Hi everyone. Sorry for such a long post but I'm a noob and I really appreciate any advice.
My friends car stalled while driving around 50mph and won't start again. She stated there was no noise, sputtering or anything it was just like someone turned off the ignition. Was just down the street from her house so she just had it towed there. Only thing recent she said it was shifting hard.

Engine turns over, then it's like something stops it for a moment, clicks everything turns off then it comes back.
Sometimes it will seem to "fire" and the car shakes a little bit but then nothing.
Checked air filter, plugs, wires, rotor, cap. Getting spark on all.
Removed valve cover, everything looks ok. From what I can tell timing marks look correct, both cams turning.
Compression in all cylinders 160psi ish
Fuel pump working, fuel filter not clogged. Also could smell a little gas on plugs so I THINK the injectors are ok.

Scan shows P0740. (TCC I think) It wont erase.
Checked transmission fluid(hard to do with car not running but still virtually none on dipstick)
Electrical buzzing coming from transmission pan when key in 'on' position.

Checked the oil too, way below L mark. Looked like it had a quart...maybe. Not Good. Not watery or anything though.
Filled with oil. Cranked a few times. Then changed oil and filter.


My thoughts were
jumped timing from lack of oil
spun bearings or something
TCC locked and wont allow the car to start even in park or neutral?
Possibly Idle air control?

I thought about just getting it to a mechanic for her but she has a baby on the way so money is an issue. I would like to be able to at least diagnose the problem. Once again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

so there was virtually no tranny fluid? or engine fluid?
if the engine had almost no oil it will sieze up. Does it crank but slowly? if it is siezed that means u probably will need a new engine. and if there was almost no tranny fluid you will be lucky if the tranny will even last much longer. but you might get lucky. put some new oil in the engine if it was low. or am i getting what your saying wrong?

Yeah, there was at least a quart of oil though. Compression is good and engine and cams are turning and there is oil pressure. Still may have damanged a bearing, haven't checked that yet. Like I said, added oil, turned it over a few times and then changed out oil and filter just incase something got ground up. Added a little transmission fluid, but I'm already declaring that one a loss anyway, for it will fail soon.

So, it cranks over fine with spark plug wires disconnected. When I connect them back it gets weird. (Yes they are on the correct plug)

So normally the crank would be like N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N n meaning normal speed
when the ignition connected it's like N-N-N-N-N-Sputter-SLOW-STOP-CLICK-N-N-N-N-N

It's almost like it's out of time, but that's all correct as far as I can tell. Plugs are sparking but still look pretty bad so I'm going to replace the wires and cap and all that too. Only thing that's bothering me is that electrical buzzing coming from the transmission pan. Any thoughts?

well, right now my best idea would be if this car has a distributer it might be bad. which can cause the car not to run, you can take out the distributer and inspect it for cracks/etc, also check the distributer cap for contamination(white lines/cracks between the contact nodes that come into contact with the distributer arm(note, when you put it back togather make sure the arm is in the same position so it doesn't throw off the distributer timing). it could also be that the distributer timing is different from the timing belt. but b4 u go through this effort try this first. put cylinder #1 at top dead ctr, take off the cap and if it isn't matched with the cyl. #1 node, position it so it is. if it already lined up check the distributer it's self. as for the noise from the transmission idk. i can ask around at school and see if there are some ideas my teachers can come up with.

First of all, you were absolutely right about the dizzy, thanks! Second, I feel like a MORON. I thought everything was right, plugs were firing etc. I thought they might just be worn out or something so I picked up some plugs, wires, dizzy cap, rotor.
When I took off the cap to get to the rotor, it had no screw! It wasn't anywhere to be found. The rotor was spinning and the plugs were firing, but obviously not in the correct order. Problem solved. Transmission is still buzzing though

Thanks again!

glad to help. hope you can figure out the transmission problem or issue