#17: Concertina conrods Passionate about Cars

Today Steve shows me what can happen when an engine seizes up due to lack of maintenance nbsp;and then comes up with an interesting solution to unemployment...

Photo: RobotSkirts

Andy: So here I am at 1st Class Garage. Hello Steve how are you?

Steve: Yeh. Fine Andy.

Andy: So what's been happening on the shop floor then?

Steve: We've had a run of engine changes. Probably over the last three weeks we've had about ten vehicles in for engine changes which is quite a high proportion really...

Andy: Didn't we have a run of these a few episodes ago I seem to remember, and I was blaming the ash cloud?

Steve: Yeh, probably. The majority of these engines is down to lack of maintenance and I think this is what's happening now. People are just either afraid to lift the bonnet or don't know how to lift the bonnet to check the levels. Too many people are relying on the lights and the gauges inside the car. And I've said before that the lights themselves are what I'd call too late lights, when the light comes on it's too late, the damage is done. And of course with the current economic situation a lot of people have been holding back on servicings or missing servicings out. Put that lot together and it's a recipe for one or two disasters and that's what's been happening. As you can see here there's engines sat here waiting to be fitted...

Andy: Oooo nice shiny new engines, yeh.

Steve: Yeh, there's one there, and one of the guys just changing all the bits over on a Mitsubishi L200 and that's one of two that we've got in at the moment. Both of them have done around 50,000 miles. That particular one there has had a serious blow, and believe it or not, it was still actually running. It's got a hole in the side of the block, conrod...

Andy: Can we go and have a look?

Steve: Yeh of course we can. Conrod sitting in the sump, and it came in still running. It was spewing oil everywhere of course, that that was left in it, but...

Andy: So this was basically due to oil running out?

Steve: This was really down to maintenance issues really, with the diesels if it's not regular oil changing, oil pick up pipes tend to get a little bit gummed up, take it up the motor way and consequently lack of oil feed to everywhere and something's got to give, it needs lubrication.

Andy: I can see the spoils of war here, Steve. This is a sort of mangled, err, is that called a big-end, that bit there?

Steve: No. That's a conrod. It should be straight.

Andy: It's actually concertinered in the middle like in a cartoon.

Steve: Yeh, it is. It's a shame you haven't got pictures of it you can transmit.

Andy: Well I've always said, Steve, this should be a video podcast you know.

Steve: Well yes, maybe that's the way to go. But this is just totally destroyed. If you think about the amount of power it would take to destroy that.

Andy: It literally looks like on a cartoon when a cat gets splattered, and the thing falls away and you get a concertina cat, it's a concertina conrod.

Steve: Yeh. And this was laying in the sump when we took it apart but the engine was still actually running.

Andy: That's amazing.

Steve: It is really, um...

Andy: Was it a bit noisy, Steve?

Steve: Yeh, you could say that.

Andy: Oooo. I'm walking under a huge 4 by 4 here. Well Steve's doing it so it must be safe.

Steve: That's the hole in the side of the block...

Andy: There is a massive hole...

Steve: ...where that conrod has decided to part company and it's shot out of the side of the engine. And the whole thing is totally useless and once the engine gets to that stage... A lot of the companies you by replacement engines from there's surcharges involved. And the surcharge means that the old unit, we're supposed to return to the company that supply the engine for them to rebuild, but that particular one there is no good for rebuild so a surcharge is going to apply, so you've got the cost of the engine plus...

Andy:...