Ruined engine from neglect...

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Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
What confounds me is people like that are able to make a perfectly good living and pay taxes like they're supposed to.


I'm surprised they are able to even get dressed in the morning without somebody doing it for them.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Stopped by this charity motors place where people donate their cars. Most of them are unlocked. Found an 05 Camry, pretty dirty esp the inside. Oil change sticker was at a local tire place that uses generic bulk oil. Car was 10k miles past what was marked on the sticker. Popped hood and checked oil with nothing showing on the stick. Placed was asking $3300 for it. No thanks!


I was thinking if I had some spare quarts of oil in the trunk I probably would have topped the thing off. It's like car abuse. Esp if it was clearance priced oil I had. Kind of like doing a good deed.
 
My neighbor has NO mechanical aptitude and his wife is forever calling me with car (and house) issues. Their daughter was the recipient of an older New Beetle with the 2.0L normally aspirated engine. She has been driving it for several months. I got a call from BOTH parents asking what it means if the check engine light comes on, a chime comes on, AND the dipstick is dry?!?

He told me he put a quart in it and it still didn't hit the dipstick. I told him to add 2 more quarts, drive the thing and see what happened. Either they dodged a bullet or just bought an engine.

Nice people, but no clue how to manage automobiles, especially kids' beaters.
 
I once helped a woman with a late model Ford Escape. She said it was making noise. It was a bad lifter tick. The oil was a GALLON low! Amazingly, the engine was fine once it was full; no “glitter” in the oil. I think the sump holds 7 quarts. She finally said “It’s so quiet now.”
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Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
Their daughter was the recipient of an older New Beetle with the 2.0L normally aspirated engine. She has been driving it for several months.


Those cars can be a handful even when new and properly maintained.
 
Sometimes being the car guy has great advantages however. I am replacing the engine mounts for a cute friend of mine soon. She doesn’t know much about cars, but I’m saving her hundreds of dollars. And I don’t mind the positive attention she gives me.
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I don’t understand the abuse either. My uncle had his car’s engine replaced TWICE, not once TWICE. First time was for never changing the oil, and then the second time was for never changing the timing belt on an interference engine. I wish I had money to throw around like that.
 
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Originally Posted By: khittner
Some good arguments here for electric vehicles . . .

Nope. Uber, Lyft or a bike(pushbike, not a motorcycle or scooter).

Especially when you factor in car note, maintenance/depreciation, insurance and registration/taxes.
 
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Some individuals have no concept of mechanical things. The idea of maintaining a car is simply not in their sphere. My sister is one of these, and I won't be saving her from herself. BIL's problem not mine
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Originally Posted By: VetteElite
Originally Posted By: AZjeff
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Ended up putting some heavy oil in it to quiet it down and traded it at a dealer and bought a new car.


That's some low-life B/S right there. All that does is cause grief between the dealer and whoever they sell the car to. Should be arrested for some kind of fraud.


That's a little (lot) dramatic. Nothing wrong with trading in a bad car, that's the whole reason to buy a new car in the first place. What the dealer gave for the trade in was probably about the market value for the car with a bad engine baked into the price. Besides, they'll just send the car to an auction house and it'll end up on a buy here/pay here lot which is where the crooks really take advantage of naive people.

As a side note, this is why it is so stupid that manufacturers insist that burning 1 qt every 1,000 miles is "normal operation." It's not, and it's gonna cause a lot of people to run their cars super low on oil. Just stupid. My car has 130,000 miles and still uses less than 1 qt every 10,000 miles. But oh no it doesn't have DI and it's a pushrod 2-valve engine so it's "old tech" and had to be replaced in the lineup with an engine notorious for killing timing chains.


No kidding. A quart in 1000 miles is beater territory. My Vic-146,000 miles and 2000 hours of idling, uses about half a quart in 5,000 miles. My wife's Blazer did use a quart in 1K...when it had 270,000 miles, bad rings, and >75% leak-down in 2 cylinders! A quart in 1,000 miles is totally unacceptable.


BMW says greater than a quart every 600 miles is normal lol.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
Their daughter was the recipient of an older New Beetle with the 2.0L normally aspirated engine. She has been driving it for several months.


Those cars can be a handful even when new and properly maintained.


When they told me they wanted a car for their daughter, I tried with all of my powers of persuasion to steer them to a Corolla or Civic, especially knowing the way they "maintain" their other cars but she was intent on a Beetle. At least it isn't a turbo 1.8 or something else that's really finicky.
 
Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
Their daughter was the recipient of an older New Beetle with the 2.0L normally aspirated engine. She has been driving it for several months.


Those cars can be a handful even when new and properly maintained.


When they told me they wanted a car for their daughter, I tried with all of my powers of persuasion to steer them to a Corolla or Civic, especially knowing the way they "maintain" their other cars but she was intent on a Beetle. At least it isn't a turbo 1.8 or something else that's really finicky.


Even a Civic or Corolla won't fare so well if the oil gets low. One of my friends has gone through two engines in a Honda CR-V. The money he has spent on used engines he could've bought a new car.

The problem is people are really just ignorant. They don't read any directions or do research on really expensive investments like a house, car, lawn mower, etc. They have no clue, and they almost don't care enough to even want to know, in my experience.

I fix small engines on the side, and have for 13 years now. Last year I had a guy who blew up the engine in his 2 year old riding mower. He never changed the oil, or read the owner's manual. The warranty was expired, the oil dipstick was dry as a bone, and he had spent close to $4,000 for this mower. A new replacement engine was $1200, a used one with a million hours on it was 800 bucks. He was very angry that he had to sink so much money into an almost brand new machine, but he had nobody to blame but himself, and he still didn't seem to understand why. He fought for hours on the phone with the brand's customer support even though he was the one who damaged the machine.

