HELP! How do I research a vehicle history.... VIN lookup sites?

[Bill G]

I am wondering if there is anyone here that has the ability to research a truck's history from the VIN. I know there are sites such as Car Fax but those sites require you to pay a membership fee and I have been burned on such pay sites. I do not have any friends that are dealers that can look it up either. The situation is I have a guy that wants to trade me a 1999 F-150 on some saws. Of course as with all stories it was owned by a older man that only drove it on Sundays.

 

[Agent Smith]

older man that only drove it on Sundays

Just like every vehicle on Facebook, Craigslist, etc has a "refreshly rebuilt engine and or trans" but every bolt head shows zero signs of having been touched since the assembly line. In today's world, receipts or not I just assume whomever im dealing with are lying sacks of shít.

 

[1Snowcat]

Take the vin to a Ford dealership and have the service record pulled in the service department, super easy and wont cost much of course it will only show dealership warranty recalls or service but better than nothing... small shops etc wont show but more than likely it made it thru a dealership if it had issues under warranty etc...

 

[IffykidMn]

Does anyone have a website for serial numbers on saws so that I can see the dealer reports on how many times it has been serviced?

 

[Bill G]

Take the vin to a Ford dealership and have the service record pulled in the service department, super easy and wont cost much of course it will only show dealership warranty recalls or service but better than nothing... small shops etc wont show but more than likely it made it thru a dealership if it had issues under warranty etc...

That is definitely an option but since it is 26 years old I doubt it has been to the dealer much after the warranty ran out. The guy wanting to trade it on saws said it had a small exhaust leak.........yeah bullsheit!! As soon as he said that I knew that meant the Chinese exhaust manifolds were cracked. I texted him Friday morning asking for an explanation. I also called a local guy that has done most of the truck repair for me that i did not want. He said he will not touch manifolds. He told me who to phone and that guy said $1700. The man wanting to trade it admitted last night one manifold was cracked and he was going to replace it today. Well I bet a dollar to a donut he will be unsuccessful. The studs will snap off. The shop I spoke with yesterday said they weld the studs and remove them. The engine is a 4.6 and he said if you try drilling them you stand a helluva chance of hitting a water jacket that is just a small distance away.

 

[Bill G]

I phoned a dealer a bit ago and spoke with a nice young lady. She ran the VIN and said it showed 8 owners but owners 1 through 6 might have been transferring between family members in Wisconsin. She also said it showed an accident in 2012. I asked i you could email that to me but I could tell she was hesitant and I fully understand that. She gave me a lot more info than I had which I sincerely appreciate. She has a 2011 Ranger in there with 43,000 miles I might stop and see next week. I still want to trade on the 1999 if I can make it work.