[99whitees]

Driving on the interstate yesterday, bout 75mph and felt a "pop" in the engine. Throttle wouldnt do anything and the car began slowing. This threw a check engine light immediately. As I was slowing down, the engine died.
After I got back to the car with a truck and trailer, tried starting again and the starter sounds like its running very quickly but getting very little resistance. Then it had a loud bang and there was a fire on the backside of the engine. Put out the fire quickly, I'm guessing it somehow backfired up into the intake.
It had been having fuel leaking issues somewhere on the backside, hence why there was a fire.
I'm wondering if the engine dying is related to a broken timing belt though, it seems to fit the symptoms.
Codes are
P1684 - irrelevant
P0340 - Camshaft position sensor circuit
P1294 - Target idle not reached
P1299-VACUUM LEAK DETECTED (IAC FULLY SEATED

So did my timing belt just snap and let my pistons kiss my valves?
Oh and the car is a 1999 ES 3.2L with 156000 miles, I got it at 107000 miles, never did a timing belt on it, not sure if previous owner did.

[cdmccul]

Yup, that was your TB snapping - and snapping at cruising speed like that means that the pistons most likely did more than just kiss the valves.

The biggest clue is the lack of resistance to the starter turning. Curious how the engine would fire the spark plugs and injectors with the TB snapped, since it would see the Camshaft not-spinning - but I guess it is possible for it to ignore the cam sensor and fire on the crank sensor alone.

Pull the driver's side cam cover and look at the belt - I'm guessing you can see it is not tight.

[Scooter-Man]

Do that first. If it's not tight, , ,

[MrBigE]

My money is on the TB breaking. But definitely get a peek inside the timing cover to confirm.

[beeblebrox82]

oie. take a peek. Post pics!

[GTXKen]

I hope for your sake its nit the timing belt but odds are it is, its not suicide, it was murder, its a hard lesson about changing your timing belt when its due

[Adpros]

^^^SO true^^^

[300maximilien]

So....you're a gambling man huh? You have been here since '09 so it's not like you didn't know.

[Firemnted]

The dealer told me I don't need to change mine! I got 206000 miles on the car I bought it with 38000 miles so its safe to say its never been done! but I plan on doing it when we get our tax returns!

[mnitetrain]

Tic, tick, tick...............

[beeblebrox82]

it's a timebomb.

[99whitees]

Well, you all were right.
Timing belt went.



I suppose my next course of action is to figure out if (I'm sure they are but I need to know) there are bent valves. What would be the best way to do this? I know I could pull the upper intake manifold, pull some injectors and look in to check the intake valves
Also, assuming my 3.2 is done for, what's a fair price for a used 3.2 on craigslist? Or am I better off looking for a new vehicle?
Additionally, I'd like to thank everyone on this board, it has been and still is an amazing resource, I haven't seen a community this tight knit for any other vehicle.

[Adpros]

The dealer doesn't want to sell you a belt. He wants to sell you a new car!

[MrBigE]

It can certainly be repaired... but may be 'easier' to just swap the motor out for another 3.2 or 3.5. Where in Ohio are you located?

[Squilliam]

Trust me, if you broke your belt doing 75mph (turning 2700rpms under slight load) on an interference motor, you crashed quite a few valves. Best thing to do right now is yank the heads and see how bad the damage is to the pistons. Depending on that you could just pick up 2 new heads from a yard, or do a complete rebuild on what you have. Or you could just drop a 3.5HO in there. Any way you dice it, its not going to be cheap. It all comes down to how much you like the car and how much youre willing to put in it.