Marketplace listings for broken machines often come with a story. Sometimes the story is true, and sometimes the real problem is worse. For one buyer, a $400 Honda Foreman ATV came with both new tires and a very expensive secret.
The buyer, who posts as @2vintage, opened his video with a confession.
“Well, I probably should have left this machine at the seller’s house.”
The Seller’s Story About This Honda Foreman
The four-wheeler is a 2003 Honda Foreman 450 4×4 with electric shift. He says the listing had run for about nine weeks, most recently at $800. According to the seller, he had just put brand new wheels and tires on it, spending about $800 on those alone.
Then, the seller said, it locked up half a mile into its first ride. It would not restart or move, and the oil had drained out. The buyer offered $400, expecting the worst, and the seller agreed.
Getting it home was a job in itself. The ATV sat stuck in gear, so they had to lift the back end and roll it onto the trailer.
A Missing Fuse, A Kinked Fuel Line And Rust
At first, nothing on the machine had power. However, the cause was simple. The main fuse was missing. With a new 30-amp fuse, the lights and dash came on, showing gear position five.
Even so, the electric shift would only move between third and fifth. Meanwhile, the tires were clearly new, so he says the seller had told the truth about that part. Elsewhere, rust covered the racks, the rear brake would not release and bolts snapped as he removed them.
“this gas line was completely twisted. There’s no way this thing was getting any gas.”
The oil he drained looked fresh and had no metal flakes. Then again, the seller had already drained it once, so that proved little. Next, he removed the shift motor, but its gears looked fine.
Chunks In The Case And A Broken Piston
Under the engine cover, he finally found trouble. Chunks of metal sat in the case, yet the gears and clutch looked undamaged. A camera pushed through the drain hole showed more debris, some with a strange threaded pattern.
So he moved to the top end. The spark plug sat loose, and deep scoring marked the cylinder wall. Once the cylinder came off, the answer was obvious. A large piece of the piston skirt had broken away.
“That thing just got toasted.”
The piston had run so hot that a clip had melted, he says. The broken pieces had fallen into the transmission and jammed the gears, which explains why it would not shift. In his view, it all came from running the engine low on oil. Luckily, the crankshaft still felt tight.
Lessons From A $400 Honda Foreman
Here is what we would keep in mind before buying any non-running ATV:
- Ask exactly how it failed, and listen for words like “locked up” or “no oil.”
- Assume a drained engine was run dry until a teardown proves otherwise.
- Check whether it will roll or shift before you load it.
- Budget for rusted bolts on a machine that sat outside.
- Value the good parts, such as new tires or an original carburetor, in case it becomes a parts machine.
Where Things Stand
For now, the Foreman does not run, shift or make compression. He calls it a horrible buy, though the new wheels, the original carburetor and the ignition box still have value.
“this one was not a good buy. Horrible buy in my end.”
Still, he found a top-end kit for about $95. He has not decided whether to clean out the bottom end and rebuild it or part it out, and he plans to settle that in a follow-up video.
More from Fast Lane Only
