I'm posting this message as a last ditch effort before having to pay full blown shop prices. Given the fact that a mechanic won't even look at a car anymore for less than a few hundred bucks I'd rather deal with the grease and broken knuckles if I could just figure out what I had to do. My 89 lebaron w\2.5Lturbo quit a few days ago and won't start again. I don't know how many people reading this may or may not have experienced what it's like to have his\her car die and then, upon turning the key in the ignition, the engine "CRANKS" (NOT START OR RUN) over, sounding differently than it had all it's life. And by different I don't mean low battery or dragging starter kind of different, I mean the sound where you think to yourself "oh sh__, my timing belt has broken or slipped". That's the kind of sickly sound my engine makes now when cranking it over. And basically that's the best starting point I have to work with right now. ALL OTHER SUSPECTS have been checked and cleared. Gas, spark, battery, etc. It's obvious that the bottom half of the engine isn't jiving with the top half but I can't figure out how or why. I've checked the belt and re-checked the belt and checked TDC with corresponding mark and then did it over again with no results. Any ideas about what to do next? Faulty sensor? The top half of chrysler's 2.5L engine is designed to never bump heads with the bottom half which I'm thankful for, yet is it likely that a valve may be otherwise damaged? Thanks for any input.
- posted
19 years ago