- Dec 14, 2000
- 10,473
- 81
- 101
Story as told from point of view from person this happened to.
I was driving home after work and about 10 miles from home, noticed my heat had shut off. The fan was running, its just there was no more warm air. A mile or two later, I started smelling something odd. I come up to a stop sign and my car died.
The stop sign is near the top of a hill but you still need to pull up to the top and continue so a nice man got out and started helping me with the car (pushing), but it wouldn't budge. I then tried to start it again after about 15 minutes and it started but didn't sound right. I was able to limp it home, and smoke was pouring out of the engine bay. When they popped the hood, it wasn't steam, but smoke pouring out and most of it was coming from this location (she points to the upper timing belt cover).
There is a light film of anti freeze on things, but it doesn't smell like anti freeze in the engine bay. I wiped it on my finger and its definitely sweet like Antifreeze. The car will turn over and start, but there is a loud screeching from the timing cover. This is an interference engine. I didn't ask her at the time about her timing belt replacement or when she did it, but she is at 170k on the car now. She takes it into a shop to have maintenance done on it, so hopefully she's had the belt replaced before.
Ideas as to what is wrong? There was oil in the engine and it wasn't contaminated. Obviously we will know what the problem is when we take the timing belt cover off, but its single digits and below outside right now and I think she's just going to take it in. I told her to not drive it somewhere, but get it towed instead.
Here's what we know. She lost heat. Either the water wasn't circulating any more, or there is a leak. There is a film of AF on everything, so there is a leak. What would cause the leak? Well, I think its the water pump giving up the ghost. That, coupled with the fact that when she turned it over, there was a loud scraping, screeching noise coming from the timing belt cover, leads me to believe the pump grenaded and has caused all sorts of problems. Since this is an interference engine, if the shaft sheared, she has lost time and has damaged her engine probably.
What do you guys think?
Got an email from her:
> So, apparently, I have a broken timing belt, broken timing tensioner, water pump, and pulley idler
$860 for parts and labor.
I think she is very very lucky. I doubt the timing belt is broken, but is surely ruined after rubbing on the water pump or idler pulley
I was driving home after work and about 10 miles from home, noticed my heat had shut off. The fan was running, its just there was no more warm air. A mile or two later, I started smelling something odd. I come up to a stop sign and my car died.
The stop sign is near the top of a hill but you still need to pull up to the top and continue so a nice man got out and started helping me with the car (pushing), but it wouldn't budge. I then tried to start it again after about 15 minutes and it started but didn't sound right. I was able to limp it home, and smoke was pouring out of the engine bay. When they popped the hood, it wasn't steam, but smoke pouring out and most of it was coming from this location (she points to the upper timing belt cover).
There is a light film of anti freeze on things, but it doesn't smell like anti freeze in the engine bay. I wiped it on my finger and its definitely sweet like Antifreeze. The car will turn over and start, but there is a loud screeching from the timing cover. This is an interference engine. I didn't ask her at the time about her timing belt replacement or when she did it, but she is at 170k on the car now. She takes it into a shop to have maintenance done on it, so hopefully she's had the belt replaced before.
Ideas as to what is wrong? There was oil in the engine and it wasn't contaminated. Obviously we will know what the problem is when we take the timing belt cover off, but its single digits and below outside right now and I think she's just going to take it in. I told her to not drive it somewhere, but get it towed instead.
Here's what we know. She lost heat. Either the water wasn't circulating any more, or there is a leak. There is a film of AF on everything, so there is a leak. What would cause the leak? Well, I think its the water pump giving up the ghost. That, coupled with the fact that when she turned it over, there was a loud scraping, screeching noise coming from the timing belt cover, leads me to believe the pump grenaded and has caused all sorts of problems. Since this is an interference engine, if the shaft sheared, she has lost time and has damaged her engine probably.
What do you guys think?
Got an email from her:
> So, apparently, I have a broken timing belt, broken timing tensioner, water pump, and pulley idler
$860 for parts and labor.
I think she is very very lucky. I doubt the timing belt is broken, but is surely ruined after rubbing on the water pump or idler pulley
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