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Okay, this morning, I was driving as normal and pulled out of a junction when a moderatly loud thudding sound was emmitted from the engine bay. I pulled over to find nothing unusual under the bonet, exept the engine was shaking a little. I got back in and found that firstly the gear stick was misaligned (ie not in the normal place for neutral), I coulddn't select reverse, 1st or 3rd and the engine had developed a misfire.

After thinking about it, I think it may be the gear linkages have slipped and come out of place, hence why it wont go all the way into 1st or 3rd. But I really don't know where the hell the misfire has come from. It is firing on three, coz I can tell by the way it is idling and the smell of the exhaust fumes are strong with petrol. the exhaust fumes are slightly whiter than usual, which would suggest water in the cylinders, but all I know is that it is definately misfiring.

I'm completely baffeled as to what went pop, so I'm gona have to have a look at it tomorrow. In the mean time, anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

i dont mate but my car went bang not so long ago and i couldn't get any gears, so i took a look underneath and the rear engine mount had worked loose! but it hasn't been touch all it's life!

and it pulled the accelerater cable off and pulled some plugs out,

but i don't know what ur problem is.

just been speaking to you on msn. Would have thought or I know from experience, that taking long journey and hammering it all the way doesn't do the car a lot of good. Altohugh sometimes u can get away with it . Id suggest firstly looking in the gearbox and seeing what the oil level is like. But by the sounds of it it may be too late for that. Can you get it in to gear at all? i.e. will it get into the slot but not engage? If you can get it in, but wont engage my friend had a simular problem with his corsa (sorry for swearing )and it ended up that he needed a new clutch.

Hope that's at least some help.

Dan

Sounds like a rear engine mount to me. If the engine drops enough the air filter hits the bulkhead and can damage your throttle body and/or inlet manifold. I'd have thought it would be more BANG than pop though!

Just been round to see him. We found out what it was. I'll let him tell you. i'll just say one of you is almost right...

well I'd have guessed at one of the engine mountings that was causing the problem.

Thanks Guys!

Haha. mk3_beast, hobs and optima - WELL DONE!

You all guessed it right. It was the rear engine mount at the end of the crossmember. The nut had worked itself loose and the engine had dropped back, hence the bang/thud

I'd recently had problems selecting reverse, so this must have been the problem, as if the engine was working loose, it was bending the gear linkage slightly and misaligning them. When it finally dropped, the linkage got trapped, hence why I couldn't select the gears properly.

As for the "misfire", it was actually because the engine was loose and it was rocking all over the place, and felt like a misfire was present. The rich smell in the exhaust was probably just because it was running rich, since the engine was cold.

Anyway, I'm glad thats sorted now. I fixed it temperarily by jacking up the car via the crossmember, and locking on the nut (which I found at the end of my road, along with the washer ) with another nut. I'm gona get a new nylock nut, as the nylon has obviously worn, causing it to come loose.

Thanks for the help and suggestions guys, and thanks Gareth for spotting that my engine was falling out!

hahahaha , can't belive you found the nut too, u nut. Would have being a total biatch if your engine did just drop out. One for the history books, but freaking painfull.

alls well that ends well!

can't belive you found the nut aswell!

Me neither!
But is was there, lying in the middle of the road, right next to its washer.