I’m looking at a 2001 GEM. We just want a retirement village ride. It won’t go on the street at all. We have no hills and a 10MPH speed limit. I don’t want a money pit so what should I check for before buying. Thanks.
I just bought a 2002 and these are some of the things I did and wish I’d done:
CHECK:
head lights
brake lights
turn signals
windshield wiper
4 seat belts lock and retract
horn
dashboard turn indicators
dashboard mph/fuel gauge
drives forwards and stops( throttle and brake check )
drives backwards and stops( backup beeper and brake check )
drives forward at full speed and dash gauge shows MPH
drives forward and while accelerating makes no noise but an electric whine
drives forward and when it hits top speed( ~25 MPH ) there isn’t a rattle in the front
If there is, it could be just the $10 rubber bumper inside the motor splined end but motor
Motor would have to be removed to install it along with the batteries in the front. 2-3 hour job on first time.
Look under the car at the lower parts of each brake and look for wetness which would indicate brake cylinder leaking.
Grab the top of each tire and oscillate about 1 second between a hard push and a hard pull and try to feel any clunks which would indicate wheel bearing looseness.
Batteries:
have them show a reciept of when the batteries were purchased and installed.
check each battery after a full charge( ~1 hour later ) for at least 12.6V and they should all be within .+/-0.1V .
Check cable connections to batteries are without corrosion
After a few minutes of driving at full speed, immediately check each battery connection for heating. Then immediately feel each cable between batteries for heating. You should feel no heating. Def NOT hot.
What did I miss?
Thank you, this a good list to print out and take with me.