JEM

Hey guys, I'm after some technical help if possible. Basically my car just sh!t itself tonight. I own a Galant GSR '92 model with just over 150,000k's on the clock. I'm driving to a mates, and about 100m before his place, I lose a heap of engine power, the engine is making a horrible sound. If left to idle, its extremelt rough and it can't hold steady revs and eventually stalls.

I have been having troubles with the water pump where I am losing water and need to make sure I top up every few days (It is booked in for Wednesday to get this fixed). I thought what happened tonight was that maybe the water pump failed totally dumping all the water and causing the engine to overheat and maybe serious damage. Let it cool, checked all fluid levels and they are fine..

Any ideas guys???


Looks like I might be forced to buy something else

Martin

What makes you think its the waterpump? Is it leaking externally?

There could be a good chance of it being the headgasket....

THE DOCTOR

just a thought...take the oil filler cover off the tappet cover and start the car. hold your hand over the filler hole. do you feel anything, like the engine blowing on your hand real hard..are there any noises when starting and then they go away...?

when you start the car does it sound like an ordinary car when it starts, ie turns over normally, or does it spin real fast before starting..same thing does the noise if any get louder and then go away?

I'm picking you've spun a main and/or big end bearing, which would cause oil pressure loss, resulting in no pressure, overheating of the motor, which would evaporate the fuel in the fuel line and carby, (I am guessing your fuel line is close to your inlet manifold) causing the car to stall. thats why all your levels seem to be okay, when you check them.

pull the dipstick from the tube and use your thumb and finger to wipe it. rub the oil between your fingers, doe's it look like it has silver specks in the oil. if they have a chrome or silver look to them then you may have bearing problems.

I've had this happen before.

Big Block Ford

JEM :Did the car seriously overheat just before it stopped and the noise you mentioned ..What type of sound ,maybe hard to explain but are you talking continuous load banging ,or squealing etc.When you checked fluids were they clean as normal oil or water or contaminated with either or metal particles in oil.Oil colour normal etc.Still will be a tough call sussing it from a forum.Did any lights or gauges suggest anything bad before it stopped .

The Stylist

JEM you say your car is a 92 model - is it the shape that was sold between 92 and 96?

BTW is it manual or auto/2.0 or 2.0V6?

HSE2

Sorry to here Chris. Need more info!

JEM

I'll try a little better to explain things.

J-Type, its the shape before the last Galant sold here in Oz. It's a fuel injected 2.0L Auto.

Things have been sus with it for a while really, first the electronic suspension started to play up (disabled it) and another problem would be that while driving the "engine light" would come on and it felt like it was dropping cylinders and I'd lose power, although giving it a rev would fix it. I took it to a Mitsu dealer to get all this checked out, they told be the computer had an error code for the EFI and the ECS, so they just cleared the codes and told me that it's, should be OK, what a load of crock. So thats a bit of history of the problems with the car before last night.

When it happened last night there were no warning lights, the temp. was normal, it just happeded all of a sudden while going down hill, slowing for a corner. The car is undrivable, so it was luck I just managed to park it outside my mates place and I'll have to get it towed tomorrow. When we checked the fluids, they all looked fine, we looked to see if there was any foaming/whiteness in the oil, thats was ok, started the car with the radiator cap off, that all looked fine too, checked tranny fluid aswell. The car starts ok (turnover), but when it starts, it's very noisey, not a squealing sound but more of a knocking sound from the engine. The sound is consistant with revs and they don't go away.

Dad and myself went down this morning, he seems to think the CAM Belt is stuffed (it hasn't been changed in 150,000k's), not snapped, just damaged/worn/slipping, causing all the timing to go out of wack?? Could this cause it??

Thanks guys for the input.

HSE2

I think your dad might be on the right track. I was going to say that the engine seems to be running out of time. It could be the engine management at fault causing the timing to be out and hense the engine to sound like crap. Using water is not good, but you have to find where the water is going.

Big Block Ford

Sounds like you did most of the rite checks.The timing belts don't usually slip one tooth.Normally when they go they shear a number of teeth and the engine is a no go.If by some slim chance it has only moved by one tooth then it could explain it and as gtho4 says it can cause damage if you run it.As you have had trouble with engine management setup before ,I would start there.Looks like a trip to the Mitsi dealer mite be the job sorry.

JEM

Thanks guys, well I got it towed this morning to the place where its booked in for Wednesday to get the water pump and cam belt changed, he's gonna checkout while there.