car died on freeway last night =(

rgeeezy

New Member
Jun 25, 2005
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i was driving on the freeway last night going about 70. i think i was in 4th gear with my foot off the accelerator as i was going downhill. as i press the accelerator, i hear what i first thought sounded like a broken belt flapping underneath the hood on the drivers side. it was pretty loud near where my feet were. i let off the accelerator and the noise went away. but same popping noise when i give it some gas. i pulled over to the shoulder and pop my hood. definitely coming from the drivers side of the motor. i was near the exit so i decide to try to make it to safer grounds. as i accelerate the popping gets extremely loud and i lose power. car dies. =( i try to start her up again and nothing. strong crank but i cant get the motor to start. what the hell happened to my car?! its at the shop right now. im hoping to hear back from them with not so bad news. anyone else experience this before? help me pleeasseeeeeeee. thanks in advance!
 
car is a 2000 gt manual btw. only mods are magnaflow mufflers and airhog air filter. bosch platinum 4's were installed many many many months ago with no problems but i dont know if those might have any effect.
 
Probably would have been smarter car-wise to pull over on the freeway and check it even though it isn't the safest place to do it...We forgot to clamp down my intake/vacuum lines after a swap and they decided to disconnect on the onramp so my car died about 1/2 down, luckily I figured out what was wrong right away and had my dad bring some hose clamps and we fixed it up at 11pm lol. Hopefully that's about the extent of what happened to you, though with that description it sounds like it could be worse.
 
Dusstbuster said:
Probably would have been smarter car-wise to pull over on the freeway and check it even though it isn't the safest place to do it...We forgot to clamp down my intake/vacuum lines after a swap and they decided to disconnect on the onramp so my car died about 1/2 down, luckily I figured out what was wrong right away and had my dad bring some hose clamps and we fixed it up at 11pm lol. Hopefully that's about the extent of what happened to you, though with that description it sounds like it could be worse.
yeah same think happened to me when i had my CAI inlet tube refab'd to fit under my strut tower brace. Since the intake is now closer to the air inlet its futher away from the hoses and it came off. Basically my car died three to four times when trying to get home, would only die when it shifted down into 1st cuz there wasn't enough power for the vaccum. Was easy to spot tho, the hose was off.
 
got a call back from the shop. spark plug popped itself out of cylinder number 6. POOP. this sucks. they quoted me 1400 to remove the head and rethread it with a helicoil. screw that. time to look for aftermarket heads. anyone got any suggestions on what i should get? if i could get some for less than 600 then im juss gonna tow that thing back home and replace the heads myself. thanks for all the replies guys! i really appreciate it.
 
I was sitting here reading this and I told my girlfriend to come read it. After reading the third line we both knew it was a blown plug. I have experienced this twice now, once on each head. My second one happened Monday after I got out of work. Your chances of finding heads for less than $600 are very slim. I actually have the timesert kit that you can do yourself. The first time it took me about two hours, but when I did it Tuesday morning, it took me less than an hour. The kit works great, and if you can change your own oil, then you can use this kit. If you want any more advice on the "how to" shoot a pm my way.
 
DAMN THESE PLUGS

I'm not blaming you man but this is why EVERYONE should check there plugs once a month. It takes an hour tops, and reassures your engine. Plugs should be torqued to 13 lbs with out anti-seize.

Anyway you have 2 options. Rethread the heads or replace them. I would definetely rethread them. But if you have the cash get some VT heads.
 
rgeeezy said:
got a call back from the shop. spark plug popped itself out of cylinder number 6. POOP. this sucks. they quoted me 1400 to remove the head and rethread it with a helicoil. screw that. time to look for aftermarket heads. anyone got any suggestions on what i should get? if i could get some for less than 600 then im juss gonna tow that thing back home and replace the heads myself. thanks for all the replies guys! i really appreciate it.

Geeze man if you're mechanically inclined enough to swap heads, why did you even take your car to the dealership/shop in the 1st place? :shrug:
 
Damn, for once I knew what happened but didn't post it in time.

Sorry to hear about your problem. As you probably have seen if you look around here much, the plug popping out of the heads is unfortunately somewhat common on our motors. Very careful procedures must be followed to keep them in, unlike the old days where you could use your "calibrated elbow" to measure the torque on the plugs.

The good news is, a set of aftermarket heads that are ported only cost ~1200 bucks. Why not go that route? :)
 
SteedaGTJ22 said:
Geeze man if you're mechanically inclined enough to swap heads, why did you even take your car to the dealership/shop in the 1st place? :shrug:

i didnt take my car to the shop because i wanted to. i broke down on the freeway at night. i didnt have a light to see that my plug popped, and the tow service that i used has a shop which was 2 miles from where i broke down. i didnt have the time, or the tools to to check myself so i had the shop take a look at it for me since i had to leave it there overnight. deng man. im not that mechanically illiterate!!! hahahaha. :p
 
the98stang said:
DAMN THESE PLUGS

I'm not blaming you man but this is why EVERYONE should check there plugs once a month. It takes an hour tops, and reassures your engine. Plugs should be torqued to 13 lbs with out anti-seize.

Anyway you have 2 options. Rethread the heads or replace them. I would definetely rethread them. But if you have the cash get some VT heads.


damnit why didnt anyone tell me this before!!! haha. i guess you have to learn somethings the hard way. i guess ill be riding my damn bicycle to school and work for awhile. thats a good thing for my fatass anyways hahaha. anyways, it gives me a reason to upgrade to some aftermarket heads! :nice: