There are good ideas here. I'd pull the plugs, try and turn engine with crank bolt, both ways. No turn? Drop starter, try turning engine again. With out plugs and starter and it won't turn? Pull it out. Sorry/

 

I know mechanic have a bad rep but to tell someon there motor is lock and it was not would just be plain stupid. (Almost as dumb as telling someone you did a rebuild when you didn't.) It is real easy to check, Heck a guy with strong hands can turn the motor over with is hands. All you needs is for your customer to have one person in his family that knows basic mechainc and you lost a customer for life. This type of thieft by deception would be a felony and very easy to prove. If your going to get ripped off mechanics are looking for Gray areas and a bunch of little things or something few people understand like computers or automicat trans.

If the motor will not turn over with a 30" breaker bar with one hand its done. This is why the mechainc did not offer to check out the motor any further it is a waste of time and effort.

 

Ya cannot trust lube monkeys as far as you can throw them -- one couldn't even locate the PCV on my RS, much less tighten the air valve caps!

 

Not everybody has a mechanic as a family member or friend. If it was like that then would most likely take it to them instead of a shop. Like I said its not uncommon. I just did a job on a beemer for a couple that paid $4k for an engine swap because of a blown HG but all the got was a HG fix and washed engine parts. They dint know til 3 months later when that same motor spun a rod. We then told em it was not a new motor. They are still chasing their money.

 

Not if the starter is jammed, I've had it happen before. Could be the mechanic is just assuming the engine is locked up because he can't turn it over by hand, just like what you're saying here.
It also doesn't make sense that the engine was running, was shut off, and now it's seized?

 

I should be very easy to hear if the start is engaging and returning. I assumed the clicking he was talking about was it. Engine at idle and makes and undescribable noise then just stops sounds about right. The rod bolt streched while driving and the bearing was being pounded till it final spun.

So the theory is while the car was idling the over running clutch jumped out and jammed up so bad in the flywheel it stopped the motor and now its locked up? I have seen starters blown a part that did not see near that kind of stress but I guess thats possible. Heck I am just going by the few dozen locked up engines I have fixed.

 

Nope, that's not what I was saying, and it's not what the OP said happened either.
Quote from the first post: "She was at gas station and it made a weird sound (she cannot define weird) and she shut it off. Now it won't start". She shut the engine off, it didn't kill itself.
That's how it happened to me once. All was fine, until the next restart, then the bendix gear jammed into the flywheel. The engine wouldn't turn over, not even while dragging it behind another car (it had a manual trans). Yep, my engine was "seized" too, that is, until the starter was removed.
Now mind you, I'm not saying it's definitely the starter, only that I would check that first before assuming the engine is toast.

 

if the starter ingaged while it was running that would explain the noise and if she shut it off then the starter by then may have been fried and stayed ingaged. lol. all speculation and makes a good story. but yah take the starter out and see what happens. wont cost anything and just might be the problem. wow the op has been a member a long time.

 

...and his last post before this was two years ago, then another year back, then another two years. Gee, it sure is good to be remembered! lol

 

I really wanna know what happened here...