leaking, but we look at closer look
at it underneath. Everything looks tidy
and in order.
ABS actuator. There isn't much you can
test with this. Just looking at it, we
don't have any leaks. Doesn't look like
wires have been damaged and whatnot. So,
that looks good. Coolant
hose. This one appears to be original.
Going to give it the squeeze test. Looks
good. Has a proper clamp. I don't think
this has ever been replaced. And then we
look at the radiator. So, coolant level.
Put it right here. You can see it.
Coolant level is actually full. That is
a very good sign.
We're going to look at the radiator top
if we can access it. I don't see any
leaks. That looks good. Then we're going
to start working our way around here.
The easiest way, and this is it's going
to be a little difficult in this
particular car, but the easiest way,
like let's say AC doesn't work, and you
want to find out real quick what's going
on with it. If you find a flex, like a
rubber part of an AC line, squeeze it.
If it squeezes very easy, you'll likely
have no freon. That'll be the easiest
sign to tell. Hey, let's chase after
potentially a leak first before we dive
into everything else. As we walk around
here, I'm going to look for more signs
of leaks around the engine kind of in
the
cavities.
Alternator. To
me, this alternator appears original. It
matches. You kind of look at the
oxidation and aluminum. You match it.
That looks about original. It looks
about the correct original alternator.
So, this may be a very well be an
original alternator. We're going to look
at the other
hose. This hose actually not soft. It's
actually in pretty good shape. Looks
like it is the original. Has the correct
clamps. We're going to look down here.
Do we see any leaks, any issues, any
signs of rodents or damage or whatnot?
This one doesn't show
anything. Now, we get here. Let's look
on again for signs of rodents damage.
We'll test the brake fluid here in a
moment. I don't see anything. Now,
accidents are a little bit of a kind of
quiet skill. You can look down here like
at the
rails. See the rails down there? You
want to look for like weld marks or
hammer marks or whatnot. That's when you
know that that's the structure of the
car. Same thing on this side. I don't
see anything. This looks all straight.
So the reason the hood was painted
potentially was a small hit that was not
structural. Now having said that do
basic stuff. Let's look at the air
filter. This air filter not bad. I don't
think we're going to recommend
replacement. I don't have a nest here.
There's another spot. They don't have
anything abnormal there.
Now we're going to do two tests. One of
them is the brake fluid and then the
coolant. We have this tester that we
have been using. It's really accurate.
It's much better than the electronic
one. Actually, I'm noticing one thing.
The brake fluid is low. See how the max
level is here and the brake fluid is all
the way at the
bottom. That's not cause for alarm. That
could be just the pads are worn down.
So, I'm going to see. We got to remove
this filter so we can access the
fluid. There we
go. Going to take a test
strip on the brake fluid
side. Going to put it in the fluid.
And we're going to let this test strip
sit on the side. We'll come check on it
a little bit later. The same tester test
kit we can use to test coolant. Not as
accurate on coolant. I'll I'll be honest
with that part, but wouldn't hurt. We'll
look at the service history of the car
cuz it'll show you if if the coolant is
horrible. Basically, it won't show you
that it's just regular due for
replacement.
So, going to access it
here and basically put this strip in the
coolant. We're going to leave these two
tests to simmer, if you would, and we'll
come back to them shortly. Now, we're
going to dive into more things. And this
is where I'll make a recommendation. We
are not doing this to this car, but if
you want to, especially if you have a
four-cylinder, it is simple. You can
actually take the plugs and do a
boroscope. Look for scratches, for heavy
wear on the cylinder walls. In this
particular car, we are not doing that
because what's the point in doing the
front? But what we can do is take a look
at one of the plugs. Now, knowing the 2G
RF, they love to break these connectors.
So, I'm actually not going to take the
connector off or we'll be very gentle
with it.
See, it breaks. It breaks. We'll replace
it. There. There we go. We got it. So,
I'm going to take one coil out. The
reason for that is in
Toyotas, they actually
mark the spark plug with a kind of a
dot. This one does not have a dot. I'm
going to pull those worn spark plugs for
us to take a look at
it and take a look at this spark plug.
