Murphy's law.
 

Wondering if you guys could help me out with this. It's a 93 sc400, 191k miles. Last night I worked the Mardi gras parades(firefighter/emt), and after leaving work all was well. She started up just fine, drove smoothly, no hesitation as always. After meeting a few friends for drinks, I began the trek home. Again, all was well. After about a mile or so down the road, it felt as if it had a possible miss at about 1500rpm. Maybe 50 feet later, it got much worse, as if I was running out of gas. Then it shut off while I was driving. So I pulled into the turning lane and tried to restart it, but to no avail. Upon inspection of the battery, I noticed the terminals were fairly loose. Sounds like the culprit, right? Well after tightening them, it still wouldn't start, and sounded like it wasn't turning over as fast as it was. About that time MPD arrives. They offered a jump, bit it STILL wouldn't start. So considering it's now 230am and I had another 24hr shift ahead of me, we decided to push the car into a church parking lot where it sits now, and retired for the night. Well I'm at the station today until 7am tomorrow, but I plan to work on it tomorrow. Any ideas would be appreciated guys, thanks.

id check to make sure your getting spark by pulling each plug wire out and looking while cranking... (dont get shocked lol) uhm also if this isn't your problem check to make sure you got fuel in all cyl by pulling them out and smelling them... (do this after cranking) all you need is fuel and spark and air... so check these things... its all i can think of as you have no CEL's. let me know how it goes

check ignition coils/ignitors

Has the timing belt been replaced?

oh god that would be bad if the timing belt was busted.... knock on wood

Deff check coils. I had a bad coil in my crown vic before i bough the sc and it was causing it to run soo bad. Its basically the same as running with a cylinder down. Also check ur maf sensor too.

the thing with these sc400's is it could be one of many culprits.

Yes if you have the know how check your spark and fuel but your best bet is just bring it into a trusted mechanic to have it properly diagnosed.

Aside from coils and plugs it could be your cam sensor or crank sensor or the maf as said earlier.

Im sorry ive been in your position and it is no fun.

My culprit turned out to be the cam sensor was loose.

good luck and keep us posted.

Oh and is your check engine light on?

If so do u know how to check for codes?

please post back,]

thanks

I was thinking more on lines of skipping a tooth or two. If it had busted I think he would have known. Isn't the SC400 an interference motor?

Thanks guys. I'm going to work on it when I get off tomorrow. No, I didn't throw any check engine lights, and it wasn't on when the incident happened. It just bothers me...what would cause it to vibrate(felt like a slight misfire) and then suddenly shut off while driving? Just strange. Is this a common problem?

The 1uz is a non-interfearance engine so if the belt did break then atleast the motor is still good. Lexls.com has a tutorial on how to replace. from what I've heard you are losing amperage somewhere if it seems to be cranking slower. I'd check all the wiring to the starter plus all associated grounds. Then remove the timing cover to check the belt. there should be marks on your belt that line up with all the timing marks on your motor. you can put a socket on your crank pulley to move your motor to line up the marks. then cam and crank sensor. Good luck!

im assuming your car doesnt start at all at this point.

Which I think is safe to say that it probably isnt the coils.

My driver side coil failed completely on me but the car would at least start---although it shook violently and wouldnt rev very high it still started up on 4 out of 8 cylinders.

I think it is safe to rule them out, but check anyways to be sure.

Update. When I got off this morning I went and looked at the car. Tried jumping it, tightened the terminals, etc. Then after it not cranking, I decided to take off the spark plug covers to make sure everything was in good working order. When I opened it, rubber shavings were everywhere. Geez. At that point I knew what was up. Checked the timing belt, and it was eaten up and so loose that you could practically pull it off the pulley. It wasn't broken(to my knowledge, at least when I pulled on it the belt wouldn't come out), but like I said it was incredibly loose...I think it could have either jumped a tooth, or is just so eaten up that it won't stay on and the other pulleys just ground it up. From my research, the general concensus is that the '93 1uzfe's were non-interference, and this appears to be true. Which would be wonderful. Has anyone ever heard of this happening, with the rubber shavings and all? I need an official plan of action before I start jumping to conclusions and have someone else sort it out. I know what I'm doing(ex nissan mechanic before I started MFRD), but have neither the time or money(firefighters aren't exactly cash money millionares) really to do the job...any input appreciated.

no ive never heard if this happening but dont worry becuase the 1uz is a NON-interference engine.

Your engine is not damaged from the broken t belt im sure of it.

But your in for a bit of a costly repair from what ive heard.

Unless u can do it yourself of course.

good luck:thumbup:

I just did my timing belt service and it was a bear. More so because i did waterpump, bearings, cam seals (pain to get cam pulleys off, took alot of time), crank seals, also was a Chicago car. Replaced steering rack, hoses and a/c compressor so that added to the job. Honestly if you don't have much time the seals i pulled on a 92 with 170k had no seeping and would save much time if you skip. You can also check both bearings and see if they are good if your really on a tight budget. You will need to order the o-ring for the waterpump bypass pipe if you replace waterpump and o-ring for water (radiator) inlet (couple things i didn't have and caused hold up by having to order). Chances are that a component seized or has excessive friction, which in turn shredded your belt. Possibly hydraulic tensioner failed to supply enough tension. You will just have to take it down and find out.

If you're on a budget, the belt itself is cheap. Around $50 I've had it happen on my old T-Bird, but it jut just skipped a couple of teeth, no shavings though. That's why I asked about the belt.