DJDSM
June 7th, 2006, 12:47 PM
I'm cross-posting this with the mailing list, hopefully that's kosher. Need to figure out at least a little something about what's wrong so I can at least get my car to an appropriate place.
I was on my way to work, about 6 blocks from my apartment, when
suddenly my car lost power, started shaking, and spat a check engine light at
me.
I limped the car to the nearest gas station and poked around and don't see
anything wrong with it (at least that's obvious without taking anything major
apart). It doesn't want to leave stop lights even when I've got it floored. Once I get going it does alright, but still not much at all. The thing sounds more like a VW Bug than a DSM. When I was looking under the hood with it running to see if I could figure out what was going on, the engine was shaking pretty bad. I tried swamping out spark plugs and wires, for some reason I thought it might make a difference and it didn't.
The only thing I noticed that may be out of place is a little bit of oil on the
outside of the upper timing belt cover (I think that's what the thing is
called). I'm not sure if it was there before and I didn't have the tools or time
to pull it and look underneath.
So, I was hoping maybe someone might have some sort of idea of what I should check? The car sounds like poo, doesn't want to make any power or go anywhere, and I've got a CEL.
Even if you do/do not have an idea, can someone remind me what I can buy to check the CEL? I know the buzzer thing I got at radio shack years ago is long gone... and I can't remember what it was or how to hook it up. Can anyone remind me? When I tried a site search it gave me a nifty little error. Also, a place to look up codes once I'm able to pull it would be great too.
Since someone on the list asked, I might as well leave the info in this post - I'm in the Denver area. My car is currently sitting in a lot in LoDo a few blocks from Coors Field
I was on my way to work, about 6 blocks from my apartment, when
suddenly my car lost power, started shaking, and spat a check engine light at
me.
I limped the car to the nearest gas station and poked around and don't see
anything wrong with it (at least that's obvious without taking anything major
apart). It doesn't want to leave stop lights even when I've got it floored. Once I get going it does alright, but still not much at all. The thing sounds more like a VW Bug than a DSM. When I was looking under the hood with it running to see if I could figure out what was going on, the engine was shaking pretty bad. I tried swamping out spark plugs and wires, for some reason I thought it might make a difference and it didn't.
The only thing I noticed that may be out of place is a little bit of oil on the
outside of the upper timing belt cover (I think that's what the thing is
called). I'm not sure if it was there before and I didn't have the tools or time
to pull it and look underneath.
So, I was hoping maybe someone might have some sort of idea of what I should check? The car sounds like poo, doesn't want to make any power or go anywhere, and I've got a CEL.
Even if you do/do not have an idea, can someone remind me what I can buy to check the CEL? I know the buzzer thing I got at radio shack years ago is long gone... and I can't remember what it was or how to hook it up. Can anyone remind me? When I tried a site search it gave me a nifty little error. Also, a place to look up codes once I'm able to pull it would be great too.
Since someone on the list asked, I might as well leave the info in this post - I'm in the Denver area. My car is currently sitting in a lot in LoDo a few blocks from Coors Field