My 1995 Nissan 240SX broke down while driving and won't turn on

[BrinkGC]

Well here is my story, my 240SX broke down on me when I was on my way to school I was going 50 mph up a hill, then I heard a thump noise in the car and the engine had power loss. The good thing is I was close to a gas station where I was able to safely go to the entrance of the gas station. My car later then turns off at the entrance and I tried to crank it three different times but won't turn on. I hope someone can answer my question.

[RickBlaine]

Not a lot of detail here....

Did you run over something? Did your intake become loose? Did a belt snap? Is your oil and coolant levels where they should be? Do you have an automatic trans or a manual transmission? Does it crank but not start, or is there absolutely nothing happening when you turn the key? Did you try to get a jump start to see if that would get the car started?

This could be anything from a dead battery to a snapped timing chain. Need info!

[BrinkGC]

Oh sorry about that I'm not sure about the intake. The belt did not snap, my oil and coolant levels are good, it's an auto trans. The battery is new, another thing is I'm a new owner with the S14 and new to the forum forgot to mention that. When I try to start the car it sounds like it wants to start but seems like it can't.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

heard a loud thump huh?
That's concerning. You're going to have to start with the basics and just see if you aren't getting fuel, spark, or compression.

[BrinkGC]

The thump wasn't because I hit something but it felt like it came from either the engine bay or the trans area. Anyway i'll check those out by Saturday when a friend comes to help me. So I'll post what was the problem.

[BrinkGC]

Found and solved the problem, it's because the distributor stop functioning. My friend found out because first we changed the crankshaft sensor but still didn't run, then he tested the spark plug wires but no sparks came out. So he checked the wires that connects into the distributor to see if it had electricity and it does, but electricity didn't leave out through the spark plug wires. So we replaced the distributor with a new distributor rotor, and now it cranks and runs . My friend also told me that it could have been a short circuit that cause the distributor to stop working.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Good deal. Thanks for following up with what you found.