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i dunno what just happened, i drovemy car on the highway heading home and i start to smell something funny, im pretty sure its something related to the cooling because i have a bit of antifreeze sprayed in the engine compartment. so i pulled over after i got off my exit and the car dies, a little steam comes out from under the valve cover. im letting the car cool off and toped of the antifreeze, but my car wont start, turns over just barely but no start, and i have CEL code 90?? any one can help me as im stranded?


ok, after topping off with spare antifreeze, i definitely have a leak. but car still wont start, CEL code 90, what is it?

Recheck your codes, nothing for a code 90

http://mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php?fil ... F1-075.gif

Possible its a code 9? Thermo sensor? Would make sense if you cooked the coolant out of it

oops! sorry, ur right, i forgot rapid blinks are 1 n long are 10, my mistake, but car still wont turn on, out of diagnostic mode i get solid CEL

ok, kinda got it, the fuse for 'ad fan' (20A) was also blown, popped in a new one, car starts, time to limp my way home

One last thing if anyone can help me on this.

So the hose burst, I'm not sure what it's technically called though, cause different stores call it different things. Is this the bypass hose? Heater hose?

Here's a pic, sorry if it doesn't resemble anything but I'll describe it as best as I can. That hose that cuts through the middle of the pic is the hose that goes from the valve cover to to CAI. The top is where the ground is for the gauges. The bottom of the pic, you can see the thermostat. So now that you kinda have the general idea of what section we're looking at, there are two hoses that you see are shining in the light (at least where they connect to is), one a little bigger and the other small. I want to replace both, but the vital one is the bigger one, (the top one). Anyone know which hose this is exactly? It carries the antifreeze and runs towards the back of the engine block if that helps. (In the manual, I think it's labeled under 'oil cooler hose' or 'isc water hose' I can't tell). Hoping Autozone will have it in stock, as the place is only 5 blocks away from me.

yeah, MY CAR IS DEAD

I changed out the hose, it's not the heater hose, it's the hose that goes from the back of the engine block and meets the ISC hose. Anyway, along with that busted hose, I noticed this morning that my alternator belt also snapped (since it was no longer there) I had to change that too and charge my battery since it was dead.

The car tries to turn over, it cranks, but the car won't turn on. I put all the electrical connections back into place, starter works, I'm getting spark from the coil, so its not a starter or ignition/coil problem. I tried spraying starter fluid directly through the CAI towards the throttle body and it still doesn't start, so I don't think it's a fuel problem. The only other thing I can think of is the infamous distributor. Though I'm not pulling up any codes in diagnostics mode, am I supposed to when the ditsy is shot? I'm gonna try to replace that this weekend, and hopefully the car comes back to life. I don't know what else could stop it from starting. I don't think i burned out my piston rings or anything, though that shouldn't affect me turning the car on. When it died on me twice last night I had to pop the clutch and it ran, I don't see why it wouldn't now.

check your timing. Doooittt. before you spend cash on distributor, line up the crank on TDC and check the timing marks... didn't realize you had a bp. so should be pretty easy to check timing.

but would that keep the car from starting? I worked before my hose burst, it worked when I popped the clutch last night. and I didn't touch it while replacing the belt and hose. I'll give it a check tho

Did you pull the plugs yet to make sure you dont have coolant in the cylinders at all?

I'm gonna check the timing, remove the valve cover for inspection and see what I get

yeah it could have skipped a tooth or you could have stripped the timing belt. Does the engine sound like it's compressing when it turns? Or is it just turning?

Okay, here's the update, I checked the timing belt, seems to be fine, lines up pretty ok. (I'm by myself right now so I had to go back and forth cranking the car and getting the cams to be in the right place, this is the best I could do.)






Took off the valve cover, visual inspection is good, golden on the inside like it should be.








Took out the spark plugs, a little gunky, but nothing terrible. One might be burnt but should that affect the car turning on?











So I gave it another go at popping the clutch, AND IT TURNS ON! The new alt belt was ridiculously squeaky when idling but went away after the car reached operating temperature. Now the ISC hose had a leak because the clamp wasn't properly tight so I had to shut the car off because the car started overheating again. I did notice a sound though, like my timing is off or a cylinder not firing. 5 minutes after I shut the car off I tried to start it again like normal, but it still won't turn on. So I'm still stuck, I'm able to turn on the car popping the clutch but not when the car is stationary. Perhaps a compression test is in order??

SIGH


Did a dry compression test on the cylinders and it's no bueno. In order 90-0-30-80

engine is misfiring and there's not enough power for the engine to stay on on its own (the same thing happened to my B6, and gave me the reason to upgrade to the BP), I have to keep my foot on the gas when I come to a stop in neutral. I think because of the nature of the compression, the fact that 2 and 3 are really low, it could be that the head gasket is blown in between those two cylinders. If it's anything else (ie piston rings) I'm pretty much f*cked. (well, i think I am at this point either way). so I'm stuck at a cross roads right now. I can hope it's the headgasket and get that replaced. if that doesn't do it, I'll start putting up my car and miscellaneous parts for sale. I've lost the will to keep on throwing money at the car, I thought the BP would last me for a while, but I just don't wanna go through another BP swap if I have to. Is there a way for me to find out for sure what's causing the low/no compression or do I pretty much have to rip apart the engine to find out? I also started getting CEL 02.

Also, how easy is it to replace the headgasket, as far as time, tools, and knowledge required? I know the gasket itself is like $40 give or take. but it's pretty labor intensive, that's why mechanics would charge crazy money. I'm afraid to go that route and it ended up not being the head gasket. Anyone been there? What should I do?

head gasket replacement with the engine in the car is easy, I could pull it apart and put it together in a day on a 4 banger. If the head gasket is OK, you could just drop the oil pan, pull the pistons out and rering them. It's not an expensive job, just takes a little motivation. you'd be looking at your biggest cost items being... the rings and the head gasket.

I am really sorry to hear about your bad luck here...and I don't want to be a killjoy on Kris' advice...but you can't just heat up an engine so hot that the rings are destroyed, replace those rings in your driveway and drive it away.

If the compression is that bad you can be sure that there is other serious damage in there. Sadly I would never trust that engine again without a full rebuild.

At this point you have to at least inspect the rest of the engine.