I think she's dead!? :*-(

[SnickterP]

im driving down the parkway when all of a sudden, my car starts to make this strange noise, kinda like a squeaking if you wanna call it that, when i give her some gas. but when i give i a little gas with her in nutral or with the clutch down, it doesnt make the noise. she then starts to loose power so i take her off the next exit which was right there, and i end up coasting her down the road. she's overheated, apparently a rear coolant line (i think for the heater core?) broke, and all the coolant spilled out. so im stuck there for about an hour, and i try to start her again once she's cooled down. the first time she kinda revved and that was it, now all she does is click at the turn of the key. there's oil in the car, and its not milky, so im def not thinking head gasket. i had her towed home and let her sit the night. i tried her again this morning, and she turned for a sec, then stopped. now she just clicks again. im thinking ceased, but god i hope not. and i just ordered new wheels yesterday too.....this kinda stuff always happens to me

 

[jthomas68]

It sounds like maybe you just soaked some wires.Now which ones,i have no idea how to tell you to find.How high was the temp guage when you got around to looking at it?

 

[luigisho]

Man, riding at highway speeds with no coolant? Maybe JT's right but I'm not so sure.

On the almost bright side, today I saw a post where someone is selling a prepped, ready to go, 0 mile 3.2 rebuild with higher flow head work whose buyer backed out. Ready to ship. Not sure of the price.

 

[SnickterP]

it was up at about the N to O range in normal. it's usually at the L normally. plug wires as in spark plug wires? i have a fresh set of those sitting in my garage, but i havent put them in yet

 

[Yamaha V6]

Contact [email protected] for info on the engine mentioned.

 

[shojuan]

As long as the needle never went into the Red zone there will hopefully be a chance she's ok as long as your gauge sender wasn't lying to you. *But* the behavior does sound like overheating damage. Shortly after my dad gave me his old work truck (he had been through like 3 heads because he never maintained the cooling system) the car just started dying on the freeway. The temperature gauge never got near the overheating range. I took the nearest exit and then she died, engine siezed. Turns out the coolant hose to the oil cooler burst and all the coolant evaporated onto the exhaust manifold so I never saw any steam. I got the engine unsiezed and put on a new head. The rings are hardened and worn so she burns about a quart of oil every 300 miles and the bearings must have taken some abuse because it suffered from low oil pressure after I got it up and running. I put in a $5 pressure gauge and the only thing that keeps the pressure up is Redline 20W/50. After tuning it up, at least it gets about 20 mpg now. Best my Dad was getting was 16.

Sorry to ramble on like that. The moral is, unless you have real gauges installed, it's good to pull over right away when there's the possibility of overheating no matter what the factory idiot gauges say.

Rick

 

[SnickterP]

well, i do have an aftermarket oil pressure gauge, and all i remmeber was it near where the needle is ususally at at idle. but the motor was also dying at that point...so i have no idea. but i feel it may be the same as what happened to you dad's truck. oh...one other thing i noticed....after i shut her down and looked under the hood, i saw smoke coming from the rear of the engine, near the seal of the intake manifold, which would seem right. but it got me wondering, so i opened the oil filler cap. and you know what i saw? smoke coming from inside the valve cover. yea...defintaly not a good thing

 

[SnickterP]

oh yea, thanks Yamaha V6 for the info, im emailing him now. maybe i'll have to put my insurance renewal money towards that, seeing as how my car may not be going anywhere for a while now.

 

[SnickterP]

I figured out what it was.....the wire that connects the battery to the starter got frayed and loose....and thats why she wasnt getting enough power to start, but yet the ignition still went on....im so happy. she almost even sounds like she runs better now

 

[SHO--ripper]

The smoke sounds like some gasket damage or something but luckily the car is running now thumbs_u hopefully a new fuel pump will fix my problem.

 

[shojuan]

Whew! I'm glad your engine isn't dead, what a relief that must be!

Rick

 

[jthomas68]

SnickterP:
I figured out what it was.....the wire that connects the battery to the starter got frayed and loose....and thats why she wasnt getting enough power to start, but yet the ignition still went on....im so happy. she almost even sounds like she runs better now

I was hoping it was something like that.It would probably be good to change all coolant and oil now since they did atleast get overheated.Watch the guages carefully for a while.

 

[SnickterP]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. the rims are being put on now finally. hopefully she'll be handling better now. i've had 2 crappy 14 inch wheels subbing on the rear of my car for some time now

 

[Chrisssssssss]

Gotta love those fixes... The same thing happened to me with my car. I thought that I was having problems with my alarm, but it turned out to be just that stupid starter relay wire...