How to Inspect the Engine and Gearbox When Buying a Second-Hand Car?

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Used cars always come with one or the other issues. By frequency of occurrence, the top ones are engine overheating, transmission failure, severe wear and tear at brakes and suspension. In addition there can be electrical failure and some rust and corrosion on the metallic body. While buying a used car the buyer must check the engine, gearbox, chassis and other parts of the car. They need two step verification. One verification is on the record. The other is an inspection with a trusted car mechanic/ technician. For the checking of the record, the best option is the CarCheck report of Autohealth. The CarCheck report gives a holistic vehicle history report. In other words, the report can work as a check list for the physical checkup by the mechanic/ technician.

The Common Problem of Used Cars

The problems that are found in general in used cars in India are the followings:

Engine Problems: - Blue or white smoking exhaust, oil leaks from worn out seals or gaskets, overheating due to faulty cooling system.

Transmission Issues: - These are found in slipping gears or rough shifting of gears or hesitation.

Brake Deterioration:- The brake shoes in used cars are often worn off. Often the result is reduced stopping power, grinding and squeaking. Often the remedy lies in replacing the rotor or brake pad.

Suspension and Steering Issues:- The problems can be found in clunking noises, worn shocks/ struts, poor alignment and steering issues.

Electrical issues:- The most common electrical problem lies in the battery. Also, there are issues in sensors, faulty infotainment system and/ or broken power window.

Rust and Corrosion:- Due to previous accidents or other damages which remain overlooked and often found under the chassis covered with new paint.

The CarCheck Report of AutoHealth gives the total number of accidents of the car. Also, the maintenance history and the details of the last ten maintenance showed which maintenance was routine and which one was due to an accident. The maintenance details due to accidents gives the damages due to accidents. From the problems of used cars under inspection, the buyer can distinguish between the damages that have been on record like CarCheck Vehicle History Report from the ones that remained under the radar.

What to Check in Engine Compartment?

A test drive of a car under inspection gives ideas about troubled parts in a car. The indicators are:

Dashboard Lights: If Check Engine or any other lights on dashboard indicate that the car engine has one or the other problems.

Car Engine Sound: While driving if clicking or clanking sounds come from the engine then those sounds point towards possibilities of oil leak and coolant leakage inside the engine compartment. These problems often are also indicated by overheating of the car.

Inspection of a car engine box can be conducted by a trusted mechanic or technician after the test drive, based on the observations during the test drive and based on the car history report. The points of observations are the signs for required car engine repair, which can be on record or not, and also the signs of other car engine conditions. Steps of inspection are, but not limited to, the followings:

Visual Inspection: It seeks the followings -

• Signs of oil leak
• Signs of coolant (Green/ blue/ Orange/ Red/ Pink) liquid leakage
• Wetness in the engine block.

Oil Check: It looks out for the following conditions:

• If the oil in the oil chamber seems unclear or milky or thick. Thick/ milky oil (sludge) is not ideal for a healthy engine.
• If the oil filler cap has foamy white residue which indicates a bad head gasket.

Fluid Check: There are possibilities of low quantity of coolant in the coolant chamber and mixing of fluids (Oil and coolant). The mixing of coolant and oil is harmful for the engine.

Exhaust Smoke: This needs to be checked while the ignition of the car is on. A lot can be deduced from the color of the smoke:

• Blue Smoke is the sign of burning oil or engine wear.
• White Smoke indicates leakage of coolant or condensation of the coolant liquid.

Hoses and Belt: Mushy or Brittle hoses are problematic. Belts can have cracks or can be fraying.

What to Check in in Car Gear Box?

An inspection of the gear box starts from a test drive with the feel of the shifting of gear lever between different transmission points/ conditions like backing, parking, driving or neutral.

Gearbox Condition: Often transmission of gears from one control point to another is felt rough. Sometimes the shifting of gear is slippery. Sometimes hesitation is also felt while shifting gears from one control condition to the other.

An Inspection by a mechanic/ technician can reveal both recorded and undocumented faults in the gearbox of the car. The check included but are not limited to the followings:

Fluid Check: The color of the fluid in a car with automatic transmission should be red or pink. The investigation must determine that the color of the fluid is not brown and/or with the smell of burnt.

The car owners can maintain gearbox in good condition if they maintain gearbox health conditions.

Gearbox Health Monitoring

Gearbox Condition Monitoring System (CMS) uses sensors to monitor the condition of the situation of the gear in a car. This is used for providing predictive maintenance solutions. The sensors document vibrations. Also, they look for oil debris and temperature. With this data, collected 24X7, CMS reduces unplanned downtime because it detects faults including misalignment, bearing wear, tooth cracking and prevents catastrophic failures.

The technologies and methods used in CMS are as follows:

Vibration Analysis: This helps identifying abnormalities in gear mesh, bearing defects and imbalances using the accelerometer of the car.

Oil Analysis: By this method the health of the gear component is measured by detection of wear particles and contaminants in lubricant.

Acoustic Emission Testing: This method identifies the early stage cracks in the gear teeth by capturing high-frequency waves.

Thermal Monitoring: Using sensors, this method tracks temperature changes that indicate overheating, friction and poor lubrication.

A CMS contains following components -

Sensors: it include but are not limited to accelerometer, temperature sensor, and oil sensor.

Data Acquisition System (DAQ): These are hardware that gathers, converts and transmits signals from sensors.

Processing Unit: This is the software component. It analyzes data using techniques called Fast Fourier Transform (FST) or Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) for identifying patterns. This is where Artificial Intelligence comes handy in managing the health of a gearbox.

FAQ

How Car History Report Helps in Inspection of Car Engine and Gearbox?

If you find vehicle history with the CarChek feature of AutoHealth then you can use that car history report as a checklist of inspection. The car history report contains the details of the last ten maintenance of the car. If the car engine and gearbox have any problem can be found from these details.

What is a Gearbox Condition Monitoring System?

This is the same as Gearbox Health Monitoring with CMS.