bad things. very bad things.
 

so, at this point, looking for guesses to tell a mechanic, because this just got waaay over my head.

driving my car home today, it starts making a disgusting noise (mostly klunky, a little squeeky mixed in) no smoke, rpms & engine temp both norm, acceleration wayyy low.
i was about a mile away, so i decided i'd just get the car back to my house, and walk to work today (no place to leave it, no $$$ for a tow)

then i come to a stop light, and the car just turns off.

start it back up, and it's working, put it into drive, and it cuts out again so i throw it back in park, wait for the light, then start and go as slowly as i can home, made it home, parked it, popped the hood. nothing blown up, no fluids nor plumes of steam.

anybody have any guesses at all?
again, mostly looking so i can tell the mechanic what needs to be done, save him some time, me some money, and so i have a repair estimate warning.

Wild guess here....
 

somebody correct me if I'm wrong, since this is just a guess....

Alternator blew up?

It could burn up and not cause any real smoke or leaks. Afterward, you'd be running on just battery juice which might be the cause of your other problems.

Easy check is start the car and check the battery voltage while it's running at idle.

We do need more info to help you diagnose this further, though:
-Does the car start now?
-Is there anything wierd in any of the fluids (oil in coolant, coolant in oil, metal shavings in trans fluid, bits of stuff in power steering fluid, etc, etc.)
-Can you run it at idle and look for anything that looks weird and report back?
-How long did the squeeky noise and lack of power happen, before the car died? Was this 10 seconds or a few minutes?
-If you start and drive it now, what symptoms does it exhibit? Trouble starting, loss of power, noises, etc.

Could be it jumped time. Also could be a siezed ac compressor.

Tom W

Tom, if it was a siezed air compressor, what would be happening? It would run until the AC clutch kicked in and then the immobile AC would stall the engine?

That would explain the squeeky noise. Then a little clunky. Pull the AC belt to see if that changes anything.

This used to happen on my car until I cut the belt off and disabled the A/C....

Could it also be a bad fuel pump or fuel pump relay since its a gasser? I recall a friend who had a 280 had bad stalling issues until she had the pump replaced.

when driven now, loss of power, still makes the same noise, louder.

the noise increases with rpms, will not idle in park or drive, have to give it gas to keep it going.

personally, an with my lack of any mechanical training, it sounds like something engine related :(
the sound gets louder and faster as rpms increase, and the sqeaking is intermittant, and doesn't sound like a belt.

as far as the A/C compressor is concerned...i wasn't running A/C at the time (ilive in western washington, it doesn't get much use ;)), if that makes a difference.

Alternator was just changed, but it was a rebuild. when you say " blew up," how literal are you being? there were no exploding-type noises, no shrapnel, and nothing that sounded to me like a belt flying off into infinity

ok,the idler pulley on the front of the a/c clutch can go bad causing the symptoms you see.i doubt it's the alt or battery[voltage has to get way lower than that necess to start car before affecting running] but it could be a bad load of gas[water contamination] or a blocked fuel filter.

hmmm....do you think premium instead of super could do that? i know it's been on super for a while, but was reading most peiople put premium in, so i switched.

the idler pulley, is that something i can fix or how much would a decent mechanic charge?

how can i verify that's the problem?

I'm going to buck the crowd and go with a damaged torque converter and possibly damaged transmission. The torque converter is what allows your engine to idle while you're at a dead stop. If it's locked up your engine will die when you come to a stop because the torque converter will stall the engine. It's also responsible for transferring power from the engine to the transmission, so you'd get bad acceleration without anything showing wrong with your engine.

any tips on diagnosis here?

i'd prefer if i can diagnose myself, save me some $$ at the mechanic if i can tell him whats wrong, further than "Die Auto ist kaput. Es fahrt nicht!"

or, hopefully (crosses fingers, calls all mechanically inclined friends and friends with tools) something i can fix?

torque converter sounds rather ominous, though.

how about a leaky fuel injector?

smelled my dipstick (my dad told me that could diagnose a blown head gasket)
it smelled like gasoline, reading online says that probably means a leaky fuel injector.
reasonable for this variety of problems?

cost?

could be a bad connecting rod bearing.

has to be the muffler bearing! Diagnosis of a car without seeing it is kinda like picking your nose. The real problem is lack of money. Get a loan and get a real live tech to look at it...