My son struggled to get the old harmonic balancer off; in order to replace it and two belts. Someone came to his rescue and said just turn the key to on position. That worked; it came right off after several hours of trying to unscrew a bolt in the center of the balancer. The problem is now the car feels like it is stuck at 20 mph, at times, or just has really slow pickup or no get-up-n-go. The car used to just go, when applying the breaks, without hesitation. This, obviously, prompted me to ask questions. So, the person who came to my sons rescue unplugged the distributor, instead of the battery, in order to turn the ignition to on without turning on the car. A clerk at the auto parts store found that a sensor, ported vacuum switch, next to the plug had been recently broken (the person unplugging must have used it for leverage), and a sensor plug next to it is damaged in a way that the wire slips upward, as if to come right out. My son said the plug with a lose wire used to have a clip and wont work without it. I replaced the ported vacuum switch, the clerk said the plug next to it will be fine, as long as the wire is in. (This has become costly for a single parent) But the problem of take off or timing, still persists; along with something I had been noticing since before the repairs made by my son. When I travel a short distance, like dropping my daughter off at school and coming back, then park the car and sit in it for a minute, I can hear the water/coolant gurgling into the back flow jug. I don't think the engine should be getting so hot, so soon. What do you make of these two issues? Is the lose plug wire a cooling sensor in need of replacement? Do you think something bad could've happened when my son was trying to force the old harmonic balancer off? Where did the car's get-up-n-go go?
Friday, September 7th, 2018 AT 6:11 PM
(Merged)