Knowledge is king, because ignorance will cost you.
 
Not to defend the stupid, but how many hours did the guy put on his mower in 2 years? I'd think you could go for a hundred on a new healthy without running it dry. I guess I don't mow that much(30-40 hrs/year) but my old beater doesn't use much in a year.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Not to defend the stupid, but how many hours did the guy put on his mower in 2 years? I'd think you could go for a hundred on a new healthy without running it dry. I guess I don't mow that much(30-40 hrs/year) but my old beater doesn't use much in a year.


Doesn't matter how many hours you put on an engine, if it burns all of its oil, and you never know, then it dies.

BC.
 
A few years ago, I stepped out the door of a Chevron near Downtown Dallas one afternoon to see (and hear) a 5-6 year old Camry 2.4 pull into the lot and stop in front of the water/air station. The car sounded as if every rod was knocking, but it might have been pre-detonation I was hearing. She shut it off, stepped out and asked me if I could help her add some water to her car, as it was overheating. I opened the hood to a lot of very wavy air coming off the engine, and a LOT of ticking noises coming from everywhere. There was also a hissing noise, which led my eye to a pinhole in the top of her radiator. She had slugged her way about 5 miles through rush-hour traffic in the middle of a Dallas summer to arrive at that gas station (instead of stopping).

From what I could tell, that engine was destroyed. I got a big towel from the guy running the Chevron and and loosened the coolant fill cap, near the thermostat. Nothing came out. I removed it completely. Nothing. I grabbed the hose and gave the fill tube a squirt of water. I became engulfed in steam and there came a loud boiling noise. The engine was so hot, it was impossible to add water to it.

I had always assumed that modern, computer-controlled, fuel injected cars would shut down when they reached a certain temperature, as the first GM NorthStar engines had a overheating 'limp mode' that would get you a little further down the road, then shut down. I assumed wrong.

I had her call a tow truck. I wasn't sure it would have started once the coolant was refilled. It probably sat there and seized.

I guess in her eyes, it was a choice between stopping on I-35 at rush hour, or taking her chances with forcing an overheating car to deliver her to a safer spot. I would've stopped.
 
Back in my consumer car repair days, I saw quite a few of the so-called Toyota "sludge engines". Toyota had a reputation for reliability, so knowing that, people would lease, or less frequently, buy those cars, and then NEVER CHANGE THE OIL.

40k or so miles later, the original factory fill oil had turned to sludge. And naturally the engine developed 'problems'. Lots of people refused to acknowledge that their neglect was a factor.
 
Originally Posted By: 02SE
Back in my consumer car repair days, I saw quite a few of the so-called Toyota "sludge engines". Toyota had a reputation for reliability, so knowing that, people would lease, or less frequently, buy those cars, and then NEVER CHANGE THE OIL.

40k or so miles later, the original factory fill oil had turned to sludge. And naturally the engine developed 'problems'. Lots of people refused to acknowledge that their neglect was a factor.


I knew a mechanic; he told me: "my daughter, had the engine up to 80k miles on one oil change. the engine ended up on the dealership floor to show/teach about neglect"
 
Originally Posted By: pandus13
Originally Posted By: 02SE
Back in my consumer car repair days, I saw quite a few of the so-called Toyota "sludge engines". Toyota had a reputation for reliability, so knowing that, people would lease, or less frequently, buy those cars, and then NEVER CHANGE THE OIL.

40k or so miles later, the original factory fill oil had turned to sludge. And naturally the engine developed 'problems'. Lots of people refused to acknowledge that their neglect was a factor.


I knew a mechanic; he told me: "my daughter, had the engine up to 80k miles on one oil change. the engine ended up on the dealership floor to show/teach about neglect"


There are a lot of members of this forum that would consider her a hero for getting that many miles on a change of oil.
 
Originally Posted By: WylieCoyote
A few years ago, I stepped out the door of a Chevron near Downtown Dallas one afternoon to see (and hear) a 5-6 year old Camry 2.4 pull into the lot and stop in front of the water/air station. The car sounded as if every rod was knocking, but it might have been pre-detonation I was hearing. She shut it off, stepped out and asked me if I could help her add some water to her car, as it was overheating. I opened the hood to a lot of very wavy air coming off the engine, and a LOT of ticking noises coming from everywhere. There was also a hissing noise, which led my eye to a pinhole in the top of her radiator. She had slugged her way about 5 miles through rush-hour traffic in the middle of a Dallas summer to arrive at that gas station (instead of stopping).

From what I could tell, that engine was destroyed. I got a big towel from the guy running the Chevron and and loosened the coolant fill cap, near the thermostat. Nothing came out. I removed it completely. Nothing. I grabbed the hose and gave the fill tube a squirt of water. I became engulfed in steam and there came a loud boiling noise. The engine was so hot, it was impossible to add water to it.

I had always assumed that modern, computer-controlled, fuel injected cars would shut down when they reached a certain temperature, as the first GM NorthStar engines had a overheating 'limp mode' that would get you a little further down the road, then shut down. I assumed wrong.

I had her call a tow truck. I wasn't sure it would have started once the coolant was refilled. It probably sat there and seized.

I guess in her eyes, it was a choice between stopping on I-35 at rush hour, or taking her chances with forcing an overheating car to deliver her to a safer spot. I would've stopped.


I have read that if you add cool / cold water to a HOT engine , you risk cracking the block ?

Happy Thanksgiving , :)
 
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