Will a Car Run With Bent Valves? (Detailed Analysis)

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Will a car run with bent valves? The simple answer is NO! A bent valve would trigger a lot of problems, as well as affect most of the engine’s internal components.

The number of valves in a car depends on the number of cylinders in the car. When the valve in a cylinder is bent, the cylinder would not function anymore.

So to say, bent valves can shut off the engine cylinders, and thus, preventing the car to start or run. However, there is more to know about this, and below, we have just explained everything to know about bent valves and how they affect the engine performance.

Will a Car Run With Bent Valves?

It is important to understand the function of valves, it would help to know how badly a bent valve may affect your engine. Valves are used to control air intake into the engine cylinder, and also help to remove combusted gases from the cylinders.

A valve can go bad or get bent due to several reasons, but mainly due to a broken timing belt or improper engine timing.

Once a valve is bent, the cylinder it is connected to would stop functioning. So, in a V6 engine, when 2 valves get bent, the car would only run with 4 cylinders, and of course, you won’t enjoy the drive.

In the same way, a V8 engine with a bent valve on 3 cylinders would only run with 5 cylinders, and that means the engine would perform poorly. It is not advisable to drive with bent valves as that could cause more expensive damages or even total the engine – sending you to the market for a new one.

Put simply, a car may run, or may not run with bent valves depending on the number of affected valves. If all the valves are bent, obviously the car won’t move an inch, but if it’s a few valves that went bad, then the car may drive; however, it’d be very noisy and the drive would be rough.

What To Do When You Have Bent Valves?

When you notice that your engine valves are bent, it is best not to start the car until all the affected valves are replaced. Trying to get your car to start when all the engine valves are bent would only result in more serious damages, which would definitely cost you more money.

Replacing engine valves is pretty cheaper when compared with other fixes that have to do with core engine components.

However, it is important that you check the condition of your engine’s timing belt before replacing bent valves. This check is important because if you’ve got a bad timing belt, it’d yet damage the new valves.

Final Thoughts

Will a car run with bent valves? The answer is dependent on the number of bent valves. If up to four cylinders still have good valves, the car is likely to start, but if all the cylinders have bent valves, there’s no way the car would start, and trying to force it would cause severe damages.

Regardless, it’s not advisable to drive with bent valves, notwithstanding if it’s just one valve that got bent or more.