It's not in the best condition, but it's
not in the worst. This engine burns
pretty clean. See the back of it in
inside? There's no carbon buildup. This
is a very healthy engine. Of course, if
you want to do this accurately, take all
six, look at all six of them, do a
boroscope. But something about Toyota
spark plugs, they'll have a stamp here,
either a number, letter, or weird shape.
If they are factory plugs, meaning the
ones from the factory, but when you
don't see it, this is an original plug,
but it's a replacement. So, I know at
this point, these are not the original
plugs for this car. So, they've been
replaced. We'll go digging through the
service history of this car and we'll
find
out when that happened so we know cuz
this car has over
240,000. So spark plugs on this
particular engine 120,000 miles. So this
should have had two replacements and
we're going to take a look at that. The
next thing I want to check is something
not a big issue but because we'd like to
make
recommendations the throttle
body. You can
simply open the air intake if it's
easily accessible. Look inside this
particular throttle
body. Not dirty at all. Actually, this
is a shadow what you're seeing, but this
throttle body is actually very clean.
So, that is pretty good.
Well, isn't that
something? Everything looks in order so
far. I see nothing. We're going to find
out in the brake fluid and coolant spark
plugs. We got to investigate, but so far
nothing. Let's look at these wipers. So,
something about this car, which I
forgot. I'm getting old. This has a
winter position. It's actually in the
winter position here. So, if you pull
this
arm, that's a summer position. The idea
is you push these wipers up, if you have
snow accumulated here, it won't hit the
wiper. That's the idea. So, we're in
summer. I'm going to engage them.
However, these uh wipers are horrendous.
And I want to show you something ironic
about them. If you come look at them,
I'll put them in the high
position once they want to cooperate.
There we go. Now, look what uh what do
they have on
them? Oh, is that a Toyota logo? So, you
may assume by seeing this these are
original wipers. Let's just put inserts
on them and call it. They're not. The
original wipers of this car say nothing
on them. The imitation horrible sight
lines that Toyota sells say Toyota on
them. These are horrible wipers, folks.
I'm going to recommend wiper blades for
this gentleman because these never work.
And you saw how much noise they make.
They didn't even wipe the windshield,
right? They're just horrendous. And
before we go deeper into this
inspection, let's do our walk around.
Actually, maybe you could do that at the
beginning. Doesn't hurt, right? Just
walk around. See if there's anything
odd. See this bumper? It's popped out.
There. Something happened here. And I
actually see the paint cracked here.
Imagine this hit something and it popped
out, but the bumper is not sitting
right. Not the end of the world, but you
want to when you see signs like that,
investigate it. I can tell you just by
looking at it. This
fender has definitely been painted
before. That paint looks strange. Door
is not. Door is fine. So, we're going to
basically walk around it. Look for any
obvious signs. Do we see anything out of
the ordinary? So far, I see nothing. I
do see a little bit of chip here that is
starting to rust a little bit. If you're
buying this car, you want to touch that
up right away. In the back
here, this has definitely been painted
because I see all kinds of stuff inside
the paint. And then somewhere here is
there it is. It's very hard to see, but
there's a blend line here. This watching
paint looking for small signs takes a
trained eye. So the more cars you see
and the more things you catch, the more
your eye will be trained to catch stuff.
So as we wrap around here, this is a
Lexus. This gap is not correct. So I
know something happened here. This
bumper has been painted. Now let's look
at at the back
here. We look at the edges.
See, this one doesn't have a rough edge
even though this has been painted cuz
someone basically smoothed this edge out
when they were done painting, which is
what you should do. This one, same
thing. We look at obvious signs of
damage. You look at the trunk itself. Do
we see clips missing? Things have fallen
off. I don't see anything out of the
ordinary. Everything looks good. In the
trunk, you want to check for the
presence of the spare tire.
spare tires here. Check the tire
pressure. It wouldn't hurt on that. We
look at these edges. Do we see a
standing
water? I don't see anything. There's a
remnants here of something happened at
some point, but it's dry, so I'm not
worried about
it. So, everything looks in order
here. Let's continue our tour around
it. Lights. Make sure you watch for
lights. These these tail lights can get
pretty bad. Even the headlight. Sure.
