This dude just wants to get the car out of his driveway. He's signing the titel over to me and everything. I don't have it home yet so this may not be much of a thread until I get it home. The way he described what happened is that he was sitting in a drive through when he heard a pop, then he says it wouldn't rev but he puttered it home. Then he parked it and it sat for months. I've gone over to try to start it and possibly diagnose it.

At first, it wouldn't even roll. I thought the shifter cable was broken and it was stuck in park. I removed the cover and verified that it was in fact shifting.
Next, I pulled the wheels. The calipers had just rusted enough to prevent it from rolling. I compressed the pistons and now it'll roll. I aired up the tires and will trailer it to my house this week.
This whole time, I was thinking it was an 04 so from the research I've done over the past few days, I was expecting this to be a broken timing belt. I was going to replace it and hope the head isn't wrecked. If it is, I'll just haul it to the junk yard. However, after getting the title, I see that it's an 08 so that is not likely what it is. I think the CEL is on so I'll be able to pull the codes as soon as I get it home and I work with the guy that's giving it to me so I can ask him more questions. But with this limited information, can you guys give me any ideas on what to start checking for first?

 

I still haven't been able to get the car home but I asked a few more question and have watched a lot of diagnosis videos. My biggest concern now is that he may have overheated it to death. I guess a compression test will be early on the list of things to do. I wonder if the pop he heard might have been the water pump going out. I can't wait to start digging in. If it ends up needing a head or engine replacement, I'll just drag it to the junkyard and sell it for a few hundred bucks but I'm still hopeful that I can make a good car out of it.

 

I got to spend a couple minutes on it today. It would not fire with starting fluid. I pulled a spark plug and it was a little wet and I turned it over and tried to ground it on the exhaust shield and got no spark. I didn't have a friend to help so I'm less that 100% sure but I'm pretty sure there is no spark.

I have read a lot about the disabler, but I get no green key symbol at any time during start up. Should I?

 

I guess this will just be a thread of me documenting my experience with this little car. I hooked my computer up to it and was able to scan. It reads throttle position, rpm, temp and stuff while cranking so I know the ecm is working. I checked for spark and it is actually making spark. It did look weak to me but I know it痴 commanding spark. Also, the plugs are wet with fuel so I知 assuming it痴 getting fuel but it does not start. Not even a little. I suspect the timing has gotten off. I guess next I値l check compression and pull the cover to see if I can confirm the timing being off. If the head turns out to be damaged I値l scrap it but I知 willing to attempt a timing chain and tensioner replacement if I can prove that the valves are fine.