Alright, so let me explain here...

A little while ago I was getting onto the highway and there was a somewhat loud screech that came from the hood of the car (apperantly the engine). This sound was not horrendously loud, loud enough to here but not loud enough to drown out the music; the sound was odd it didn't sound as if it were metal on metal, but not electrical either. Anyway... the car remained in gear and we coasted to the side of the road. Immediatly after the sound came from the hood all of the guages dropped and I believe the electrical in the car turned off as well. That was the only thing that happened, there were no other noticable metal on metal sounds, sparks etc. The car was dead there, the car would not start after that.

We took the car to a garage to have the guys there asses the situation, although we told them we didnt really have any plans to have it fixed and they didn't want any payment for looking at the car. Initially they had mentioned that the problem could have been as simple as an electical system outage. Apperantly, they tried to turn the engine with a crowbar, two of them tugging on the crowbar could not turn it(this seemed to be the extent of thier research). Although, these men were seemingly trustworthy all I have to go on was their word. Their diagnosis after not being able to turn the engine was that it had seized. I'm not an expert but I see a few problems with this 1. the car remained in gear while we continued to coast down the highway and 2. there was a good level of oil in the car at the time.

The car had a few problems in the past, the most evident being a click in the engine, the mechanics that diagnosed this attributed it to something somewhat costly to fix, but not dangerous to the car (I dont recal the exact specification), and a broken power stearing hose, but this was fixed months before the accident.

So, what I'm asking is: What do you guys think the problem is here? Or if your not sure what are some things that I could check here in my garage to possibly diagnose the problem. I really dont want to go out and buy a new engine so...


Really, your help is much appreciated. Thank you.

if you could tell us what engine and trany weather auto or 5spd it has or just year and if its a gxe is se my first guess would be timing belt but 92 to 94 se dont have timing belts and the ticking you describe is more common on the 92 to 94 se models so not to sure

Blah how did I forget that?

Anyway it is a 1992 SE DOHC with a 5 Speed manual.

well a screech and then the electrical dying sounds like the tensioner bearing froze up and the belt squeeled. Or the alternator froze up also causing screeching.

easiest thing to do is take the belt off that goes to the alternator and see if it can be moved by hand or if the tensioner can be moved.

If its not that then I guess it could be that the VTC sproket broke and caused the chain to break and locking up the motor.


I still say with the screech that it was probably just the alternator locking up or the tensioner one.

also take all of the belts off and check each device to see if it can be moved.

These are very easy things to try.

Good luck,

Hmmm everything sounds pretty hopeful in comparison to a seized engine. If infact the engine had seized what sort of sound and things would I have seen? The actual even of an engine just stopping gives me the image of something somewhat violent.

Thanks alot guys.

The VTC, well I did have that clicking that happens on alot of the 92s and it had gotten to the point where it was pretty bad and would click all of the time. With this in mind is it more likely that the VTC sproket broke?

hard to say without actually hearing what the sound was but I would think it would be a clanking, piston hitting valves and chains breaking kinda sound.

It may be that serious but its not to hard to take belts off and check the mechanical devices to see if they spin freely.

I honestly think it could be something that simple but it could also be very very bad.

wont know until you check it out though

Good luck,

Thanks alot. I'll go check it out tommarow. How could I test to see if the VTC sproket was broken and that was the problem? Sorry, im pretty newbie here but have a pretty decent ability to assimilate info.

well first check all the other stuff then if that all apears to be ok then take the covers off of the chain guide and check it out.

I know that there could be failure from the VTC sprocket. I have a 5 speed trans from someone who had a VE 5 spd. and he said the sprocket broke and messed up his motor. Now I didnt see it and dont know that it was the VTC sprocket but from his description that is what it was.

with that being said lets hope for the best here.

OK. I'm no expert, but I had a similar experience. Loud *** bang, quiet coast to the shoulder. My engine actually turned over when we got her back to the mechanic. Turned out that a spark plug had dethreaded and shot out of place. Much better news than a timeing belt going during use... so just a thought.

So what happened here m8, we are all waiting?