i was driving on the freeway today in cruise control at 70 mph when my car suddenly shut off then i heard some grinding so i put it in nuetral and i had to roll off the freeway and into a parking lot. so at first i thought it might have been the timing belt but then i looked into the valve cover and saw that the cams were moving when the engine was cranking. then i thought maybe its the fuel pump so then i checked that out and its working fine. now im thinking it might be the distributor i havent checked that out yet but while i do could you guys give me some more suggestions. it would really help me out. thanks

 

What kind of mods you have?

 

could be the dizzy....

 

Does it still make the grinding noise? If so, is it only in a certain gear or only when the car is in gear and going?

 

the car doesnt start at all i took out a lot of my stuff a while ago now i only have aem v2 and an apexi n1 exhaust i was on my way to get a turbo

 

oh yeah and its not the battery for sure or the alternator

 

no one has any suggestions???

 

I'd check inside of your distributor, the set scew may have come loose holding the rotor on. If it won't start, and it's getting fuel, it has to be something in the ignition. BTW, just because the cams are turning when you're cranking it, doesn't mean that it might not have jumped time. Check your timing.

 

we unpluged my spark plug and connected to the wire and distributor and when i cranked it there was a sparks so i guess its not the distributor. yeah your right about the timing belt, but that was just a generlization for right now. so now im thinking maybe the ecu is bad and im gonan check the fuel rail too. tell me what you guys think

 

You heard a grinding sound. Where did it come from? Have you drained your oil and looked for metal? How does your car turn over? Run a compression/leakdown test. Could be a burnt or even worse dropped valve. Rings/piston just decided to not want to hold up anymore.

 

Take off the dizzy and spin the shaft and make sure the bearing isnt seizing. When the dizzy went out on my CRX, it made a grinding/screetchinbg sound, but it still sparked.

 

some people are telling me it might be internal but it seemed like the sound came from the tranny cause i was rolling in 5th gear when i put it in nuetral it didnt make that sound. im not absolutely sure but i dont really think it would be internal casue i dont really drive my car hard and it has pretty low miles and the timing belt was recently changed but im sure its possible. btw what is the dizzy? haha sorry if its a dumb question but im not picking up on that term

 

I THINK he means the distributor.... never heard anyone refer to it as the "dizzy" before though...

 

oh ic yeah i checked the distributor and it was sparking fine i cant seem to figuer out what the problem is

 

i found out what the problem is; a few of the teeth on the timing belt are missing!!! damn hopefully that didnt do any internal damage