Lifter noise

THEADORA1984

MEMBER
2002 CHRYSLER CONCORDE
3.5L
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
205,000 MILES

I just bought this car on June 6, the car ran fine until last night when it stalled out on me. I tried to start it and it started right up and went another 1/4 mile and died again. I tried to start it and it just kept trying to turn over so I gave up and called a tow truck. I got the car home and my brother and father came down and we changed the oil thinking maybe the oil was bad because it was really dark and low, but we started it up and my dad heard a lifter starting to go. My brother took it for a test drive and we got it up to 30 mph with a rpm of 6. It sounded like it did not want to shift so we turned around and it stalled out again. He started it and tried to go forward and it stalled again so he started it a second time and revved the engine and threw it into drive and got it back to the parking lot. We told my dad what it was doing and he got in and started to take it out and it stalled again. The lifter sounds like it is going out I am not sure what to do. Is a lifter that is about to go out something that can be determined as being a pre-existing condition? I would think it would be, I have only had the car for ten days now and have only put on eight hundred miles as I travel about forty five miles round trip for work and I have traveled about fifty miles one way to see my parents several times. I do not see why they would not have been able to hear the lifter going out or is that even what my problem is as I am afraid to drive it anywhere to have it looked at could you please help me?

2 Replies

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

First of all, I think, (hope) you are over-reacting. The car ran okay for ten days. If you had bought it nine days later, it would have acted up after just one day. If you had bought it three months ago, it would have run fine for over three months. You have no way of knowing when a problem is going to occur, especially one as common as this, and the seller had no way of knowing either.

Another way of looking at this is the seller sold you a car they were not having any problems with. There is no way they could know it was going to develop a problem ten days later. If you try to return it, they are going to rightfully assume you did something on purpose so you could get your money back.

The first thing you need to do is read and record the diagnostic fault codes. Chrysler makes doing that yourself much easier than any other manufacturer. Cycle the ignition switch three times from "off" to "run" within five seconds without cranking the engine, then watch the fault code numbers will show up in the odometer display.

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Thursday, June 16th, 2016 AT 9:20 PM

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

A collapsed lifter is not serious as far as causing other damage. It is not uncommon for them to bleed down while the oil is drained out, then a few can take a while to pump back up. I had a 1972 Dodge that had one lifter that rattled after every oil change until I drove the car at least 30 miles at highway speeds. That went on for years with no other symptoms.

The common failure items that cause stalling on any car are the crankshaft position sensor and the camshaft position sensor. Sometimes it takes a while to set a fault code, so if there is no code, there are other ways of diagnosing this. It is important to not disconnect the battery or let it run dead now. Doing so will erase any codes, then that valuable information will be lost.

By your description, it sounds like you also had the transmission default to "limp mode" where it goes to second gear and stays there.

"My brother took it for a test drive and we got it up to 30 mph with a rpm of 6. It sounded like it did not want to shift"

That's 6,000 rpm which is hard on any engine. Do not let anyone do that again. Limp mode is meant for you to be able to drive slowly to a repair shop without needing a tow truck. There are actually people who drive repeatedly over 60 mph in limp mode, then they blame it on the manufacturer when the engine flies apart. Duh!

There will be a fault code in the transmission computer to tell why it went to limp mode. We are not going to worry about that until the stalling problem is solved. The two can be related.

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Thursday, June 16th, 2016 AT 9:36 PM