Buying a non working engine

[Boilerbuster]

I am buying an engine that in the discription says that it dosnt run. The lights dont turn on and has no sound. I was thinking that maby there is a loose wire or else a connection is not touching. It is however a DCC installed engine and could be any number of problems. Eather way I am still going to buy it and try to fix it myself. I hope that its just a loose wire or the Pickup is bent so it will just be a simple fix. Any thoughts on this, Have any of you bought an engine that didnt run and found the problem?

 

[Rico]

If there's no lights or sound the first thing to test would be the decoder itself. Otherwise test the pickups and then the wiring from there up.
I've bought basket case locos before, some I got running, some became dummies, others sit behind the engine house awaiting the torch.
If it's cheap enough you'll at least get some parts I'd think...

 

[MRLdave]

I bought a new "dead" engine once..... came out of a set and had never worked. Turned out it was just WAAAAYYY over lubed at the factory. I cleaned it real good and it's run like a champ ever since. Unfortunately my first guess for your engine is a fried decoder, since nothing works. However, if it's a factory installed decoder, it should be an easy fix to replace the decoder, or if you don't need the DCC, to remove the decoder and convert back to DC. You might even get lucky and it's a program issue.

 

[UP2CSX]

As long as you're getting it cheap enough, it will make a good dummy engine if nothing else. This could be anything from a loose wire to a totally messed up DCC install that will be a nightmare to fix. Any time you're buying something that's DOA, it's up to you skills to see if it can be resuscitated. I've had really good deals buying like this and been burned pretty good too. Let us know how it turns out.