I have the friggin parts needed sitting in my glove box. Was all happy as I was going to do it this weekend.

So, I'm sitting in the parking lot and I engage the clutch to begin to take off. All of a sudden....tick tick tick tick tick tick, it's making a HUGE racket from under the hood. Car still idles.

I'm wondering what you guys who have actually had the belt go on you before at idle think? THe car still starts no problem. I'm not 100 percent that it's the belt, but I don't think it could be anything else.

There is no huge knocking going on, car still idles and I was able to move it around the parking lot very slowly to get it into a proper parking spot with no problems.

Pop the hood and do a quick visual inspection. No tools, so I couldn't take the cover off to check anything. It's just a really really loud ticking and constant misfire right now.

This sounds like timing belt, right?

I know it's pointless to diagnose over the net like this, jsut trying to prepare myself for what I'm going to be getting into with this.

It's beyond just replacing the belts now obviously...

Anyone have a clue at all? That's all the information that I have on her right now.

Sorry to hear, compression test will show the score. Sounds like one cylinder is pooched, hopefully it's just the plug or wires.

Pulling the head was easier than I thought, although I did have the help of a couple of club dsm veterans the first time.

If it went bad just buy the rebuild head in the for sale sesction and get at her.

if the noise is coming from head area then your timing belt skipped 2 teeth I think.


That happened to me and Nariman on the way to Ottawa. We decided to driveaway like that and in less than five kilometres the car lost compression.

I think it skipped another tooth and that was the end.


So don't drive yours. you might have just bent one valve. that is a rather cheap repair.

A failed tensioner could have caused that. Esp. if the car has been sitting for a while.

Like already mentioned, the only way is to see if there is any engine damage is to go a compression check but I would take off the lower timing cover and check the marks (and re-set to the correct marks) before i crank the engine for the comp. test.

Not that likely you got lucky but my car was losing a lot of oil thru various leaks and I got a real loud ticking noise.The car would run and start ok but it sounded fubar.It turned out to be just a quart or quart and half low.The oil light didn't come on.I topped it up and all the ticking stopped.

I guess that is one advantage to not running the top belt cover like some guys do.You know pretty fast if your belt broke.

I have to explore my options here. I can't afford to go to shop and diagnose. I still need a garage to work on the damn car.

It's not low on oil. I know that much. I need to get back there with some tools to check the belts first, then I can establish where I can go from there.

This sucks. I had to ride my bike to school this morning for 9:00. It was cold, I still have snot on my face.

This sucks. Keep you guys updated when I figure out where to go from here.

Any other scenarios?