miriv365

I have a 2000 ford mustang gt with 140,000 miles on it. The past couple of days I have been hearing a rattling noise from the engine, but since the engine seemed to be running fine without a loss of power I kept driving it.

I was driving home on the freeway today, and looked down and noticed the oil gauge was reading zero...at that point I was trying to figure out how to get off the freeway as fast as I could...unfortunately, at that point, the car started to lose power and eventually I got stuck right before I could exit because the engine turned off. The check engine light immediately went on and the brake light started blinking. Anyway, long story short, the car won't turn over now. When I turn the key, all the gauges flip as if I had a battery charger connected, but the car doesn't do anything. I have power to the battery because all my accessories work fine.

Is it possible that the timing chain broke while I was driving..and if so what kind of damage am I looking at. I haven't been able to check to see if I could turn it over by hand since I finally got it towed to my house late and didn't have a breaker bar handy. I'm not even sure it's worth repairing if it's anything major like valves bent or whatever....

Would it be safe to take the belt off and try to turn it over that way, not sure if any of the pulleys could just "freeze" or not...or if I am just asking for more damage

any thoughts?

95SHO

Sounds like the motor is seized, any time you lose oil pressure you should shut the car off immediately. Take the belt off and try to turn the crank to see if the motor will turn over. I think it's a 19mm bolt if I remember correctly.

Repzard

Im wondering if the noise you heard was the oil pump?
Id say try and see if engine will turn by hand.
If not id start tearing it down to see what failed.

GL

cliffyk

Is there any oil in it?

miriv365

Well... it's the engine...it's dead... won't turn over. Took it in yesterday and the mechanic couldn't turn it by hand. I don't know what happened, other than it must have been the oil pump failing. The oil light never came on (so I guess that one just means low oil, not an oil pump failure)... Yes, it has plenty of oil in the crankcase.. I checked it after it got home.

I called around and was quoted $3000 for a rebuild of the engine, but I am hesitant to commit since I don't know what else is going to break after that gets done. So now I am looking at getting a new car... trying to decide from one of two extremes 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid (I commute a lot) or 2012 Mustang GT Premium (still don't like the gas mileage with the high gas prices out there)

Someone offered me 500 for the car right now... which sucks considering I put $500 tires on it just a month and a half ago...