Rep Power: 0

I will try my best to explain my issue with my car.


last month the car would fail to start. called a mechanic and he checked everything out and said it was the fuel pump so i bought the fuel pump assembly and bam the car finally turned on. But it did take a few tries to get it going. So over the next few days i proceeded to turn the car on to keep the battery from dying and it began to become harder for it to turn on. i would have to hold the accelerator down and perhaps give it a few times to give it gas. it would turn on after the second or third try but it was so painful to get it going that the RPMs were so low that i had to hold the pedal down for about 10 seconds because it would try to shut off if i didn't, so that it could gain enough strength to idle on it's own.

after about the second or third day on turning it on for a few minutes it completely stopped turning on.


low story short the mechanic came by today and checked the pressure on all 4 cylinders and he said 3 of the 4 cylinders had no pressure and that the timing belt was fine aswell and not the issue. he said there might be bent valves in there and said this is all caused by old fuel that has been in the car. i asked him if tanking out the fuel tank and dumping all the gas out, draining all the fuel out and cleaning the fuel filterwould fix the issue and he didn't really say anything.


he said he had to take the car to his shop to continue to search for the problem and told me that the estimated cost of repairs was around $600.


i know cars to a certain degree but this out of my league and i'm wondering if maybe it might have something to do with the crank or cam shaft.

i want to make sure i am not being ripped off and if you guys might know what the problem is.

 
Rep Power: 209

my guess is your timing belt has "jumped time" and damaged some valves, no pressure in 3 of 4 cylinders would most definitely be a valve leakage issue,

how exactly did your "mechanic" verify the timing belt is "fine"?

the belt may be fine by looking at it, but that doesn't mean the timing is correct, did he rotate the engine by hand? line up the timing marks and check TDC?....this is what needs to be done next,


WTF?

he is probably correct about the valves, but there is no way old fuel can cause bent valves


going by what you have said here, i would not let this guy touch your car again,

 
Rep Power: 0

hmmm okay so do you have any tips on how to tell good mechanics from the bad ones then. like this guy charges me $50 everytime he comes out and calling a bunch of different mechanics and paying them each to check out what the problem is can be expensive.



as for the valve leakage how much is that repair cost?

 
Rep Power: 209

IF that is the problem and you DO HAVE damaged valves then you are basically looking at the cost to replace a head gasket PLUS the cost to refurbish the head, replace valves as nessessary, OR just replace the entire head with a used or refurbished one,

ballpark?.....$800-$1500 depending on where you go, keep in mind the cheapest job is rarely the best job,

while its all ripped apart you might consider doing other things like replacing the timing belt, tensioner, and water pump, depending on how many miles and when they were last changed (if ever)

you shouldn't have to call a bunch, you only need to find ONE who knows what they are doing

 
Rep Power: 0

well i called a local garage that has good reviews and is ASE certified and the guy also said that i could have bent valves and told me "look to save you money on towing it over here it's going to cost between $1500-$2000".

and since my car needs other things like new paint job, and fixing a/c i would be better off just junking it or selling it for like $500 or so.



so it looks like i'm out of a car

 
Rep Power: 518

Just how old is the fuel in the car?
A month or three or six? Not a problem.
More than a couple years old? Could very well be a problem, as severely varnished fuel can cause stuck valves.

 
Rep Power: 0

the problem is i was out of the country for 3 years and my dad said he was always starting up the car and moving it so that it wasn't in one place and the tires would move around so they wouldn't wear down. when i came back all these issues started happening.


never sold the car cuz i was not going to go out and spend thousands of dollars on another car and now it turns out i will probably have to anyway.

 
Rep Power: 518

I don't suppose the car was ever driven enough to need the tank refilled while you were gone?


3 year old fuel could definitely be a factor in what happened.
It's too late to undo the damage if it bent valves though, that will have to be disassembled and repaired.

Tank will need drained, blow out the fuel lines, and refill with fresh fuel before trying to run a freshly repaired engine....or it could happen all over again.

 
Rep Power: 0

the car is not worth fixing if it costed that much to repair. sure it has 123k miles but with everything that has happened i would still have to fix the a/c, and paint it cuz the paint has been eaten up by the sun, and that's another $700+ on top of whatever this repair will cost and that is just too much for a 15 year old car.

all i can do is maybe have that mechanic take it to his shop to find out exactly what the issue is and get a better estimate and if it is more than $600 it wouldnt be worth it to fix it.


besides what guarantee do i have that i won't get any more issues. a newer car and junking this one looks like a better option at this point.

 
Rep Power: 518

I'd expect to hear $1000-1500 to do just the head and valves in a reputable shop.

Put it on craigslist? say it needs an engine, see what someone will give for it. Might get more than you would if you dragged it to a salvage yard.

 
Rep Power: 0

You said that you were starting it to charge the battery. Is the battery fully charged? If it is fully charged then is it not holding a charge? A dying batter can cause the engine to slow crank and even dye.
If your engine is slow to crank I would say your batter. Yea it could be a fuel issue to but I would start with the batter n make sure it's fully charged and has enough cold cranking amps.

 
Rep Power: 0

it's a brand new battery not even 3 months old.

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay well then the battery could be dead if the alternator isn't charging it. Battery dies pretty fast with out a working alternator. I'm saying make sure the batter is good first because that's the easiest thing todo. But I read the rest of ur post n u guys kept bring up valves. And if they are bent or not. If the valves are bent just take the valve cover off and look for your self. Normally it's just a 10 mm socket an is pretty to take it off. Yea the springs will be in the way but if the valves are bent then it should be pretty noticeable. Also I would check vent lines n intake gasket make sure your not leaking air into your engine. Which is easy todo spray some break cleaner or carb cleaner around all the vent lines and intake gasket and if the idle changes and goes up then you have a vent leak.
And lastly how did he test your engine pressure? And what type of pressure are we talking about? Oil pressure? Compression in the cylinders? Or what.

 
Rep Power: 0

i am happy to report that i just got the car back from the mechanic earlier today and my car is back to working condition. turns out i did have 3 bent valves as he gave them to me to show me that they were indeed bent. a couple were more bent than the other but all 3 basically were bent right at the top.


the total cost of the repair was $700 so i think that was a good price and i'm glad we did not give up on the car.


it now has a new valve cover aswell so the oil leak that use to be on the valve cover is now gone aswell.

he also damaged the radiator when he came to pick up the car with his trailer so i got a brand new radiator aswell.

overall i'm pretty happy with how everything turned out.