Broken Vibe

[Merzbow]

So I was coming home from my girls house and I get stuck in the snow...I'm goign forward and back to try and shimmy out of the snow bank. I shift into reverse again, allowing the gear to catch before hitting the gas. I slowely giv eit gas and go in reverse when I hear this loud smash and all of a sudden the car dropps to about 500rpm. I give it a little gas and the engines sputtering and popping before it finally stalled. I start it up, running low arpms and stalls again if I let off the gas.So I start it again and get unstuck, then I got out and checked for fluids in the snow. Nothing. Pop the hood to see what's wrong and I see the intake tube detatched from the throttle body. I figured thats what was wrong because if the MAF sensor is not getting a reading the computer cannot determine how much gas to mix. So somehow the tranny slipped and jerked the engine which caused the rubber connector from the CAi tube and the throttle body to get completely severed. So I salvaged one half of the blue tube and reconnected the intake tube and it started up fine.I'm just trying to figure out how and why the tranny slipped. I made sure it was in gear before I hit the gas and I was giving it gas in reverse for about 6 seconds before it slipped.I am so lucky and happy that it awasn't the trans that dropped and it was something I could actually fix. I'm also glad I know a descent amount about engines otherwise I wouldn't have known how to fix the problem I was doing this in fast winds with snow and 20degree weather....brrrr.

[meistees]

i got stuck in snow 2 winters ago! we smashed in the fender pushin the car out and the front ground effect broke and the exhaust smashed up the bumper..nothing as bad as having engine trouble.. I've been afraid to lower my car since

[joatmon]

Maybe you broke a motor mount.

[millster]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »Maybe you broke a motor mount.I'm with Joatmon. Sounds like a broken motor mount. The CAI only attaches at two points. The throttle body and the vibramount. The vibramount is supposed to flex to absorb the normal engine movement so for the intake to break loose, that's a lot of movement.

[ToolGuy]

My guess is something was loose all along and the shifting back and forth aggravated it to fall completely off...You did the right thing by stopping and shifting but what were your RPMS? Those also need to be lower and not near red line... Not stating you over revved it, just asking... If you did break an engine mount and you could have, you will feel the engine rocking as you give and let off the gas. Some trans mounts can break and you not even know it though. Worked on a car once that the front trans mount broke and the guy never knew. He slid off the road and beached the car on a rock and that is when it broke.

[zionzr2]

did you finally get out of the snow? Glad it was something easliy and quickly fixed!

[Merzbow]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm gonna have it looked at later. I cannot feel the engine any more than I could before this accident but I'll get it looked at anyways.When I was in reverse I didn't go over 3500rpm. If the car just spins the tires at 3000 I know it will not make a difference at 6000 lol. I remember looking at the A/F mixture gauge I bought from Jeff a while back and as soon as the engine jumped it read Lean and then Rich but did not fluctuate between the two like it normally does. That's what tipped me off that it had to be something with the intake. So by the light of my cellphone and an emergency tool kit I fixed it temporarily until I get a new blue rubber piece. I'll post pictures of how the blue piece got severed tomorow. It is a perfectly smooth and clean cut, almost like someone took a knife around the tube.The car was not STUCK stuck to the point of no return, I was able to stick one foot out the door while in drive and push it out like that so I think the whole situation was kind of odd.