Ok... i was driving my car all night. It was running fine and as hard as it ever did.

Keep in mind this motor has 1200 miles on it tops!

Well I pulled in somewhere and let the car idle while i was talking to my friend about what we were gonna do tonight. Car was still idling and running fine. The second I pulled out it started misfiring, but barley noticable. The exhaust was quitely popping, somewhat like a backfire. It start to get worse very very quickly then all the sudden it was bad enough i went to pull over(i mean the missfiring was bad enough). When I started to pull over the SES started flashing (random missfire correct?). I pulled over and shut it off. I smelt something funny.

Well i started it and it SOUNDED like it was idling fine, but if i sat in it I could feel it was running rough (the motor is STOCK). Well i decide I should try to limp back to my friends house and call it a night so i can figure out what is wrong with the car tomarrow. Well i make it about half way to his house (SES flashing entire time, along with the popping sound) and the car just shuts off.

Well now the car cranks, but will not fire. When i crank it WHITE SMOKE (water/antifreeze right?) comes out the exhaust. While cranking the motor kind of makes a clunk noise. But it sometimes make that clunk noise every now and then upon starting the car.. it has done it ever since i owned it.

The entire time oil pressure looked normal and i never overheated it. This is a new motor so i watch the gauges as if my life depended on it. Everything looked fine.

So did i blow a head gasket? Valve spring broke? Valve bent? MAF or O2 sensor totaly jacked? Opti bad? Spark plugs or the wires? Crank postion and cam position sensor cause it to kick back?

What could it be?

The motor has a 5 year/100,000 mile warrenty on it so im not sweating it toooo much. But i would REALY like to know what is wrong with my car. I just got it.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Nick

 

The best thing to do would be to get the car scanned for codes. To me it sounds like an ignition problem which could be the opti, ignition coil or ignition module.

 

An OBD2 vehicle with a misfire will flash the SES light, anything that could damage the cats will cause that light to flash.

Good luck, Ed

 

that is why i listed that as a problem. The backfiring was what was destroying the cat. THe car can not start.

Does the PCM shut off the motor if you try to run it a long time with that flashing SES light? Because i was told if that light is flashing, then there isa good chance the PCM is about to shut the motor down.

 

The nasty smell might be the cat. Since you indicate that water could be in your exhaust, I knew a girl that had a 3.4 L Camaro and the cat stopped up and then subsequently, she blew the head gasket cuz she and her dad didn't have sense enough to cut it off and take the car to the shop. Maybe that will give you some direction. Perhaps that got the O2's off and now it isn't fueling correct and that's causing the misfire? Just a thought.

 

i checked my oil and coolant and everything there is good. So i dont think i blew a headgasket, though it maybe leaking.

The smeel was nothing like a cat converter, but it is a thought anyways.

But my question is why wont it start at al now?

 

If you think it's leaking, perhaps it leaked down onto the opti. Did you blow out your water pump gaskets? Keep in mind your ignition coil and module are also right there on your driver side head. Do you have fuel pressure?

 

ok. I guess that is a possiblity i did not consider (the water pump gasket)...

I dont knowif i have fuel pressure, but the pump is still turning on and priming.

 

the flashing SES could either be the random missfire code or a specific misfire code. i'm not sure if the specific misfire code will tell you what cylinder, but it would be possible to see on a scanner. sorry, i don't mess with OBDI stuff more. definitely find out which code though.

 

My car had the blinking SES (misfire code - verified with ODB-II scanner). Turns out I just had a bad plug wire (one was touching my header). My car is a LS1 Corvette though so I can't be much more help other than the blinking light. I hope you get your situation figured out. Best of luck.

 

well the dealership said the opti failed along with the little opti harness.. soo all is being replaced and we willsee how she runs.. the first thing i plan on doing to this car is delteq after this little incedent... just bought the car freaggin 2 weeks ago.. this **** sucks

 

just to clear up... Flashing SES ONLY means that a missfire bad enough to cause catalyst damadge is present. You will have probably set a P0300 in memory as well along with any other code.