You're crusing down the highway in your Subaru and the 2.5L engine is purring like a kitten. In a split second the engine goes completely dead. No sputtering or hesitation, the engine instantly drops dead. You coast to the edge of the highway. Do you:

 

1. Hit the starter and try to restart the engine.

2. Assume the engine has lost time and leave the starter alone. Have the car towed to a place where the timing components can be visually inspected.

 

If an engine loses time, how much more damage, if any, is done if you try to restart the engine? What should you do?

Edited June 28, 201114 yr by The Dude

If the belt snaps then you can have real big problems, including bent valves on many models.

I think most people would turn the key to try to restart it. I think if the belt snaps at highway speeds the damage would already be done. I doubt the couple hundred rpm a starter will turn would make any difference if the engine did lose time at 3k rpm, I would have to assume the valves were already damaged.

the chances of the jumped timing and no bent valves is low. it ca and does happen but usually some bend. so the chance of doing more damage is even lower, in my opinion, based on your situation.

 

so crank it, the damage is either done or not going to be done.

Yep - probably aren't going to cause much more damage than already exists.

 

GD