Hi,

1998 626 Auto 4cyl stalled on me at a red light. Thought it needed gas (on E but only slightly). Pushed car to station, gassed up car started (roughly for 1st time) & I drove. Didn't feel right for some reason. Got to another red light & stalled again. Was overheating too. Pushed to safety & called a tow truck. My friends suggested alternator. Switched it & started running great. For a week.

Noticed what looked like steam every now & then coming from under the hood. Could never find source whenever I parked to check it out. Added coolant & it seemed to take a lot. Could smell coolant for few days but never saw a leak. Assumed the spillage (from pouring in) was burning off the motor.

Drove on highway & it stalled out completely. noticed it was very much overheating again. Drifted to shoulder & called tow truck. Put more coolant in & it seemed to guzzle a lot even though I had just filled it a few days prior. The engine was very hot & steaming. The rad cap was under no pressure, whatsoever. Even with hot engine it came off like it was cold. After a couple of minutes of coolant working through system, I heard it sizzling (boiling) once it reach somewhere on the drivers side. After hitting this hot zone, it started to sputter from the fill hole. It sputtered quite high.

It has never started again.

The engine turns over but will not fire up. All the pulleys, etc turn normally. Looked through oil cap on the cover & can see the rods(?) turning. Can not hear fuel pump prime when I turn the key. Head gasket has been suggested. The oil on the dipstick (which I keep checking) does not appear milky or frothy to indicate a leak.

Checked fuel filter & it was fine. While it was off, we checked & verified that fuel did not appear to be getting to the engine. Replaced fuel pump & still no change.

Did a compression test & it came up as 0 for all four cylinders. No movement whatsoever.

What would make a car lose several things at once? No fuel getting to motor, overheat, no compression, possibly not holding coolant. I think my A/C was acting up before all this too. Started cold but would quickly warm up.

It seems that the pump is not receiving it's signal to do it's job. ECU? The fuses are all good & am not sure about relays as my friend may have accidentally screwed up the order when checking them. Does anyone have a lay out for relays? My cover & manual only shows fuse placement, not relays. Can't find schematic online either.

Also borrowed a code reader & it says Pass - No Codes.

What have I done to my baby?

 

Your first concern should be your 0 compression!!! I would pull the head, have it checked and while the head off you will be able to see what shape the lower end is in.

 

Putting cold coolant into a hot, dry engine is certainly a no-no, especially one with an aluminum cylinder head. You should've waited till the engine cooled down to add coolant.

You may have had a blown head gasket that leaked coolant into a cylinder before all this real trouble began. Check the spark plugs and if one in particular looks VERY clean, almost like new, that was likely your original problem.

I am not fully knowledgeable about this, but I have read somewhere that under certain circumstances, one of them may be a lack of compression, the ECU will shut down the fuel pump to avoid causing additional troubles. That's my guess for that one.

 

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I'll have it towed to a shop & they can tell me what it's going to take to get it running again.

I've been toying w/ the blown head gasket idea. If this happened could it leak into the cylinder & not the oil? The oil shows no evidence of coolant.

It was stupid of me to pour in the coolant when it was so hot. Didn't know better at the time. Hope I didn't damage it further. Dumb.

 

The spark plugs were all normal & uniform in wear. I like your ECU theory. Would love to find out if this is the case.

 

Yes. A blown head gasket will leak anywhere it breaks. If that happens to be between a water jacket and a cylinder, that is likely where the fluid will go. The cylinder offers enough suction that it can pull coolant into it on the intake stroke.

However, if the plugs all look normal, that is not what's happening. Burning coolant will clean the carbon deposits off the plugs (and piston top) and make them look like new again. Eventually it can eat a hole right through the top of an aluminum piston. 'Very corrosive to aluminum.

 

Huh, that's very interesting. I'm learning so much on this site. I wonder what actually is happening to my car then. Someone else told me my timing belt may be missing teeth. Others refer me to fuses & relays. What to do. What to do.....

 

Well.... you could set it on fire? Oh wait, someone already suggested that.
j/k

There are a number of things it could be, or could be related to your problem which is why there are so many guesses, including my own. You will not actually know until you get dirty, as the saying goes.

My rhetorical question is: If there is no compression across all 4 cylinders, then how could someone think it a relay problem? I could see it if you had compression but no fire or fuel.

The timing belt does make more sense though since if it is out of time with the crankshaft/pistons, it might be opening a valves when the cylinders want to compress.
A real possibility there, imo.
But didn't you say that the timing belt had been done recently?

 

No, I have never done the timing belt. When I remove the oil cap & look into the engine, I can see the lifters of whatever those are called spinning normally. If my timing belt had a problem would those still turn? Is changing a timing belt a big job. How much would I have to remove just to deduce that this is the problem?

Thanks again, for you advice!

 

If it has skipped some teeth, but is hanging tight now, then the valves may seems to be working as they should. The problem is that they may not be timed properly with the rest of the rotating assembly. e.g. the crankshaft, connecting rods and pistons. It's akin to having the ignition timing being off so that the spark plugs fire at the wrong time and the engine will only backfire violently.

And with out the stress of a load on the engine, such as if it were running and the trying to pull the weight of the vehicle, the belt may not have the stress on it to skip more teeth than it may have already.

See what I mean now?
Of course, this is still only a theory.