My wife took my '99 CVPI on the road to go home to Mississippi so she could go on a trip with her family. She called me from the road and said there was an odd smell coming from the vents and that she saw a little white smoke coming out.

About 20 minutes later she said there was a rattling sound coming from under the hood that I could hear over the phone while she was talking to me...then, the engine just cut out, and she lost all power. She managed to get the car pulled over and called a state trooper to take her to a place with A/C til I could get to her.

The car will click once when you try to turn it over, but that's it.

No place is open to fix the car til Monday, so I was wondering if anyone had any idea what the issue(s) might be based on the above symptoms. I would like to go into a repair shop with some information.

Thanks.

From your description it sounds like you might have cracked the intake and hydro-locked the motor.

Could be completely off base, though.

That would cause a rattling sound?

ADDED: after reading what hydrolocking is, it sure would.

However, the coolant recovery tank is full, and no liquids appeared to have spilled from the car. Wouldn't a hyrdolock require a pretty substantial amount of fluid? Surely some would have not been evaporated by the hot engine and spilled on the ground?

it wont always spill on the ground the best way to test imo if its hydrolocked is pull all the plugs then put a breaker bar on the crank and try to spin the motor by hand

Is it possible that clogged cats might be the cause? My engine gave me a cat code a few months ago that I cleared. No loss of performance however, and no symptoms of any kind until the ones mentioned above.

No other ideas?

Though this thread is pretty simple, I have to admit it is horrifying and I can't wait to hear of a diagnosis once the car is back....

Then you're going to love this deltasixtango...it was the oil cooler hoses I just replaced. The crimping failed on the lower one and leaked all of the engine oil out while the wife was driving on the highway. Engine is toast. Selling the car for scrap Wednesday. It was nice being a Vic owner for 11 months.

Wow. That royally sucks, sorry to hear it. Though that's one more mix of symptoms to remember in the future in case anyone ever describes that situation to me.

Sorry to hear that.. Did your wife not notice the oil pressure gauge drop? Hate to say it, but had she shut it down when she heard noise it probably could've been saved..

Were these dorman hoses by any chance?

Yeah, but she doesn't know to check things like that...when she smelled the smell I should have told her to just stop the car, but I was tired from coming in late from work the night before and hadn't slept much, and didn't want to bother driving an hour and a half to look at the car.

I got the hoses from Rock Auto.

Lessons learned: no matter how simple the repair, DON'T fix a daily driver yourself, especially if it is your only car. Spend the extra money and let a pro do it to be sure. Also, if a vehicle is being driven by someone without knowledge of cars, tell them to stop operating the vehicle if they notice ANY unusual sounds, smells, etc.

Yeah, but she doesn't know to check things like that...when she smelled the smell I should have told her to just stop the car, but I was tired from coming in late from work the night before and hadn't slept much, and didn't want to bother driving an hour and a half to look at the car.

I got the hoses from Rock Auto.

Lessons learned: no matter how simple the repair, DON'T fix a daily driver yourself, especially if it is your only car. Spend the extra money and let a pro do it to be sure. Also, if a vehicle is being driven by someone without knowledge of cars, tell them to stop operating the vehicle if they notice ANY unusual sounds, smells, etc.

Hmmm.

Faulty hose caused the motor to become scrap. I smell a claim or a lawsuit...

Man, that really bites! So sorry to hear about that. Hope you don't give up on Vics altogether...they are really very sturdy cars.

Dorman is REALLY beginning to xxxxxxxx. I had three sets of their oil cooler hoses fail on me in the last two months or so. One was faulty from the get-go, and apparently the hose at the cooler end had been nicked internally, which led to a small leak through the outside sheath. The next one failed at the crimps and was seeping pretty badly for a week before being noticed. The third was a disaster-in-the-making - one line burst, and split from one of the crimps down about 3-4 inches. That one was the day after I had put a new set on. Very glad the driver had just started the car, and got back out to check tranny fluid.

All three came from Kragen/O'Reilly, so I stopped buying those hoses from them. I am now putting in a set I got from Rock Auto in the 2003 when I finish the adapter gasket. So we'll see who is to blame...manufacturer or supplier.