DCsportsfan53

Yeah, pretty much. I actually carry a spare dizzy in the trunk of my 89' Jetta....one piece of technology I don't miss at all. Crank/cam sensor and coil on plug is much better.

I love how the dog immediately moves to start eating the spilled food. ****ing puppies.

Was it the EPC (engine power control) light? I somehow missed your response to my question in this thread, don't know if you've gotten the car looked at yet or not. It sounds like it could be an ignition coil problem from the limited details you've given but it's hard to say without being able to pull the faults and see in person what the car's doing. Drop me a PM and I'll see what I can do to help you get it fixed.

Was the car bucking when it first started to act up, like it was misfiring? Also, I assume you mean check engine light when you say ECF light?

Before you replace the alternator, check the fuse box on top of the battery. They have a habit of shorting in two places, the alternator harness (far left cable, black one with a flat fuse) and the 30 amp fuse for the coolant fans. Solid chance when you open that car you'll immediately see that the cable and fuse box are melted. If that's the case, you'll be replacing the fuse box and alternator harness first.

Not saying this is the issue with the car, obviously, but it's something to consider that those Nissans are known to have a few engine harness problems. One of the coolant sensors can leak through the sensor, into the connector and into the wires, corroding the harness. One of my co-workers had this happen on his early 2000s Maxima, had to replace the whole engine harness....not fun or cheap. Obviously I would start by checking the all the normal stuff, filters, plugs, plug wires, ect, just thought I'd throw that one out there. Btw, anytime the ignition is on and the engine is not running the oil light and check engine light SHOULD be illuminated and aren't a concern. If the engine's running and they're on, that's something to look at but them coming on with the engine off/key on is just a normal check to make sure that the warning light itself is working. Check the spark plugs and (if it has plug wires rather than coil on plug, not sure with that car) spray the plug wires with some soapy water. If they're arcing, the soapy water will cause it to start stumbling and misfiring.

I would say, imho, flat rate pay is good for only one person....the owner of the shop. It encourages techs to do things too quickly, avoid things that don't pay so well or are difficult to do, charge more hours for the work and they suffer when the shop is slow. For all those same reasons, it's certainly not beneficial to the customer. Personally, if I ever ran a shop, the techs would be salary and get some kind of profit sharing out of it. As a tech, there's plenty to worry about already, it's not easy working on and diagnosing cars, especially today with as complex as they've become. It is SO easy to make mistakes, people just don't realize. The fact that we have to constantly worry about what job is next, if there's more work and how to get onto a job that pays better so we can make our hours detracts from the quality of work done and short changes the customers. Like I said, great for the suits, they only have to pay you a paycheck if they make money off of you and you're encouraged to upsell in a manner that brings in the most hours in the least time as opposed to simply doing what's best for the customer and life of his/her vehicle. Really not a fan of flat rate pay at all, more energy should be devoted to fixing the car right and taking care of the customer instead of constantly worrying about making hours.

It needs a head gasket Not useful, I know, just couldn't resist, I don't have any experience with them

Seriously, it's not a rubber belt it's a chain? Lol, that would be called a timing chain then, wouldn't it, not a belt? I know that sounds crazy and all...

Oh I definitely agree but just gaining what I could from the tenor of his posts, it didn't seem like that was going to happen. If you are going to keep driving it, Mick, be very, very careful about staying on top of the coolant level. You don't want to wind up with a roasted head.

Just fix it right, Mick. Trust us when we say that stop leak type stuff is very temporary and very well may end up causing you a lot more cooling system problems down the road. Just keep a close eye on it and keep topping it off until you can afford the radiator. You're in FL, right? It's not like you even need antifreeze, just dump water in the ***** till you can afford to fix it right or else you're going to cause yourself additional long term expenses.

True. From the way I'm reading it, the car will occasionally not crank at all but I agree, we need some clarification on the symptoms before we can offer any real advice.

Wanna re-think that one? I don't know, maybe 2001 Hondas are still carburetted down under but 'round here, that's decades in the past. Edit: As to the problem, I think you're saying that the car won't crank at times. If your battery and charging system are in good condition (and the fact that it usually works indicates it probably is) then I would think your starter is on its way out. Do all the lights go dim and there's just a clicking noise when it won't start or does everything seem normal outside the engine not cranking? If everything else seems normal, the next time it happens try giving the starter a few love taps with a hammer and see if it starts then.

