Ever had a engine or Transmission failure?

[tvaughn]

My first car, a 1994 Camaro Z28, blew the 4L60E at around 80-90k miles. To be fair, I was in high school and driving the hell out of it.

Our 2004 BMW 330i ZHP blew the 5-spd automatic GM transmission at around 60k miles. Also, to be fair, I was young and driving it hard, even though it was my mother's car. Thank goodness for the CPO warranty.

2018 Shelby GT350 I had to lemon law, the Voo Doo 5.2 blew up twice, and even the manual transmission failed! Such a fun car with so many little issues, A/C, rear wheel bearing, trim alignment, etc.

That's with owning 23 cars, the 330i not included.

 

[vavavroom]

I haven't destroyed engines or transmissions but I have ripped off a door or three.

 

[CharBaby]

Yes!
A complete failure in a Torqueflite 727 3 speed auto in my '73 Newport Custom. And the 2nd one was giving my issues before I dumped the car. And shift flaring in my '04 Nissan Altima 2.5S 4 speed auto but no failure.
'93 Dodge Ram that was co-owned my me & a buddy went through the OE and 2 more by 115K.
All trannys above were well maintained and were also known for having issues regardless.

I've never had engine failures however, back in the carburetor days, I've had plenty of carb/fuel system issues that would make one feel as though there were engine problems.

 

[ZZman]

I just got rid of a 2020 F-150 -due to a transmission design defect or two was starting to show signs of failure.
Does that count?

Almost....

 

[Snagglefoot]

I lost reverse in a 93 Chev Suburban, with 150,000 miles and sold it to a mechanic. I had a 1989 Ford Taurus 3.5 liter with 150,000 miles that had the front timing cover let go of its coolant and sent it to the wreckers. I had a 2000 Taurus that I removed my stuff from because it was going to go the wrecker if the mechanic couldn’t fix the poorly shifting transmission. It got a Hail Mary fix of the speed sensor and went on several more years before it went to the wrecker due to frame rust and finally a broken front spring. It didn’t let me down as the spring broke in the driveway instead of on the highway.

 

[John105]

In the olden days. I answered an ad and bought a Volvo 264. This old guy (probably late 30's) completely ripped me off. Car had head gasket issues, front struts were collapsed, and transmission failed. The radiator was full of Bar's stop leak.

I took him to small claims court, and LOST. He was a smart old fella, he had written, "as is" on the bill of sale. For me, it was good imho to learn so many lessons at an early age (19-22). At any rate, a salvage yard put in a B27F with trans and I drove the car from 1990-1998, which isn't bad really for a 11 y.o. car that became 19 under my ownership. Gave it to my bro and he destroyed it.

Back then, I seemed to like small claims court. I took a landlord there and won. I remember interjecting drama like I was in a movie and I rather enjoyed it. Slumlord knew the system and didn't pay. Funny thing, is I knew he worked at a shoe repair shop, and filed an income execution. He decided to pay when Five O showed up to serve it.

 

[MoneyJohn]

2006 Sentra 1.8S torque converter threw a code (P0744) out of nowhere. Transmission fluid was regularly changed. The mechanic wasn't inclined on spending money trying to figure out or replace it.
I really wanted to find out what caused it because I took it to work in the afternoon, it was fine. At night, when leaving, it started jerking/jumping when starting from stop. It worsened over a couple of days.

 

[bbhero]

Yeah my engine in my ol 1995 Nissan with 242k miles on it decided to break in the Wendy’s drive thru …. Of all blanking places… timing chain broke.

And my transmission went out on my Nissan Altima VQ with over 365,500 miles on it. Not too shabby being a cvt in it. I had put 326,000 miles on that car myself.

Miss that car…

 

[supton]

I took him to small claims court, and LOST. He was a smart old fella, he had written, "as is" on the bill of sale.

FWIW, on the youtube channel Lehto law, he points out that unless you state that there is a warranty, or something foolish like “you won’t have any problems“, then no warranty should be assumed. No need to state “as is”.

I still plan to use that though. Make it explicit.

 

[Propflux01]

1973 Super Beetle. Dropped #3 Exhaust valve at 65MPH. Rod ended up busting a hole in the case about the size of a quarter. "She's dead, Jim".

 

[supton]

Let’s see. My 2004 VW lost a flywheel at 249k, but it was making noise, so replaced before catastrophe. It later popped a a turbo at 255k and that required a tow. But it ran fine after fixing.

Our CRV is busy munching on a camshaft. Hoping to fix that, but its still a failure.

Usually trade out of cars before they have problems.

 

[Dave P.]

