When it rains, it pours...or, Murphy's Law in Effect

H

Hazi

New member
What can go wrong, will:

I got disqualified from Ball State again (sub-par grades), and was denied my appeal.

This, of course, wasn't to be enough. My Grand Cherokee broke down on the way, and turned a less than 3 hour drive into one that took more than 5. My parents had to drive out to where I was and give us (my sister and I) a working set of wheels to finish the drive. The Jeep was towed to a place back home, where they figured it was the timing belt. After spending more than $200 for them to take the engine apart, and about 600 to replace the belt, it turned out that the valve heads were shot too (as a result of the timing belt going while the car was moving at 80 mph).

This repair would cost $2200, and the car was barely $4k when my 'rents bought it...therefore, paying $2200 to fix it makes no sense. So at the moment I have no school (and they won't even let me have my own stuff back until move-in day, Jan 3 or 4), no transportation, and don't have half of the stuff I took to school. Yay.
 
Sorry to hear that man. I have to say, though, that whoever the mechanic was who fixed your Jeep, don't go back. On most engines when the timing belt goes, the valves get bent or broken. (Most often bent.)

It's just how it is. Most engines are designed with a very small combustion chamber, and because of this, the valves cannot be open when the corresponding piston reaches the top of its cycle, or the two collide (valve(s) and piston). This is called an "interference" type engine.

Some engines are designed so that the valves and pistons never interfere with each other, even if they are completely out of time. Of course, these are called "non-interference" engines.

Any time a timing belt goes, a little bit of research should be done to find out which type of engine it is. An interference engine will always need more work than simply the timing belt, whereas most of the time a non-interference engine only needs the timing belt changed (and of course the timing reset).


OK I just reread that post (I'm tired and slightly drunk) and realized that it hasn't been fixed. I agree, if you can't do it yourself, it could cost more than it's worth to keep that vehicle going. I'd say try to find another cheap vehicle and drive that for now.
 
Well it does blow, money outta your own pocket is never fun expecially if you need ot pay for more than half the value of your car, but things can be worse. The car could have exploded with you in it as you fly down a mountain next to a truck of chickens only to find out they decided to save the chickens and not you.

Cheer up dood. Theres other schools out there too, I didn't get into my school (or should I say the school my parents wanted me to go to) but fuck it. Life goes on and there are other things that can be done to avoid the little shit that brings us all down.

P.S. If you do go back to the same mechanics, research before hand what needs to be done to fix it and then ask them what they would need to do.
 
There was never any money out of my pocket. I'm pissed because I wasted 5 hours of driving for them to say no, the disqualification I've been through before and isn't a huge deal. And the problem with the last parts is that I had know way of knowing that the timing chain (it's not a belt on a Jeep after all) broken or that the valves went and fucked themselves. Up until the dealership told me the real problem, I had taken a cop and my gf's dad's word that it was the alternator.

Moral of the story for you: Read better and learn to spell, kthxbi
 
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