Possible seized motor.

Asked by Guru9S8B7T Oct 12, 2021 at 09:35 AM about the 2000 INFINITI I30 FWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Daughter car-2000 Infinity V6
Said started sputtering, then cleared. Half
mile later died. Now will not turn over. Light
radio etc all come on. When key is turned can
hear starter engage but will not turn over.
Tried jump, nothing.  BF reported smelling
what he referred to as "clutch packs" burning
but tranny fluid is clean and looks new.
However it is two quarts low on oil and oil is
black as tar. Barring a safety feature to shut
it off when pressure drops I can see no
reason it will not turn over aside from engine
is seized. Did this car have such feature and
would the starter still engage if shut down
has been tripped, as well as once it shut
down how would it be reset? A short while
back it was overheating and I'm reasonably
sure engine is seized. This was last night so I
haven't had a chance to try to turn motor by
hand yet.

2 Answers

30

The first thing I'd recommend to do is get the car scanned with a scanner, to see what engine codes (if any) are stored in it. The codes will help with which direction to go in to troubleshoot the problem. Turning the engine by hand would also be good, to verify whether the engine is actually seized or not. I believe a 24mm socket is the size needed. A long breaker bar and socket extension bar placed on the crankshaft pulley bolt will make it a lot easier to turn the engine.

1 people found this helpful.

@Getstarted. Told him to check codes as that was first thought where to begin. Excuses. He claims can hear starter motor trying to turn and claims he checked and engine will turn by hand. Has plenty of juice so no reason I can think of if starter is trying to turn it won't turn motor other than motor is seized. I think he is mistaking solenoid throwing out the yoke for the starter trying to turn. I also thought about the fact it had a chip in the key and I think if it loses communication it could shut it down and def make it not start. The only exp I have with that problem it would still turn over on my son's 2002 F150. He seems stuck on a clutch pack burning smell and mentioned under the hood he smelled strong smell of gas on passenger side. I don't think he is going anywhere if he doesn't get those codes checked first though. Just wasting his time pretty sure barking up the wrong tree, or in this case putting the wrench in the wrong nut. Had one guy tell me if timing belt broke it wouldn't turn over but I've never seen one that wouldn't, could be a safety thing I guess.

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