| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 12:00:39 PM | | Last year I was in a flood and had to have the engine & transmission replaced in my car. So, what does that do the mileage, they didn't turn it back, it looks like I had 79000 miles on it when actually it was brand new. I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I'm curious where this puts my car in terms of age, etc. The parts were all brand new parts, costs me 10,700.00 dollars, if that info is important. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 12:41:17 PM | I believe they are not allowed by law to change the mileage(they certainly weren't in the UK). If the mileage gauge is replaced you are probably required to disclose the actual mileage when selling the car. Remember only part of the car is brand new, anything not replaced still retains its age.
Unless the car is a Rolls Royce or a Ferrari I think you were overcharged at $10k+, with the mileage quoted it would seem the cost of repair may be more than the car is worth! Again quoting the UK, insurance companies would write-off the car if the value of the repair exceeded 50% of the car's book value. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 12:53:58 PM | Just keep the receipt. Write down the mileage, maybe in the owners manual, when the new engine was installed, and then some quick math will show you the mileage on the new engine.
Same with changing to a new odometer. You are required by law, to write the existing milage on the back of the new odometer, so again, the actual mileage can be figured out. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 12:54:25 PM | The rest of the car has the correct mileage on it.  You didn't make it into a new car you know...  | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 1:01:54 PM | | Your mileage stays the same as what the odometer is at. But for warranty issues you need to make sure you write down the mileage at the time the engine and tranny was installed. If you ever go to sell it, just tell prospective buyers what happened, what was fixed and replaced. Depending upon what your insurance company did at the time of flooding, they might of totaled your vehicle or made some notation on your title that it was flood damaged. Make sure you properly maintain your engine and tranny at recommended intervals to keep your warranty current. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 1:03:29 PM | | The engine and transmission are but two components of the car. There are still shocks, struts, axles, brakes, structure, etc., to consider. The engine might be new, but the rest of the car still has 79000 miles worth of wear on it. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 2:26:33 PM | | holy cow bat man... $10700 to change a engine and trans.. was is running when it when swimming?? i sunk my jeep over the dash in a pond.. left it there for a day of so.. changed oils .. still running... anyway.. the dashmilage it what the car has on it and it should stay in.. if you change the dash you are rolling back the miles which is iligal.. wheater it has 79000 on the display or 1 mile on the display but 79000 on it.. also most new car have the milage in the computer... and here in canada when we get out licence plate stickers we have to tell them the milage.. so if your car goes form 79000 to 300 you might get a visit from the cops... just save your $$$$ and keep driving.. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 5:06:11 PM | | Who the heck told you that you needed a new engine and tranny? Water won't hurt a thing. A change of fluid and your good. If you do sink a motor though always pull the plugs and turn it over otherwise the engine may hydro lock and bend a rod. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 5:55:41 PM | Being as your car is a flood car, it makes it something I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole, no matter how many/few miles are on it. Mileage doesn't really matter, its more like the car is now a salvage title. Flood cars are a headache.
_________
shmodzilla:
It depends on what she means "In a flood". If the car set with this stuff under-water for a week, it well could have needed replacing. If she just ran it through a puddle and bent a rod, my entire first part of this post is non-applicable. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 7:06:07 PM | Mehtinks it is the wiring that would prove a huge problem...always seems to with "flooded" vehicles. It can take two years for all the wiring to dry out properly, according to some sites I checked. All those little things start going...like the wiper motors, the heater, the fans, blah, blah. My brothers truck ran through 2 starters and 2 generators in three weeks after a flooding.
Ahwell....seems pricey to me for a nrew engine and transmission....but may have been worth it, depending on the car! | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 7:07:31 PM | | At a dealership I worked at they had to replace the short-block in a Ford Lightning. That cost $5400. I doubt this vehicle has a fully-forged rotating assy, etc. Maybe she is including labor as well? | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 9:56:59 PM | Yes, labor was included. Obviously I had no idea what to do, I had to have it fixed, the quotes the guy at the dealership were giving me were in the hundreds, I didn't realize (yeah the whole dumb woman and cars thing) he meant thousands of dollars, which wiped out my entire savings, such as it was, but then buying another used car is just another headache that I had no idea which way to go. Anyway the guy says we could get you a refurb engine or a new one with a warranty for eight hundred and fifty, you see, to me that is 850.00 he meant 8,500.00. Yes I'm sure I got screwed but I live out on the edge of town, my insurance did not cover anything but liability, the kids were overseas, I had to make a decision and spending 850.00 for a new motor seemed like a plan, I didn't know the real price until there was a new tranny added and of course labor, dealership labor at that. So I'm standing there paying for all this and the price, you pay in two separate areas one for parts one for labor, and they are talking about all total 10, 636.00, so you know, 10,700.00 is pretty close, but hey they detailed it too.
