Was told engine locked up. Had 2012 Hyundai Veloster towed because it would start. It would click as if it’s trying to start but nothing. Had starter replaced and it drove fine for a week. No warning lights no overheating, was leaving work and tried cranking and now the same problem. Mechanic saying engine locked up and needs replacing. Hard for me to believe that, when it did not over heat and no warning lights came on. What could be the cause, I think Pep Boys messed up the engine.
What did you have Pep Boys do and how long before your problem ? Also you might need a different mechanic .
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Car wouldn’t crank and pep boys replaced the starter. A week later it wouldn’t crank…same symptoms and they say the engine locked up
If the mechanic was at Pep Boys, get a second opinion.
If you can reach the crank pulls, put a socket on it and see if you can turn the engine, if you can turn it several revolutions it is not locked up.
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You need this mechanic to define “locked-up”.
Was your engine critically low on oil before it “locked-up”?
If it has a timing belt, did the belt snap?
If it has a timing chain, did the chain break?
Note: Timing chains typically break only if oil changes were ignored.
What can you tell us about this vehicle’s oil change regimen over the past 7 years, in terms of both odometer mileage and elapsed time?
In most cases a frozen engine is caused by an inadequate oil change regimen or by running the engine out of oil. Another less likely cause is severe overheating or failure of a timing belt or chain.
Lack of oil pressure does not necessarily show up on a dashboard engine temperature gauge.
You made no mention of pulling the dipstick to check the oil level. That is step one and I doubt that Pep Boys messed the engine up.
My father in law took his 85 Reliant to Pep Boys to get his starter replaced. AAA towed his car there before they opened. I was waiting to give him a ride and called them every few hours because I was going on call at 4:30 pm and would not be able to drive him after that. On my first call, they told me they had the car in and were working on it. When I called at 3:30 , they admitted they had put 5 different starters in it and they all made a horrible racket.
I asked them if they had checked for a cracked flexplate and they asked “What’s That ?” I told them it was the part that had the ring gear on it that meshed with the starter teeth. They said “Oh, yow mean the flywheel.” I replied close enough, did you check it for cracks ? They then told me they didn’t know how to check it and they couldn’t replace it anyway.
My father in law had the car towed to the Chrysler Dealer where that replaced the flexplate and starter for less that twice the price Pep Boys wanted for just the starter.
I think Pep Boys is a good place to buy oil on sale or cheap plastic hubcaps.
Good posts above. Maybe the engine is indeed locked up, but there are other much more common things that can cause the starter to click even after a new starter is installed. The advice above to ask your shop to try to manually rotate the engine using the crankshaft pulley bolt is spot-on first priority. If I won’t rotate, then the second thing to do is remove the starter and see if it will manually rotate then. Hyundai’s of close to this era had some oil consumption issues as I recall. Is it possible the oil level got really low at some point b/c of that? I doubt this is a result of anything Pep Boys did, unless they left the oil drain plug out, which seems unlikely as removing that plug isn’t a part of a starter motor replacement…
BTW, the advice here for car repair is to use a well-recommended independent auto repair shop rather than chain stores. Ask your friends, relatives, coworkers who they use, and visit a few shops from that list, see what they have to say. Before you need them.