97 Concorde 3.5 code P0340 & various misfire codes
Out of the blue my Concorde will not start. It never hesitated, no Check Engine light...it always ran beautifully. Now it just turns over and will not fire. My first thought was that the timing belt may have broken or slipped, since it's over 20k overdue for changing, but for it to happen at the moment the car shut off or right when I went to start it next seems highly unlikely. I know the belt is not broken, though, because I removed the cam sensor and observed the cam sprocket spin as my wife cranked the motor. Also the water pump, which is driven by the timing belt, has been dripping coolant periodically for the past few years and I haven't gotten around to tearing the car apart to replace that. So then...maybe the water pump bearing siezed and torqued the timing belt, causing it to slip? Since the motor died I have noticed a considerable amount of oily coolant pooling on the garage floor underneath the timing cover, getting larger each time I try to start the car. I also tested the supply and signal voltages of the cam sensor: supply 8v, signal .03 - 5 volts as the motor is turned by hand. My Haynes manual says the lower voltage reading should be .3 but my reading was .03...whether this is a negligible difference or a fatal typo, I don't know. Perhaps this is evidence that the cam sensor is bad? I pulled the following trouble codes: P0340, P0300, P0302, P0304, P0306. The misfire codes make sense, after all the car won't start. I've also checked the supply voltage to the CRANK sensor, but due to tight space in the engine compartment I wasn't able to actually check for an output signal. So here are my questions: 1) Does it sound feasible that the timing belt could have slipped under the conditions I've described? If so, could the timing issue cause the PCM to set a P0340 code due to the cam and crank signals being misaligned? 2) Is there a way I can check whether the timing is off without tearing into the timing cover (just for troubleshooting sake)? 3) Is there a separate code for a faulty crank sensor/circuit? 4) If it is the cam or crank sensor, what would explain the recent pool of oily coolant? 5) Can I do anything more than look up codes with my Actron code scanner? Thanks for any help you can give....sorry this is so long. -Mike
First of all, timing belts are the most likely to break at startup, or under a hard accel. I don't think Im going to even address any "is it the cam or crank sensor" issues when you have pooling coolant on your garage floor and your timing belt is already 20K overdue. Your lack of awareness to complete these tasks is defeatist. First, replace the timing belt and water pump, that will solve the pooling coolant and will allow you to visually see if the timing was off or not. If not replace the belt and we'll go fromthere. I hope Comp doesn't see this. He'll go ballistic.