I need a CarFax favor

[turbojames]

I've been out of the Jeep game for 4-5 years now and have had 2 ZJ's and an XJ. I'm looking at a 2001 XJ and am sensing there was either flood damage or an accident on the vehicle Does anyone have access to CarFax?

The VIN is: 1J4FF58S91L517805

Thank You for any help or dirt you can dig up!

James Combs
Happy Jeeping

[sixer]

Hello:
just did a quick search and carfax lists 45 items for this vehicle, but without paying the fee I can not tell exactly what the issues are. Good luck

[turbojames]

I was trying to avoid the fee.

Is 45 items a lot for a vehicle?

[CherBear]

I was trying to avoid the fee.

Is 45 items a lot for a vehicle?

Well probably, I think items include damage reports, bills of sale, theft reports, rebuilds. Things of that nature.

[90 waggy]

vehicle started life as a rental, lease or fleet vehicle in woburn, MA and lived there for 6 years till it went down to jacksonville FL where on 12/18/09 it was in an accident where the front passenger side was damaged but no frame or unibody damage and it looks like it has low mileage....o ya it was a 4 owner car too

[IslanderOffRoad]

Don't waste your time. Carfax is useless, get a mechanic to look it over instead.

[heyhar]

I had a rather nasty accident with my '92, rear-ended a Bronco II. All sheet metal damage, above the frame rails, suspension not touched, as I slid under his bumper. If there had been any insurance claims, the vehicle surely would have been totaled. But, I did the repair work on it, and there's no Carfax incident to show for it. The recalls show up, but not what could be the biggest problem of all.

[IndyXJ]

The meager $30 fee for a potential vehicle costing thousands is worth it. Yeah yeah, may not get everything, but you get a decent background on it, including police reports and what was damaged. Regardless, if you are really serious about it, drop the dime.

[MT Mike]

I'll give you the full carfax report for free!

Right after you pay for your club membership.

:D

[90 waggy]

my in laws bought a 04 grand cherokee that had ALOT of salt water damage from being in a hurricanein florida. ive spent countless hours cleaning and renewing connections. it woulda been worth the 30 bucks to check first. i checked it the other night and low and behold it was a storm car....woulda been good to know. :greensmok

[IslanderOffRoad]

my in laws bought a 04 grand cherokee that had ALOT of salt water damage from being in a hurricanein florida. ive spent countless hours cleaning and renewing connections. it woulda been worth the 30 bucks to check first. i checked it the other night and low and behold it was a storm car....woulda been good to know. :greensmok

But you're making the assumption that anything that happened will be there.

I bought an 03 Mustang from a Ford Dealer back in 04. Carfax was clean, car had 6k on it.

When I went to trade it in on a different car in 05, the Carfax came back saying it had been involved in an accident that resulted in frame damage with 600 miles on the car.

Apparently Carfax will add things whenever they can get their hands on the record.

The result: I lost a huge amount of trade in value (to the point where I was upside-down on the car) thanks to a "protective" service that failed me. When I contacted Carfax it was "sorry" since its not a salvage title or flood car its not covered by our guarantee.

So spend that $30 or whatever on an inspection from a mechanic instead; they should be able to realize that it's a flood car too.

Carfax will never get another dime of my money.

[kastein]

I don't bother with carfax, looking at the vehicle with a critical eye will find more issues. Every single problem I have had so far with my MJ, along with the problems the previous owner had, was something I expected after I did the initial pre-purchase inspection for him.

My dad ran carfax (he had a 30 day account at the time) on my XJ before I bought it, it turned up a few silly little things but did not warn me about the massive rust problem it had, nor the radiator that went out three weeks after I bought it (fortunately did not overheat and only cost me 160 bucks), nor the brake lines that were so dangerously rusted that one exploded and cost me a thousand dollars in tools and materials to repair.

I should note that I never put in an insurance claim on the accident caused by that brake line (why bother? single vehicle collision with non moving object, I would be at fault, premiums would go up and they wouldn't cover it because I had limited collision coverage), and repaired it using body panels I got at the junkyard with matched factory paint on them, so carfax would be silent on the issue if I tried to sell it to someone... and I doubt anyone would notice unless they looked behind the front bumper or up into the fender on the front right corner. I did a fairly good job straightening everything out.

[xcm]

wait, you're trying to use carfax to predict when radiators go bad? thats not what it's for, nor has ANYTHING to do with carfax =\

[kastein]

No... just sayin', it didn't tell me. I never expected it to, hell, I even checked it when I looked at the car before buying it, except I was looking at the A/C condenser*. That was part of my example of how you can learn more about what's wrong with a car by looking at it carefully then you can by paying carfax.

* Yeah, not making that mistake again :dunce:

[xcm]

most casual jeepers cant pinpoint microfractures in a radiator either though.

if i was you guys, i'd come to cali to pickup any new jeep, this rust thing you guys talk about is utter bs!

[kastein]

yeah, that's quite true... mine was easy to pinpoint however, I pulled it out and 3/4 of the fins fell right out of it while I was wrestling it out of the frame :roflmao: it was pretty much toast.

If I ever buy another jeep (who am I kidding, when I buy another jeep) I'm gonna try for the southwest or maybe southeast, you guys do have it lucky. I need to take some pics of my floors and give you suckers nightmares.

[xcm]

we've seen rust before, but its on absolute junk cars, think 1960's, been sitting near the beach sinse the 70's.

what really shocks me, is when you see a newer car, thats just gone!
ive been doing work at my boss's house, and he lives accross the street from beach sand. every screw head is toast, lock cylenders/glass door hardware last a year.... i never want to live near salted roads, nor right on the beach! i dread the day he asks me to wrench on his wrangler, the bottom half is entirely brown! and that aint dirt!

[joe_peters]

we've seen rust before, but its on absolute junk cars, think 1960's, been sitting near the beach sinse the 70's.

what really shocks me, is when you see a newer car, thats just gone!
ive been doing work at my boss's house, and he lives accross the street from beach sand. every screw head is toast, lock cylenders/glass door hardware last a year.... i never want to live near salted roads, nor right on the beach! i dread the day he asks me to wrench on his wrangler, the bottom half is entirely brown! and that aint dirt!

XCM, who you trying to fool? That ain't rust, its just LA "ground smog"! :D

[RadioShackSpecial]

Did you ever get the Car Fax?

I work for a company that does total loss work for all the major Insurance companies and can run it through Experian, better then a car fax.

[90 waggy]

i gave him the experian report and that was all that was on it...nothing serious in its past but a fender bender in florida but it lived in mass for awhile so check the rust prone spots and have fun with it