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One more thing, on most cars you’ll have two fat radiator hoses going from the front of the engine to the radiator and two more smaller hoses going from the back of the engine to inside the car (to the heater core). There may be some other small auxiliary hoses in and around the top part of the engine but that’s it in a nutshell.
No problem, if you don’t already have the car on jacks I would definitely do so. If you don’t have a dedicated floor jack and jack stands you could always use the scissor jack from the trunk but you would still need the jack stands to make sure the car doesn’t fall on you. I know you don’t want to spend much money here but your taking the steps to automotive mechanical independence and even harbor freight 2 ton floor jack with stands would be around $100. The bolts are usually 10mm on those shields and you might need a flathead screwdriver for any plastic rivets, don’t worry if they break as they are cheap to buy and your on a mission anyways. Good luck and post back as to your findings, I may not be able to respond much more after today as I’m going on vacation but I’m sure someone else here on the forum will pick up where I’ve left off. Good Luck!
I can’t remember if he mentioned if it was a 2.4 liter or 3.7…If its a 2.4 most likely timing belt snapped in my opinion also. If its the 3.7 Liter with the timing chain my money is on the valve seat dropping. I’ve worked on Jeep engines before and the valve seats are notorious for dropping into the combustion chamber at the first sign of overheating. Either way, this is looking at an extensive job if the engine is binding when he tries to turn it over by hand and he may be a little out of his depths on this one sorry to say. I’ve done complete head tear down on a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited V8, took forever and a day! I don’t recommend it, many tools required. Just my two cents guys…
Hello MomNeedsHelp and welcome to the forum! Congrads on taking the first steps on diagnosing your own car issues, you’re already starting to save money. With only 61k miles I would say this car sounds like its certainly worth putting a bit of work into it as its still a baby. You’ll definitely need to remove the splash shield under the car which is bolted by usually many small bolts, screws and plastic fasteners in order to properly see where that coolant leak is coming from. Also get a good LED light, preferably a headlamp one so you can fit your head under there and see what’s going on. It’s most likely a bad coolant hose from the sounds of the leak and probably the one that travels to the heater core. I would recommend that you not drive it anymore until you’ve fixed this problem as you risk overheating the engine and warping the aluminum heads or worse. Putting the heater on isn’t going to help at this stage in the game but in an emergency you may be able to put the Air Conditioning on which switches the auxiliary radiator fan on at the radiator to cool off the coolant better. Once again, don’t drive it until you can locate the bad hose, replace it and refill the coolant system and burp out all the air bubbles. Let us know how you make out and good luck!
Here’s the thing, cars rarely in my experience just one day stop running due to low compression. Something had to cause the low compression in the first place, what was it? We are always looking a cause and effect when it comes to automotive mechanics and if only one cylinder had bad compression, wouldn’t the other cylinders at least try to start or perhaps the car would run but just really crappy? Let me know what you find after you carefully check the timing, if you don’t have the haynes manual for it you should be able to google enough info about where to find the marks for TDC and once again, make sure number one cylinder valves are both evenly closed and the cam lobe toe is half way/ in the middle. I wish you all the best of luck and let us know what you find!
I’ve seen engines in which they were reassembled with incorrect timing and caused fluctuating compression…Whether this is the absolute final problem or not, your next logical approach would be to get the timing belt covers off and check your marks and remove that valve cover. Rotate the engine by putting a long ratchet on the crank and put it to top dead center and make sure the valves are closed from where you removed the valve cover. If you find that everything is timed dead on after all this, if you have an air compressor, you could pressurize each cylinder one at a time, making sure the corresponding intake and exhaust valves are closed. I’ve also seen engines that were way out of time start and run for just a second or two, even ones that had damaged valves, etc. Check the timing bro.
I just recently had to replace the head gasket on a 2003 Honda Civic Ex 1.6 Liter V-tec….the symptoms your having a reminding me of how my GF’s Honda acted until realizing the head gasket was shot. Because the head gasket was letting hot combustion gases into the coolant system, it deteriorated the radiator about a year before the over heating issue started and ended up replacing it. Radiator leaks and issues could be caused by a leaking head gasket. Also, the expansion plastic tank was getting black carbon deposits inside of it and antifreeze would mysteriously disappear and I could never find out where it was going despite using a coolant pressure tester. The leak was so gradual and slow and one day it just completely failed. I had the aluminum head planed at a machine shop and they did verify it was just a little warped but not much and this car had only overheated for a minute or two maximum. I remember the coolant plug on this Honda was next to impossible to reach until I had removed the entire engine head so I wouldn’t be so concerned with emptying out the tap water that’s in it but rather preparing yourself for a complete head gasket R&R along with head machining. Once you have the head off, you’ll have access to all the coolant jackets you want.
