Ever had a engine or Transmission failure?

[demarpaint]

Actually we did have an engine blow up, a 50 HP Evinrude. We hit a submerged contractor grade garbage bag, it wrapped around the prop and sent a connecting rod through the block. My brother was able to weld the block, [the damage was low on the block] and rebuild the engine. It ran for years after that and he sold it along with the boat. We would occasionally see the boat for a few years after selling it.

 

[CBR.worm]

Yes, I've been through a few of each. All of these had lots of highway & mountain miles and were dealer maintained while under warranty.

'84 Toyota LE Van, OEM transmission stopped shifting at ~80K - traded in after Mr. Transmision rebuild that never worked properly.

'87 Ford Aerostar, 1st transmission under warranty ~30K miles, 2nd at AAMCO ~70K, 3rd @AAMCO ~140, failed at 190K and scrapped.
Head gasket at ~60K

'91 Aerostar, 1st transmission @ ~ 80K miles, otherwise pretty reliable. Engine let go at ~190K scrapped.

'95 Chevy 1500 conversion van, multiple transmissions under warranty, after warranty an indie put in a heavier duty equivalent, never broke again. Given to a friend with ~250K

'04 Audi A4, first CVT ~13K, 2nd CVT ~43K, lots of other issues, traded at 67K.

Since then, we have had multiple vehicles that have gone over 200K w/o engine or transmission issues.

 

[350Rocket]

Yes, I've been through a few of each. All of these had lots of highway & mountain miles and were dealer maintained while under warranty.

'84 Toyota LE Van, OEM transmission stopped shifting at ~80K - traded in after Mr. Transmision rebuild that never worked properly.

'87 Ford Aerostar, 1st transmission under warranty ~30K miles, 2nd at AAMCO ~70K, 3rd @AAMCO ~140, failed at 190K and scrapped.
Head gasket at ~60K

'91 Aerostar, 1st transmission @ ~ 80K miles, otherwise pretty reliable. Engine let go at ~190K scrapped.

'95 Chevy 1500 conversion van, multiple transmissions under warranty, after warranty an indie put in a heavier duty equivalent, never broke again. Given to a friend with ~250K

'04 Audi A4, first CVT ~13K, 2nd CVT ~43K, lots of other issues, traded at 67K.

Since then, we have had multiple vehicles that have gone over 200K w/o engine or transmission issues.

Were you one of those guys who's always changing throttle position while driving for no reason? Or just bad luck? My father in law is in his mid 60s and he's one of those guys, terrible driver even though he thinks he's the best.
No offense, I've just rode with a lot of people who seem like they aren't really paying attention to their driving.

 

[RazorsEdge]

95 Ford Explorer with 200,000 miles had a transmission that was in need of repair ( because of a design flaw ) but didn't get it replaced since the power steering rack was going out as well. It's an absolutely poor excuse of a vehicle from Ford imo.

No other issues with any other vehicles ever.

 

[Malo83]

700R4 tranny in my 83 Silverado started making noise back in 85, took into a local AAMCO and $1200. later drove out with a new lifetime warranty tranny, runs great, only have to take it in for a yearly inspection to keep the warranty valid.

 

[PandaBear]

Head warp related blown head gasket, cooling system related and not oil related.

 

[tig1]

Yes. A 66 Chevy 6 cyl broke a ring on #1 cyl and replaced the short block at 70K miles. Also a 77 Chevy 305 trans (the metric 2 speed) as it started slipping at about 8K on the car. As it was still under warranty a local Chevy dealer rebuilt the trans.

 

[Torrid]

I lost the engine in my 1991 Camaro when I was 17. I don't recall the oil pressure gauge dropping to 0 nor do I know if it got ran low on oil. It was early in my car enthusiast days of actually understanding maintenance so I don't remember enough of the situation to understand what happened to it. I don't recall ever checking the oil level on it, but I remember always taking it to my cousin's shop for oil changes every 3k miles. They built race cars for drag racing in their spare time but ran a repair shop in town, so they helped me build a new engine and put in the car when it happened. All I remember about the situation was that they said it spun a bearing and there was visible damage on the inside of the block.

 

[bullwinkle]

Don’t know if I consider this an actual failure so to speak or just a manufacturing defect but our 2001 Jeep Cherokee has a bad engine and overheats and shoots all the coolant out the reservoir when you turn it off. Multiple mechanics including myself replaced the head gasket multiple times, replaced the head still does it. Guy who specializes in them believes the block was flawed from the factory. He said he believes it was flawed because in 2001 the workers found out they were all losing their jobs so they used whatever subpar parts they had laying around and he believes we got one of the bad blocks. The Jeep has sat for 10 years now and no one has had success so we have to replace the engine if my dad ever gets the money for it.

Bet you have a cracked or porous block, possibly even opening up a crack when the engine heats up. Does a combustion test of the coolant show any combustion residue? The newer heads are known to have issues, as are the piston skirts-but as rust prone as the XJs are, an engine shouldn’t be too hard to find. Has to be a newer one without a distributor (as I’m sure you know).

 

[bullwinkle]

I’ve only ever killed one engine-my $25 ‘72 Pinto 2.0, I ran it out of oil like an idiot. Transmissions are a different story-I seem to have a knack for finding any and all weaknesses… E4ODs, 4L80s, one A904, one A604, a Powerglide, Turbo 350…

 

[meep]

Ground a 2 speed powerglide to a halt. It had an aamco lifetime warranty and we took it back every year for its annual inspection. It took them 3 years to give the car back to us after that. 1957 Chevy, around 1990. That was a mess.

