problems with beater...help!

[Mike88]

Alright so I was out with my 1997 Ford Escort (4 cyl., 2.0L) beater last night and I'm driving home and it just dies on me. It had been studdering for a couple of weeks and it seemed to get worse last night before it died (basically, when I was on the accelerator there would be short blips of hesitation, but i was still running strong).

I got the car home by towing it with a chain from my dad's car. I try to start it up and it turns over strong, but won't fire. I thought it might be water in the gas so I put fuel line anti-freeze in but no luck. I checked all the spark plugs, and they're fine and they were dry so its not like I've flooded the engine. I can hear the fuel pump come on with the ignition, so its not likely that. I boosted the battery, still no luck.

It pulled off the valve cap on the fuel rail anad I have adequate fuel coming out, although its not spurting out, it just kinda poors out a little. I also turned it over with a spark plug off and there seems to be decent spark, but not as strong as I've seen in the past on this car. HELP!

[BLLDOGG]

Re: problems with beater...help!

go buy a cheap fuel pressure gauge and test the fuel pressure. and if it is good enough and steady, open the side valve into a container and see if it dies or not. if it does, your pump is bad. if the pressure is too low or shaky, your pump is bad

[Mike88]

Re: problems with beater...help!

the only problem is that i don't know what the proper fuel pressure is supposed to be.

[Mike88]

Re: problems with beater...help!

nevermind ^^^
I'll check my hanes manua

[BLLDOGG]

Re: problems with beater...help!

good job man. Someone who actual has a manual. If you do not own one or working ona buddies car. 40-60 psi is a decent range. I would prefer to see 50-60 though.

[Mike88]

Re: problems with beater...help!

my father actually has an old fuel pressure gauge, but Ford requires proper fittings, which he doesn't have.

My father is a fairly good mechanic and couldn't find any problems with the car. I'm throwing no codes by the way.

We hooked it up to his car with a chain and towed it to Canadian Tire...how ghetto is that? At least I didn't have to pay towing? Its pretty disapointing actually because I've never really brought my car to a garage. Anyway...I told them to diagnose the problem and get back to me.

[Mike88]

Re: problems with beater...help!

It turned out to be my timing belt...I didn't think to check because I had spark, but I didn't realize that was because I don't have a distributor.

Canadian tire diagnosed the problem and they wanted to change my water pump, give me an oil change and new plugs for $535 plus tax (over $600 in the end). I took the car back and did the job for 32 bucks in my driveway...in other words I did the job for about 5% of what they would have charged me.

[BLLDOGG]

Re: problems with beater...help!

I need to do it in my mom's 97 ford contour. Not looking forward to it :(

I'm too lazy

[auto666]

Re: problems with beater...help!

its good practice to do the water pump wile your there any good shop will try to sell you the pump at the same time

[Mike88]

Re: problems with beater...help!

its good practice to do the water pump wile your there any good shop will try to sell you the pump at the same time

I understand but I'm on a student budget so I tend not to fix things that aren't broken.

I'll agree that my oil did need changing, but my spark plugs are only a few months old. Canadian Tire will try to squeeze extra money out of you at every turn. When you buy new tires there they don't even ask you if you want the extra insurance anymore, they just tack it on without telling you about it...crooks! The only good thing about the garage at that store is that its open on weeknights and weekends unlike most others.

[Niko97RS]

Re: problems with beater...help!

change ur fuel filter, may be clogged

[Mike88]

Re: problems with beater...help!

change ur fuel filter, may be clogged

I actually found the problem a couple of posts ago...broken timing belt

[Niko97RS]

Re: problems with beater...help!

glad to hear u got it fixed
change ur fuel filter anyway

[Vanquish]

Re: problems with beater...help!

sorry I got to it so late, but I was going to tell you exactly what the problem was. The timing belt always fails and does that exact thing right before it goes. You didn't damage your valves any trying to crank it with the broken timing belt did you? I surely hope not.

Also I think you can even mess up your camshaft when trying to crank it with no timing belt.

edit: changing a timing belt every 80k miles or so......yet another reason you have to love good ol' timing chains.

[Dawizman]

Re: problems with beater...help!

sorry I got to it so late, but I was going to tell you exactly what the problem was. The timing belt always fails and does that exact thing right before it goes. You didn't damage your valves any trying to crank it with the broken timing belt did you? I surely hope not.

Also I think you can even mess up your camshaft when trying to crank it with no timing belt.

edit: changing a timing belt every 80k miles or so......yet another reason you have to love good ol' timing chains.

His valves will be fine. I used to own an escort, and the 2.0L engine is non-interferance, so nothing to worry about.