Buying a car is a responsible step. Those drivers who decide to buy a car second-hand need to be especially careful. Buying a car second-hand in St. Petersburg – not an easy task, because former owners do everything to sell the car for as much as possible. That is why they diligently mask all malfunctions and hide the facts of accidents. Therefore, to avoid problems, our car service has a service complete and detailed diagnostics of the car before purchase.

Before you decide to buy a car, you should make sure that the car is not stolen. To do this, you just need to go to the website of the State Traffic Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and use the service that allows you to find out the status of the car using the VIN code. Using this service you can get reliable information about whether the car is wanted. And also find out about the owner’s rights to alienate it. If the car turns out to be legally clean, then we go to a car service center for diagnostics before purchasing.

Car body diagnostics

Diagnosis should begin with an inspection of the body and interior. A body inspection is carried out to identify chips in the varnish layer, uneven painting, rust and deformation of the sills. An unevenly applied paint coating may be evidence that the car has been in an accident and may have a violation of the body geometry, problems with the engine, braking system, etc.

In order to identify areas with unevenly applied paint coating, use thickness gauge. The buyer can rent this device and take measurements independently or use the help of our specialists.

Professional body diagnostics includes the following:

• more than a hundred measurements of paintwork thickness on external body parts;
• about 90 measurements of the thickness of the paintwork on the structural elements of the body;
• inspection of the body for deformations, corrosion and cracks.

Such diagnostics will allow you to accurately identify traces of restoration and get a complete picture of the condition of the external and power elements of the body.

It is also necessary to inspect the interior of the car, as it can tell a lot about the mileage. Very often, owners of used cars unwind their speedometers. But if the car’s steering wheel is worn down to the ground and the pedal pads are very worn, then there is no doubt that the car has a very high mileage.

Engine and transmission diagnostics

When purchasing a car, it is important to ensure that the gearbox and clutch are in good working order. In a car with a manual transmission, gears must change easily, and it should not jerk when starting the engine. If the car has an automatic transmission, then you will not be able to diagnose it yourself. In this case, you need to take the car to a car service center.

When visually inspecting the engine, you should look for oil leaks. Sometimes sellers hide this point, so they thoroughly clean the engine before the meeting. And if the engine shines with sterile cleanliness, then most likely the owner wants to hide some problems and it is better to entrust it to professionals.

Inspection of suspension and steering

Car suspensions suffer greatly due to bad roads. Therefore, it is very important to properly inspect it, and also drive it first on a flat and then on a bumpy road. When driving a car, you need to listen carefully to the sounds it makes. To avoid missing anything, you should open the window and not turn on the music. It is better to carry out diagnostics at a service station or in places where there are inspection holes.

The following signs will indicate problems with the suspension or steering:

• while driving, the car should not make any knocks or vibrations;
• the steering wheel should return to “zero” when turning and should not pull to the side while driving on a flat road;
• the car should not skid to the sides at high speeds;
• The pads should operate absolutely silently.

Buying a car second hand is a very difficult matter. Therefore, we invite the future owner to come to our WEBER-AUTO service center for a complete inspection of the vehicle to be sure of the correctness of their choice. We will be happy to help you!