2008 Saturn Outlook - Tranny wave plate failure at 30,000 miles. Fixed under warranty. Rod bearing failure at slightly over 100,000 miles.
Car was nothing but trouble from the moment we bought it so we sold it to Peddle.com and opened up a bottle of wine to celebrate its departure.

 

[John105]

FWIW, on the youtube channel Lehto law, he points out that unless you state that there is a warranty, or something foolish like “you won’t have any problems“, then no warranty should be assumed. No need to state “as is”.

I still plan to use that though. Make it explicit.

In my case the guy said he owned it since new (no way but back then hard to verify) and no problems. I get that lying isn’t against the law and it’s caveat emptor. That’s why I say it was a valuable lesson at 20.

 

[John105]

Let’s see. My 2004 VW lost a flywheel at 249k, but it was making noise, so replaced before catastrophe. It later popped a a turbo at 255k and that required a tow. But it ran fine after fixing.

Our CRV is busy munching on a camshaft. Hoping to fix that, but its still a failure.

Usually trade out of cars before they have problems.

Wife’s cousin’s 2006 cr-v had an annoying whine in 2016.

Japanese indie said needs a trans if you want the noise gone, but they don’t recommend it. It will cost at least mid $2’s, and they would need to find one with < 60k or they wouldn’t install it. It could fail tomorrow or 10 years from now. Now was 2016 and the car now has 280k. Often if it ain’t broke don’t fix it is the best course to take.

 

[zzyzzx]

If you keep any vehicle long enough, it will happen.

 

[supton]

Wife’s cousin’s 2006 cr-v had an annoying whine in 2016.

Japanese indie said needs a trans if you want the noise gone, but they don’t recommend it. It will cost at least mid $2’s, and they would need to find one with < 60k or they wouldn’t install it. It could fail tomorrow or 10 years from now. Now was 2016 and the car now has 280k. Often if it ain’t broke don’t fix it is the best course to take.

Problem is, it's shedding large metal flakes, as found in the oil filter. New cam is $700, then a couple hundred in followers? Hoping that I can find used instead.

Now that the weather is warming up I might tackle it, as it's getting daily usage (and a few hundred miles per week). Problem is, if I break anything, I can't have it down for more than a couple of days. So I've been reluctant to dig in--and the garage I use won't touch it.

 

[vpr5703]

We often talk about the importance of quality fluids for our vehicles. However we often hear little to nothing about failures that may have occurred due to the fluids.

My question is basically have you ever had an engine or transmission fail and what caused it.

In over 4 decades of driving and dozens of newer and used vehicles I have never had a transmission fail. I did however have an engine failure on an old Ford Festiva. Something in the valvetrain broke and made horrendous noise. Not sure of the cause because I junked it with about 150,000 miles. I also had an Olds Delta 88 with the 3800 motor hydrolock a cylinder due to intake gasket failure and threw a rod thru the block. I guess that isn't too bad of a record.

How about you?

Transmission, yes. 2011 Ford Fusion w/ the Gen 1 6F35 GM-Ford 6 Speed automatic. Well known for having failures in the valve body bores causing delayed 1-2 / 2-3 shifts or delays going into reverse. In my case it was 1-2 and R.

Issue finally bit me at 300k miles, and I got another 24 thousand out of it before I decided to junk it. I didn't have the tools to fix it because the transmission pan was behind a structural support member, requiring the front subframe to be partially dropped. The last time I shifted the trans into reverse it took 20 seconds to go into gear.

 

[SupremePossum]

Transmission failed on my old 2012 Ford Focus, but that was because the transmission was utter trash

 

[RaymondP]

Mostly had manual transmissions. Several have had clutches fail at projected or longer replacement miles, if that counts. Other than that, lost second gear on a Porsche Boxster S. Still missing it....a great convertible. Did change the trans fluid but made no difference. Old fluid was clean and clear.

 

[road_rascal]

1990 Dodge Spirit with the A604 'Ultradrive' transmission. 3 rebuilds under the 7/70 warranty and a 4th 14,000 miles later (car had about 86,000 then). I ended up taking Chrysler to small claims court since they didn't cover the 4th rebuild (I won).

1998 Ford Windstar 3.8L. Had it at the dealer for warranty work (luckily I purchased a Ford extended warranty) for a timing case cover, water pump and something else. 2 days later (Christmas Eve morning) and 75 miles later the engine locked up on the freeway. I managed to limp it (started after 10 minutes) to a Ford dealer 2 miles down the road who was just about to close for the holidays. It ended up being Ford's fault since the lower main bearings were taken out due to coolant in the oil. Ford had it for 2 weeks replacing the engine (came to like $7500 which was covered). We dumped it about a month later for a 2001 Windstar which was pretty much trouble free for the 155,000 miles we had it before it was sold.