1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager

Please help me out here if you can.

I have a 1998 Plymouth Grand voyager, it was a fine car, until the
other day. I was going up the street & it totally lost power, I had it
practically floored & it was going 20 mph. When I got to a safe place
I pulled off. We took the oil stick out & smoke came out of the hole.

The engine was smoking a bit but only when running. Took it to the
shop, they said it was the motor it was shot & needed a new one. But
they didnt even look at it. They just said it was done, Probably the
bearings & the cylinder may not be firing? ONe of them.

Anyway, sound about right? It has 125k miles on it, but I am just
stunned the motor went just like that.

I am afraid to put a motor in it because I mean, its not worth it & a
used motor will probably just nickel & dime me to death until it blows
as well.

I am thinking a new car, maybe a 2002 or newer.

What do you think?

 

I would suggest more of a diagnosis than what they gave you. What
engine does it have? If it is the 2.4L 4CYL, it may have blown the
headgasket, as that was a known problem.

Assuming it is the 2.4, has the timing belt been changed? It should
have been done at 101,000 miles, according to the manual. The belt may
have broken. I can't remember if a broken belt on this engine will send
the valves crashing into the pistons.

The 3.3 and 3.8 six cylinder engines have proven to be fairly reliable,
especially if you changed the oil on a regular basis.

-Kirk Matheson

 

Run away! Get a shop that is willing to properly diagnose before trying to
screw you out of an engine rebuild.
May need one, may not, but wouldn't let this place look under my hood again.

So am I. Did you pull any codes? Was the check engine light on? How much
smoke?
Other symptoms?

 

Well, the only thing to consider FINANCIALLY is "can you get equivalent
transportation for what it would cost to put a new engine in this one."
The answer is probably "no." A new engine will be a few grand out the
door... what kind of clunker POS would you be driving for a few grand.
Now if you're also just tired of the van and are looking for something
new, then that might be reason to give up on it and be willing to lose
some money on the deal.

As for whether or not it even *is* the engine, well, it sounds like it
was seizing up due to lack of oil (either no oil in it, or an oil
pump/filter failure of some sort. But maybe not. If they didn't even
check it out, I'd be skeptical. Chrysler minivan engines don't normally
just up and blow. They normally outlive the van, or at least the owner's
desire to keep driving the same van.




Please help me out here if you can.

 

Possible that something failed catastrophically in the engine, but that
is unlikely. Was the temperature gauge in the red when you noticed the
power loss? Almost sounds like a head gasket, but it is pretty hard to
tell that only from your description above. It could be a number of things.

I'd tow it to another dealer/mechanic and get a second opinion.


Matt