Explorer no-start

[anotheridiot]

wow, thats tough. probably gonna be a couple thousand dollar job. even more if it has cam phasers on it, but thats just using the special tool to hold everything in place as you are changing the chain, not retiming it or seeing if there are bent valves. all that cranking now reminds me of when a chevy 3.1 engine breaks the camshaft in half because they have lobes welded on a tube instead of a solid freaking camshaft and the back 3 cylinders are not turning just pounding the #5 exhaust valve each time around. guess this is the 1 time out of ten it wasnt some simple sensor deal.

[milner351]

swap in another engine or junk the vehicle.... reality sucks, I guess he hit the dear after the cam chain broke? LOL some people.
Sorry you got mixed up in this Walt. Time to walk away.

[Bamfster]

Yup .... cut your losses at this point.

[anotheridiot]

I was actually starting to think like in illinois you get ticketed for hitting deer and the person swapped out the light assembly that was crushed and wrecked wires hidden in there lol. Maybe if they were going 50 and the leg of the deer got stuck in the crankshaft pulley, but I think all the blood and hair would have given that away.

[TC]

Doesn't that motor have like 3 timing chains.......

[anotheridiot]

I dont even know what motor it is, looks like the v6 has 3 and the v8 has 1 116 link chain.

[starterguy]

By the sounds of it the crankshaft sensor has gone away. If the pcm does not see a rpm signal it won't fire the injectors and it won't run. You can crank it over all you want and it will build fuel pressure, just the injectors are doing nothing.

These are hard to test without a scan tool as normally I would plug in the scanner and watch for rpm when cranking. I would crawl underneath and check the wires and plug to the sensor first. The sensor generates a high/low signal same as an abs sensor. there is a way to check the sig without a scanner just can't remember how right now.

I worked for Ford for 11 years and saw a few of these fail and a few were after accidents so check these out, I am hoping this helps.

[starterguy]

Remembered one more thing, is the anti theft light flashing? The anti theft will cause similar problems, so make sure you have the proper key or better yet both keys.

[98ciHemi]

I don't think the owner was trying to hide anything. She told me that she was asleep in the passenger seat when the car reportedly hit a deer. I don't know if there was anyone else in the car aside from her and the driver. If I had to guess, the driver was probably speeding a bit much when the engine cut loose (probably not really even the drivers fault). She probably panicked a little bit and came up with the deer story on the fly. The car came back to school on a hook and they left in the parking lot.

For a laugh: The day after it happened about a dozen guys went all at once out to try and figure out what was wrong. Now, imagine a bunch of 18 and 19 year old college boys standing around a car trying to impress a decently attractive girl with their manly knowledge of automotive repair. Now imagine how much actual diagnosis got done. They told her that it had a bad starter.

[STINEY]

Ahhhh.....now the picture gets clear.

Careful, decently attractive girls can be known to use their decently attractiveness to acquire free car maintenance/repair. Sometimes worth it to the male, sometimes not. Your results may vary.

[milner351]

been there done the brake job in the snow, got the favors.... it seemed worth it at the time. ;-)

[STINEY]

Was it the rear brake line on a G-body Cutlass? Wow, some of the parrallels on this site are just weird, even the snow.......and it may have been a decent tradeoff. Still not sure on that.

[milner351]

Nope - front pads (maybe 1 rotor, can't remember) on one of the celebrity dealios - might have been a BOP version, the other scenery involved was far more attractive than the car.

[98ciHemi]

While said girl is decently attractive- I'll pass. Payoffs like that don't keep the Tahoe or the bike on the road. I am doing some free work for another girl (brakes, nonetheless), however that is just me being a nice person. She was going to use birthday money to buy a new brake caliper for some POS Toyota Avalon, and that just isn't cool. So my labor fee for another job I am doing is to cover the parts and fluid for the other girl's car.

Also for your amusment: Aside from this explorer and the Avalon, all the other jobs this year have been for engineering students. About 2/3rds of them mechanical engineering students.

[SSChevyManiac]

I used to HATE that in school. Someone's got a problem and gets advice from anyone within thirty feet who has once seen Top Gear. Then the one with the problem comes to you and asks for your help. Then you sit there and give an uncertain answer about any of the crazy things it could be. Like camshafts suddenly not turning after "hitting a deer." Then they say oh well you know about cars why wont you work on it? Well, folks, (as we all know) this is why. Good for you Walt for helping all these kids out. It will come back around to ya sometime.