Crankcase was a violent Decepticon and the leader of the Dreads, a group of very violent Decepticons who for some reason like turning into Black SUV's for easy bad guy classification. Crankcase was the worst of the lot.
History. 
Edit
When the Autobots returned from the Moon with the dormant Sentinel Prime, Crankcase and the Dreads hitched a ride to Earth hidden on their ship.
Later, Crankcase, Crowbar and Hatchet pursued Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Dino, who had Sam Witwicky with them, along with Seymour Simmons. Sam told the other Autobots that the Decepticons were after Sentinel and they had to gaurd him from them. The Dreads then transformed and one of them grabbed Simmons and flung him from the back of his car. The other Dread attacked, Hatchet getting latched to by Dino, while Crankcase flung cars into the air and out of his way. Dino then killed Hatchet, and the other two Dreads followed the Autobots into Chicago.
Crankcase and Crowbar then faced Of for against Sideswipe and Ironhide. Sideswipe remarked how they had a Mexican standoff going on. Ironhide then orders that all four drop their weapons, which they did. Crowbar then flung spiked maces at Ironhide and Sidewsipe, Ironhide being hit, but Swideswipe deflecting it back at Crowbar. Crankcase had enough and lunged at Ironhide, but the Autobot shot Crankcase in the head and stabbed his spiked mace into the Dreads face. He dumped Crankcase onto a car and kicked it into a nearby store, which exploded, killing Crankcase. Crowbar also was killed.
