Does Anyone Know?
 

I was cruisin to work this morning when I heard a loud noise that sounded like my gas tank felloff. The car shut off instantly and now will not start. I can hear the starter turning but no car.
At first I thought I thru a belt and it hit the hood but that was not it. What ever it was it was metal sounding and very loud. There are no leaks or visable problems with the car. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS COULD BE OR HAVE ANY IDEAS?

thanks

when you crank it over does it have any abnormal sounds? also did you hit a bump or did it just make a loud "BOOM" then shut off? did you check the inertia switch in the hatch?

When I crank it over it sounds ok to me. I did not check the intertia switch though. All I heard was a loud boom then it shut off and would not start?

The engine seemed to have to much oil in it. Could I have blown a gasket? Would that make a really loud metal sounding noise?

Seems like I would see oil everywhere if that happened.

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I'm gonna take a couple of guesses here. Might you have run over something large enough to jostle the inertia switch? We hit a coyote in an ambulance once and it sounded like we ran over a small herd of cows. It did a little damage on the way through, maybe?????not so much animal as something dropped from another vehicle.

If it had too much oil in it . . I would think something else like coolant is filling up the crankcase. Did you check to see if the oil is just oil? (as opposed to a oil/antifreeze mix)

Too much oil hu? I'd start by doing a compression check, then go from there.

I checked the inertia switch, that was not the problem. I was talking to a buddy and he said that my timing belt could have busted. It feels loose when I crank the engine and I can feel some kind of a woble. I also hear a little noise. That would explain the very loud metal sound I heard? What does everyone think?

you have a timing chain, and that could be it, if it decided to brake that would probably make some weird BOOM sound. if thats the case you might have damaged valves, and maybe your heads. when you turn the key on can you hear the fuel pump priming? if it feels easy to turn the motor over, im thinking timing chain, could be wrong though. maybe someone knows how to check for that without tearing the whole front of the motor off? good luck man!

one more question, how many miles does your car have on it, and has the motor ever been apart?

Well the timing chaing is what turns the cam right? and the cam lifts the valves. So it would make sense that if the timing chaing broke, the vavlese wouldn't open. So i would assume you could pull a vavle cover and crank the engine. Check to see if the valves open and close like they should. This is just my guess though and I'm not totally sure it will work. If someone can back me up or discredit this please do...

My car has about 76,000 miles on it. I am not sure if it is the original engine? I bought it used.

If the timing chain did break what all should be done to fix this?

If I take off the valve cover the check the chain, when I crank it will oil go everywhere?

What kinda woble? If you grab the crank pulley and pull/push on it, does it move? Remember that when you crank the engine over that it still moves the pistions up and down in the bores. If theres any type of compression left in the motor there will be some resistance while you try and crank the motor over by hand. As I suggested earlier, have a compression test done.

I didnt think the 5.0 was an interferance engine, meaning that when you do have a timing problem at no time should the valves come into contact with the pistons. That is of course with a stock type setup. You would still have no compression as the timing would be so far off you couldnt build cylinder pressure. Anyone know for sure?

i would just pull one of the valve covers off, and if the rocker arms move the chain is still intact, if not thats your prob. good luck man!

sn95gt19 backed my point up... Just take one of the valve covers off and check. Oil will come out, but as long as itdoesn't start it won't go everywhere.... it will just slowly fill the top of your head with oil until it starts to run over. If your worried about getting oil everywhere just put a piece of cardboard under the car first incase any spills.

there is a gear on the camshaft that spins the distributor.
so...if you pull off the distributor cap and watch for the rotor to spin then the timing chain is still intact. This way involves only two clips instead of like 6 bolts and you don't have to worry about the oil makin a mess.

after that I would do a compression test. perhaps the timing chain only jumped and didn't completely break.

keep us posted with anything you find

Conrad