jwt-1gnt
20+ Year Contributor
- 216
- 4
- Apr 8, 2002
-
Bay Area,
California
Hey guys,
Well, I'm having trouble with my car and can use any available help before I throw in the towel and pursue bringing it to a mechanic. Here is the situation. It is rather long, but I don't want to leave out any details.
Car: 1990 Laser RS manual, daily driver (not driven hard)
Mileage: 105,XXX
Mods are in my profile.
One day, while driving home from work, I noticed my car was idling a little funny. It wasn't surging badly, but at a stop light, the idle would drop from ~900 rpm to ~700 for a about a second, and then go back to ~900 rpm. I thought "maybe my isc might be going out." I got home and parked my car. The next morning, when I started the car to go to work, the car had a horrible noise coming from the head, mainly the intake cam area. I turned it off and got a ride to work.
I started looking through threads for symptoms of this type, and I came to the conclusion that I possibly spun a rod bearing or my lifters went out. At this time, I wasn't sure what kind of noise was associated with rod knock, but I found out after searching that my problem wasn't the case (at idle, the car was making a constant "diesel-like" noise). Just to be on the safe side, I pulled the oil pan and inspected the pan, the oil, and the rods. No metal flakes, the rods weren't loose when I tried to wiggle them. I asked my friend to come over to inspect the rods also, thinking maybe I wasn't trying to wiggle them hard enough, but he came to the same conclusion. I'm not sure how to check the balance shaft, but it didn't look out of place, or loose or anything. EDIT: Forgot to mention that before pulling the pan, I tried Lucas Oil Stabilizer to no avail. My friend bought a stethoscope, and the noise seemed to be coming mainly from the intake cam area on the valve cover, on the # 2 and 3 cylinders.
Other things I did was pull the valve cover, and try to push in the lifters (moving the cam lobes out of the way by turning the belt at the crank). They seemed fine, but being the "old" style lifters, I purchased revised ones anyway. While waiting for the lifters, I also inspected the crank pulley, which did not look like it was separating. The timing marks are aligned, and the timing belt does not look beaten up.
Okay, so when I recieved the lifters, I soaked them in oil overnight and emptied them before installing them. I installed them via the VFAQ instructions. With everything in place, I pulled the MPI fuse, and proceeded to crank the car. I probably only cranked it for about 5 seconds total, would stop, and then try to crank it again for another 5 seconds. I replaced the MPI fuse and started the car. Same noise as before. The only way I can describe the noise is that it sounds like a diesel. I've asked Edwin this question since I saw a post he put up a while ago when he replaced his lifters, but he told me that his lifter tick noise wasn't as bad a sound as he thinks mine sounds like. On another note, the car was idling funny, and was somewhat smoking/smelling/sputtering. It didn't before the noise came about. <-- I know my stock turbo is going out, but it never smelled/smoked when idling before
I thought at first that maybe I needed to pull the MPI fuse again and crank the car to prime the lifters more. So I pulled the fuse, cranked the car, replaced the fuse, and now the car won't start. Damn. This was roughly three weeks ago. In total, the car has been down for two months, I've only been able to look at it on the weekends, and of course it had to be around the holidays that my car is broken, so I really haven't had a good weekend to really inspect the car. I've searched threads and have found some threads describing a similar problem, but they never end up being solved, plus the threads are old, and some of the guys I've tried contacting haven't been in here (or on 'Talk) for a while.
If anybody has any ideas on what to check/inspect, I would greatly appreciate it. For the no start issue, I have checked for spark (with a friend) and confirmed that the car is actually cranking (took out the timing belt cover to see if the belt moves when cranking). I'm assuming I'm getting fuel since I pulled the spark plugs, and they were wet with fuel. That was my only assumption so far, I am currently reviewing femmeDSM's no start diagnosis thread to check other things. Anyways, if anybody would like to help me out, I will be working on the car this weekend. What sucks for me is that I live in an apartment, so the daytime is the only time I can practically work on the car.
