New mower, engine seized almost immediately

[opiod]

Hey everyone! I had a new lawn mower arrive today, a PROYAMA 196CC self propelled mower.

I got everything set up, added the oil, checked the oil, added the gas, and went to go mow the lawn. Immediately smoke billowed out, a large clunk, and the mower died. The pull cord won't extend, so I'm assuming the engine is seized. I can't return the unit or get a replacement (Amazon), though I did get a refund.

What would cause this? Is this fixable? I'm kind of bummed about it.

 

[bertsmobile1]

No where near enough information to make a diagnosis
However buying a no name Chinese imported mower through Amazon what did you expect , a quality product ?
Dream on
The biggest cost for any mower business is providing customer support & maintaining a parts warehouse, let alone a dealer / service network.
I can buy what looks like the same mower for $ 30 USA ex factory in China .
If I order 2000 or more they will paint it in my choice of colour and put my stickers on it for no extra charge .
Welcome to the throw away destroy the planet economy

 

[opiod]

Most of your American built machines are all outsourced to China, Mexico, or another country.

I would expect a mower to last beyond the initial start, especially since it's zero risk these days with sites like Amazon vs a local store that will find any reason to not give you a refund or replacement, it's worth a chance.

And fair about not enough info - what other info would you need? If it is a seized engine, is it possible and worth it to fix?

 

[ILENGINE]

I would expect a mower to last beyond the initial start, especially since it's zero risk these days with sites like Amazon vs a local store that will find any reason to not give you a refund or replacement, it's worth a chance.

And why do you think the local store tries to find a reason to not do an exchange or refund. how many products does the local store have to exchange or refund before going out of business because the OEM refuses to pay for customer stupidity. How may products sold that fail do you think is a true warranty failure. The average is less than 1 %. So the dealer or local store would have to eat those other 99 product returns that were sold with little to no profit.

 

[Charlie8d]

I looked at a mower some years ago , that had a blown Tecumseh engine. It had maybe 2 hours on it when it blew a hole in the block. It only had ONE connecting rod nut holding the rod to the crank !! I found no evidence that it ever had both nuts on it.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I looked at a mower some years ago , that had a blown Tecumseh engine. It had maybe 2 hours on it when it blew a hole in the block. It only had ONE connecting rod nut holding the rod to the crank !! I found no evidence that it ever had both nuts on it.

Warranty is there because problems do occur when you make things
However like ILLengine I see more people trying to pull a fast one with warranty claims than genuine warranty claims
Luckily I do not do warranty work because I am independent but I do get a lot of people coming to me to prove a warrranty repair is required
Most are customer mistakes & the most common by far with walk behinds is running without oil.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Most of your American built machines are all outsourced to China, Mexico, or another country.

I would expect a mower to last beyond the initial start, especially since it's zero risk these days with sites like Amazon vs a local store that will find any reason to not give you a refund or replacement, it's worth a chance.

And fair about not enough info - what other info would you need? If it is a seized engine, is it possible and worth it to fix?

Firstly if the Loncin engine is seized it can not be fixed because there are no parts available apart from filters & carbs
But weather is can be repaired will depend upon what is wrong
You said it went bang & stopped, that is not what seized engine do
It is what an engine with a loose con rod does
However you can start by removing the spark plug and see if the engine will turn over without the plug in.
BE careful because if it has hydrolocked then fuel will gush out the plug hole so there is a fire danger
Now in my shop after that I would shove the bore-o-scope down the plug hole to have a look at the bore
In your case the next step is to remove the rocker cover & check that both the valves are where they should be and both the push rods are present
As you will probably need to remove the blower housing to access the rocker cover , see if it will rotate without the pull start as these can jamb
After that it is off with it's head .

 

[opiod]

And why do you think the local store tries to find a reason to not do an exchange or refund. how many products does the local store have to exchange or refund before going out of business because the OEM refuses to pay for customer stupidity. How may products sold that fail do you think is a true warranty failure. The average is less than 1 %. So the dealer or local store would have to eat those other 99 product returns that were sold with little to no profit.

Not every failure is "customer stupidity". If the OEM refuses to pay for repairs or warranties, then the business should stop offering it. I'm not sure how much is a true failure or a customer caused issue - point is, that this isn't one of those scenarios, and it's the exact reason why I don't buy local on a lot of things - because it only takes one time to lose several hundred or thousands of dollars on faulty equipment that everyone wipes their hands clean of.

I had this thing for 10 minutes. Filled it up as specified by the owners manual, and it ran for less than 3 seconds. If customer stupidity is following the owners manual, then color me guilty.

 

[opiod]

Firstly if the Loncin engine is seized it can not be fixed because there are no parts available apart from filters & carbs
But weather is can be repaired will depend upon what is wrong
You said it went bang & stopped, that is not what seized engine do
It is what an engine with a loose con rod does
However you can start by removing the spark plug and see if the engine will turn over without the plug in.
BE careful because if it has hydrolocked then fuel will gush out the plug hole so there is a fire danger
Now in my shop after that I would shove the bore-o-scope down the plug hole to have a look at the bore
In your case the next step is to remove the rocker cover & check that both the valves are where they should be and both the push rods are present
As you will probably need to remove the blower housing to access the rocker cover , see if it will rotate without the pull start as these can jamb
After that it is off with it's head .

The blade won't spin and the pull cord is stuck (you can get like maybe 3-4" of pull before it just doesn't go anymore). I removed the plug this morning, and no fluids came out.

Good response, thank you for this.

After doing some more reading on the topic, I've learned that even if you can fix a seized engine (if that's the case here, unsure at this point based on what you said), chances are that it'll seized again or something else will go wrong in a short period of time. The process looks simple enough, though I can't see it being worth the effort if it's not going to be a permanent solution, which is what I was trying to determine - the "is it even worth it". Short answer - for me, it's a no.

Doing something like you mentioned is beyond my mechanical know-how, but I appreciate the information so I can understand that. Thanks!

 

[slomo]

In the ad, did you contact the seller?

"[One Year Warranty] Welcome to contact us by email for any questions, we'll reply within 24 hours "

Don't know which seller you got it from. Below is the link for what I typed above.

Amazon.com : PROYAMA 196CC 22INCH Deck 4-in-1 Self-Propelled Gas Powered Lawn Mower with Bagger Side Discharge Mulching Collecting Powered by Loncin Extra Cover and Blade Extreme Heavy Duty Luxury Design : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Amazon.com : PROYAMA 196CC 22INCH Deck 4-in-1 Self-Propelled Gas Powered Lawn Mower with Bagger Side Discharge Mulching Collecting Powered by Loncin Extra Cover and Blade Extreme Heavy Duty Luxury Design : Patio, Lawn & Garden

www.amazon.com