Pre-purchase inspection

[Doodlebee]

Hi there!

I had a couple of questions for you all, if you don't mind me picking your brain. I've been gathering information on what to look for before you buy a bus. I found a really great thread here on the forums on pre-purchase inspections, which was super-useful (hat's off to smarter people than me for putting that together!). But I also came across a piece of advice on the skoolie subreddit on the subject, where a person mentioned opening up the doghouse and looking for witness marks on bolts, as well as prybar marks, and I had a clarification question on those points. They noted you should look for them, but didn't say why.

As I understand it, witness marks are put on bolts when they are coming off the factory floor, and it's to note the position of the bolts, so you can see if they've come loose, or been removed and put back. I can't find any information on prybar marks, and why they matter. Can anyone tell me why either of these items would matter if you were looking to purchase a bus? If context helps, the person was answering a question about a bus someone was looking to buy. Said bus is from the 90's, but the milage only states 40K miles on it, and they found that to be questionable and wondered if the seller had messed with something, and this was part of the person's response. Can anyone clarify why these two things might be important, and what, exactly, you're looking for? (or even if the advice is worth paying attention to at all?)

Thanks so much!

 

[o1marc]

Witness marks may just be scratches or damage from tools indicating work has been done with that item. as far as mileage, it was extremely common to have speedo failures during the 90's and many were replaced with new ones without correcting the mileage. A school bus typically sees 10k miles a year. A 1990 typically would now have 300k if still in service. 40k would definitely raise a red flag without proper documentation.

 

[Doodlebee]

Thanks so much!

 

[fo4imtippin]

I don't see what witness marks would tell me about a bus. Either maintenance is done or it isn't. Things go wrong with the engine and sometimes they don't. Unless someone has records showing what was replaced, I'm going to assume most things on a used bus are beyond their life and needs replaced. What I would be unsure of is a used bus from a private party that may have cut corners or improperly torqued/crossthreaded bolts and things. I have seen some jb weld repairs on engines that I don't want in my drivetrain.

 

[o1marc]

And don't look for a bus in Ct, or anywhere near that region of the country.