i was recently driving my 95 neon, hit a deeper patch of snow, and the car just quit. just quit. had it towed home, and for some strange reason decided to pull the valve cover off and turn the key. i noticed the rocker arms not moving.........i immedietely referred to every cuss word i could think of. turns out that the teeth were chewed off the timing belt, conveniently around the crank pulley. im assuming i mashed a couple vavle, but i decided to roll the dice and slap it back together n try my luck. the rocker arms are now moving, but now there is a TERRIBLE growling coming from the starter area. continued to put the valve cover and coil back on, tried to start it up, nothin.....where do i start with this thing??

 

Ok. What do you mean by "tried to start it up, nothin...."? Do you mean that your starter does not engage and turn the motor over when trying to start the car?

It is possible that your starter decided to "screw the pooch" and crap out too. Take it off and go to a local parts store and have them check it out.

When your timing belt lost its teeth, you had a chance on your engine biting the bullet by having valves hit the piston (in my case #1 cyl) because the motors are interference motors, but it does not always happen. You can do a compression and/or leakdown test to confirm or deny that damage later.

 

no the starter turns the motor over, just lets out a "growl". and i definitely bent the #4 intake valves, could see it as soon as pulled the manifold off. is there anything with that could make the coil not fire? i pulled the trouble codes and it gave me codes pointing to the camshaft sensor no recieving a signal. thought it was a no brainer, but it didnt dawn on me till after i bought the sensor, the "new" connector, and installed it, that the old sensor didnt get a signal because the cam wasn't turning. but, at least it's new, and it's one more possibility scratched off.

 

1) Pull the head and get it redone. You will be way better off if you do it now. You will need new head, intake and exhaust gaskets. Your engine will last longer and run quieter too. While you are at it, you should replace the water pump, a full timing kit (tensioner pulley and belt), and if you have over 100K miles, maybe even the oil pump.

2) If the cam sensor doesn't work (and/or crank sensor too) then the coil will not fire. If this error code came before you replaced the timing belt, then when you did, if it were working, it would fire. Clear the error codes in your PCM after you put it back together before trying again. If you don't have a tool to do that, just disconnect the battery for a minute and it will do the same thing.

Spend a little more now, have a good running car later - that's paid for. Look. Gas may hit $4 by the end of March, a good running Neon will save some serious cash in the gas eating dept.....

PS: Get the starter checked. I bet you need a new one. Nothing that happened with the timing belt blowing causes a starter to "growl".