Had to rebuild the 283 in it before that - oil fouling was so bad it became hard to start even though it had decent, though very inconsistent, compression. No hard failure - it simply wore out - had to bore it out .040. The rebuild wasn’t that good, part of which was the machine shops fault, and part of that was my inexperience in reassembly. (Machine shop cracked the block at the main pressurized journal out of the oil pump - it forever leaked 1 quart every 2 hours).

Came close to losing a 4AT in a gen IV Chrysler minivan. It was barely held together when we traded it. Already had a new solenoid pack, but it began locking the axle whenever it downshifted from 4th, and it took a magic blend of lubegaurd and transfix to barely avoid that stunt. It was violent and mostly we drove it without OD. We are talking, BANG, all the gauges and lights and power steeering would go out for a second, not to mention the sensation of well, locking the front axle at 40.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

My 2001 Subaru RS with the EJ251 spun a rod bearing at 114k miles. It lived on name-brand 5w30 synthetic oil after break in, but it had 5w40 T6 in it when it ate itself. Take that info however you'd like.

 

[CBR.worm]

Were you one of those guys who's always changing throttle position while driving for no reason? Or just bad luck? My father in law is in his mid 60s and he's one of those guys, terrible driver even though he thinks he's the best.
No offense, I've just rode with a lot of people who seem like they aren't really paying attention to their driving.

No. If anything, I'm guilty of using the cruise control too much. It's more setting the cruise control at 82 and stopping for gas when the gas gauge gets near empty. Most trips were ~600 miles on the highway and then a couple of hours in the mountains with reasonable driving. Rinse, repeat. There were also a lot of cross-country trips of 5K plus. I basically lived on the road, either carrying computer equipment or towing a couple motorcycles.

There were other cars during that period that had no issues - '84 Dodge Caravan, '89 Plymouth Voyager LE (V6 UltraDrive - it smoked longer than most cars run), 95 Nissan Maxima, 2000 Maxima, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Toyota Tundra, 2006 Infiniti G35 (currently @220K), 2006 Infiniti FX45 (sold, but currently ~230K), 2012 Infiniti FX50 (currently at 170K). All of those, including the Maximas towed the same trailers through the same trips and terrain and had no mechanical issues. Most of them were sold around 220K miles - now that my cars are worthless, I'm going to see how far they can go. Most of the cars/vans were bought new and there were generally two in operation at any given time.

The Audi did not tow the trailer.

 

[brages]

Had a transmission start slipping on a 2002 Mazda MPV (Jatco 5 speed) but I was able to eventually fix it. This was interesting for me. There was an issue with one of the pistons in the transmission developing a crack and there was a kit with the correct piston. I messed up and got a couple of seals backwards and it started slipping again. Was very hard to track down the problem but I eventually sorted it.

Put a new head on my 2.3 Ranger (Lima) after valve recession caused occasional misfires. Don't know if that's really a "failure".

I replaced head gaskets on a 3.8 Thunderbird.

So far (30 years of driving used cars), every car that I've sold has been running pretty good.

 

[wlk]

94 Dakota - bad trans, 05 Dakota- bad trans, 86 Volvo 240 wagon (great wagon) - head gasket, early 90s Town and Country - bad trans, 91 Olds Cutlass Supreme intake manifold gasket went and when I put it back together I mixed an intake and exhaust rod and so that turned into new valves, heads redone and ran great afterward. 2004 Isuzu Ascender trans started puking fluid at ~180k so I tried it in, 1976 d100 transmission went but in fairness, it sat for 10yrs before me buying it. Forgot my Ex-wife driving with the oil light on for 40 miles on our 86 Caprice blowing the motor, ugh great car

 

[hrv]

Nope all of my Hondas never had any issues....

 

[malibuguy79]

Ive blown up a few engines....primarily reasons is substantial amounts of boost on skinny rods. Also lifted ringlands in 2 engines due to essentially poor tuning methods.

This one was the most fascinating as it bent the bellhousing bolt...rod #4 let go at 18psi at full wail. Was actually my first proper blown up engine.

 

[malibuguy79]

Here is another one...another skinny rod motor, 21-22psi with a smaller turbo. It actually still ran...drove it about half mile to a safe spot off the road. Then drove it onto my buddies trailer, then into my shop to replace. I have that rod and piston on my wall of shame.

 

[malibuguy79]

For more context...the first set of pictures are of my 97 Tercel when it was still 5e powered and thru a 4spd auto. Car currently has a 1nz/c50 combo. Pic#1 is of its 5e turbo set up and that ran on a piggyback ecu.

Then the second set of pictures is from my autoX build 96 Tercel...which was already on motor #3...i had bought it originally with a rod knock from the PO running it out of oil. Then motor #2 I lifted a ringland messing around with boost on the stock ecu trying to find out how much I could get away with with backyard tricks (about 7psi with a gt2554r turbo). Then while running on motor #3 and with full standalone ecu that turbo died. In a pinch I put on a gt1548 turbo I had laying around and quickly found out it was way too small of a turbine and the internal wastegate was too small to controll it and sent the rod out. Pic#2 is of that particular combination.

 

[Nmr1981]

Yes, back in college when I was dating my wife she drove her grandmas 1996 Chrysler Cirrus. The one with oil sludge producing v6 that in a previous life lived to drive 5 miles to the post office at caterpillar speed. Anyway I took this car to pick up take out, as soon as I put it in reverse I heard a loud clunk. Not thinking too much about it I drove and a rattle would increase with speed. I make it the three miles to the restaurant and the three miles back home followed by an oil slick like you see in nascar races when something goes boom. Look under it and I can see a hole in the transmission/transaxle case. New trans, and we graduate get married and somehow that car lasted 100k but the oil light was flickering when we sold it. Dipstick had chunks of sludge on it