I've only posted a couple of times, but I need your help again. Unfortunately, this will be a long post, but please read it and share whatever wisdom you have!
93 ES 3.5
68K miles
Okay, the last time I wrote back in June I was still trying to get the car running for the first time and you guys were AWESOME! It turned out to be the Crankshaft Position Sensor. It was a pain to change, but cheap and I was able to do it myself.
Well, like a true idiot, I didn't change all of the fluids right away (the car had been sitting for 6 months or so) and now my Trep is dead. I had put about 1000 miles on it since I got it and had no trouble whatsoever. I don't know if not changing the oil had anything to do with it or not, but here's what happened.
I was driving down the highway on cruise control at about 60. It was morning, cool, a little humid. About 7 miles from home at highway speed, the car died. No noise, no smoke, no nothing. It wouldn't turn over, wouldn't jump. I had it towed home.
At home I put it on the battery charger and it said it had a full charge, so the engine was binding up somewhere. I tried a few more times to start it and it did finally turn over and start. It ran EXTREMELY rough and a horrible scraping noise (scrape, scrape, scrape in time with the engine speed...sounded internal and BAD) was coming from under the hood. I had it towed to the repair shop.
They first suspected the water pump, but that is fine. They have taken off the valve cover on the right side and said that "the engine is not oiling properly on the right side" and that the noise is coming from there. The rollers and the cam are chewed up a little bit on a couple of cylinders. I still don't think that would make the horrible noise that I heard. It sounded more like a piston or something.
Anyway, their recommendation is a new (used) engine. They've found one with 91K on it from a '93 ES 3.5 and will do the whole thing including what they've already got in it, plus new timing belt, water pump, and plugs for $1500. I only paid $500 for the car to begin with and I love it, but that's a pretty big chunk of change to drop into a used engine with that many miles on it.
Any thoughts? (Besides I'm an idiot for not changing fluids as soon as I got the car running!)
Thanks in advance!
Dave
93 ES 3.5
68K miles
Okay, the last time I wrote back in June I was still trying to get the car running for the first time and you guys were AWESOME! It turned out to be the Crankshaft Position Sensor. It was a pain to change, but cheap and I was able to do it myself.
Well, like a true idiot, I didn't change all of the fluids right away (the car had been sitting for 6 months or so) and now my Trep is dead. I had put about 1000 miles on it since I got it and had no trouble whatsoever. I don't know if not changing the oil had anything to do with it or not, but here's what happened.
I was driving down the highway on cruise control at about 60. It was morning, cool, a little humid. About 7 miles from home at highway speed, the car died. No noise, no smoke, no nothing. It wouldn't turn over, wouldn't jump. I had it towed home.
At home I put it on the battery charger and it said it had a full charge, so the engine was binding up somewhere. I tried a few more times to start it and it did finally turn over and start. It ran EXTREMELY rough and a horrible scraping noise (scrape, scrape, scrape in time with the engine speed...sounded internal and BAD) was coming from under the hood. I had it towed to the repair shop.
They first suspected the water pump, but that is fine. They have taken off the valve cover on the right side and said that "the engine is not oiling properly on the right side" and that the noise is coming from there. The rollers and the cam are chewed up a little bit on a couple of cylinders. I still don't think that would make the horrible noise that I heard. It sounded more like a piston or something.
Anyway, their recommendation is a new (used) engine. They've found one with 91K on it from a '93 ES 3.5 and will do the whole thing including what they've already got in it, plus new timing belt, water pump, and plugs for $1500. I only paid $500 for the car to begin with and I love it, but that's a pretty big chunk of change to drop into a used engine with that many miles on it.
Any thoughts? (Besides I'm an idiot for not changing fluids as soon as I got the car running!)
Thanks in advance!
Dave
