Apr 05, 2005 08:42 am <in peter griffin voice>
bad spark plug. . . bad spark plug.
how a bad spark plug can rip your engine apart
Posted on Apr 05, 2005 08:07 am
zekthedeadcow
Eat Spam before it eats YOU!!!
Member Since: May 11, 2002
I forgot to mention this yesterday but I;ve been having a lot of poblems with my car today and the cause was narrowed down to a bad spark plug.
The problems of course seemed completely unrelated... but the missing put the engine rotation out of balance which allowed the pin on the "harmonic balancer" (aka "thingy") to sheer which allowed it's bolt to loosen which allowed it to fly off and take all of the engine belts with it... Ive never lost _all_ three belts before... plus as the pully "thingy" was bouncing around the other pullys, like freeway pinball, it managed to warp the "thingy" and damage the cam shaft... which would require pulling the engine to fix... but we're lazy and just JB Welded the pully back onto the shaft :)
So don't let your spark plugs go bad :)
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Apr 05, 2005 08:42 am <in peter griffin voice>
bad spark plug. . . bad spark plug.
Apr 05, 2005 08:47 am I forgot to mention this yesterday but I;ve been having a lot of poblems with my car today and the cause was narrowed down to a bad spark plug.
The problems of course seemed completely unrelated... but the missing put the engine rotation out of balance which allowed the pin on the "harmonic balancer" (aka "thingy") to sheer which allowed it's bolt to loosen which allowed it to fly off and take all of the engine belts with it... Ive never lost _all_ three belts before... plus as the pully "thingy" was bouncing around the other pullys, like freeway pinball, it managed to warp the "thingy" and damage the cam shaft... which would require pulling the engine to fix... but we're lazy and just JB Welded the pully back onto the shaft :)
So don't let your spark plugs go bad :)
Speaking as a mechanic... that makes absolutly no sense at all. misfires do not throw your engine balance off. the "pin" on the harmonic ballancer was probably old and started to rust/rott. The misfire was surely an unrelated problem that happened at the same time.
Apr 05, 2005 09:40 am I had a timing belt slip on my Talon and the off timing caused every valve and piston head to collide and bend. $3500 worth of repairs (on a $12,000 car), 500 miles from home, car full of my entire dorm room's contents from college...what a day!
I lucked out in so many respects: the failure occurred as I was pulling into a gas station from the interstate, there was a motel right there, and when I got home from this fiasco, there was a recall notice from Chrystler in my mailbox saying something about a faulty timing belt.
Don't ya love little 4-bangers? I'd never be able to do anything mechanical to a car. Hell I almost went over the edge installing a stereo/power amp/cd changer!
Oh and pjk you had to bring up Family Guy hehehe.
Peter (to car): what? you want me inside you?
Apr 05, 2005 09:45 am I'm good enough with a car to do what I need to...change brake pads, oil, other fluids, changing plugs, radiators, filters and all that routine maintenence crap...I have found that quite often (obviously not always) if you keep up on the routine maintenence, the big probs don't come around as often...
Apr 05, 2005 10:07 am Still driving my cavalier with 167,000 miles and it runs pretty good! Change the oil every 3,000 miles and now run gas treatment every feel up.
Oh yeah, my dad's timing chain broke not too long ago. Image a medal chain breaking that is going around and around about 400 miles per hour. When other parts are right beside the chain and that chain breaks off, you can imagine the damage. Plus, when a mechanic has to break down the top half of the engine and replaces the chain with a timing chain kit and doesn't even bother to look at the teeth that hold it in place or anything else around it. Of course the car doesn't work, so he takes the engine apart again and replaces the teeth part. Still doesn't check the rest of the engine that is right beside it. Doesn't work and takes the engine apart for a 3rd time and finally replaces the other parts that broke. Why should we have to pay $1400 in labor because he didn't bother to check? I was pissed and about to strangle a redneck.
Apr 05, 2005 10:26 am I am on my second cavalier, the first one lasted me 13 years, the one I have now is a 2002. The cars are inexpensive, and run forever, God bless 'em.
Apr 05, 2005 10:31 am Our drummer had the same problem with a saturn. THe timing belt let go, of course shredding it to multiple sized pieces. After being replaced, the engine siezed up as there was no oil anywhere in the motor. Seems the mechanic didn't take out the multiple parts from the oilpan, thus letting them jam up into the oil intake. He went round and round with saturn but they said it's not their fault. 1500$ later, his car was running again. ugh!
Apr 05, 2005 10:33 am Quote:
strangle a redneck
heh, i saw that on blue collar tv last night.
Apr 05, 2005 11:46 am Yes, God bless'em cavaliers!
I don't know about recent models, but hopefully everyone will stop using Timing Chains. American made cars are doing just fine with the belt. It breaks, you slip another one on, no big deal at all.
Apr 05, 2005 11:54 am yeah, belts are a breeze to fix...chains, ummm, not so much...
Apr 05, 2005 12:36 pm fix, sure. but if a belt snaps... it still swollows valves ( the pistons and the valves connect, bending valves and possibly punching a hole through the piston).
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