Motors Cash for Clunkers How to destroy an engine (Car lovers look away)

It's probably due to them wanting to know 100% that it is destroyed. Cutting off the cooling will do damage but probably not as much as sodium silicate.

Why kill a working car though? Surely repairing a car will do more good for the environment than buying newly manufactured ones.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the stipulation that the money could only go to buying a new American car? Surely that would make more sense as the government would get most of "their" own money back from it.

 

i thought all cars in the uk that are scraped had to be recycled?

im not getting it. is this someone ruining the car before its "scraped" or are they destroyed after you hand over the car?

that volvo had to be worth more than the trade in/scrappage value?

 

I really dislike the program. People are trading good cars (some of which could probably be sold for more than $4500) for a rebate and more car payments

Just a FYI they drain the oil and put in sodium silicate to seize the engine

 

The whole point is to get cars with polluting engines off the road - hence not recycling the engine parts. Over here we go one step further from what I've heard and the whole thing is binned.

One thing that helps the scheme over here is a minimum age for the car - at least 10 years. Most 10 year old engines aren't exactly horrid, just worse than the current breed.

Another thing is that most people who trade in their cars for scrappage discounts don't have something worth >£2000 or the equivalent dollar rebate.

I'm considering putting my car in for scrap - it's worth bugger all, the gearbox is going and all the suspension bushes are dead, so the ride is crap too now. It won't pass the next MOT without some work, it's just not worth keeping anymore.

 

In the US program NO piece of the 'clunker' can be recycled or used on any other vehicle. Totally destroyed from bumper to bumper. I'll try to find a pic of the car shredders - like the tree trimmers use only bigger. We have one site here in Westminster that makes a noise like nothing ever heard when the shredder is in use. Whole car ends up in a pile of pieces about 4" square.

john

/edit

This is after the shredder and before the grinder and baler. You can see exhaust pipes, engine parts, interior plastics, etc.

 

Ah, same as over here then.

 

jhanlon303, we cant see any pictures...

On the topic, this sucks... did you hear the sound of the engine? it was almost as if it was in pain...

edit:

 

from my photobucket:



Can you see this one?

john

 

Yep.

 

This is the machine that makes that pile.



That's the shredder, next it goes to a grinder - like a coffee grinder, then to a baler that makes the bales to get melted down.

john

 

amazing machine...

 

I have no comment, other then seeing that car destroyed like that.. was the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

\edit: Do they use the material that thing spits out for any thing other then wasting space?

 

But even then, why decommission the whole car? 40/50k miles left in an engine is a lot as far as I'm concerned, that would do the average driver another 4 or 5 years. So what if the chassis is ****ed, what about the gear box, suspension, body panels, even tyres? All these great parts are being wasted

 

I find this program to be the stupidest thing the US Government has done so far...

I find it appalling that perfectly functional vehicle is being destroyed. If you calculate the amount of energy it takes to create them both the new and the one being destroyed then you have a negative impact unless the new car almost triples the efficiency (which they don't)..

I know a lot of people that need the used car market not everyone can afford to buy new. This program is basically an attempt to get rid of the used car market.

Also, to the line of pickups I know a better way to use them. Give them to construction company's seeing that they employ a good portion of the US population and replacing the 20 year old trucks would be better use.

 

american V8 dies in like 3 minutes at most, volvo 5 cylinder takes nearly 4 times that to die.

To speed up the process i would disconnect the coolant lines to over heat the engine quicker.

I first i thought the solution was to wear all the bearings out which caused the pistons to dig into the cylinder liners. Not the case, it just bounds everything together with glass. Good way to kill an engine, just a bad scheme.

 

a bunch of change in the engine works just as well too....

 

Na, get the engine to suck a crap load of water in, the hydraulic lock will break most of the bottom end.

 

The word 'clunker' is inaccurately used here. A clunker is a car that is dying, literally. I see cars in seriously 20-40x worse shape then this and still running. Destroying that car seems absurdly wasteful, no matter how you look at it. Stupid government waste. Waste more to waste less? The other absurd thing is that you have to put the money from the government into a brand new car. And its only like $4500... that car looked like it could have sold for a hell'va lot more then that... This just irritates me...

 

Remove excessive waste my ass Obama.

 

One thing i am going to say is that we dont know what sort of mileage was on the clock of that volvo, it could have been sat on 500K or something, but if its been serviced well then those engines are good for 2mil on the clock before serious items need replacing.

RIP Volvo you put one hell of a fight didn't ya girl! (its a girl because of the lady like screams)