I now you should never do such a thing. But how does a car sound when you try to start it when the belt is busted? Does it crank? Does it sound like, it's going to fire but hesitates?

 

Nope
yup

It's a vicious circle of almost cranking but not quite getting there. The entire time you're doing damage to your valves.

 

chances are if your car busted it's timing belt your motor needs work. interference motors suck as big time.

 

I am a bit confused...if it should not crank, then why would it sound like it will fire (but hesitates)?

Either way, the problem I have is my car won't start. I heard this disturbing sound from the engine on the belt side the day before. It sounded like something metallic was really loose in there (I had a post about this before and people said its either the timing belt tensioner or the heat shield screws are loose. But I replaced the tensioner about 12K miles ago.). But it drove fine and the sound disappeared when I went higher than 3K RPM. The next day, I got in the car and tried to start it, it won't fire. It'll crank, but no go. I tried changing the distributor rotor and the cap today but still no go.

1) My new question is, if the timing belt is busted, would the distiburotr rotor turn? Is the rotor actuated mechanically by the timing belt? Or is it actuated electrically?

2) What can I check to see if the belt is busted or not (it needs to be an easy test though because the car is parked at the garage at my work)?


[Modified by rokestah, 12:09 AM 2/4/2003]

 

Just look at the damn belt.

If it's broken, it's broken. If it's not, it's not.

I suppose you'll need to take off your valve cover but that shouldn't be a problem, even in a garage...