None of them are cracked. None of them
has moisture. Let's walk around. Same
thing with these. I don't see anything
obvious in them. Let's walk on this
side. Another thing you may want to
check. Sure. Lug nuts are all there. You
see enough cars with missing lug nuts.
It's not nice. This side of the car,
it's definitely been painted. This
quarter cuz the door and the quarter are
not even the same color. Hard to see it
on camera, but if you look at it,
they're not the same sheen. This is a
factory paint. This is not very obvious.
Like, as soon the best way to check
cars, not with sunlight. You need like
light light like this. Find the light
reflection and then walk around and see
how that reflection changes as you pass
around. Like this area looks horrible.
When you do that, you're not going to be
able to see it on camera. It looks
Continue walking around. Another thing
you potentially want to
check the glass because that usually
tells you how bad was the impact in the
back. See, this one says Lexus. This one
says Lexus. Let's look at the rear
window. This one has a sticker on top of
it, so I won't be able to see it. Maybe
I can see it from the
inside. No, that's your first telltale
sign.
Let me just make sure this window does
not have any markings. Usually they'll
have a
marking somewhere in the corner. Usually
the lower corner. This has
nothing. And this I already looked at it
from the bottom. Look at it one more
time. I don't see a marking on this
glass. Which what does that tell you?
This is not an original glass. So, this
hit in the back might have been pretty
significant going around it. We already
talked about this mirror. See, the thing
about these mirrors, the inner shell is
broken, but this cover only has a scuff
on it. So, you could possibly save this
cover. You could save the glass. It's
not broken, but the shell you'd have to
replace. Not a big issue, but you still
mention it. Now, the front glass is
definitely not original, which I didn't
expect of a car this high mileage. This
is doesn't say Lexus. Says actually,
what was the name of that company?
Pilington. This one says Pilkington.
Good company. They make decent glass,
but it's not original. Likely from rock
chips and whatnot. Then we continue our
walk around. We have few scuffs here.
Bumper is not sitting. Headlights,
they're yellowed, but I don't
see condensation. I don't see cracks in
them and whatnot. So, that's looking
pretty
good. This car is a typical car that has
this many miles. I mean, obviously, it's
been on the road so much, accidents are
bound, but the way it drives and the way
it feels, I don't see bad repairs here.
This bumper was not repaired. That's why
it's sticking out and that. So, the next
thing we want to do is let's give it a
health check. Give it a scan with the
scan tool. See what we find. So, we
connected a scan tool. This is a Toyota
scan tool GTS Plus. We ran a health
check. Watch the This is We're going to
get back to this particular ES 275,000
mi. So, the scan tool will highlight
this particular scan tool. We'll
highlight the areas where we have codes.
So, we have engine, ABS, VSC track, air
conditioning navigation telematics.
These are the systems that have codes.
Let's look at the engine first. The code
is startability malfunction. It is a
history code. Every time you disconnect
the battery and and connect it, this
code will set after so many key cycles
actually go away. That is normal. So
this is not really an issue. ABS low or
high power voltage supply voltage
history. I have a feeling these both
codes set when and the battery died in
this car. They replaced it. Hence why
you have a healthy battery in this car.
And these codes said nobody erased them.
Not a big issue. We're going to leave
them. Then we look at air conditioner
has air outlet damper control servo
motor circuit also
history. I have a feeling this happened
also when the battery was dying. That
servo is trying to move. So history code
not worried. Navigation system we have a
whole bunch of history codes.
Communication not a big issue again.
This could have been when the battery
died. Telematics. This one has a current
code which is replace backup battery.
Folks, let me uh tell you what that
means. This car has an old school
communication system kind of like an
OnStar deal and whatnot. The uh this
system has a battery in case the battery
of the car dies, you can still make an
emergency call. This system doesn't even
work. This operates on 3G network. Well,
we don't have 3G network. So, the only
code this car has for a system that
doesn't even work even if you fix it.
So, there you go.
Otherwise, we have all these other
computers that when you own a car like
this, you'll never know what they do cuz
they never complain. There is zero
active codes in this car. All these
computers, I want you to see them. Look
how many computers this car have. The
grayed out ones, this doesn't have. Look
how many computers it have. I'm going to
scroll through
them. All these computers this car has.
