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Engine gone?

G

Gavin SVT

New CEG'er
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
19
Update: The engine is officially borked. Threw a rod or something. See my newest post.

so I'm sitting here in a random parking lot in the middle of the night 100 miles from home after having some engine trouble using some random open wifi. I had the car back from the shop for less than 1 day and the sounds make me cringe - the sounds of metallic death.

i found one of the spark plug wires was loose, but that wouldn't cause the loud knocking and metal squealing noises and stalling.

All they did at the shop was change my oil pan gasket, a wheel bearing, and an exhaust gasket (was discovered to be bad while changing the oil pan gasket).

While I wait for the tow truck to take me home, I'm pondering the situation. What should I do? On Monday I'm going to call the shop for sure, but in the meantime I have no transportation for who knows how long.

I've been sitting here for almost 2 hours now, with another hour+ wait for the tow truck.

:shrug:
 
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may sound like a dumb question but stranger things have happened...did they refil your oil? and if so did they put enough in?
 
Yea, after checking the plug wires I did check the oil. It's at the max line. New filter, new oil.

The thing is, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the car while I drove it 100 miles from home. Of course, I wasn't driving it, so my friend might not have known it was off. As soon as I got back behind the wheel I immediately noticed I was hitting a wall at 4k RPMs. I thought, "what is wrong with my car? I thought I had a V6?" later on the loud knocking started.

Then finally the loud metallic squeel as I pulled into a dimly lit parking lot. The car had stalled 5 times before I gave up on driving anymore tonight, and was reluctant to restart each time.

I'm worried now that my engine is completely trashed and I will need to find money for a new engine or car.
 
does it make the noise at idle, just sitting in P? if so then my first...not nesisarily correct, guess would be a bearing...if it only makes the sound when rolling then mabey they f-d up your brakes or installed the wheel bearing wrong. i wud suggest smelling the oil if the sound is coming from the engine itself, especially if it does it when sitting...sometimes when you spin a bearing or have other internal engine damage your oil will have a strong burnt odor to it.
 
The noises were definitely coming from the engine itself. Nothing looks or smells odd. The knocking had no rhyme or reason - it made it while idling in neutral and at varying speeds and RPMs in gear - stopped or moving.
 
right, neutral, sorry forgot it's a MTX...um, thinking....ow that hurts...mabey belts...one of yout belt driven accesories is locked up...mabey even water pump, check coolant leval too. just try'n to help u think or stuff u can check right now while you wait...hope'n for you that it isn't internal!! you might even have your freind fire her up just for a couple secs while you watch the belt to see if it spins different or even stays put...look at an angle, i had one throw a belt with the hood up and it flew like 40-50 feet and dented the house siding:blackeye: , so be careful!
 
We're afraid to start the engine again at this point, but we did both look at the belt earlier and neither of us saw anything wrong with it while it was running.

I did have a new water pump put in a few months back, though...

Unfortunately I'm not really a car guy so I don't really know what is going on, it just sounds like I'm in for a real nightmare.
 
did it pull to one side, run hot, or any other symptoms you can think of?




ps...where are you from? if u're close i'll buy it off you so you don't have to worry bout it!!:laugh: :laugh:
 
I'm in Austin, TX. Car will be in San Antonio by dawn, assuming the tow truck ever gets here.

Car had no CEL or other warning lights, no adverse driving except for the "wall" at 4k RPM. In fact when I first picked it up from the shop it never felt better to drive with the new bearing, definitely didn't notice any engine problems for the 1 mile drive to my house. Although my friend said it stalled on him a couple times, the first couple times he thinks he did himself (stop and go traffic - he doesn't drive stick normally).
 
well there ya go, blame it on him and his non-stick driv'n abilities!!:laugh:

but i hope it isn't internal, but it may be, hard to say without see'n it in person...best of luck on it tho.

if u do decide to sell instead of fix'n it let me know i'm in OK so i wudn't mind driv'n the truck down there to fetch her:laugh: ...just an idea...personally if i were you i'd fix it regaurdless but that's just me:shrug:
 
While I do enjoy driving contours, fun cars and all, I'm pretty much done with Ford. I'll probably buy a Mazda 3 or 6 for my next car if this one is done. No more used cars for me. :(
 
you do realize that ford makes mazda right? many engines in mazdas are exact same as in fords too, they don't even change the tags on them...it don't matter to me, just thought u shud know that if u are upset with fords. personally i think anything made after the 70-80s roughly is a peice of **** anyway....regaurless of name brand and such they all fall apart and are only made to last 10yrs at the max....my 57 merc is made better than anything on the market today:shrug: ...ok sorry end rant i guess...like i said good luck however you decide to go and be sure to let me know if u do decide to sell her!
 
I know Ford owns Mazda and they share a lot of stuff, but a Mazda is more Mazda than it is Ford. I could also go for a VW sedan, who knows. I really don't want to think about it right now, actually. lol
 
yeah, i don't blame you, well enjoy your nice long sit...think i'd go for a nap:crazy: don't forget to post later to let us know what happened to her!
 