- Sticksboi5 [url=]http://extremeskins.com/showpost.php?p=6558115&postcount=6[/url]

Just so others know and for future reference....never, ever keep driving the car if it's starts overheating as a blown head gasket is likely result. When a car overheats the coolant boils and the pressure builds, that pressure is going to find it's way out somewhere and usually the head gasket is one of the easiest places. Save yourself the pain, shut the car off and call a tow truck as soon as it starts overheating. And SS is exactly right about the cylinder filling with coolant as a likely reason why it would restart after the first repair but not after sitting overnight.

Yeah, I agree. Especially on the engine flush part. First of all, if you're reasonable about oil changes your engine should never need a flush and most of the time an engine flush will result in leaky seals throughout the engine and sometimes unexpected failures.

Not sure what fuel management system Volvo uses but with VWs this type of problem can often be related to a coolant temperature sensor. I think Volvo uses Bosch stuff still, not really sure, but many systems use the coolant temp sensor to set mixture for cold start situations as the O2 sensor isn't hot enough to give a reading yet. If that sensor is failing it can report an innacurate coolant temp to the ECM and cause rough starts.

I just know that most of the time when a valve bends it's just the valve. If I was working on the car I'd tell the customer ahead of time we need to put the belt on and then see if there's been any damage. If it's not running right the head will need to be pulled. A vast majority of the time you'll wind up putting valves in it and that's that. I understand where you're coming from but I feel like replacing the engine for a bent valve without even inspecting anything internally is unnecessary when most of the time it's not going to come to that, but that's just me.

Why not just replace the valves? It's pretty easy to tell if the piston's been damaged or the valve seat's been damaged. Especially since the engine is running now, complete engine replacement isn't necessary for a bent valve. There's only a few things a bent valve can damage, pull the head and check them. Also possible the TB was just put on wrong though I'd have to say I'd doubt it considering the belt snapped while running. A competent mechanic should've know to check for bent valves knowing that :2cents:

Tell me about it, the V6 and 1.8T Passats especially leak all the time.

Springfield, in my experience which is mostly with VW, oil saturation of plugs and wires, contrary to what you would think, does not interfere with getting proper spark to the combustion chamber. VW tells us this, too. Maybe it isn't true on some cars but I don't think VC gaskets leaking can actually cause misfires due to saturated plugs and wires. I can't tell you how many times I've seen cars where all the wires and plugs were literally swimming in oil with no misfires or rough running whatsoever.

Your serpentine belt broke or your timing belt broke? VERY different situations. If the car is running poorly after a broken timing belt then there's a good chance that either the timing belt was installed incorrectly (a few teeth off when putting on the belt) or that 1 more vavles were slightly bent when the belt broke. Not familiar with the Escort motor I'm assuming it's an interference motor, most are nowadays, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Either way, if you're thinking replacing the VC gasket is going to fix problems with the way the engine is running it's not likely, you'll just be stopping an oil leak. Still a good idea to fix, though, not sure how difficult it would be on that motor.

I'm not sure I follow this, what good what would releasing the clutch before blipping the throttle do? You're either saying to put the trans in neutral, release the clutch, blip the throttle, push the clutch in, put into the proper gear or you're saying that you release the clutch with the car in gear and then blip the throttle. Either way, it's not rev matching. Push the clutch in, select the gear, blip the throttle to the right rpm, release clutch. It can't be that hard, should just be a few, easy to reach bolts holding it in place. It may even just clip into a bracket. Not sure on a Corrolla. Just make sure, before you do, that it's the bottle itself and not the hose or pump or something else. A good idea would be to buy a couple cans of brake clean and clean the area really well. Then re-check it in a few days or a week and you'll be able to pinpoint better where's it's coming from. Be VERY CAREFUL of one thing when you do this. If you wind up draining the fluid and especially if you replace the pump, after re-filling the system and before starting the engine, turn the steering wheel lock to lock and hold a number of times with the car's wheel's OFF the ground. Try to do this until you don't see lots of bubbles in the reservoir. It's pretty easy to damage a power steering pump if there's air pockets in there and you just drive it immediately, causing the pump to run dry.

As did I. Guess I'm doomed.

I could be way off here because my experience is almost exclusively limited to VW but that sounds like an issue with a sensor of some sort, especially given that the car's been regularly maintained and it's an intermittent issue. In VW's, for example, when cold starting the engine computer bases it's fuel mixture on readings from the coolant temperature sensor until the O2 sensors have warmed up enough to take over. An intermittent cold start issue like that, if I had to venture a guess, would likely be related to a sensor that has a hand in telling the engine computer what the current conditions of the engine are when you're trying to start it. I have a hard time thinking it's something mechanical or a tuning issue given that it runs perfectly often times.