Every single one of these is a
computer. None of them have anything.
Even the ones that do nothing. This scan
to also tells you if there's any
campaign or recall. This has
none. How about that? This car gets a
clean bill of health electronically.
However, we want to check two things.
Right here at the top says the mileage
of the car, and it matches the odometer.
They're actually one mile off. That's
the best part cuz this gets the mileage
from a different source. So, on the
odometer, it says 275 238. Here it says
275
237. Should we recall this old bad car
or actually it has more. Obviously, one
mile is not an issue. But the next thing
we want to check, and this is where you
kind of dig into it a little bit more,
we're going to go to engine and we're
going to look at some of the datal list
parameters. Here's the most important
one. This is where you check. Look at
this
one. Monitors are complete. Because if
this car has a problem that doesn't pop
up right away with a check engine light
and the seller just erased the codes 2
minutes before you showed up to inspect
it, that's how you know. If this says
not complete, they just erase the
codes. That's that's the
problem. Then we go to data list. There
is another thing where you can kind of
dive into it. It depends on the car, but
it'll tell you how many miles or how
many key cycles has it been since the
Czech Angela has been erased. You go
look at a car and it tells you 2 days
since the Czech Angela has been erased.
I'd be alarmed. I'm very curious what
this one will say. It's going to take me
and my old eyes a second to find
that. I'll find it for you guys. because
I'm
curious. There we
go. Time after DTC's cleared. It has
been
13,074 minutes since the last time the
check engine light was cleared and
distance from DCC cleared
6,49 mi. So, this car have had no check
engine light or no codes erased for
6,49 mi. You see that? I think we're
going to call it good cuz in some cars
it'll count when you disconnect the
battery. So, maybe this battery is
6,349 mi old. That's another indication.
But these are simple things you could
check with a scan tool that will kind of
give you indications. There is one last
thing we got to check with this car and
then we'll lift it up and get the real
story of this car. The only thing we
forgot to check was the cabin air
filter. Let's see. Does this need a
replacement? No, it does
not. Not.
Uh I'm going to do this because I have
that. I
think this car has such a So far, this
is an original filter, too. Not the
original filter to the car, but it's a
not an aftermarket filter, for example.
I think I'm going to add this one
because this car is near perfect. So,
I'm going to add that to our list to to
make it perfect. Now that we looked at
everything in the car, let's lift it up
and get the real story.
[Music]
I usually like to lift the car halfway
cuz we're going to do a few checks. I'm
going to hold the wheel, move it side to
side. I don't have any play. Up and
down. I don't have any play. Let's look
at our factory strut. 275,000
mi. Little bit of tearing on this
insulator. I want to replace this truck
just because it but I have no leaks,
nothing. Not heavy rust, corrosion, very
minimal. That's good. While we are here,
I take a quick peek at the brakes. Uh,
this particular caliper is difficult to
see the brakes from here. So, we'll look
at them from the inside. But looking at
the rotor, I don't see heavy heavy
corrosion and all kinds of strange
stuff. This tire, there's a lot of tread
life left. We'll measure it. But the
most important thing we look at beyond
the tread depth, the age of this tire.
Let's look at this age of the
tire. 2424, the 24th week of 2024.
Looking at these tires, I think they're
brand new. Let's measure a very simple
tire measuring tool. Nothing
fancy. This tire is at 1032. We're going
to measure it all the way across. 10 and
10. This is a perfect tire. Move on the
next
one. I don't have any play. Don't have
any play. This strut, although the
insulator is more torn, again, not a
reason to replace a
strut. No leaks whatsoever. No heavy
corrosion, nothing. And I'm pretty sure
these are the original struts to this
car, and they're perfectly fine. Let's
look at the rear brakes. This one, I
want to put it right around 7 mm. We'll
look at the inside pad as well. This
tire is a match
set. Bit noisy these brakes. So, we'll
look at them in the
inside. But this tire also, this one is
3124. This one is even newer. We're
good. All lug nuts are here. Let's walk
around this strut. Perfectly dry. This
insulator is a little bit coming apart.
Not a big issue. No rust. A little bit
of rust at the bottom. Nothing over the
top. This
wheel has no movement. Brakes. The outer
pad about the same thing. This
tire
24 same thing. Let's look at the front
one. No play here. No play here. Brakes,
I can't see them. This insulator, same
thing. Coming apart a little bit.
