1998 Died While Driving, Turns Over Slowly, Will Not Start

[dolfelt]

My 1998 CR-V cut out while driving 55 MPH while driving down the highway. I pulled over and when I tried to immediately start it, turning the key did nothing. Everything electrical inside the car seems to work. After about 20 minutes of waiting for the tow truck I tried to start it again. This time the engine turned over slowly, but still did not start. Every time I have tried it since it has only turned over slowly. I have also tried jumping it with the same result. One thing to note is that I had the ignition switch replaced earlier this year.

I hope this is enough information to determine something. I'm not even sure where to start. Thank you for any help!

[lukeromeril]

have you tryed replacing the whole battery, is you battery leaking ??

[crvee]

Check for a broken timing belt.

[TampaJim]

Check for a broken timing belt.

I suggest this as well.

[dolfelt]

Ok, I will check this when I get home this afternoon. Why would that cause to car to turn off while driving, along with it not even turning over at all for the first 20 minutes? Also, there are 150K miles on the car and we had the timing belt replaced at 105K.

[crvee]

Primary should be ok, you got the same starting result with jump. Check secondary to see if you have strong spark at plugs.

If the timing belt breaks suddenly, the engine would stop. Not a good thing for the valves at high speed.

Another possibility could be the fuel pump.

[Buffalo4]

Sudden slow cranking is strange. Could be a coincidence.
Slow cranking is usually caused by low battery,worn starter,advanced timing,poor electrical connections and usually not a broken timing belt(which usually results in no start but fast cranking). Possibly the belt slipped or something went wrong in the distributor.
Recheck battery connections as well as ground strap connections and connections on starter.
Do the basics:
Check for blue spark.
Check for fuel.
Check compression.
Check timing belt for timing problem (may have jumped a couple of teeth or the tensioner may have failed).
Jumper directly to the starter (read up as this can be somewhat dangerous)

Did it usually crank over fast or just start so fast you couldn't really tell?

Please post back when you get it figured out.

Buffalo4