Bought this for $5.00. Figured at the worst it was a candidate for a gookit and a painted base. It looks like It's had just about everything wrong done to it that you can do to a lava lamp.
It's a China made one with a whole bunch of Goo stuck at the top along with the coil. I'm thinking of using an embossing gun around the top's sides and see if that helps any. Not sure what else to do. It's on now and running. I don't think this will correct itself just by being on.
Well you can't go wrong for buying a lamp for $5, working or not. Do you have pictures? there could be a possibility that the lamp could fix itself with regular runs but I have to see how bad the lamp is first.