Original struts, not heavy rust. No
leaks. No play on the
tire. This is very
impressive. Truth have to be said. Let's
lift it up all the way and we'll take a
look.
[Music]
Let's start our inspection. Usually, if
you ever you're buying a car, it's your
car and you're starting an inspection,
always start from the front. We're going
to look here. Anything missing? Anything
out of the ordinary? Everything looks
right as rain here. Let's look at the
engine. We're going to do a just an
initial visual inspection. Do we see all
kinds of wet spots and oil dripping and
whatnot? I actually see nothing. Do
you? I see nothing. But let's dive
deeper because this is where things are
at. Lower tank of the radiator is here.
We're going to take a look at it. Make
sure we don't have any leaks. The bottom
tank. This looks very good. I don't see
any any leaks
whatsoever. Looks very
good. The
transmission. Let's look at the axle
seals. If you look at this one, if we
come around who's show them this way,
this one is barely just starting to
slightly complain. Just a little bit.
See a little bit of wetness. I would not
fix that yet. Wait for it to get bigger,
which maybe years. This side completely
dry. I don't see any leaks around the
transmission. A little bit at the top.
If you come see it, turn it that way.
Yeah, right there. You see that wetness?
This is a common phenomenon with this
transmission. It's the plug at the top.
Nice. 3DS has seepage. This might have
built up over 275,000 mi, so I'm not
concerned by that. This is very minor
seepage. Not a big issue at all. This is
a
2GR. We're going to look at the head
gasket. You can get a good view of it
here. Right in this area. You see any
trails of coolant? I don't see anything.
You see a little bit of wetness right in
that area. I'm going to mark it in the
in the editing. But if we look at the
other side, like if we look through
here, you see a little bit of wetness.
That is a front timing cover leak. Super
common on these. This is one of their
Achilles heels. But, uh, this car has
275,000 mi. I mean, this is very minor.
It hasn't even made its way down here.
So, how I wouldn't fix that, honestly.
It was This was my personal car. I'd
clean that. Keep an eye on it because
looking at the sealer here, see this
sealer? This is the factory sealer. So,
this engine's never been apart. It's
gray in color. The the the repair sealer
would be black. This engine's never been
apart. Never. And that's all it leaked.
Let's look at our CV boots. Start with
our a little bit of our suspension
inspection. This one, original,
completely dry. No issues whatsoever.
The inner
one completely dry. I don't see any
issues with it. Let's check the other
side. This one also original axle. Let
me see. Thought that was a leaf. It's
not. This one is completely fine. How
about the inner one? The inner one will
have a slight wet appearance, but that's
actually from the oil from the front
cover. So, it's not actually leaking. I
don't see anything on it. There's
absolutely nothing wrong with this axle.
When we drove it, didn't feel any
vibrations or anything. Now, this
particular model has electric power
steering, so we're not worried about
leaking rack or leaking lines. We don't
have any of that. Let's check our rest
of our suspension components. These sway
bar links. Best way to check them, hold
them here, go up and down. I feel
nothing. This boot is leaking some of
the grease, but that is not really a
concern
because there's no play. I'm not worried
about it. Same thing with the ball
joint. We already tested it. Has no
play. This one is actually not even
doesn't even have grease around it.
Let's look at this side. This sway bar
link. This one is perfectly fine. Little
bit of grease around it, but nothing to
be alarmed by. Same thing with this ball
joint. Let's look at the control arm
bushing. If you look at it right
here, it's going to have a little bit of
cracking, nothing over the top. If we
look at the top side of it as well,
you'll see similar story, but that is
not cause for alarm. This
side, same thing. Nothing wrong with
that control arm. Just a little few
micro cracks. That's normal. Let's look
at the top side of that.
You can
see that
looks pretty healthy. That's these few
cracks, folks. That's normal. That's not
a big issue at
all.
