Hey all,

A few days ago my car decided to die completely out of nowhere. The car would crank and crank but never turn over. Defeated, I called a buddy of mine who used to be a mechanic over to help me take a look at it. He pointed out a load ‘clicking’-type noise coming from the engine. I got out and listened myself, and lo and behold the noise is come from the area of the timing chain cover. The noise to me sounds as if the tensioner finally went and the chain is skipping over the teeth on the cam gears. I currently have codes for the camshaft position sensor (which i had replaced a few months back) and VVT Stuck in Advanced Position. Since I have an interference engine, obviously my primary concern is that a valve was damaged.

My main question is, is before I have this thing towed about 25 miles away to a recommended shop, is there a way for me to check whether or not my valves have been damaged, if at all, before I waste the money having it towed just to be told my valves are shot. I was told to run a compression test, but wouldn’t I not get much, if anything, on the test if the engine is out of time?

TIA!