hi, had my car shipped across the country and they delivered it (7 days after they said they would) with the starter and flywheel busted. the mechanic i took it to said the flywheel is missing teeth. poor handling on part of the delivery company or do these things “just happen”? was working fine when they picked it up.
They don’t ‘just happen’. What kind of car?
Was any miles added when they delivered it. I don’t understand HOW this could happen.
Usually it is a matter of wear etc that causes the the two gears (starter and flywheel) not to properly mesh. It can also happen if someone is trying to start the car while the engine is running. I would suspect this might not be too unusual to have people jumping in cars to move they around staging areas during the trip.
Proving it would be difficult.
Have you contacted the transport company?Volvo S40, 2000
unsure, car’s in the shop right now. this is fishy.
that’s what i thought, grinding the gears while the engine is already running. and they need to move the vehicles on and off the truck during transport. the mechanic says there’s no way to know how this happened exactly. just called the transport company and they said i could submit a claim. they say the only thing they’re responsible for is external damages, scratches, dents.
the delivery guy convinced me that the battery was shot because of the cold weather coming from massachusetts. the battery was fine.
$800 for a new flywheel and another $200 for a new starter.
So the mechanic says the damage is to the engagement gear on the starter and the ring gear on the flywheel? One way to further tell: If it was due to long-term wear, the flywheel would be damaged in only one (maybe two) spots, where it comes to rest when the engine’s shut off, and a ‘lazy’ solenoid on the starter prevents full engagement. If it was caused by keying a running car, the damage would be in multiple locations.
mechanic says two teeth on the flywheel are broken and that the starter caused this. yeah, maybe not damaged by keying.
The transport company should have a damage claim form as well as insurance to cover this sort of thing. Call them and submit the form along with a copy of the shop order documenting the damage.
If it was due to long-term wear, the flywheel would be damaged in only one (maybe two) spots, where it comes to rest when the engine’s shut off, and a ‘lazy’ solenoid on the starter prevents full engagement. If it was caused by keying a running car, the damage would be in multiple locations.
I’m not sure I buy that logic. Help me understand.
The engine will likely come to rest on the compression stroke of any one of the 4 pistons based on the randomness of when the key was turned to OFF. That’s at least 4 positions.
If it was a single instance of a START on a running engine, there would be a long grind path, the length of which would be dependant on the reflexes of the person, or maybe a single spot with teeth missing.
Another possibility is a combination of the two; long term condition with weakening of the teeth to the point where this one instance sent it over the edge.
Anyway, curious about how you explain your reasoning on both aspects.
Long ago article discussing why the worn teeth problem often shows up at a preferred single location on the ring gear. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the article, seemed to make sense at the time!
Cool, I’m curious enough now to do some digging. Your post made me think about watching propped plane engines stop. There, you have a direct visual indicator of crankshaft position. My brother has had a number of planes and I noticed the different positions the props came to rest in. The total number of positions corresponded to the number of cylinders but it did seem to land in one or two preferred positions more often than others.