Exhaust. We worry about exhaust with
rust. This flex pipe, the car was very
quiet. This is all original. Everything
is original here. This front pipe looks
pretty good. This flange starting to get
a little bit rusty. You see it? But it's
not leaking. doesn't have any issues. I
think we're good. Before we move on to
the to the back, I'm going to look at
these
brakes. I'm going to put these brakes
right around 6 mm just by looking at
them. So, this car actually does not
need brakes. That's the best part. 6 mm
here as well. There's a little bit of a
rust ridge. Not a big issue on the rotor
here. That's not a big issue. But these
are original. Not the original, of
course, but this is an original Toyota
pad. So, the previous brake job. Yeah, I
see the Toyota logo there. This whoever
did the the brake job before used the
original parts. That's the best part.
Let's walk around here in the middle
section of a car. In the case of a
front-wheel drive car, you don't really
have much. Want to make sure all our
covers are intact. For example, I saw
something on this car. It's been hit
here. Maybe some road debris from all
the miles it has. This has popped out.
can actually secure it
better. See if I'm able. There we go. It
is missing a clip. I'm going
to do the right thing and spot them with
a clip. It's just a
clip or hurt nobody. Now, this panel is
secure. Stuff like that. We're not
worried about this side. This one is
intact. I don't see anything. Exhaust.
Everything looks great. fuel tank. Not
anticipating much. This particular one
has covered fuel tank straps, so we're
not worried about rust. This one does
have a crack. Something hit it probably
from all the miles that it has. We're
going to come take a look at the rear
here. Same thing. Sway bar links. This
one is solid. This one is solid. Sway
bar bushing. See, it doesn't move at
all. Same thing on this side. Nothing.
All these control arms. We already shook
the wheel. Nothing moves. Inner
pad about the
same exactly the same. There's not
really rust on the rotor in this
one. A little bit of noise. This one
makes more though. Looking at these
rotors and these pads, I think that
noise is the parking brake. Not a big
issue. We look at the rest of the
flanges for the
exhaust. I don't see anything. This
particular car has a level sensor for
the headlights. Level sensor is not
broken. Nothing looks out of the
ordinary. I don't see anything out of
the ordinary here. You notice something?
This
scrape. Something happened here. Either
they backed up and something was high
and it scraped it. Not a big issue.
Flanges look actually even better here
than in the in the front. Do you notice
something? Now, we're going to stop
talking about the used car. We're going
to talk about this particular car. Isn't
it amazing how a car has 275,000 mi?
And I'm going to call this customer and
tell them car needs nothing. The little
stuff that it needs is nothing. You find
this car, you tell me this car has
100,000 miles, I'll believe you
cuz needs nothing. Isn't that something?
Folks, this generation Lexus ES 350 is
hands down the
best and the nicest used car you can
buy. And it doesn't even take premium.
That's the best part. So, now that
you've done your inspection, and here's
where mistakes
happen. You're looking at, for example,
I see this all the time.
You're buying a Toyota Lexus for the
first time. Your previous car was not a
Toyota Lexus or something else that was
not a reliable car, and you're freaking
out about the tiniest things that your
previous car had. That's the biggest
mistake you can do while buying a used
car. Not two cars the same. The ES350
and the GS 350, they're not the same
car, even though they're made by the
same people, very different. That's why
it is vital that before you go look at a
car, research what are their common
problems, what to look for in that
model, what go in the forums, go in the
groups, go on YouTube, go on anywhere,
Facebook, in everywhere, search the car.
What are people saying? Hey, you see a
hundred posts about the same problem.
Well, maybe that's a common problem you
should be checking. Educate yourself
about the model before you go see it.
Because if you had a model with bad
transmissions and leaks and all over the
place, and you come here, you just look
at this. Oh my god, this thing is
perfect. You actually missed the other
one, the other leak up top. Even though
it's not a big leak, but
still, this is the most important thing.
You're thorough with your inspection.
you don't miss things and you look at
everything. Focusing on the common
things. Something common with this car.
I'm just going to go out and say is you
getting scared of it because the thing
will just keep going and going and going
and nothing will go south. Nothing. I
mean, nobody will be upset if these
struts were all worn down and and need
replacement at this mileage, but they
are not. That's the best part. We let
our test here simmer for a while. Let's
look at the brake
fluid. So, here's our tester for the
brake fluid. Copper corrosion level is
at 10. Replace at 200 and 300. 400 is
very critical. So, we don't need brake
fluid. How about the
coolant? First one is boiling point.
