94 Spirit - 2.5 Flexplate

A couple of days ago my son hit a deer on the right front of the car. Didn't seem like anything other than the grill, light and hood were damaged. However, after a couple of hours of driving a knocking sound started to show up and it turns out the flywheel/flexplate is cracked.

Any opinions on: 1) Whether the jolt could have caused the plate to flex and crack, or should I just chalk it up to coincidence? 2) Would a cracked flex plate cause the car to run rough at times? This has also started to happen in the last couple of hours of driving.

Reply to
GordG
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Definitely could be related. If an insurance job, have them fix the flexplate too.

Not sure on that car, but if it has a knock sensor the cracked plate could cause a serious readjustment of timing as the engine thinks it is detonating.

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Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

My guess is the flexplate was already cracked. It seams hitting a dear would be a frontal impact. Because the engine and transaxle are mounted sideways it would require a radial impact (from the side) to break the flexplate.

If the flexplate is crack 360 degrees that would allow the crank shaft to break loose from the torque converter creating a rough running feel. If that is what's happening the car will become undriveable rather quickly when it grinds away all the contact points in the crack. Replace the flexplate and you should be good to go. This requires pulling the axles and transmission. Not that hard if you are mechanically inclined.

Gyz

GordG wrote:

Reply to
Gyzmologist

Further to this, at the time of impact he was swerving to the left in an attempt to miss the deer. I would guess that this type of manouver would put some lateral stress on the flywheel at the time of impact??

Reply to
GordG

As I said before - if it was OK before the accident it is MOST LIKELY accident related and it's up to the insurance to prove otherwise. I've seen it happen numerous times.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Ok, thanks.

Reply to
GordG

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