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Loud rattle under valve cover and car will not start
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cbeebe79
New User
Jun 6, 2010, 3:02 PM
Post #1 of 2
(2328 views)
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Loud rattle under valve cover and car will not start
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Hi. My wife has a 2002 Ford Focus. Throughout the year, we have endured unresolved issues with a misfire on one of the pistons. It has been in the shop multiple times and each time the fix had not fully resolved the issue. This morning, she went to start the car and a very loud rattle was coming from under the valve cover and the car could not be fully started without revving the engine..which in turn made the rattle even worse. About an hour later, I was able to start the car and drive it with no problem and even drove it to pick her up from work. We stopped, grabbed dinner and when we left, or should I say tried to leave, the rattle happened again. I am pretty sure this all has to do with the worst case scenario of the particular misfire issues we have.
My question is what exactly could cause this? If it were just the rockers, I would have no worries about fixing the issue, but for it to happen only part of the time and cause the car to not crank would make me believe there is another issue. One of the repairs was that of a replacement PCV hose. I am no pro with car repair(other than changing brake pads and oil) but I would think once a rocker or valve or whatever messes up like this, it would stay like this rather than sometimes the car starting and running like it never was an issue. So what is causing this? Would the PCV valve cause this much rattle?
Thanks
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cbeebe79
New User
Jun 6, 2010, 6:21 PM
Post #2 of 2
(2313 views)
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Re: Loud rattle under valve cover and car will not start
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UPDATE:
So after removing the valve cover and inspecting the lifters and such, it seems the issue is the camshaft is hitting the lifters. Now it sounds like a timing issue and I suppose that is better news that a busted rod or something. But other than a bad timing belt, is there any other ways a car could jump timing? From what I could tell from seeing the belt on the camshaft pulley, the belt still looked decent and was not loose. I guess I got extremely lucky those couple times I drove it as it may have somehow jumped back into the correct timing. Also, I removed the spark plug farthest to the passenger side(not sure exactly which numerical designation is for which cylinder) and it was rather burned up. Could timing affect this as well or would we have another issue on top of that as well?
Thanks
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