Firebird won't crank after oil sensor broke and drained all oil

Asked by GuruG1TT May 27, 2017 at 04:45 PM about the 1995 Pontiac Firebird Base

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I have my first 95 firebird 3.4 . I guess I
broke the oil sensor while changing oil. Let
car run a while with no oil leak , checked
oil , was full . Drove it down the street car
stalled and there was oil everywhere.
Changed sensor filled with oil and now car
won't crank at all , just click. Did I freeze
engine? What should I check for.

15 Answers

3,415

If you ran the car without oil it could have seized the motor?

Drive it less than a mile. Car shut down , off and now won't start , just clicks. New starter and battery. Is there an emergency shit down on theses cars . How can I tell if engine is seized.

3,415

U can put a socket on the camshaft crank pulley and if it doesn't move at all then you've seized the motor

3,415

U can put a socket on the camshaft crank pulley and if it doesn't move at all then you've seized the motor it's located on the very front of the motor at the bottom the bottom pulley the big pully at the bottom you want to find a big socket and put that on there forgot what size it is and that's what I'm talking about if you crank it and there's no movement at all then the engines totally trashed and seized but if it moves then you're okay

Bottom pully ? I wrenched to both directions and nothing happened but the bolt came loose. I'm screwed ha?

3,415

http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/archive/index. php/t-104646.html

3,415

No you need to just tighten up the bolt that goes to the crankshaft pulley

Not sure I understand. The pulley never turned either way , the bolt came loose when I cranked it . When I tirghten the bolt as good as I could it would move at all.

3,415

It's the harmonic balancer Bolt and you're supposed to crank it clockwise to see if it moves the motor because that's connected to your connecting rods Pistons are connected to that so if it rotates then you know the engine isn't seized up and if you have taken the Bold off you need to torque wrench that into a certain pounds of pressure to make it right again make sure you don't break it off don't over tighten it but you need to find out how much you have to tighten it and torque it on there to ascertain torque pound good luck look online for the particulars sorry I'm not much help but you have to look online to help yourself

3,415

Get that bolt all torqued down to the proper torque then you can try to tighten it more and see if the pulley moves or not if this pulley for the harmonic balancer moves that means the whole engine can do a revolution and you haven't seized the motor if it doesn't move then you probably have seized the motor and ruined the engine?

I can move that bottom pulley with a socket and a breaker bar a quarter of a turn at a time.

3,415

Well that's good news then the motors not seized! The way I understand it you wouldn't be able to move that camshaft pulley at all if the engine locked up with no oil that's what I understand anyway that's what mechanic's say. Make sure that you torque that bolt to a certain torque I don't know what the specifications are so it doesn't come lose cuz that comes loose you could have real problems so make sure that bolts on tight to the certain foot pounds that are called out in the specifications for your car then I guess you're going to have to move on and figure out why it's not starting now if I was you I'd unplug the negative ground strap on your battery and let the car sit for a while it's to reset the computer try that.

One last dumb question. When I turn the bolt on the pulley , only the bolt turns not the pulley. Is the pulley supposed to turn as well.

3,415

Yes but you're only a supposed to turn it to see that it moves just a little bit and then you know it's not seized if it doesn't move at all then you know you have a seized engine as far as I understand the procedure you might want to check online I haven't done it that much

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