Hi all, I'm not mechanically inclined, so if you could give me some thoughts on what has happened I would appreciate it much. I have a Craftsman Pro Lawn Tractor, it has the B&S 24 hp ELS V-Twin with a 24" cut, that I just use here at home,(2 Acres) I've had it about 2 maybe 2.5 years and it is out of warranty. I was riding it from the garage to the yard (blades were not engaged yet) when a very loud pop happened and it died. After that, when I tried to restart it, the motor just turns but it will not start as if something in the engine broke..... I DO think this is MY fault (and I'm embarrassed to say this), but I think I was low on oil - could you give me a suggestion as to what may have broke, due to my ignorance, so I can at least have some idea of what to tell someone it may need when I try to find someone to give me an estimate to repair it? BTW, I live in a rural area and do not have any authorized B&S centers within approx. 80 miles of me (Sears store is about 58 mile away too). One last thing, I have always put new oil and filter, and air filter on it each year, and last year I put a new spark plug on it in addition to the other maintenance - I have tried to keep it running well, but this year I just made a MAJOR/stupid mistake that is gonna cost me......... Thanks for any suggestions guys (and ladies) :-)

Thanks, Mike and Joe. Have an appointment to take the car to a local garage that serviced a previous Jaguar for us once it was out of waranty. They can check the power steering fluid and perhaps see a reason it would have become contaminated; replace if necessary. The 'servicing' for the fuel injection seems to be a vacuuming operation. I think we'll let this garage do the battery replacement (and re-set all the electrical gizmos). I think we should go to a tire center for rotation and realignment. Joe -- The dealership did the checklist (brakes, etc.) and changed the oil and replaced filters. I thought the charge was really low: $56. The four things they cited were all about $100 over what I thought was reasonable -- which I put down to the high labor rates for their mechanics. If this dealership were 'right around the corner', we'd might not be questioning this. The one that IS nearby has refused to service this car because we didn't buy it there. (You'd have to know the owner!)

quirky, my folks bought American cars for years. After horrible experience with an AMC product in the mid-70s, however, they went Japanese -- and never went back. When I met my now-ex-wife, she had a mid-80's Chrysler that pretty obviously was a "Friday car"; that piece of junk barely outlasted the payment book. Unless you count the Rabbit GTI that was built in Westmoreland, PA (not a great example of German craftsmanship), I've never owned an American car. But I see that changing. My ex has been driving a Ford station wagon for the last ten years that somehow survives despite the abuse. My sister has a Saturn that is nowhere near state-of-the-art, but is screwed together decently. American cars are getting better. What needs to improve is American-car-manufacturer management. Lear and Delphi and Collins & Aikman can build quality products. But when they're not partner to the design decisions and they're continually asked to tighten their belts on existing contracts, management is the problem. When GM cries that worker benefits cost them some $1,500 per car, management (who gave away those benefits in better days and apparently could not envision that the gravy train would stop one day) is the problem. (Special mention goes to UAW management, too, which also failed to believe that the gravy train could stop.) When Ford paints a dark picture of their future because customers are no longer buying Extinctions and don't want to buy outdated Foci, management (who green-lighted the priority for huge SUVs and chose not to sell the world-class European Focus) is the problem. American workers are capable of building cars as good as Japanese can make them. American parts, as used in hundreds of thousands of Camrys and Accords and Sentras, are as good as anyone else's. The difference is management and how little they seem to care beyond making this quarter's numbers. BTW, my perception issue with Toyota doors is that they're just too light. They close fine, the handles don't feel junky. But when I open that door and see that little hinge and feel the door fly away from my hand :-) I just don't feel really confident that the door is in it for the long haul. Obviously, it is. It's just a perception issue for me.

Well, a few months later and I thought I'd give an update. I may get some flack for our decisions, but they feel right to me. First, we decided to keep the Hyundai and get it fixed. Taking it to a couple of mechanics was on DPs to-do list (this never got done). Second, we had been working on some real estate tax problems and those were finally resolved. This resulted in enough cash for us to get started on the kitchen. Again, we already had most of the expensive stuff. A friend of DP is doing the work at a discount and DP is helping around work hours. I'm just complaining that the kitchen I've waited 2 years to get my hands on is finally being done without me ;) Soon after the kitchen decision, the fridge died, however we got a new one, great deal, at Sears Outlet. It has a couple of dents, but is bigger and much more efficient than the old one. And it works lol. One day DP took down the ceiling light in the kitchen. He reached up to the much larger than it should have been bundle of wires hanging from it and all of the cloth insulation crumbled off! Well. That answered that question. And why were there so many wires running through that fixture? Well, we no longer had any working ceiling lights on the first floor, and the outlets in our bedroom on the 2nd floor also stopped working. So, DP and 2 very handy friends replaced all that wiring. Since nothing was being added/removed/taken out it was safe. At the same time they split up all those things that were on 1 fuse into 4 fuses. DP has also bought a circuit box (?) load center (?) something like that and will be replacing the fuse boxes - again with experienced help. Because of the delay with the electric (3 electricians never showed up, must be plenty of work in Chicago) we (I mean they) had time to demo the plaster (not good enough to keep) instead of drywalling over it. Because we took it down we were able to insulate the exterior walls :) On to the AC. I find it extremely amusing that after saying Chicago only has a couple of miserable weeks a year, this has been an AWFUL summer already! Luckily we had decided to buy energy efficient window units. 1 on each floor keeps it just bearable. I still end up with cold showers some nights though. The whole pregnancy = higher body temp thing is apparently true. Last - back to the car. We got a great deal on a 2005 VW wagon. It's bigger, safer, etc. It's definitely a family car, not a "sport wagon" and I still haven't made my peace with that, but everything in due time ;) Baby could come anytime in the next 2 - 3 weeks, I'm due the 20th. The kitchen isn't done and the house is a disaster, but I'm not worried. My electric is safer, my car is big enough for the whole family, and I have enough AC to survive. We're stable financially and are both looking into additional income sources to be safe. As always, thanks to the great GWers for the rational advice!