timm98gst
15+ Year Contributor
- 529
- 8
- Nov 11, 2004
-
Akron,
Ohio
Car was running just fine until the other night. I was on my way home and had just gotten onto the freeway. Wasnt pushing it, just driving normally. I then felt a sudden sluggishness and a few seconds later the check engine light came on. Wasnt sure what had happened, no funny sounds or anything. I accelerated and the car seemed to have trouble getting over about 90mph. Usually I can hit at least 120 without really trying. Got home and used my obd2 scanner. Came up with a code P0300 - random multiple cylinder misfire. I then cleared the code. Nothing looked any different under the hood. Pulled the spark plugs (NGK Iridiums) and they were a little white so I replaced them with NGK BPR7ES gapped to .028. Seemed just fine at idle so tonight I took it for a drive. Everything seemed fine so I got on the freeway. Didnt do anything crazy, just eased it up to about 80. Still everything seemed fine. Got off on an exit and when I pushed in the clutch to slow down for the red light, the car died. I restarted it but had to rev it a bit to keep it from dying. Once I got going again I started to hear a clacking noise coming from the engine. My parent's house was nearby so I limped it there and it died again as I pulled into the driveway. Restarted it and let it idle while I popped the hood and listened to the engine. Could hear a faint clacking sound and when revving it a bit the clacking got noticeably worse. Pulled the spark plugs and they looked fine so I put the old plugs back in just to see if that was the problem. No change. Also the check engine light has not come back on.
I could really use some advice here. Obviously the spark plugs were not the reason for the misfire code. When searching through all the threads I could find on the P0300 code, it didn't look like anyone else's P0300 also lead to this clacking sound. Is it possible that my timing belt jumped a tooth? Checking the timing is a bit out of my range of knowledge. I was hoping there were a few other things I could check before having it towed to the shop. If there's any other info I can provide to help with the diagnosis, please let me know. Thanks everyone.
I could really use some advice here. Obviously the spark plugs were not the reason for the misfire code. When searching through all the threads I could find on the P0300 code, it didn't look like anyone else's P0300 also lead to this clacking sound. Is it possible that my timing belt jumped a tooth? Checking the timing is a bit out of my range of knowledge. I was hoping there were a few other things I could check before having it towed to the shop. If there's any other info I can provide to help with the diagnosis, please let me know. Thanks everyone.