This is literally perfect.
And then the corrosion acidity level,
I'd put it right at an eight somewhere
in that level.
But I have a little bit of a concern
with the coolant. Talk about let's look
at the service history of this car. This
is a Carfax service history. We have
access to it. So let's look through it.
Let's read through it. So, the owner of
this car, a little bit of backstory,
owns four ES
350s. We did an inspection on all of
them. This one he just bought not long
ago. Not just bought, but recently
bought. We're going to see that right
here. So, let's start. This car is
delivered in October 17, 2013. This is a
2014 model year. So, they did the pre-
delivery inspection. Great. At 85 mi,
car was washed. 5,000 mi
service. 10,000 mi service. 15,000 mi
service. And they were late to the
15,000 mi service. Also late to the
20,000 mi
service. A little bit more late to the
27 to the 25,000 mi service. And then at
33, they service the car. Brake fluid
flushed. Cabin air filter. Four tires.
Nice. The original tires only lasted
33,000 mi. That's typical. 40,000 mi
service. 45, 50, 60. At 60, we uh four
tires balanced. Four tires mounted. So,
replace the tires again. And this one is
even worse. 70,000 mi service. 75. Here
we replace the
wipers. 80,000 mi. 90,000
mi. This is another 93,000 mi. Brakes
checked for brakes replaced. 98,000 oil
change. So, you notice the oil changes
are
done. I'm pretty sure there's an oil
change between these two. So, 88 and 98.
10,000 mi oil changes on this one. But
they are, let's look at the time. From
August
2016 to January 2017, they drove 10,000
miles. This car was driven a lot. That's
why they can the 10,000 mi oil changes
didn't cause any issues. Then we got to
103. Oil change. Oil change. Here we go.
Four tires replaced again. This time
they started lasting longer. 120,000 mi
service. This is where I presume the
spark plugs were done. Then we go 127.
Oil change. Oil change. Did you notice
that this has a full service history?
150,000 mi service. This is where it
resets. Goes back to 10 to 5 10 whatnot.
Vehicle
serviced. Drive belt replaced.
Everything belt replaced at
155. Oil change. Four tires replaced
again. This car too goes through tires,
I suppose. We keep going. Oil changes,
ignition coil replaced. The first actual
repair was 167,000 miles. It's just an
ignition coil. Hardly a repair. This is
where things got a little interesting.
20,000 mi service at 172. Like we said,
15
resets. Tires balanced. Tires rotated.
30,000 mi service. Then we keep going.
Oil changes front brakes.
oil change, four tires replaced
again, 30,000 mi service, and then
here's the interesting part. We kind of
dropped to the 25,000. This is when a
dealership messes things up. We have a
wheel bearing that was replaced.
217, oil change, oil change, oil
change. One tire replaced, brake,
brakes, actually replaced, not tire,
sorry. Keep going. Oil change. Here we
go. This is where the original owner
actually traded this car in. This was
the last service they did, which at 263
they traded it in. So, they
reconditioned the vehicle. They fixed
some upholstery. And then here's what
the selling leadership did. They did the
air filter, the cab filter. That's why
they're not in terrible shape. Four
tires balanced. That's probably the
tires we have on the car right now. And
tires are rotated. I just don't
understand why they replaced the tires.
And then they rotated them. How about
that? And the wipers, the horrible
wipers were installed and they service
something with the
headlights. And the owner, current
owner, bought a 263, did an oil change
at
270 and did an alignment check. And
that's the end of the service history.
And the next service history entry will
be here. So the last oil change were a
270. So, we're actually going to
recommend an oil change for this
gentleman. Unless I know him. He is a
DIYer type. So, he may have done his own
oil change already. We will inform him
that according to the record, your car
may be due for an oil change. When was
the last oil change? To make sure. Here
are my concerns with the coolant. I
don't see coolant ever being replaced,
per se, part of a service.
Even though the acidity level is not
very high, but that's the whole point.
See, this is one of these fluids where
you don't want the acidity level to be
through the roof to replace it. It's
kind of counter point. So, I'm going to
recommend to him sometime soon, replace
the coolant, do an oil change. The oil
change according to this is due, but
I'll I'll confirm. And transmission
fluid's never been replaced on this car.