Sudden low compression in one cylinder would lead me to believe that you may have skipped a tooth on the timing although you say its not skipping any teeth now. You may have to remove the timing belt covers and confirm that all timing marks are properly aligned bringing it to Top Dead Center along with removing the valve cover while your at it. That’s where my money is at!
I had a 2003 Jeep GC 4.0 liter some years ago and the two main re-occurring problems or OBDII codes I would have were the radiator fan relay in which I had to replace on average of every 6 months and the gas cap. The gas cap could certainly be the culprit to your Evap code but you want to make sure to buy an OEM Gas Cap unfortunately and not an aftermarket one. I tried putting a locking gas cap on mine and it through the Evap code, only when I put an OEM Mopar Gas Cap on it is when it went away. You may also try putting Vaseline on the O- ring seal of the gas cap to get a better seal. Aside from what I’ve already mentioned if you still have the problem, I would buy a fog machine from a party store, rig it up with a rubber air hose and turn it into a smoke evap machine for around $35-40.
Oh man! So the regional manager had the dealer stuck between a rock and a hard place? It’s pretty heavy when people are ending their lives over this stuff. The last snap on dealer here in Connecticut, I live in East Lyme, the garage I live next to told me the guy parked himself in his SO truck in a Walmart parking lot and did it. I didn’t get the details as to what the story was but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a similiar situation. The current SO guy says he’s been crazy busy, probably because he kept his existing territory and added on this one. The BOGO deals he was showing me last week had me salivating…showed me one deal where you buy a ratchet and metric socket set and get two more metric socket sets for free, a 4 piece extension set and like two more ratchets all for $454. He said it was over $1100 worth of tools for $454.
Hey Wafrederick, its strange you should say that about the Snap on Dealer doing himself in because we just lost one on my road in the same way…are you in CT by any chance? I didn’t know the guy but so far I really like the new SO Dealer.
Thanks for the responses, I didn’t think anyone was going to respond at all…maybe it’s just that most people on the forum don’t use or know about Lab scopes, I don’t know.. Anyways I’m pretty sure the Modis is a 4 Channel Lab Scope, all the pictures that I’ve seen of it have 4 different colored inputs on the back but I will research it further of course before pulling the trigger on anything. You’re definitely right DeFirnz on the update prices for the Modis, the are absolutely insane! I would be satisfied with an update that covers up to 2012 at least for a few years as I mostly work on cars 1994 thru 2008. The other problem I’ve heard about the Modis from a lot of users is that there is hardly any Bi-Directional Controls for running tests on actuators in vehicles but still a great scanner/Lab Scope to be had for $1000 if you don’t need to update it for awhile. There has been of an emergence of lab scopes on CL lately in my area but only 1 or 2 channel and they tend to look a bit antiquated but the price is within my range around $250. MDK22 is right on the overpriced Vantage Pro and Verus units, don’t think that would be a suitable option for me at least. The Pico Scope looks more and more inviting with 4 channels and a ton of tools, guides and reference materials that it comes with, it just looks like the best tool for learning and growing with, that’s if you can get over the price shock. I think I’ve learned the difference between an Analog and Digital Lab Scope so Digital is definitely the way to go.
So if it fired righ up with new main relay that’s what the problem must be, I think that’s the item I had to replace to in my old honda.
So if it fired righ up with new main relay that’s what the problem must be, I think that’s the item I had to replace to in my old honda.
You’ve probably covered this already with the fuel relay, but a long time ago I had a 92 Honda Accord I think it was, 4 cyl and during the very hot summer months it would crank but no start. I did some research and found that there was a small box about the size of a wallet located behind the change compartment to the left of the steering wheel. Once again, sorry if you’ve already check this as I don’t remember the name of the part but I do believe it controlled the fuel or spark, sorry my memory is shot.