I'm trapped in Montreal. On the way here through Vermont I lost a lot of power going up a mountain. My Accord is now lurchy and has a hard time accelerating. I took it to a mechanic with good online reviews. The customers that were there seemed to trust them. They thought when I described the problem that a cylinder stopped working. When they looked at it they said there is no compression and that the engine needs to be replaced at 1500$ Canadian (about the same as American currency). Before this I was burning massive amounts of oil, but the car seemed to work. They said oil stopped going to the rings i think. It has about 210,000 miles. However the car does still run, although, as i said, it feels very problematic. They say I wont make it back home to Chicago. Does anyone have any thoughts?

 

I've moved this.

Hard to call. If you've been burning oil then the rings could be shot......was this "no compression" on all cyl or just one.

However, in your current situation not sure what to suggest......about all I have to say is, take it somewhere else and see what they say....at least you get another quote on the fix.

 

Well, where I live, a low-mileage JDM motor will run $750 before tax and I've been quoted almost $3k for the removal and replacement, which includes timing belt, tuneup and some other things that should be done while the engine is out. If I had been quoted $1500, I probably would have spared myself the aggravation of trying to remove and replace the motor myself. Labor rates in my area are $100/hr or more.

How about renting something like a U-haul truck and car dolly and towing it home?

You're in a tough situation. Good luck.

 

disconnect the fuel injector for the compressionless piston and limp home on 3 cylinders? make sure you have enough oil. it sounds like you ran out of it and the piston died.

 

appreciate it