Diagnose my car problems.

[doylna]

I was driving about 70mph on Friday, with A/C going, and then all of a sudden no power. The engine was running, but stepping on the gas didn't give me any acceleration. I coasted to the side of the road and got a tow to a mechanics shop.

When I tried to restart the car, it sounded very rough, and took a couple of tries to get started. The check engine light and oil light came on when I tried to start the car. I checked the oil and it was very low; I had the oil changed about 1000 miles ago, and never noticed a leak. When the car was on the tow truck, there was no dripping oil.

The mechanic has done a compression test and it came up fine. So far he hasn't had time to do anything else.

So what do you guys think, based on the symptoms above?

[HondaFan81]

There has to be an oil leak of some kind and reason you don't notice the leak anymore, is probably because the level is already low. I'm thinking this low oil level may have caused problems and the engine to run rough. I'd start by inspection the valvetrain area for excessive wear, then removing plugs and turning engine over by hand at the crankshaft for ease of rotation.

Normally the check engine light and oil light come on when you start the motor, but did they stay on after you managed to restart engine? I would not continue to run engine on low oil level, atleast get it to minimal level so you do not increase damage in case it is repairable.

[doylna]

Yeah, I agree. There has to be a leak somewhere - I suppose it could be the oil pan gasket. It's been in need of replacement (a very slow leak) for years. Basically, I checked the oil enough that the oil level never got low enough to be a concern.

The oil plug wasn't leaking, there wasn't oil all over the engine bay, there wasn't any smoke in the exhaust, and there wasn't a puddle of oil anywhere either.

The check engine light and oil light went off once the car was running.

Right now the car is sitting in the mechanic's shop. He's not driving it, nor am I, so at least it won't get any more damaged waiting for the diagnosis.

[doylna]

Spoke briefly to the mechanic - he thinks the timing belt may have jumped a couple of teeth, but he hasn't had time to pull off the cover and check...

I'm not sure why I would have lost all power if the timing belt had jumped though.

[doylna]

Finally got the full details.

A part in the distributor broke, binding up the cam. When the cam bound, the timing belt jumped 3 teeth. After replacing the distributor, and resetting the timing, the car runs great. Hard to believe.