“Engine Failure” as a diagnosis tells you nothing and frankly is incredibly lazy.
Before even contemplating an $8,000 repair, at a minimum I’d want to know some basic information such as, is the engine siezed and does it have compression?
They may not be able to tell you what caused the current condition but any reasonably competent mechanic should be able to tell even the least technically proficient customer specifically why they concluded the engine is beyond repair. And if they can’t go elsewhere.
That will just be an expence that might not even solve anything. I am going to try this again . Ask the dealer if the vehicle can be set somewhere on their premises until you return . If not have it towed back to your friends place if they will let you . You really need to have this conversation in person so you have a better understanding of what is wrong and what it will take to fix it. You just do not have enough info ( from what you have posted here ) to make a major decision like this . Unless I missed it your friends have not given a good decription of what occured when they tried to start it.
If the dealership can’t tell OP why the engine failed, then they’re just throwing (ridiculously expensive) guesses at the wall and hoping something sticks. Or more likely, hoping OP is dumb enough to replace the engine with a “duh, I dunno what this is” diagnosis and give them a boat payment.
When I see stuff like that, I do go to the simple first, because I toss the asinine “I have no idea what’s wrong with it and therefore replace the whole engine” diagnosis and start from square 1.
There is not enough info being provided to hazard a guess. However, at this point the idea of tearing into the engine to do anything is ludicrous.
At this point the only thing I know is no start/swapped battery/still no go. I was curious as to whether or not the engine was being cranked over by the starter motor or if there was a solid thunk sound with no engine rotation.
There has to be a tiny bit of concrete information or the WAGing could go on forever
Guessing is just going to allow you to waste $8,000 plus dollars. Without actual info, they could replace this engine and then find something has chewed up the wires, and charge you another $2,500 to replace the wire harness.
Below is excellent advice- i recommend what these two have said:
You need to find out exactly what is going on here. If this shop cannot help you without digging into this engine, then have it taken elsewhere- and don’t tell the second shop what the first shop said. Just tell them it won’t start and them them go from there.
My gut tells me to start here and cut this first shop loose (unless you are keeping info from us.) No competent shop is going to just drop a $8,500 estimate and say the “engine is bad” with no other explanation.
when you get an explanation, feel free to report back to us and we can assist. Until then, all we can do is guess, which is probably stressing you out more.
Correct. We don’t know anything for sure. The fact that AAA replaced the battery to see if that was the problem, suggests that the starter motor was not working. Somewhere in this messy conversation a clunk was mentioned. If the starter motor was not working, and there was a clunk, and the dealer said the engine is shot, it well “could” mean the engine is locked up. Why is another issue but at this point nothing is certain. I wouldn’t just conclude that the dealer is incompetent though and trying to buy a boat. I suspect a lot is missing from the conversation.
If the engine is locked though, I’d sure want to know why though anyway without spending a lot of money. Maybe use a scope through the plug holes, or pull the pan, I dunno. Yeah I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of money on a bum engine but I would want to know what happened simply for my own curiosity. Maybe @Nevada_545 has a low cost way of figuring out the mode of failure.
Either way legally, I think the “friend” is off the hook regardless since it was a favor to store it. The mode of failure would determine the future of the friendship.
Well, if you don’t think they know (which, from everything you told us about what they said to you, is an entirely valid suspicion) then you can’t go on anything they tell you it isn’t.
Bottom line is you’re not going to know anything about why it won’t start until you get eyes on it, or get it in front of a competent mechanic.
Honestly, from what you’ve said, you’d probably get a better diagnosis if you took it to a shoe store. Based on this thread, I wouldn’t let these guys diagnose a flat tire.
Just tp redirect. The starter motor worked so the engine is not seized. Why the guy put a new battery in was maybe that the original battery was discharged trying to start it the first time. So back to the crank but no start diagnostic chart.
So is there spark, fuel pressure, compression? Easy to figure out. Timing? Wouldn’t be the first time a chain jumped a tooth at start up. You can tell that just by the sound of the engine while cranking. So back to clear communications or boat purchase?
To me it sounds like someone is trying to screw you over if it was fine before . It could be as simple as a dead battery or if it was parked outside somewhere some animal could have chewed thru some wiring , Engines dont just crap out just sitting there for 6 weeks .
Talked to a rep today and he said they would do some more testing but he said they tried to manually spin the crankshaft and it would not spin. Apparently, this is the basis of their diagnosis. Could it still be critters preventing the crankshaft from spinning?
My guess is that periodically the engine was started and left to idle (as you requested), but during one of those periods it was left unattended, and the engine ran low on oil or coolant, or the engine cooling fan failed. The engine would have started to make a big racket, and if somebody was there they’d have turned it off; but if nobody was there … well, you get the idea. If that’s indeed what occurred, it would be hard to place blame on the person who started and idled the engine, unless you were employing them to do it, and you asked them to stay with the car the entire time. In most cases you can let a car idle unattended, after all some cars can be started remotely, but problems can occur from time to time.
