Think my motor's toast...

[Meantime]

Well, most of you heard about the flooding that hit the Northeast last week.

I got stuck going home from work in the S13, which is quite low at this point...and being forced to navigate some pretty deep puddles. It made it through the water and got me home, and didn't seem any worse for wear.

Drove it to work the next day. Was fine on the way in; on the way home, I started to hear this whirring sound at idle. I was puzzled, thought maybe the fan was going bad on me.

Started it the next morning and not only was the whirring sound louder, but it was accompanied by a harsh, metallic sound. I mean, LOUD. And it sounded like it was coming from the front of the engine.

Alarmed, I shut the motor off and pulled out the dipstick. A droplet came off - didn't get to catch it unfortunately - but the oil seemed pretty thin and...watery, maybe.

It appears somehow, by unfortunate luck, that water might have gotten into the oil pan - and I suspect that metallic sound I'm hearing is the main bearings being dry as a bone.

I'll try and change the oil later this week and see if that is indeed the case...I hope not and it's just an accessory gone hogwild somehow, and making a lot of noise...but it didn't sound good, whatever it was.

This would give me the perfect excuse to get that SR I wanted...but I didn't exactly want it to go down this way!

[silkk]

haha

hope an oil change fixes the problem

if not, there is always a rebuild and go turbo

or the sr20/ca18

[frapjap]

MAN! That sucks, I hope its solvable with an oil change too. Hopefully it won't sieze after you change it. Funny story to brighten your day some: My friend works at a Tire Kingdom and this woman brought in a "maintence free Hundai" ya know, the type that say you shouldn't need anything 'cept the normal oil change and gas and such and if it needed anything, they would do it for free.. Well, it was for 40,000 miles. This woman went 40.000 WITHOUT changing the oil!! The dipstick was STUCK. They removed the valve cover...yeahhh. Soild and caked. They were able to get it all out, and change the oil. 5 lights away, the car siezed...She's a winner.

[DAEDALUS]

Heh. Good luck getting that fixed under warranty. "Uh, ma'am, are you *sure* you performed routine maintenance on this vehicle?" The upside is that a new engine shouldn't cost more than a couple hundred bucks. I wonder if her oil light didn't work or if she just ignored it as she drove those 5 lights?

[frapjap]

God, I have no clue what was going through her head. I freak when I don't realize I was slightly pulling on the E Brake and it triggers the light. Its like ooooooh yeah. Duh.

[gumby]

i saw an bmw m5 in some guys shop once with the same no oil change caked up condition. the mechanic was in shock he was actually emotionally affected i remeber him saying "who would do this to a beautiful car like this"

[frapjap]

AWWWWWW MAN!!!

[Meantime]

Update:

After some experimental poking and prodding and testing...

it appears the motor's ok, the problem appears to be a locked-up A/C compressor. Which would explain the belt-squealing sound I heard when I hit that last d*mn puddle. Probably water splashing up into the compressor itself, it sits pretty low on the engine...

hmm, so now I have 2 options. Replace the compressor (not cheap) or hack it off myself. Not keen on taking it off myself as it still has R12 in the system.

*sigh* godd*mn flooding.