I have a 97 Talon. I got some tapping/knocking in my engine, I
was driving down the highway and was just starting to
decelerate to get off the off ramp. My oil light flashed on
and off, then i lost all power to the engine. I still had all
lights and sound. Had no power steering or nothing so i pulled
it completely over and tried to start it. All i was getting
was like a slow crank woo woo..just two slow cranks then
nothing.. I checked my timing belt and it was fine, then
checked my oil, and it was not on the stick low( bad i know )
I had some friends help me push it into a near by parking lot.
Came back the next day and did an oil change on it and top
offed my coolant...Tried to start again and same thing slow
crank. Called a mechanic he told me to put a wrench on the
lowest accesory pulley and see if it turns, and it did so that
means it was not seized. So it was electrical, so i replace
all my spark plugs and wires, and also changed my air filter.
Same thing slow crank. ( PS my starter you could hear clicking
the entire time, even from the night before).  He said try a
new battery, so i bought a new battery and put it in, Started
with no problem after that. But now i have a knocking. I have
taken it to three different mechanics and they all say it some
sort of rod knock, one said that it could also be just out of
timing, another said that it could be my lifters. I had a
friend of mine who is actually on this board come over with an
engine stethoscope and he said that he couldnt hear anything
in the lower end of the engine and is assuming that it is in
the top half. He also said to come onto this site and get some
input. 

 

I appreciate any help.

 

welcome my new friend.

sounds like you have had a shitty passed few days huh? well,
get used to it, you have a 2gnt :)

anywho, if your oil light was flashing, and you heard a
knocking type of noise, it 'should' be in the bottom end,
meaning a bad bearing or rod or anything down there. a rod
knock will get louder as RPM increases too usually.

Now another scenerio could be that maybe your noise is in the
top end and your oil light was flashing because the oil
pressure sender is just going bad, or because you were losing
oil pressure because your engine was losing power due to a
faulty battery. if you have a top end noise, like possibly a
bad or sticking lifter, usually, if you increase RPM, the
noise will quiet, and lifter tick can be random too. if i were
you, i would personally drop the oil pan and check all your
rod bearings. if you have an issue down there, you want to
catch it NOW, not later. now, if things arent too bad, you
will be able to save most of your OE parts down there!

do some searching or pick up a manual from the auto store
local to you and test the oil pressure sender too, it wont
hurt.

Hey there, 

The consensus right now is that i have a spun bearing.. I
bought four new bearings and an oil pan gasket BUT when we
went underneath to start looking at things its nearly
impossible to get at the oil pan because the cross member is
in the way, so it looks like the engine would have to come out
for me to do anything like that. 

oh and yes the knocking does get louder with RPM, slows down
with the next gear and then gets louder again.

[div class="dcquote"][i][b]Originally posted by
tones888[/i][/b]
Hey there,   The consensus right now is that i have a spun
bearing.. I bought four new bearings and an oil pan gasket BUT
when we went underneath to start looking at things its nearly
impossible to get at the oil pan because the cross member is
in the way, so it looks like the engine would have to come out
for me to do anything like that. 
[/div]

No sir, you do need to pull the engine to take a look at
things below. Remove the long cross bar that is mounted to the
font engine mount. Remove the exhaust that goes underneath of
the pan. Remove the 2 brackets that go across the oil pan.
Then just drop the pan. There actually might be a few more
steps that I forgot, but like I said above, pick yourself up a
Haynnes or Mitchell manual from your local parts store, and it
will give you the step by step on how to get that pan down.
The manual will even tell you how to check rod bearings too,
atleast my Haynes does.

Thanks for that. So you believe that its the rod bearings as
well, just one half spun and is now overlapped with the other
half.. Forcing it to rub.

Yeap. Sounds like you spun a rod bearing.

Originally posted by tones888
Thanks for that. So you believe that its the rod bearings as well, just one half spun and is now overlapped with the other half.. Forcing it to rub.

There is a good chance, depending on the condition of the journal and the rod, that you will spin the new bearing immediately, or soon after.

Why do you think it will spin again?

[div class="dcquote"][i][b]Originally posted by
tones888[/i][/b]
Why do you think it will spin again?
[/div]

If the crank journal was scored at all and possibly out of
round (speaking about rod cap and rod itself too) the brand
new bearing, like DJ said, has a great chance of spinning as
well. It can spin again because the crank could be out of
round and not in spec.

You should get a micrometer and mic the crank to see if its
within specs or not. If its not, you would need to yank the
motor out and pull the crankshaft out and have it machined and
then use oversized rod bearings.