Hey guys,

I never really posted on here to begin with but I have a couple times about my car about 6 months. Unfortunately, around the middle of December I was coming home from work when on the highway my car slowly died. The dashboard lights dimmed and I was getting no acceleration from pressing the gas. Of course I was pissed, but at first I thought it was no gas even though I knew I had a 1/4 tank left. I then figured it might be my alternator. I tried filling the tank, that didn't work. So I towed it to my mechanic and he said basically the engine was shot. He didn't give me an exact reason for it. I just got new spark plugs and wires and a timing belt along with an oil change about 2 weeks prior to this at the same garage.

I had to park it in a spot where I was not able to jump it right away on my own without moving the car. Also with the snow we have gotten in NJ time just ended up passing by and now I am really trying to get my car back.

What I'm asking is if anyone can give me an idea of what they think it is and how bad it was letting the car sit there for about 3 and 1/2 months now.

I appreciate it a lot, thank you.

--rob

 

Someone please help me out... Just replying to say that I think it might have to do something with the timing belt possibly.. It's kind of frayed a bit... Please let me know if anyone can, thanks.

--rob

 

If it's a 2.5 and the timing skipped more then 2/3 teeth the engine likely destroyed itself , if the "mechanic" that looked at it it shold have been one of the first things to check with the symptoms, and should have said the timings skipped and a zero clearance motor = JUNK bad motor. Unfortunately by the description you should have had a loud banging/clanging/clattering as the motor died
Since the timing belt was just changed maybe it was installed wrong orthe tensioner failed

 

thanks for the reply BadVenge, you have helped me out in the past and I appreciate it.

A friend of mine had explained me the same thing somewhat. He mentioned if the vavles were bent or what not, I would have heard a loud noise or clanging. I do listen to music while driving, but not loud and I did not hear anything at all nor was there an erractic stop or shake in the front end, but I am not sure if that would even happen in this case. The car just slowed down with the lights dimming a little. So hopefully I did not ruin the engine in the end.

He also said it might be the start/excessory belt causing the problem. He's not sure and was just trying to throw out some quick ideas.

On a side note, I tried jumping it today for the hell of it and I get a clicking noise but nothing else. I am assuming the car is trying to "turn over" but cannot.

Anyone want to throw out some more ideas, I appreciate it, thanks.

 

btw Venge, it is a 1998 Avenger ES 2.5L. Also, he never gave me a reason, but I was aware of the zero tolerance engine thanks to you on a post I saw a few months ago.

 

Hows the car look on oil?

 

If the engine hydrolocked it might be preventing turning over , you can try pulling the plugs and see if she turns over

 

Killa - I checked the oil tonight and it is fine. I had it changed in December and it stopped running not too much after that, its good though.

Venge - I have no idea what hydrolocked means, but I'll try and find out lol. I will try to pull the plugs and let you know what happens.

Appreciate it guys.

--rob

 

Venge - I'm assuming you mean water damage to the engine? I had that happen once when I first bought the car, but it ran find after that.

 

What did the gauges do? Did the temp gauge shot up as the car died? Does the distributor even spark? Did u check your Asd relay (On the firewall middle one i do believe)? i'm just throwin some things out there cuz my car died on me and my timing belt jumped and water pump was seized but i didn't jump enough to hit valves