I was driving when I hit a fast moving river that was once my road, it was dark, no other cars on the road got stalled, just me, it's New Mexico, in the boonies on the edge of town with rain water running off the mountains turning the arroyos into rushing water. The car filled up to my waist in no time and I had to be helped out (I'm disabled) and walked to safety, the car sat there over night, of course when the rain stopped, the water level lowered. So far nothing else has gone wrong with it, geeze, now I'm worried about all that other stuff! I'm not trying to sell it, I was just wondering what the proper/legal thing to do about the mileage was. I know the rest of the car is the original age. I refer to it as the care I bought twice.
Yes, I know it's illegal to lie about mileage, that's why I wondered what one was suppose to do. Thank you all for your replies. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 10:39:51 PM | What is the year/make/model of the car.
I am really sorry this happened. Based on the fact that you did not have comprehensive on the car, I will go out on a limb and say you got screwed for more than the car was worth before the damage even occured. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 11:33:45 PM | | wow that is crazy!! $10,000?? you would have been better off buying another car. my mother just bought a used car for $3,000 and it's in excellent shape. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/18/2009 11:53:15 PM | My 2001 WS6 M6 only cost $12K+TTL at 71K miles in 2006. I highly doubt the OP would need a 350 horsepower 6-speed either, lol.
The point remains though, what occured--occured. Someone was taken advantage of and it sucks, but I don't see any way to fix this :( | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 4:34:29 AM | Written Quotes? If so, get someone you trust with some knowledge of the law.
And also someone who knows about starting cars that have had some water in them.
It really reads as if you and your car have being taking to the cleaners. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 5:09:30 AM | OP.....not sure what type of vehicle you have...but $10k for a motor and tranny was a rip-off.
Not sure if you had more extensive work in addition to that...but you may consider filing a consumer complaint as I think that you have been defrauded. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 8:57:54 AM | Don't feel too bad. I just found out I had been getting a good screwing by a garagist too. Bought a car off him, figured he knew the vehicle, seeing as how it was a "rebuilt" he had done. Little things went wrong, so I took it back for him to fix, him charging me for it each time. Example...doors would lock and not unlock...so take apart door, replace pins in it, 60 bucks....three times! Wipers go....motor need to be replaced. "New" part plus installation fees. Wipers go again. Different garage this time....the "new part" I had been charged for was an old used part. New guy replaces it with a used one, that was in better shape than the "new" one I had been charged for.
This being a small town...the guy is making his OWN name for himself. He won't last much longer....it was a better garage when his dad ran it. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 9:19:13 AM | I guess a good question would be what is the year, make and model of this car?
As has been stated, the mileage shown is the mileage you'll have to live with, except that you would note the exact mileage when the engine was replaced. Typicall you would see this is ads as similar to: "Mileage 79,000, with 570 miles on new factory engine." The price you paid is at least double what I would expect and depending on the age of the car, a rebuilt motor/tranny might have been a more cost-effective option. Of course, if they replaced a bunch of other things like alternator, battery, wiring harnesses, blower motors, etc., etc...the parts and labor could sure add up to what you paid. (Any car is completely rebuildable - just depends on the budget you have)
.
My primary concern is also the flooding of the rest of the car. If the car was running when it got submerged, there is the possiblity of short circuits to some electrical components. There is also the possibility of premature corrosion to body parts and electrical parts(depending on what was in the water that hasn't/won't ever be flushed out). You may not know about these until a couple of years down the road when strange things begin to happen...Like hitting the horn only to have your radio short out. The longer it sat in the flood waters and the higher the water level the wors the potential problems. Do you know for a fact that the components/switches/wiring under the dash never got flooded?
Insurance companies will often "total out" a car that's been submerged because of problems like these. They're sold off to a salvage place or an auction yard where they're cleaned up apperance-wise and sold off cheap. They're shipped off to other parts of the country and sold for full price to unsuspecting buyers who get to put up with the future problems.
For the price you paid, I would expect the dealership to have gone through every wire of every system and checked every connector and tested every component on the car to make sure you're not going to run into those types of issues - $10,700.
Did they check your airbags and the complete airbag system? Did they inspect all of the seatbelt retractors inertia locks to make sur ethey'll function during an accident? Did they clean and inspect all of the electric motors in the car? (Blower fan, power window motors, auxiliary cooling fans, etc.) Did they remove, clean and re-pack all bearings on the car?
And that is why insurance companies would rather just write a settlement check than have all those flooded cars gone through. Background checks on hundreds of cars in the Northwest revealed a large number of Hurricane Katrina flood cars were shipped up here for resale after they were totalled by insurance companies. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 11:48:56 AM | It's not a car that most would think of saving I guess, but I love my car. It's a 2003 Grand Am SE1. I did have to replace the license plate light but so far anything else that is wrong, was already a problem before the flooding. They said they went through everything, but who knows, they could have told me anything and I wouldn't know if it was true or not. I bought my car twice, I paid more for it the second time than I did the first, I was between a rock & a hard place, and if I'd bought another car, I would have not been anymore able to tell if I was getting a good deal or screwed. It's done, I hope the screwing is over and my car is lasts because if it doesn't not, I have no means of ever buying another one.