What exactly happened upon noticing the car was not "right". Give exact details. Tell us what the noises sounded like.....

PS... This is an SVT model right? How many miles? How long have you driven it? What have you done maintenance wise since you've owned it?
 
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i thought he descibed thing pretty good for someone who is self described as "not a car guy"...normally u can't even get that much outa someone who doesn't know much about cars, and besides even if he described everything perfectly it is almost imposible to tell him exactly what it is...and what good would it even do him if he doesn't know enough to work on it himself?...i think he needs to have someone local to him look at it that knows about cars...sounds are not good enough to diagnose, i once heard my towncar over the phone making a knocking noise, very loudly...i knew for a fact it was a thrown rod til i got there,it was just the harmonic balancer...a 15min fix since i had one in my garage. so there is no point in telling him that he has something horible when in fact it is imposible to know for sure without being there.:shrug: just my opinion i guess
 
tredse1 said:
you do realize that ford makes mazda right? many engines in mazdas are exact same as in fords too, they don't even change the tags on them...
Click to expand...

You're pretty far off there. Yes they share some stuff and make a few cars for each other but all of the companies have those deals with each other.
 
Here's my afternoon update.

Tow truck driver finally showed up at 4:30 AM or so. Drove me all the way from downtown Austin to San Antonio (yay 100 miles AAA towing) and dropped it off at the shop that worked on the car. They aren't open until Monday so my buddy and I showered and changed at his house then drove his car back to my new place in Austin to finish unpacking my stuff. We have both been up for 30+ hours now and while he is crashed on my couch I've been unable to get to sleep yet.

And for a recap on the car trouble:

Tuesday: Drop off car at shop for oil pan gasket and wheel bearing replacement
Wednesday: Car isn't ready, not a big deal
Thursday: Car not ready, need a new part (exhaust gasket - something ceramic they had to order from Ford)

Friday: Pick up car. Feels GREAT with new bearing on my 1 mile drive to my house. Finish packing U-Haul truck which I drive while my friend takes the SVT behind me. He notices nothing, but doesn't open it up at all since he doesn't normally drive stick. We drive 90 miles to my new apartment.

Friday Night: I finally get back behind the wheel because we need food. I notice immediately that I'm hitting a "wall" at about 4k RPMs. Instead of the usual "opening up" it just stops increasing power with RPMs. I'm immediately worried and start to take it easy, but forget about it because I'm starving. After unloading the U-Haul truck we head back to San Antonio where I'll drop off my friend and gather up anything I left behind (like, say, my cat). Car stalls 3 times in downtown Austin, knocking horribly (randomly, at any RPMs or gear) and when I turn down a street to go find a lit parking lot to inspect it the screeching starts and the car stalls and takes 3 tries to start up again. I get it into a lot that has enough light to kinda look.

It is now 1:00 AM on Saturday and the only thing I can visually see wrong is one of the spark plug wires is loose, both clips wont stay clipped on. I called my friend who knows a lot about cars and he says it could be really really bad or benign, like if it was just one cylinder not firing. But the sounds make me think bad bad bad.

Call AAA and await tow truck for 3 hours. Arrive at the shop by dawn and leave the car behind with a note.

If not for the fact I had to go turn in the u-haul truck in Austin I would probably have just slept on my floor in San Antonio today.

On a lighter note the tow truck driver offered to buy it from me. :(
 
Pale Horse said:
PS... This is an SVT model right? How many miles? How long have you driven it? What have you done maintenance wise since you've owned it?
Click to expand...

98.5 SVT. around 136k miles right now. I've had it for 1 year and only put 6k miles on it. I've had the water pump replaced, new pads and rotors, new tires, new spark plugs and wires, new air filter, but no other maintenance (lazy/no free time/no money - in that order). The wheel bearing was in need of replacement almost since I bought it, and the oil pan gasket shortly afterwards. I just topped off the oil every now and then. I know, I know, bad bad. :rolleyes:

Other than that, though, the car has been great to me. :shrug:

I really wish I didn't sell my '90 4runner last fall. I changed the oil once and it had a number of needed repairs that I never did and it still wouldn't give up on me - even when I took it off-road a little too rough.
 
Oh and one final note (sorry for posting so many replies to myself): Never once did any of the dash warning lights come on, except during the stalls (as expected they all light up). But with the knocking and no power past 4k RPM there was no oil light, no radiator light, no check engine light, nothing. All was normal as far as the dashboard was concerned.

Also the knocking didn't seem to hinder performance - i.e. if I was going 35 MPH and it started knocking it didn't slow me down or anything, and it would sometimes stop knocking if I changed gears, but only for a few seconds to a minute.

Again this is not low-octane fuel knocking, it sounded like something was rattling around inside the engine. Loudly.
 
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