I have just come to the end of a classic motorbike restoration. Nice job but the rebuilt engine is not running smoothly. We had an agreed upon price quote and when I tell him the engine is not running smoothly, he screws up his face in concentration and says he doesn't understand what I'm saying.

My Thai is not fluent enough to tell him that the engine has a miss in it. I know he knows what I am talking about, but since I don't know how to be more accurate, he is pretending he does not.

My saying it does not run smoothly is not specific enough. Direct translation, of course, is not good.

So, how do I say:

"The engine has a miss."

Also, directly translating "low compression" from a dictionary ain't working. He rebored the cylinder and that's one possibility for the miss in the engine. How would I say, it might be "low compression" from where you rebored the cylinder. (Just the quoted part is okay.)

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, please write it in Thai.

Edited May 18, 201115 yr by happyrobert

engine miss - เครื่องเดินไม่สะดวก

low compression - แรงอัดต่ำ

I would have gone for:

เครื่องไม่เต็มสูบ - missing

แรงอัดต่ำ เกินไป - compression too low

Thanks much, both of you.

He still pretended not to understand so I said take 3500 baht off the job (cost to have it done again in BKK) or I'll have the 120 kilo ladyboy who lives next door to me come demonstrate to him how a piston and cylinder should work.

Problem solved.

I'll take the engine to someone in Bangkok. At least now I can describe the problem properly.

Edited May 19, 201115 yr by happyrobert