babysarah

so my car is now running on 7 cylinders instead of 8. im not sure when it happened exactly, but i noticed a slight power loss about 3 weeks ago. i brought it to a dealership last night after i changed the plugs && they told me i had dropped a cylinder.

now my question is, has this ever happened to anyone??? && does anyone know approximately how much it's going to cost me to fix this? the guy at the dealership told me i needed to replace my motor, another place told me i was looking to spend about $800-900 .. so of course i look like the typical clueless blonde who knows nothing about cars.

i figure i'd come here && ask bc everyone on here seems much more reliable than these small auto shops && some dealerships that should kno more.

it's a 2003 GT
with 79k miles

contentsunderpressur

Have a compression test done on that cylinder. If it has low compression then you need to replace or rebuild the engine. If the compression is good make sure that cylinder is fireing. If it's fireing then have the valve cover pulled and check the rockers, tappets and valves.

Nitti00GT

Well welcome to the sight, yeah everyone on here is really good. The same problem happend to me. My car started bogging and I pulled the spark plugs and noticed oil on the spark plugs in cyl #'s 6 & 7. I was told it could be valve seals, piston ring, or head gasket. I suggest having a shop do a compession test and check your plugs. Also any metal clinging sounds? Oh and have a guy go with you (no offence) cause I know girls that have had dealships and shops try to take advantage of them.

doughboy4.6

I had this happen to me when I bent a valve.

doughboy4.6

O and make sure you do a compression test if the test comes out fine then it may be your coil and that is a cheap fix

babysarah

okay so if i have a compression test done && the pressure is good .. what then? && if it's bad?

there are 8 brand new spark plugs in there. one of them fouled out a few nights ago, so i had them changed immediately, but something still wasnt right with the car so i had it brought it && thats when i found out i dropped a cylinder. no metal sounds either.

Nitti00GT

Any smoke out of your tail pipes?

babysarah

actually yes. this all happened at the same time i fouled out a spark plug. saturday night. a friend of mine took the car to the store real quick && when it was started, a small puff of white smoke came out the tailpipes. but that was it of smoke. i havent seen any since then.

Nitti00GT

Any oil on the spark plug? I had oil on my spark plug and smoke out the tails. Your problem could be either a bad piston ring or bad valve seals. The shop near where I live is charging me 110 to recondition both heads.

babysarah

Good thing I save all my old parts! I'll have to look at the plugs. I do know there was a little bit of smoke though, but just that one time I started up the car. I havent seen it since. Do you think I'm looking at replacing the whole engine or does it possibly seem like a smaller problem than that? I really cant afford to have no car.

Also, how does a bad piston ring or valve seal make a cylinder drop out? Or am I misinterpretting what you're saying. Sorry for dumb questions, just trying to get a little more education on cars! =)