Hello all,

I'm having a bit of a bad day...

Ok so Today after ordering a new exhaust I stopped by the parts store and picked up some seafoam. when i got home, I ran it into the brake booster vacuum line, after waiting 5-10 minutes and went to start the car and just got a clicking. after checking voltage and trying to free up the starter, the starter started to spin freely. high rev as though the gear wasnt engaged.

I then went back to the parts store picked up a new starter. with the car still on jacks, I went to start the engine. CLICK, CLICK ! thought maybe the battery was dead. hooked up a charge 1000 amp marine battery via cables and same thing CLICK - disconnected and checked voltage - 12.5v.

Have I seized something? any idea on what the hell is going on here? any help would be great. I'm running out of day light and am frustrated beyond belief

Thanks in advance

 

BTW - it's a 1998 3800 with 138000 km on it

 

Well, if you literally poured the Seafoam down the intake, the engine may have hydrolocked. Remove all the spark plugs, then try to crank the engine over. First try turning it by hand to make sure it spins freely (it should), then give it a shot with the starter. Watch to see if "stuff" starts spraying out of the spark plug holes.

 

Back up for a moment. First off, how much Seafoam did you poor into it? IIRC, you're only supposed to pour a 1/3 of the can in.

Just for every one else, 138,000km equals about 86k miles

Any ways, take and have both the starter and battery tested. The car isn't in gear is it? I know it's unlikely, but we all forget sometimes.

 

I got it running! just about had a heart attack

I poured 1/2 in the vacuum while it was running then poured the other 1/2 after it died out. I've done this before on other vehicles with good results.

I didnt pull the plugs but i managed to turn the crank just enough to free up the hydrolock. didnt even think it was possible.

ran like $hit for a bit but its running really nice now. Thank you for the advice

Now I'm wondering if the starter was bad to begin with, or maybe i finally killed it trying to turn a locked engine. like I said, at the end it spin free at very high rpm. I've been noticing the starter making noise after start for about a second anyway, so maybe it was due to swap anyway

 

Not trying to arrogant or anything. But doing it that way is what caused your problem to begin with. They give instructions for a reason, which includes not letting the engine die while pouring it in.

That's why I hate when people come into work wanting a way to fix there radiator leak but don't want to use Bars Leak because it killed so and so's car. If the instructions are followed by the book, then no problems occur. Unfortunately, very few people do that and then the product gets a bad rap. I used it when I first got my Camaro and followed it by the instructions and haven't had a problem with the radiator since.

 

You should have said you've done this on other vehicles and were lucky no engine damage was done.
What you did there was like trying to give someone a glass of water to drink when they're passed out.

 

Sea Foam strikes again.

 

Snake oil.