Boo to autozone...

[SadbutTrue]

Just fyi... I bought an engine from autozone exactly a year and one month ago. The warranty is for a year. We got a stock 69-74 short block. Even though I was away at college nearly 9 of those 13 months and it was rarely driven and has acquired maybe 1000 miles, we are experiencing a myriad of problems. The rear main seal is leaking, the valve seals and guides are shot and the engine is consuming oil at about 2 quarts every 150 miles or so, and the engine is pinging like mad. Furhter, autozone has offered no help via warranty/any other outlet, because even though the problems obviously originated long before the warranty was up, its past warranty.

So yeah. Don't buy from them and stuff. They suck.

 

[kslushy]

69-74 short block.....valve seals and guides are shot

?

 

[mustang70]

I got my 351 from Checker a few years ago. This is the third time it's been apart. I learned a long time ago, if you're going to build a motor, build it the way you want the first time.

 

[2nd Mustang]

Kind of too late now, but I've always tried to have my original block rebuilt, as I know what the starting point is. I've even had good luck buying a 302 at a junk yard, after giving it a quick inspection. Sorry to hear about your bad luck. The warranty gremlins always know when to strike.

 

[zookeeper]

That sucks, but that's the way it goes when we just shop for price. Although a long block from Ford would have likely cost twice what you paid, you're going to end up paying at least that by the time you get it right. Don't feel alone, about 18 months ago the trans in my Suburban went bottoms up. I took it to a local trans shop with an impeccable reputation and had it rebuilt. A couple weeks ago, it blew up again, this time 3 hrs from home. The first trans was warranteed for 12 months, even though the guy who did the second rebuild said the first guy did a half-assed job and missed several critical things when he did it. Total cost for 2 rebuilds in 18 months is over $3,500, which puts a damper on my fastback project.

 

[2nd Mustang]

Don't feel alone, about 18 months ago the trans in my Suburban went bottoms up. I took it to a local trans shop with an impeccable reputation and had it rebuilt. A couple weeks ago, it blew up again, this time 3 hrs from home. The first trans was warranteed for 12 months, even though the guy who did the second rebuild said the first guy did a half-assed job and missed several critical things when he did it. Total cost for 2 rebuilds in 18 months is over $3,500, which puts a damper on my fastback project.

I had two trannys rebuilt by an old shop near my town, they were quite expensive, but never had any trouble with them, including my top-loader in my present Stang. It took them over a week to find the right pieces for the Stang, but haven't had any trouble since then. One of my co-workers had a Ford pickup with a big block and tranny rebuilt by his father's friend who gave him a really good price ($1200 for both to be rebuilt ), and yes, you guessed it, he had trouble with the engine and tranny right after he picked it up.

 

[zookeeper]

The worst part (besides the money) of the second one was that it was so far from home. I mean think about it, my wife called me (I wasn't with them) and asked where she should have it towed. I don't know of any shops there, and the nearest dealer (at least I hoped I could trust a dealer) wasn't even close to where it broke. The tow truck operator recommended a local shop, so that's where it went. I drove down to get them (in our '88 GT, Ford rescues Chevy...again) and the shop was a generic, small town shop. But the owner was anything BUT generic, he's a hot-rodder (formerly had a 9 sec Vega) and very knowledgeable. This trans shifts very nicely, and he claims it'll outlast the Suburban it's in. Anyone in need of quality work at a fair price near Cloverdale, California would be well advised to try Eric's Performance. There, I did a shameless plug!

 

[dapman]

If you bought a short block, why would Autozone care about your leaking valve seals and guides. It sounds like the majority of your problem is coming from the top half of the engine, which you did not get if you bought a short block. Autozone does not take care of the warranty, they only sell them. Engine warranties are always done through the supplier.

 

[jikelly]

Engine warranties are always done through the supplier.

Tranny warranties are also done through the supplier, as I discovered when the C4 I got from Checker Auto died after I drove the car a block from the house. I knew all the guys at checker but that didn't help me. I had to deal with the buttmunch suppliers and it took them 4 months to send another rebuilt tranny to replace the crappy one. What sucked was Checker had already sent my old tranny to the supplier so I was stuck with the broke one until the new one came in. Then the second tranny I got from them was only somewhat functional. That's when I decided to stick a tremec in my stang.

 

[Max Power]

Getting an engine or a tranny from a mass merchant parts store is nuts, IMO. They contract it all out, shop only for price when contracting, and most the guys at the store have no idea what you are talking about. Always go to a knowledgeable local guy.

That being said, I can see why they might give people hassles on the warranties, Looking at the skill level of the average Autozone customer, I think the failures are about 50/50 as far as assigning blame.

 

[jikelly]

Always go to a knowledgeable local guy.

I think you're right about that.

My friend got his tranny done by a guy he heard did a good job back in his home town. He lives in Waco and we are in school in Lubbock. I think it is about 360 miles between the two. Anyway, He got his Formula back and drove it around Lubbock for like three months before we went back down to Waco to visit his parents one weekend.

We were on the back roads about 100 miles from Waco when the car stopped shifting to overdrive. We were somewhat concerned when in another 10 miles we lost third gear, and like oh crap when in another 5 miles we were down to first. A little after that we saw smoke coming through one of the vents. We stopped and I got out to see what was wrong. I freaked out when I saw flames crawling up the firewall from the Tranny tunnel. I have never been so scared in my life! It is funny now looking back and thinking how stupid I must have looked jumping up and down yelling at the top of my voice, "It's on fire! Matt get out. Get out! Get out! Get out!"

We got really lucky that there were some really nice people who lived in a house off the road. They gave us a couple jugs of water and we were able to get the fire out.

After a tow to Matt's house we got in contact with the guy who had done the tranny work and he said that he would take care of it no problem. I guess that is the difference between a small town guy and a wholesale supplier.

 

[Swede958]

To tell you the truth when it comes down to stuff like that, for common domestic and import engines (350, 302, Honda 4cyl) I recommend taking it to a shop to get gone through instead of buying one of ours (I work at autozone). Pretty much the reasoning is... it has to be shipped here, it is rebuilt en mass (i.e. mistakes can occur), once the warantee is up-it's up (especially for something that big). One problem they might be having with trying to work with you on the warantee is the valve seal problem- unless they truly know you. If you tell them about the valve seal problem as well, then it's possible they may think that the problems were caused by mis-instalation, which would void the warantee anyways...
Just remember, some things can be too good to be true...

The Swede

 

[68stang351]

I bought a 69 351 long block from Autozone 2 years ago. Never had a single problem with it. Believe me, I put it through it's paces.

 

[Stang89LXCPE]

Uh Oh. I worked at AZ about 6 years ago. I sold 7 motors in a years time (longblocks) 2-350's, 1-305, 2-302's, 1-351W, 1-351M. Of those motors, only 1 DIDN'T come back!!!! It was the 351W. All the rest had similar problems, smoking, leaking, knocking, etc. They were reman'd by RECON. They basically took all the cores and grab the best parts from them. The one 350 had 3 differant bore sizes, STD, [email protected], [email protected]!!! Talk about crap!

Sorry about your pain man, I quit there because all the junk the sold.

Go back to AZ and ask to talk to the District manager. They won't give you a 2nd look unless you raise some serious Hell. Tell them your story and you might get another motor out of deal. If you do, take it to a machine shop and have them tear it down and check it out.

Good luck
Steve

 

[Fostang]

Funny you say that about the bores because a one of these stores has a display motor and wouldn't you know it the damn thing has different pistons on it along with different bores.

I jokingly told the manager hey is that to show all the work you guys are capable of doing???.....????