Thursday, June 2, 2011

Ripped off! Man sold me car with mold in it. How do I get it out?

I bought a 1996 toyota camry with 120,000k miles on it for $3200. I had the car 3 months and have already put $700 in maintenance costs into it!.Timing belt, oil change, tranny oil change, belts, tune-up, couple tires etc. The problem is the check engine light just went on and I found out I need a new catallytic converter. It also needs new motor mounts. Then last month I just found out the carpet was moldy in the front passenger side.It was black mold and I cleaned it up.Today I noticed reddish-orange stains on the carpet from where mold used to be? Is that from cleaning product or is that mold coming back again? I had that car check out thoroughly by my mechanic before I bought it. He said everything was good except the timing belt and seals needed to be changed. How could he not know the catylytic converter was bad? How could he not know it needed a tune up? Or bad motor mounts? Maybe the seller didnt know it himself. Cars do break down after 120k. Any suggestions? Should sell it?Ripped off! Man sold me car with mold in it. How do I get it out?
The first thing wrong is you paid $3200 for a 1996 with 120,000 miles on it. You paid to much and must not have checked the car over very well. Let this be a lesson learned and watch what you buy next time. If you watch you can buy a lot more car for a lot less. My friend just showed me his Toyota he bough and only paid $500 for it... was a nice car.

So now you have a choice, sell it (don't expect your money back) junk it or go ahead and repair it. Whatever you do is wrong as you are going to lose.Ripped off! Man sold me car with mold in it. How do I get it out?
keep it .. anything MAJOR comes up ..sell it.. try ebaying it.. the stains are probably from the cleaner or just settle spots from where the mold was.. I'd suggest finding a dealer to ionize your car.. you may want to replace the carpet or any other carpet like surfaces ..check out ebay for cost on carpet or a junkyard that can accomodate on parts ..Ripped off! Man sold me car with mold in it. How do I get it out?
Remember, you only paid $3,500 now! You did not get a new car.. You got a car basically has is! To be honest, you are stuck with it! Unless you can find soneone else to buy it?



Good Luck!Ripped off! Man sold me car with mold in it. How do I get it out?
You got ripped off by your mechanic, not just the seller.



You're going to have to get a complete detailing done on it. They use industrial grade cleaners and it'll kill all the mold. Plus your car will look like new afterwards.



It'll probably cost you $100 - $150 for a complete interior plus exterior detailing.Ripped off! Man sold me car with mold in it. How do I get it out?
Ok so you bought an 11 going on 12 year old car with Average mileage. You cant argue the maintenance costs because they are just that Maintenance and for the Record that is near Book Value for a 1996 Camry you did not get Ripped off. You said the check engine light just went on and now the Catalytic converter has to be replaced meaning the catalytic converter probably JUST failed. There is no way to tell if that part has failed unless you take off the exhaust and inspect the inside (basically Removing and replacing the converter) and no one will do this inspection even as part of a COMPLETE VEHICLE INSPECTION. its like checking the starting system by ripping apart the starter and checking the contacts or the transmission by taking it apart you get it. AS for the orange stains in the passenger side sounds to me like you have a heater core that is leaking and the coolant that is leaking out is old rusted coolant/sludge that is in the core from over the years since you say it is in the passenger side. As for the motor mounts those too could have JUST failed. you had it for 3 months you may just be unlucky that this all has been happening at the same time. What you need to do is have the car checked at a TOYOTA DEALER as they will be the only ones GUARANTEED to know whats going on with the car.



So all in all Fix it dont sell it you have a Camry those are proven to last to 300,000 miles. Your car is fairly old things do break and if it were mine i would fix it and drive it.



Hope this helpsRipped off! Man sold me car with mold in it. How do I get it out?
I agree with Micael G. I bought my 96 Camry with about 160,000 miles on it (now at about 250,000), and yours should go for quite a while longer. One thing I want to add. I recommend you run a Carfax on your VIN number. The stains and mold probably are just a result of a leak in the interior, or maybe a plugged A/C drain, which has been known to cause lots of moisture inside (to put it mildly) but you could also be the victim of a flood car, and that is where the Carfax may help. Even if the title on the car is clean, people have been known to take a salvage car and transfer it back and forth between states until the salvage notation is purposefully or accidentally dropped, and you never know it. Everything else you described is probably normal maintenance for the mileage, and some of it is undetectable, such as the converter. I usually tell my customers that if they will work through the hurdle around this mileage, you will have smooth sailing for a lot more miles.



God Bless!

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