My last resort is taking it to a mechanic, but I'm sure there are many DIY guys in here who can probably give me some input. Thanks in advance to anybody who helps!
Well, I'm having trouble with my car and can use any available help before I throw in the towel and pursue bringing it to a mechanic. Here is the situation. It is rather long, but I don't want to leave out any details.
Car: 1990 Laser RS manual, daily driver (not driven hard)
Mileage: 105,XXX
Mods are in my profile.
One day, while driving home from work, I noticed my car was idling a little funny. It wasn't surging badly, but at a stop light, the idle would drop from ~900 rpm to ~700 for a about a second, and then go back to ~900 rpm. I thought "maybe my isc might be going out." I got home and parked my car. The next morning, when I started the car to go to work, the car had a horrible noise coming from the head, mainly the intake cam area. I turned it off and got a ride to work.
I started looking through threads for symptoms of this type, and I came to the conclusion that I possibly spun a rod bearing or my lifters went out. At this time, I wasn't sure what kind of noise was associated with rod knock, but I found out after searching that my problem wasn't the case (at idle, the car was making a constant "diesel-like" noise). Just to be on the safe side, I pulled the oil pan and inspected the pan, the oil, and the rods. No metal flakes, the rods weren't loose when I tried to wiggle them. I asked my friend to come over to inspect the rods also, thinking maybe I wasn't trying to wiggle them hard enough, but he came to the same conclusion. I'm not sure how to check the balance shaft, but it didn't look out of place, or loose or anything. EDIT: Forgot to mention that before pulling the pan, I tried Lucas Oil Stabilizer to no avail. My friend bought a stethoscope, and the noise seemed to be coming mainly from the intake cam area on the valve cover, on the # 2 and 3 cylinders.
Other things I did was pull the valve cover, and try to push in the lifters (moving the cam lobes out of the way by turning the belt at the crank). They seemed fine, but being the "old" style lifters, I purchased revised ones anyway. While waiting for the lifters, I also inspected the crank pulley, which did not look like it was separating. The timing marks are aligned, and the timing belt does not look beaten up.
Okay, so when I recieved the lifters, I soaked them in oil overnight and emptied them before installing them. I installed them via the VFAQ instructions. With everything in place, I pulled the MPI fuse, and proceeded to crank the car. I probably only cranked it for about 5 seconds total, would stop, and then try to crank it again for another 5 seconds. I replaced the MPI fuse and started the car. Same noise as before. The only way I can describe the noise is that it sounds like a diesel. I've asked Edwin this question since I saw a post he put up a while ago when he replaced his lifters, but he told me that his lifter tick noise wasn't as bad a sound as he thinks mine sounds like. On another note, the car was idling funny, and was somewhat smoking/smelling/sputtering. It didn't before the noise came about. <-- I know my stock turbo is going out, but it never smelled/smoked when idling before
I thought at first that maybe I needed to pull the MPI fuse again and crank the car to prime the lifters more. So I pulled the fuse, cranked the car, replaced the fuse, and now the car won't start. Damn. This was roughly three weeks ago. In total, the car has been down for two months, I've only been able to look at it on the weekends, and of course it had to be around the holidays that my car is broken, so I really haven't had a good weekend to really inspect the car. I've searched threads and have found some threads describing a similar problem, but they never end up being solved, plus the threads are old, and some of the guys I've tried contacting haven't been in here (or on 'Talk) for a while.
If anybody has any ideas on what to check/inspect, I would greatly appreciate it. For the no start issue, I have checked for spark (with a friend) and confirmed that the car is actually cranking (took out the timing belt cover to see if the belt moves when cranking). I'm assuming I'm getting fuel since I pulled the spark plugs, and they were wet with fuel. That was my only assumption so far, I am currently reviewing femmeDSM's no start diagnosis thread to check other things. Anyways, if anybody would like to help me out, I will be working on the car this weekend. What sucks for me is that I live in an apartment, so the daytime is the only time I can practically work on the car.
My last resort is taking it to a mechanic, but I'm sure there are many DIY guys in here who can probably give me some input. Thanks in advance to anybody who helps!