The water was up to my waist inside the car and up to the bottom of the windows outside the car. It was rushing water from the mountain and across the desert. The car was full of slit/sand and took some time to clean up. The dashboard did not seem to get wet, and it was not under water more than several hours, then sat in the hot sun for a few more hours before the tow truck took it to the dealership.
I do not know how or who I would sue, or what I could prove other than I had no insurance to cover this type of thing and that I now own a very expensive older car that may or may not start blowing up on me.
What's done is done, but I was wondering where that put my mileage, etc. Yes, I'm not nearly as informed about cars as I should be. You know it's easy to say to buy another car, but I was stuck out here with no transportation, no way to even look for a another car, no real way to know a good car from a bad car to buy another one and you know, it's a call I made and I probably made the wrong one. What I had was a car that had been flooded, a telephone, no way to get into town and thinking the guy on the other end of the phone was talking about maybe 3,000.00 all total, when he was really talking about almost 10,700.00. It could have been worse and at least I didn't drown because I sure could have. Life sucks sometimes. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 12:28:05 PM | | I did a vague search on www.kbb.com(Kelly Blue Book.) Estimated value was around $7k. You put more in to it than it's worth,and that's without flood damage.Now I'm no car person,buy I do know enough that if a car goes through a major incident,it's loses MUCHO value. I hope you love this car and plan on owning it for a long time.....but yeah,you got hosed. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 10:00:25 PM | Here's a semi-mechanics opinion.
If the water did not reach the bottom of the dashboard, then its relatively easy to fix/clean a flooded car as the only things generally located under the dash level are the powertrain, power seats, air bag module, and the main body wiring harness. The dash is the worst area to have to repair, and many of the most important electrical components are located near the dash level. Its made this way so people wont destroy a car because they drove through 10" of water, the carpet may be ruined but the computers and fuse boxes will be fine. You either ran into a very crooked dealer, or you insisted on brand new parts. I think most dealers with a shred of decency or common sense would have given you other options or referred you to another mechanic. This car may have only needed to have its fluids drained and refilled if the engine did not suck in any water.
I'd have to see the entire bill in order to see exactly how many parts had to be replaced, but yes, a new factory crate engine and transmission, along with various external engine parts, plus wiring harnesses, engine computer, fluids, and installation will easily run $10,000 on most any car, $20,000 for most luxury cars haha! If they also cleaned out the interior and checked/replaced other components then that just adds more to the cost. If they replaced the air bag computer that could easily tack on more than $500 to any bill. Do you still have a copy of it?
Once a car is out of warranty, or there is no insurance, its best to take it to a non-dealer shop and have a good used engine and trans installed. A good low mileage used engine will run $500-1,000 and the trans will cost about the same, and give or take $500 or so for installation. Factory engines are almost never worth the price, used engines are very affordable price-wise and will likely outlast the rest of the car.
As for your mileage, if you want to sell it, just say the BODY has 79,000 miles, but the ENGINE and TRANSMISSION have only 2,000 miles (or however much they have now). Since these are very important parts of any car and have been replaced, you may get some extra money. On the other hand, since it was flooded, the value takes a sharp drop.
If I were you, I'd suck it up as a lesson learned, please please get a second opinion next time! As for the car, with as much money as you've spent on it, drive it into the ground! The mechanicals will easily last a looooong time now, just hope the rest of the car holds up. I hate to say it, but with my sources, I could have fixed this car for well under $1,000 for everything, sure they'd be used parts but this isnt a new luxury car either.  | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/19/2009 10:32:17 PM | I didn't read all the postings in this thread. All I did was read the OP's opening post. I'd say you (OP)got reamed. If your car went through a flood it should be on a salvage title. I don't know what kind of car you drive but labor on something like that should have been around 1,200-,1500 so you paid more for the motor/trans and labor than your car is most likely worth after going through a flood.
As long as the motor didn't set for weeks they should have been able to fush it and put new fluids in it and then pull the plugs and spin it over running the oil through the motor and then not even starting it and then drop oil out again and then put new oil in again and then the plugs and see if it will start and if it does run it a while and shut off and pull dip stick and see if the oil is milkie looking.. If it is then change oil once again and repeat till when you pull dip stick it doesn't look like a milk shake.
I've did a few of these cars thats been under water. Other problems such as wheel bearings cooling fan motors,, shifting cables.. heater motor sometimes needs to be replaced within a year or less after being submerged under water. | |
|
| New engine in car
Posted: 7/21/2009 2:37:53 PM | | Keep your records together so when/if you want to sell you can tell perspective buyer when new engine was installed. | |
|
|
Home
login 
