heres one for ya, i went to start my car a week ago and it started vibrating really bad, and then it practically stalled when i gave it gas. then i went to restart it and it wouldnt start. it was making a horrible grinding noise. i looked under the car and realized that the flexplate was spinning but then engine wasnt turning. i brought it too a tranny shop and they had to take down the tranny i ordered a b+m flexplate and it arrived overnight and they put the part and tranny up the next day i kept the old flexplate so i could hang it on my wall to remind of the real torque monsters these cars are. it cracked in a perfect circle around the bolt holes in the center. hey maybe ill make a clock out of it some day!

 

Hope you didn't have an alignment problem which could have caused the flexplate to break like that. The new one would be trash in no time. Post pics if you do make it into a clock

 

the ford 4 cylinder torque monsters in tempos and escorts are known for doing that too. it's not a unique occurance.

 

dont forget the neon. ive seen 2 or 3 just like you described. i hope they beefed it up some for the srt model.

 

Had a 3.4 4th gen come into the shop about 2 months ago with the same problem. I also broke one not long after I built the 355 (5 years ago) but I figured that was just from too much power.


I blew my torque converter about 6 months after that and figured it was a good time to go 6-speed.

 

Mine did this as well, a few years back, it is a 92 L98 car , it cracked perfectly around the bolt holes...... The garage said it looked like the trans was misalined or the bolts were over/undertightened i can't recall now as it happened back in 97...later GTA.......

 

Very common.

My car fouled a plug on time. I heard once that Ferraris do that too sometimes.

What now?

 

3 things put your flex plate in danger.
Increased power
higher stall converter
spinning your motor to 6000 grand +
and the stock ones are just thin pieces of junk.
Good thing I can count
If you replace it make sure its an SFI approved they are twice as thick and substantially stronger.

Once it gets cracked from one whole to the next, its just a chain reaction due to the fact under a load the plate is (flexed )and it only gets worse. nice little 3 or 4 hour job.

 

RB83l69...what do you mean by ...My car fouled a plug on time...just wondering?

 

"Torque monsters" and "too much power"

The most famous of all "torque monsters" in my experience for doing that are Chrysler K-cars.... my TV station had 2 news cars that broke them out of about 7 or 8 that we had, I guess it was all that awesome K-car power.