The good - two days ago, I purchased a rather nice little 2000 LX sedan from a local dealer. CarFax clean, price decent, mileage high - but one owner. Seemed to be quite a few highway miles commuting from the small town I live in to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. A few things I noted were minor, a little rough at the idle, bad plug wires, and in need of an oil change and new plugs/wires.
It was a week and a half before I could pick up the car. The day of the pickup, I showed up, signed the papers, and drove off. My boyfriend and I went home to drop his pickup off, then down to the gas station to fill up the car. The first time we shut it off, it started fine - after fueling? Nothing.
First symptom - no power on the dash. He went to wiggle the battery cables, but before he got there I got power back. Upon starting, the car cranked and idled for about three seconds before stalling harshly. When we tried to start it again, it sounded like metal grinding - almost as if you had a chain that slipped across some sprockets. IIRC, the Focus uses a timing belt, not a chain, so it couldn't be that, but I was suspicious of the timing situation anyway. It now won't turn over at all - it's trying, but not really building up any compression from what I can tell... you have to floor the accelerator to get it to do anything, but obviously there's something else going on there. The inhouse mechanic that came to the site of the car's failure blamed a thrown rod... I'm not buying it. The dealer (small trader type lot, not ford dealer) opted at my request to send the car to an independant mechanic since this inhouse guy supposedly "tuned up" the car, and I find that to be laughable.
It's at a shop right now, but I'm curious to see what y'all think it could be. The dealer is standing behind the repairs with no extra cost to me, but I'm suffering the downtime.
Any ideas??
It was a week and a half before I could pick up the car. The day of the pickup, I showed up, signed the papers, and drove off. My boyfriend and I went home to drop his pickup off, then down to the gas station to fill up the car. The first time we shut it off, it started fine - after fueling? Nothing.
First symptom - no power on the dash. He went to wiggle the battery cables, but before he got there I got power back. Upon starting, the car cranked and idled for about three seconds before stalling harshly. When we tried to start it again, it sounded like metal grinding - almost as if you had a chain that slipped across some sprockets. IIRC, the Focus uses a timing belt, not a chain, so it couldn't be that, but I was suspicious of the timing situation anyway. It now won't turn over at all - it's trying, but not really building up any compression from what I can tell... you have to floor the accelerator to get it to do anything, but obviously there's something else going on there. The inhouse mechanic that came to the site of the car's failure blamed a thrown rod... I'm not buying it. The dealer (small trader type lot, not ford dealer) opted at my request to send the car to an independant mechanic since this inhouse guy supposedly "tuned up" the car, and I find that to be laughable.
It's at a shop right now, but I'm curious to see what y'all think it could be. The dealer is standing behind the repairs with no extra cost to me, but I'm suffering the downtime.
Any ideas??