Mom's car is not fuctioning correctly.(with video)

[Zodiac]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXY4TxftY_Y

Thursday i was coming back from an interview in my mom's PT Cruiser. I was coming down haynes bridge road and tried to make a light before it red. Before that time i was coasting at 30 mph and gunned it. I push the throttle fully and im like "why the hell is it not going faster?!?!"(even though thats a regular occurance...140 hp ftl). Then i feel the whole car start to shake and the smell of smoke filling the cabin.

So i pulled into haynes bridge middle school and then i got out the car to check out what was wrong. I noticed the whole engine and exhaust system was shaking. The exhaust also sounded like it was being choked..watch the video.

also when i tried to accelerate it would only go up to like 25 mph

What could be the problem...tranmission?

[1civic]

You should have a check engine light on, have that checked.. But, Sound to me like it's only running on 3 cylinders.. That means it's time for a Full Tune up!!

[Zodiac]

You should have a check engine light on, have that checked.. But, Sound to me like it's only running on 3 cylinders.. That means it's time for a Full Tune up!!

I should have someone check then.

[1civic]

I should have someone check then.

Yes... :cheers:

[BMooreZ28]

Yeah, sounds like its running on 3 cylinders.

[Black4DrEK]

Tune up..

No CEL on?

[seanrg1116]

even if it was running on three cylinders it should still be able to accelerate past 25-35mph. take it to a good mechanic

[JITB]

clogged cat?

Id suggest taking it to dodge, there are few mechanics that will diagnose anything correctly for the pt cruiser.

[ksniperfox]

reps for posting a video.

exhaust looks like its flowing fine. i doubt its a clogged cat, nor would that make it smoke as zodiac stated.

im pretty clueless, but it sounds fairly serious. mechanic FTW. and sorry dude.

[AE86Raptor]

I'd take a sheet of paper and put it at the end of the pipe and see if there is any sucking. If there is you may have a burnt valve. The exhaust definitely doesn't sound right and also was the engine warmed because it shouldn't be smoking unless of course it was cold outside or you just started the engine.

[Kaiser]

That smoke is blue. Burning oil. Trust me, transmission is the last of your problems. Blown piston maybe, sucking oil up from the crankcase and burning it, the sounds could be anything from mechanical rod slap to the explosions that caused the piston to be blown in the first places. Take it to a mechanic you trust, but from what little I have to go on I'd say that motor is shot.
It's not trans, you know it and don't want to admit it maybe. The video was shot in neutral, how would the trans affect it? How would the trans make blue smoke like that? Trust me, be honest with yourself and you'll figure it out quicker. You have a couple obvious symptoms: Lack of power, horrible knocking noise, oil being burnt and the accompanying blue smoke out the back. That tells you it's an engine problem, and the fact that so many people jumped to "three cylinders" tells you they're probably right on. What they didn't jump to is the fact that a tune-up isn't going to stop the oil-smoke that is POURING out of that exhaust. Unless the video is REALLY bad and somehow makes that smoke a lot bluer than it is in reality and that smoke is actually black, which I doubt, the video seems pretty good.

And even if the car was cold there's no way it should smoke dark like that. A cold engine emits some white smoke on cold days, and most of that is water vapor. If a hot engine emits white smoke it's burning coolant. Black smoke is unburnt or inefficiently burnt gas. Blue smoke is oil. If you get any other kind of colored smoke you should see a priest.

If you have a mechanic look at it I'd be suprised if they didn't have to pull the head off to completely confirm the diagnosis, but only a stethoscope can be certain, but if they pull the head off I'd bet you have some serious problems with a cylinder. Was it running absolutely fine before this? Seems odd to just....well die.

[turbob20]

may have jumped time when you hit the kickdown into the next gear and had piston to valve contact interferance at that speed because it is labled in the manual as an interfearance motor when this happens. you may have busted a piston as well as bent the valve, so just try a compression test to find the bad cylinder and youll see. it probably wont even have any compression at all on that cylinder.

[DaRussian]

That smoke is blue. Burning oil. Trust me, transmission is the last of your problems. Blown piston maybe, sucking oil up from the crankcase and burning it, the sounds could be anything from mechanical rod slap to the explosions that caused the piston to be blown in the first places. Take it to a mechanic you trust, but from what little I have to go on I'd say that motor is shot.
It's not trans, you know it and don't want to admit it maybe. The video was shot in neutral, how would the trans affect it? How would the trans make blue smoke like that? Trust me, be honest with yourself and you'll figure it out quicker. You have a couple obvious symptoms: Lack of power, horrible knocking noise, oil being burnt and the accompanying blue smoke out the back. That tells you it's an engine problem, and the fact that so many people jumped to "three cylinders" tells you they're probably right on. What they didn't jump to is the fact that a tune-up isn't going to stop the oil-smoke that is POURING out of that exhaust. Unless the video is REALLY bad and somehow makes that smoke a lot bluer than it is in reality and that smoke is actually black, which I doubt, the video seems pretty good.

