[Firea100]

My name is Larry. I live in East China Michigan. I’m a retired firefighter, also a retired Marine Sheriffs Deputy, a rescue and recovery diver and currently am an independent insurance adjuster.
I’ve just sent out a deposit on a 2008 Smart Fortwo coupe. It has 32K miles on it, it looks (from pics) nearly new. It’s yellow with the red and black interior. I’ve not seen it in person, but judging from the pics, it was well taken care of. Now for the bad! It has a locked up motor. I’ve worked at Chrysler engineering as an experimental mechanic (in the late seventies and early eighties), so I’m not scared of a project like this. I have a brand new hoist and plenty of tools so I’m not intimidated by this. My question is this: are there any “typical” things that may have caused the problem? I have thought of hydrostatic lock from either antifreeze or fuel, maybe a timing chain gone bad? Again are there any things that are common problems with this car? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Larry (firea100)

 

[smark]

How much, did you spend on it? If it’s really little. Just replace the engine, with a salvage one. You don’t need a hoist, the engine is removed from the bottom of the car. Until you tear apart the old engine, anything could be wrong with.

These cars, are pretty reliable, for a engine to freeze up like you say. Not a common issue.

 

[Firea100]

Thank you for the response!
I’d like to keep the pricing to myself, thank you. I DID get a Real good deal on it though!
Yeah, before I pre-order a replacement motor, I’ll look into what happened to the original one.
Thanks again,
Larry in East China Mi.