Mtxz453

Was getting rid of some old tires tonight the old fashioned way and got a little to carried away. I had the car in the higher rpms for a couple of minutes while i was doing some donuts and all of a sudden the car shut off. I realized the temp gauge was just below the red part, and the car wouldn't start back up without a jumpbox and even with the jumpbox was cranking very slow. Once i started driving, it started making a grinding noise, but i think thats the trans input shaft bearing into the flywheel, because I can feel the vibration in the clutch pedal and it only makes the noise in gear.

At idle the oil pressure is a hair above the red 0 line and hardly moves up to much when in gear, but still moves with the rpms. The temp is also a touch high and gets even higher when im going slow in gear. The check gauges light also came on. Once its cooled down tomorrow, i'm going to check it a little more thoroughly. Should I be looking for anything in particular with this type of problem, or is the oil pump on its way out? There are no other noticable sounds coming from the engine, valvetrain is as quiet as its always been.

bombebomb

Same thing happend to me, except my car never died. Couple weeks later I spun a few bearings.

Starter is most likely hard to crank because.
1.Its heat soaked
2.you have already spun the bearings

Since you said the oil pressure still climbs normal under load, I figure your starter was just heat soaked. The car dieing is kind of odd.

Your oil pressure is so low most likely because how hot the oil is causing it to thin out. (if this is completely incorrect someone please correct me)

Mtxz453

Well I left it alone for an hour and popped the hood to let it cool. The starter now starts the car like normal, but the oil pressure is still next to zero. I drove it home about 50 miles and it stayed around the operating temperature the whole time, except for a couple of spikes in 1st gear. However, like I said the oil pressure never climbed above that first white notch on the gauge and pretty much stayed more towards the zero when cruising and at idle. No wierd noises besides that grinding, but like I said it goes away when I push the clutch in. No smoking or leaking oil. The car's performance is definetly suffering, but it almost felt normal cruising home on the highway.

bombebomb

No knocking or anything? Mine knocked the entire way home, was hard to start.

Next day, fired right up had ok oil pressure, even drove it 4 more miles to my new house without it knocking.

However the damage was already done. If your oil never goes above that first mark, id be worried. Check your oil to just for good measure, im asuming you already did judging by your post.

A sign of performance loss is bad, my car definently lost a ton of power when it went. Hopefully your engine did not finish itself off.

jasonface

I would guess spun bearing, but maybe you got "lucky" and popped out one of the front press in oil galley plugs, though I think you would prolly have zero pressure if that was the case. Don't think it would be your oil pump, they usually work fine, or don't work at all.

shoebox

Continuous high RPMs (like a long burnout), is frequently a bearing killer on an old bottom end.

cnorton

There are special cutters for this but you can do it with other tools in a pinch. Just be careful while you're working on it. It will leave you some nasty cuts.

Remove the oil filter and carefully cut around it just below the top. Pour the residual oil out into a clean pan. Set the top aside and remove the paper element. Inspect any debris that may have collected in the folds of the filter element. If there are metallic bits or accumulated shrapnel in the filter, your bearings have gone probably away. I think you'll probably find enough to convince you that doing banzai burnouts are kind of like trying to teach a pig to read. You won't be able to see any positive results and you stand a good chance of pissing off the pig.

Good luck,

c

Kevin Blown 95 TA

Going by what you posted, I'd say your engine is done. Drain the oil and look for the glitter and maybe open the filter as suggested.

You can seize up an engine and it might run again when it cools off, but the damage is there and will only get worse. Check it out and let us know what you find.

Mtxz453

so by cutting open the oil filter and removing the paper filter inside, I'll be able to see if there is metal in it? And that would indicate that i spun a bearing? I'll go out there this morning and check it out.

That is really bad news if I spun a bearing ugh. Just out of curiosity, why would the oil pressure drop so much because of a spun bearing? Does it free up the oil travel more or something?

Kevin Blown 95 TA

If you get metal-to-metal contact between the bearings and the crank while it's running, it pretty much wipes out the bearings and you get a lot more clearance which bleeds off the oil pressure.

cnorton

Normally, there is very little metal in a filter after three thousand miles of normal driving on a healthy engine. There is a great deal of debris that is generated by failing bearings. Some of that will be in the filter especially after you've driven it for that distance. You'll know as soon as you see it. Some of it will be ferrous bits from the crank and main or rod housings and therefore magnetic. Other parts of it will not pick up on a magnet. That part is aluminum, copper, etc. from the bearings themselves.

Big factors in the oil pressure drops can come from the damage done to the inside of the pump as well as the fact that bearings spin and block off the flow of oil from that point through the rest of the system. Lifters bleed down, the cam looses oil, things essentially fail everywhere. The only question mark in my mind is how you ever drove it fifty miles with bad bearings. That doesn't sound right. Checking inside the filter will give you a good indication of the condition of the bottom end.

Hope you lucked out.

c

Mtxz453

Yea I was able to pull it into the driveway this morning but havent drained the oil or cut open the filter because it has been downpouring here all day. The oil pressure gauge was at halfway and seemed okay, but Im guessing thats just because it was cold. My coolant light actually came on and I checked it out when I shut the car off and it seems like my radiator is empty. Like I said there was no leaking oil, coolant or anything when it happened, after it happened, and when it was sitting at home overnight.

Could it maybe be a bad gauge or something along the lines of that? Maybe the pump or something loosened up or is on its way out? I guess i'll find out tomorrow if its not raining.

cnorton

Rain! What a concept. Hasn't rained here since about April. I forget that people have to deal with that sort of thing.

There are several inconsistencies in your symptoms.

1. If oil flow has been interrupted the lifters should have bled down resulting in noise in the valve train.

2. Driving 50 miles after a bearing has spun should have killed everything for good well before you made it home.

3. A leaking head gasket should have either filled a cylinder with coolant and locked the motor or have diluted the oil to the consistency of baby crap.

You may be dealing with more than one problem and a combination of symptoms. To avoid catastrophic failure, first cut the filter open and drain the oil. If there's no metal or pea soup in either you can look for simple things like gauges and/or senders. Take your time. You don't want to make things worse by overlooking something obvious.

c

Mtxz453

Man, I wish I could live where you did. Was over in San Diego this summer, didn't wanna leave. When I checked the oil it looked good. And since everything sounds normal and didn't blow up yet, hopefully it isnt anything serious.

bombebomb

Not exactly.