Can anyone help me with this? I was leaving for work this morning and warmed my car up for my usual 10-15 and I pulled out of my driveway and into the turn lane, as soon as I put my foot on the gas to merge over I heard a loud pop under the hood and the car went deat and the steering wheel locked up. (Sidenote *a few days ago I was driving and my CEL came on, but 2 days later it went back off. I was gonna take it and have that checked out, but did not make it to the weekend*) The carwould not start back at all and once I pushedit out of the road in neutral, I looked under the hood and did not see anything smoking or nothing like that. I tried starting it again and it sounded like it was trying to start,but would not turn over. I took off the oil filler cap to look inside thereand hadmy wife try to start the car and I didnot see anything even try to move. I had my timing belt and water pump replaced last summer because there was a "squirrely" whine coming from the timing belt area, not sure if it was the belt or not, but got all that changed and it still made the noise. Anyone else had this happen or know what it could be?

2002 Lancer OZ with 70,xxx miles
Intake, exhaust, Optima Redtop Battery

Also, if this does require a new engine (God, I hope not) how much would a new engine run me? I might be better off getting a new car if it costs more than my car is worth! Please help!

 

First, do check the T-belt. Does everything electrical still work?

 

Check the positive battery connection there somthing that looks like a fuse on the battery hook up, That might have blown. If not then maybe alternator, if not that then just disregard my whole post.

 

Uh oh, that's sorta like what happened to my car a long time ago and I think that was a timing issue that turned into a fried pistons issue.

 

if you opened the oil cap and see the cam and valve train not removing, then it probably the timing belt snapped. when you crank the engine, did it sound like it cranking very fast?

 

pull that top cover off the belt its 4 bolts check your belt !!!!

 

just in case, does anyone know the valve timing?

 

it's not the timing belt

 

Check the fusible link on the + terminal of the battery.

 

That seemed to be fine too. We checked everything that we could see and get to. It seemed that my 3rd spark plug was not firing either, but I'm not sure, I'm gonna have to have the bish towed to an import shop or the stealership. If it will cost too much, I may have to leave Mitsu or either wait for the ralliart. 2008 ain't starting out too good for me at this point! She has been good to me for the past 6 years though. I hope I don't have to tell her goodbye yet, but if I do, it has been a fun and nomadic journey!

 

can you get spark out of it at all? do you have the same problem when you swap the coils? it very well could have been electrical and i've seen coils on ford F-series pickups literally explode.

 

yeah, we noticed that the third cylinder was not sparking, we swapped the entire part that the spark plug wires plug into and it was the same problem, the third spot seemed to not spark at all and he said it was acting as if it was a dead cylinder or something. SO at this point, we don't really have any clue as to what it could be, but now I guess I need to get it towed to Mitsu! (Damn it) unless I can find someone on a local forum that knows of a shop that won't bend me over a cactus and do me and my wife dry with no hat on!

 

have you noticed any leaks?

if the car doesn't even start right now you probably wouldn't get too messed up if you took off the valve cover to take a peek around to see if anything is obviously wrong under there.

HOWEVER if the coils aren't getting spark that means it could very well be something electrical. does your radio work? headlights? dome light? etc...

 

no leaks, but i'll check all that later, gotta use the outlander to get to work today.

 

So you replaced the coil on cylinder 2 and still no spark for cylinder 3? Is there spark on the bottom of the coil for cylinder 2? Swap the coils from cylinders 2 and 4 and see if the bad coil will not allow cylinder 1 to spark. That would mean you have a bad coil.