Very scary! My car suddenly lost all power while driving at about 50mph

booklover

Hello everyone

Well i was driving home on my 77 mile from uni yesterday at 3pm and about 25 minutes into my journey, having driven about 10 miles something pretty strange and scary happened. I am hoping someone can shed some light on this... :question:

I was on a main A road (speed limit 60 mph) and suddenly for no apparent reason I lost power and my car basically wouldn't accelerate, I tried in vain and luckily managed to make it over to the side of the road. I turned the engine off and then on again and tried to get my car to start but it just made a "churning over" sound. :eek:

It was awful, I phoned the Rac and they eventually came out about an hour later but couldn't identify the cause of the problem - they said something about the timing belt maybe being the cause.

About another hour and a half later a recovery truck came and took my car and myself home.

It was cold and miserable siting in the car all that time but at least it wasn't dark. It worst part was that my mobile ran out after I phoned the RAC.....

I don't know what to do now as my husband has phoned and nobody can take it to look at for about a week and I'm really scared in case it needs a new engine and we really can't afford that

I really need a car to make this 160 mile journey each day and the public transport isn't very good.

I tried again when I got home and there is NO POWER IN THE CAR AT ALL.

I spent over £300 just 3 weeks in preparation for the MOT and it had been fine since!


Many thanks in advance for reading this and looking forward to your replies.

Fiona

PS. Sorry this is so long.

Wig

Missing information:

Make
Model (inc fuel type)
Year

Don't see that there is much anyone here can say, you'll have to wait for a garage to look at it.

cajef

If it is the timing belt then it depends on the make of car whether any damage has been done, some engines the belt breaking does not do any damage and it can just be replaced while others can have damaged valves and heads which is an expensive job.

booklover

Wig wrote: »

Missing information:

Make
Model (inc fuel type)
Year

Don't see that there is much anyone here can say, you'll have to wait for a garage to look at it.

I know that Wig but there is no harm in me talking about this incident is there?? :rolleyes:

Fiona


BTW<
Missing information:

Make: Renault Laguna
Model: (inc fuel type) Authenique Petrol I.6
Year: 2001

Conor_3

At worst, timing belt.

There's also:
Fuel pump failure
Ignition module failure.
Sensor failure such as crankshaft sensor.

It could be something as simple as the fuse for the fuel pump blowing.

goldspanners

that sounds like the worst RAC man ever.surely he could tell you if the timing belt had snapped?
a quick visual inspection,even at the roadside would identify this.

PasturesNew

Does it drive now?
Does it start now?

PasturesNew

Also: 160 miles/day = £16+ in fuel alone. Then all the running costs. Probably £30/day. If it were me I'd look at getting a local bedsit and staying there 4 nights a week.

anewman

PasturesNew wrote: »

Does it drive now?
Does it start now?

Not at all according to above post.

Someone told me they managed to have their cam belt changed at the side of the road on a Ford Sierra. I couldn't believe that, but the person who told me is trustworthy so I can only assume the Sierra cam belt is easy to swap out.

PasturesNew

As others have said, could be a multitude of things... might be the alternator even.

cajef

anewman wrote: »

Someone told me they managed to have their cam belt changed at the side of the road on a Ford Sierra.

Not that difficult if it is accessible and you know what you are doing, several years ago I changed one for someone on an Astra in a car parked in a layby in France once, only took about half an hour.