Thrown Rod?
 

Hey guys, so I sold my 2003 X-Type about a week ago. During the 3 day inspection period (escrow since I still owed a balance on it) the guy said as he was driving home to Camp Verde, AZ from Phoenix the engine started to clunk and when he pulled over there was a large puddle of oil under the car.

I told him to make a video of it making the sound and this is what he sent me:
Does it sound like a thrown rod or something else (hopefully not as expensive). He rejected the vehicle and says he going to ship it back to me but I told him I will reject the return since he will be sending it back in worst shape than I sent it to him.

I drove it for the past month and a half since getting the starter changed and has no issues whatsoever... Really don't want to go through the hassle of abritration even though I know I have a strong case since it could have been the way he was driving it, I have no clue....

Thoughts?

COnsidering that the motor has overhead cam, there are no rods to have issues with. If you have oil coming out the bottom of the motor, then either a connecting rod broke and it poked a hole in the pan or a cooling line broke/something struck the oil filter.

Based on the noises that I was hearing, it sounds like a connecting rod for the piston. Granted, a picture of the underside of the motor would be the confirming thing for me.

I don't want to sound like a bringer of bad news, but that sounded pretty catastrophic to me. Granted, i would also ask him how fast he was driving in the desert. NOrmally a connecting rod doesn't just fail. They are pretty well built and they normally only fail if there was an inherent problem when the part was made or the motor was over rev'ed (accidentally downshifted when driving fast, can only occur in a manual tranny car) or mashed the pedal while the car was in neutral.

It's broke and it doesn't sound like a cheap fix. Either you screwed him or he's going to try screw you.

OK thanks. I wrote him a message. The car was in good driving condition when I dropped it off to the transport company, I drove it 15 miles to get there and has no issues with it. He made it to Camp Verde from Phoenix with car which is about 90 miles.

If there was a problem I was concealing (which there wasn't) he shouldn't have made it that far... could he? That drive has a lot of long up and down grades...

The only issues I had with it was with starting which I fixed by replacing the starter again in mid December which I told him about and the passenger side air bag sensor which I also told him about....

Bill of sale should say:
AS IS