Q: Noises during startup, cannot restart - 1998 Isuzu Amigo

asked by on September 28, 2016

A few days ago, I started the car and it made a really rough sound. It kept making the noise and it took a while before the engine finally started. When the engine finally caught, another type of noise appeared. It was a very unusual crunching noise that was coming from the hood. The engine was running sort of weak. There was some mistiming as well. I thought that the timing chain was breaking by the sound of it, as if it was jumped. I shut the engine off right away. I tried to restart it a couple of minutes later. It made the rough sound again, similar to the sound a broken starter makes. The engine wasn't catching. I didn't have much difficulty starting the car before. It used to have EGR codes but not any more. I've been getting drop in gas mileage. So, what might be the problem?

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