And even if the car was cold there's no way it should smoke dark like that. A cold engine emits some white smoke on cold days, and most of that is water vapor. If a hot engine emits white smoke it's burning coolant. Black smoke is unburnt or inefficiently burnt gas. Blue smoke is oil. If you get any other kind of colored smoke you should see a priest.

If you have a mechanic look at it I'd be suprised if they didn't have to pull the head off to completely confirm the diagnosis, but only a stethoscope can be certain, but if they pull the head off I'd bet you have some serious problems with a cylinder. Was it running absolutely fine before this? Seems odd to just....well die.


x2 blue smoke= burning oil. other possible problem is misfiring and running rich. but tranny would be my last guess, the check engine light was supposed to come on. get that chekced out.

[Barefoot]

me personally i dont think its a trans issue. i think its something internal with your motor. what that is i cant tell u unless im there.

[Zodiac]

It's not trans, you know it and don't want to admit it maybe. The video was shot in neutral, how would the trans affect it? How would the trans make blue smoke like that? Trust me, be honest with yourself and you'll figure it out quicker.


Its not about me admitting that i know whats going on because I DONT. If i did why would i create this thread? I dont know shit about cars and thats why i asked IA.

Being honest with myself? lulz


On another note i will ask my mom to see if she wants to bring it in the shop or just scrap it.

[Barefoot]

Its not about me admitting that i know whats going on because I DONT. If i did why would i create this thread? I dont know shit about cars and thats why i asked IA.

Being honest with myself? lulz


On another note i will ask my mom to see if she wants to bring it in the shop or just scrap it.just a heads up if its the motor she will be in the neibgorhood of 13.5 hours labor about $900-1500 depending on the shops labor rate. a motor is about 750 at a junkyard and about 3419 with a 3 year warranty for a reman.

[Kaiser]

Its not about me admitting that i know whats going on because I DONT. If i did why would i create this thread? I dont know shit about cars and thats why i asked IA.

Being honest with myself? lulz


On another note i will ask my mom to see if she wants to bring it in the shop or just scrap it.

I'm sorry, I guess I expected a higher level of knowledge of at least the FUNCTION of a car's parts from people who called themselves capable of driving. If you can put a car in gear, you should know what a transmission does and when something goes wrong with it what it would likely affect. Logical cause and effect connections was all I was talking about.

[JITB]

Its not about me admitting that i know whats going on because I DONT. If i did why would i create this thread? I dont know shit about cars and thats why i asked IA.

Being honest with myself? lulz


On another note i will ask my mom to see if she wants to bring it in the shop or just scrap it.

it would be worth a fix.. if shes gonna scrap it.. let me know.. my mom needs some "newer" parts for hers...lol

Pt's are reliable vehicles, they just need to be taken care of, and are expensive to fix, because of the amount of labor, and lack of space in the bay to work on its horrible. my moms has 180k on it, and its a 01.. and runs like a champ. only major issue was the timing belt/radiator/crank sensor.

Id suggest taking it to dodge asap, and cough up the 78$ diagnostic fee..

[Master Shake]

i'm gonna agree with some other people and say you might have a dead cylinder.

best place to start would be checking for spark and fuel on all 4 cylinders.

i don't know shit about a PT cruiser, but thats my guess.

[Zodiac]

I'm sorry, I guess I expected a higher level of knowledge of at least the FUNCTION of a car's parts from people who called themselves capable of driving. If you can put a car in gear, you should know what a transmission does and when something goes wrong with it what it would likely affect. Logical cause and effect connections was all I was talking about.

At the time of the event i thought it was the transmisson but now that i looked at it and the advice people gave me it is obvious that it is not a transmission problem. I was refering to the the quote below


It's not trans, you know it and don't want to admit it maybe. The video was shot in neutral, how would the trans affect it? How would the trans make blue smoke like that? Trust me, be honest with yourself and you'll figure it out quicker.

I didnt know you were my therapist but other than that thanks for the advice.

[Kaiser]

I try, it's just a hobby at the moment but I'm thinking about pursuing it as a career. Maybe even through school so I can proscribe you some prozac while I'm at it. What do you think?

[Zodiac]

I try, it's just a hobby at the moment but I'm thinking about pursuing it as a career. Maybe even through school so I can proscribe you some prozac while I'm at it. What do you think?

hahahaa.