At least according to this record. We
have to dig into the official record and
see. I'm going to ask him cuz he's the
owner. You can go to owners.exus.com or
owners.toyota.com. If you are the owner,
you can actually review the service
history. We're going to ask him to
review it. But if this transmission flow
has never been serviced, can leave it
alone. Could cause a lot more harm than
good. Even though this transmission
shifts perfectly, no torque converter
shutter, no issues whatsoever. That's
that's the part here. But I would like
to go back to the second part of this
video. This 2014 Lexus ES 350, it is 11
years old. It has
275,000
miles. Here is everything that it needs.
It needs a cabin air filter, needs a set
of
wipers, and that's about it.
And whenever convenient, do an oil
change and maybe change the coolant.
It's preventative. And if you really
want to take it to the next level, if
the vibration of the brakes bother you,
even though they're not a safety
concern, they're not really heavy
vibration, maybe change the brakes or
ride on them for a while, then change
them.
If you really want to take it to the
absolute next level, you want it
perfect, change the sunroof seal, which
other than the little noise that it
makes, it's absolutely
nothing. And that's the end of
that. Unbelievable, isn't it? If I tell
you this car has 100,000 miles and this
is all it needs, you'd believe me and I
would believe it, too. 275, folks. This
generation ES350. Before we wrap up this
video, 2013 all the way to
2017, easily one of the best Lexus ever
made. Even going back to the tank
ones, even going back to the ones that
were built like a tank, this is one of
the best ones. Flat out the best version
of the 2G RF. The best transmission
version ever. The interior holds up. No
power steering leaks like the previous
generation. This is easily the best
Luxus you can buy in 2025 used. And as
you can see, even ones that have this
kind of mileage, they hardly need
anything. And that's not not something
that is strange to me. The owner of this
car owns this is the fourth ES350 that
he owns. He he owns multiple businesses.
He's always traveling place to place and
he puts a lot of miles and very heavy
use on the cars.
The first ES350 that we've been kind of
switching cars for a while. The first
ES350 he brought me, I believe it was
an09 or or 10 had a lot of leaks, had a
lot of issues and he was like, "You know
what? I am at the verge of selling this
actually." So he actually sold it and
bought this one and another
one. This one, as you can see, needs
almost nothing. The one prior to it had
around 170,000 mi. It needed literally
nothing. Not even a wiper, a filter, a
float, nothing. Full service history.
The one
before has around 180,000 miles. That
one needed brakes all around. That's all
it needed. Nothing
else. These are good cars, folks. But
let's go back to the other subject of
this video. You inspect the
car before you go see it. Research the
car. Understand their common problems.
When you go do the inspection, be
thorough. Check everything. Don't leave
a stone unturned. Check not only
mechanical repairs, check maintenance as
well. Because honestly, I'll be I'll be
some I'll be honest with you, say
something. The lack of transmission
service would worry me a little bit with
this car. But after I drive
it, maybe negotiate the price. Hey, this
guy's high mileage, never had a
transmission service. Can we work on
that price a little bit? cuz if
something happens to this transmission,
you may have to replace it. But you know
what? Looking at the rest of the car, I
would cuz it's definitely worth the
thing drives like a new car. That's the
best part, folks. Take your time with
car inspections. The best thing to do
with a car inspection is to put it up on
the lift if you're buying it from a
dealership. Sometimes you can't do a
pre-purchase inspection, take it from a
dealership. So, put it on a lift and
start checking yourself. Take your time.
It's it's better to be that nuisance
customer at the dealership that wants to
check everything and takes their time.
They're okay. They'll they'll get over
it. But if you buy a bad car because you
didn't look well enough or didn't check
it well enough, you're stuck with that
car forever. That's the problem. So, I
hope this video was helpful. I hope now
you have some more information how to
check a car, what to look for, how to
kind of start your process, and what to
look for. But the biggest thing is
research. Folks, if you like this video,
consider giving a thumbs up. If you're
not a subscriber, consider subscribing
to the channel. Check out some my other
videos. Until the next video, folks, may
the Lord bless you and keep you.