Engine's locked and the car was parked the entire time.

[nbnguy98]

Last night after coming back from the gym, I started my 95 Eagle Talon Turbo. All the internal lights within (dashboard, radio, etc) suddenly died. I popped open the hood to find the negative clamp to the battery completely broken off (I guess it corroded off). No problem I thought, I'll just walk to the Advance Auto Part and get a new clamp. 15 minutes later, I was able to replace the clamp and everything's now secured. I go back into my car, and all the lights are back on. I tried starting the car, and all I hear is this clicking sound, but the engine doesn't start up. It's just click click click. Then I start to see smoke coming from the right side of the hood (from the driver's side) and the smell of burnt silcone. Damn I'm thinking, I burnt the starter from excessive attempts. So I get the car towed to the nearest auto shop.

This morning they tell me that my crankshaft is stuck and my engine is locked. They asked what in the world were you doing when this all happened, "were you driving?" They didn't believed me it was parked in front of my local gym. I have no clue how in the world the engine's locked. Mechanic said he removed the starter and tried to turn the crankshaft by hand, but it wouldn't budge. So, tonight, I had it towed to an engine specialist -- I have no clue what's going on. A quick over the phone estimate (w/o looking at it) was quoted at $5K.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[BISHILVR]

The best advice we can give you is to find another mechanic. 5k seems way outta line for a frozen crank even if it means replacing the entire engine, you should be able to do it for less than 5k!!! I would really get a second opinion, times are tough for alot of places especially auto repair places, and you might be getting taken. You might have jumped on your timing belt, that can cause the crank to lock from valves hitting pistons, if thats it then its just a coincedence that it happened at this time. The engine locking probably caused the starter to pull more current and thats why the terminal chose now to finally die out, but I'm sure it was on its way since one of mine does the same thing when I replace them with cheap ones from wal-mart.

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

I usually lean to the pros, but if I was looking at 5k, I'd ask for a second opinion.

Before you trust that much to someone, ask around and find out if they are on the up and up. If someone asks me for references, I give them. It doesn't bother me. It means they are trying to be a good steward of their money.

You want the best bang for your buck. You are entitled to that.

Good Luck

 

[Defiant]

15 minutes later, I was able to replace the clamp and everything's now secured. I go back into my car, and all the lights are back on. I tried starting the car, and all I hear is this clicking sound, but the engine doesn't start up. It's just click click click.

First thing I'd suspect is your new clamp job. Any sign of the battery shorting out against the hood or a strut bar?

Then I start to see smoke coming from the right side of the hood (from the driver's side) and the smell of burnt silcone. Damn I'm thinking, I burnt the starter from excessive attempts.

That's not what a dead starter would smell like.

Mechanic said he removed the starter and tried to turn the crankshaft by hand, but it wouldn't budge.

What the hell kind of chimp did you take your car to? Hadn't he heard of putting a breaker bar in that great big socket on the nose of the crank?
Step one: Pull the spark plugs.
Step two: Hit the starter again.

If you had no previous symptoms, I'd wonder if you'd blown a head gasket and filled a cylinder with water.
How old's the timing belt? You might have stripped it when shutting off.

 

[CYrUs0k5]

I've had the same thing happen on my car before.... It turned out to be a bad ground... to be honest I doubt your crank is stuck if it was sitting...

Maybe the shop is giving you some bullshit....

 

[nbnguy98]

CYrUs0k5 -- how did you fix the ground problem? Thanks for the insight.

 

[Galaxy]

I hydrolocked my car a couple months ago,engine not turning over is a scarey thing at first but if that IS it don't panic.



I would agree with Defiant,pull the plugs and look in there with a flashlight,check for anything odd,maybe a piston at the top of its stroke hitting a valve if it just happened to be the belt.If the "mechanic" has the starter still out of the car take the front driver side tire off and get to the crank pulley and try to turn it manually.If it turns the crank is obviously not locked up and you can try to get it away from that shop as quickly as possible.

If your crank is locked,and the engine is shot,you should be able to have a rebuilt motor dropped into it for way less than $5000.

 

[travislaw]

The shop is taking you for a ride man. You could get a really nice high performance rebuilt 4G63-T for around $4,000. Don't let that shop touch your car.

 

[NitrousPete]

Has the car been running rich or missing lately? You could have a stuck open injector that filled a cylinder when you kept trying to crank the car over (and the fuel pump was cycling over and over).

As other posters stated, pull the plugs, get the old breaker bar out and crank that sucker over. The chances of a motor seizing while sitting in a parking lot are around zero to none.

 

[CYrUs0k5]

In my case I was getting grounded out because my strut tower was touching my battery terminal, stupid i know. Another guy I talked to had corroded battery terminals. Another guy I talked to had a bad wire from the chassis to the motor...

You may also want to try resetting the ECU.

It sounds like a electrical problem to me seeing as how the car had been sitting... let me know what turns up... my aim is overboost05

 

[nbnguy98]

First and foremost, I would like to thank the dsm tuner community in giving some very sound advice. Your knowledge is invaluable.

Turns out the problem wasn't the engine after all. Once I had my DSM towed to the the engine speciality shop, they determined that I had a "brown out" and as a result the starter was burnt. The cause of the brown out was corroded battery cables. Apparently it was so corroded and stripped that it couldn't get enough voltage therefore the starter tried to pull more and more voltage from the battery until it burnt, hence the burnt smell. The replacement with a new starter and battery cables and including labor cost me $470, -- not bad considering an engine replacement would cost much more. On top it of it all, I was able exchange emails with a very attractive girl who happened to be at the shop at that time. Strange how things work out.

Thanks again.

 

[Defiant]

Beauty. At least we saved you some money (although that was kind of an expensive shop).

 

[spyder97gs]

Well, just as Defiant said you were saved a little bit of money, and on the bright side you now realize just how bad these shops rip people off. I can have a starter off in about 15 minutes, and have new cables/starter/battery installed in an hour or less. Oh well, if it saved you $4500 I guess thats a bargain.